Class Notes 3/31

-What I know now, what I didn't know before.....and what difference does it make?
- Dr. Sexson would like to see lots of people writing about The Following Story...
- Blog about other blogs
- homestretch in regards to group presentations and paper.....
these presentations should knock our socks off. we will end the class with a pile of socks.
for the paper, resources, books, and our blogs....

QUIZ!! April 9th, Friday
April 12th, conclusion of the class

accentuate the positive: Bing Crosby (Rio played this song in class)


but if you do accentuate the positive you miss out in kenosis, Beckett.....

cheesy...but not at all
for everything to end happily, is not cheesy, but a happy ending is transcendence of the universes...
must go through a process of purification, darkness... alchemical imagery is key...

The Alchemist, page 136-7....also The Tempest, Act V Scn. 1 Line 202
Ferdinand and Miranda...gold on lasting pillars
alchemical wedding, purification of the soul
man and woman union, unification...cheesy, but on the highest possible level...


We talked about
Simone CAROTI
"Science Fiction, Forbidden Planet, and Shakespeare's The Tempest"
"In Shakespeare's play, and in a relevant cross-section of scifitexts as well, the contemplation of the wonderful and the miraculous seems to possess a special quality of kindness, of mercifulness towards our human failings. As with Prospero when Ariel convinces him to be lenient towards Alonso, Sebastian and Antonio, it has the ability to bend our thoughts toward forgiveness rather than vengeance, and to make us willing to reexamine our personal convictions in the light of something greater than us." (page 6 of 12)

The Forbidden Planet, talk about cheesy, sci-fi version of The Tempest....hot babe....robot = Caliban
Just for fun: Forbidden Planet 1956 Part 4 of 10



Four Quartets: a new way of looking at eternity...
page 49, Zero summer

then towards the end of class people gave a passage from The Four Quartets and their discovery