Note about the Timed Write and Focus questions for Oedipus (Edit - see at the bottom)

1. What is the significance of Oedipus's slow coming into awareness of that identity?
2. What is the significance of the physical blindness of the prophet Tiresias? Is blindness an important and repeated symbolic motif in the plain? How can we interpret Oedipus's act of self-blinding? Is his physical blindness symbolically similar to or different from that of Tiresias?
3. What do you make of the various situations at the end of the play (the suicide of Jocasta, Oedipus's self-blinding and exile, his prediction of a miserable life for his own children)? Why are the outcomes so tragic and extreme? What is the significance of the curse/prophecy which seems to haunt the family of Oedipus?
4. Is Oedipus an innocent victim of an unjust fate or does he bear some responsibility in the outcome of his life? Is his fate the result of unavoidable necessity or does he contribute to it through his own choices? Could he have changed the fate described in the prophecies? How?


When you are considering the prompt also be considering the Fate vs. Determinism discussion you had with your classmates. Your answer to how Sophocles addresses this will help to make your essay more arguable. ALSO, What is the impact of the dramatic irony? How does the effect of the tragedy change when we know what is going to happen? How does this tie to the Archetype of the “Tragic Hero”?


-RMH

Blog Prompt for post due 10/20

What I would like from you is a beginning of your post by our deadline tonight at 10:00 pm; but considering the broad scope of the debate, I would like you to continue writing, discussing and debating up to Thursday at 10:00. I will score this one thread as two blog posts.

Read the following (surprisingly good) overviews of Determinism vs. Free Will (as well as any other research you choose): http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Historical_Introduction_to_Philosophy/Determinism_and_the_Problem_of_Free-Will and http://www.thegreatdebate.org.uk/determinismandfreewill.html

Answer the following question after reading and taking notes:  

There is little doubt that humans have a perception of choice in our daily lives. We believe we make choices; that we are not mere puppets of either the gods nor the blind forces of the universe.

But do we? 

Have fun and keep it respectful.

You do not have to buy Oedipus...

...I will provide copies in class.

Yours,

-RMH

Black Tie Essays are to be (as stated in the syllabus)...

...4-6 pages.

The rest of the format we took notes on.

No Blog Prompt until Thursday

You need time to perfect your essays ;)

-RMH

BNW Essay Prompts, if you missed 'em

Brave New World essay prompts:

I. “It is as sparkling, as provocative, as brilliant, in the appropriate sense, as impressive as the day it was published. This is in part because its prophetic voice has remained surprisingly contemporary, both in its particular forecasts and in its general tone of semi-serious alarm. But it is much more because the book succeeds as a work of art...” –Martin Green

-Write an essay in which you defend this statement about Brave New World.

II. Analyze the following paragraph from pg. 69. Write an essay that explains this excerpt in the context of all that we discussed in class.

“A physical shortcoming could produce a kind of mental excess. The process, it seemed was reversible. Mental excess could produce, for its own purposes, the voluntary blindness and deafness of deliberate solitude, the artificial impotence of asceticism.”

III. A topic of your choosing. I must approve of it prior to writing.

Many will be lured by the first prompt, but it is actually the more the difficult of the two - not that you should be dissuaded; but you will need to be very, very specific about the language of the prompt and answering it wholly, especially about its qualifications as a work of art (we talked about this a bit in class).

Also, class discussions are artillery for these essays. I've seen few students taking notes during them, but my expectation is that the ground we covered in class will find its way into your argument.

Lastly, BE SPECIFIC, BE ARGUABLE, CLOSE-READ EVIDENCE! 

Three Paragraph "Helmholtz" Essay

is exactly what it says = 3. total. paragraphs. Intro, body, conclusion. Rough draft in the journal. That's it.  Having trouble getting started? Well, I should hope so. You need to do some up front thinking and close-reading of the passage before writing.

A small hint: If your intro or thesis statement has the phrase "because she is sad" or a similar derivation, you're not reading closely enough.

You're welcome ;)

-RMH