TOPICS OFFERED FOR WINTER/SPRING
2016
Please note that the books listed for
each course are only possible candidates.
Do not buy any until the pre-meeting and a decision on the common reading is
made.
Classes
start January 4th and end April 29th.
Holiday
periods and Edison Center closures are adapted to by individual class voting.
1. (AGE) THE ART
OF AGING
The Art of Growing Older by Wayne Booth is an anthology of work by some of
our greatest writers & poets on what growing older is really like. They
tell us that to grow old well is itself an art.
Booth's commentary weaves together poems &
meditations from many cultures & periods: ancient Greeks & Chinese
& Persians join company with Shakespeare & Yeats & Auden &
Updike.
Common Reading: The Art of
Growing Older, by Wayne Booth (1992)
Supplemental Reading:
·
The Art of Aging:
Celebrating the Authentic Aging Self, by
2. (ALG) THE ALGONQUIN ROUND TABLE
The Algonquin Round Table was a celebrated group of
New York City writers, critics, actors and wits who met for lunch each day at
the Algonquin Hotel from 1919 until about 1929, engaging in wisecracks,
wordplay and witticisms that, through the newspaper columns of Round Table
members, were disseminated across the country.
Franklin Pierce Adams Columnist
Robert Benchley Humorist
and actor
Geo. S. Kaufman Playwright &
director
Dorothy Parker Poet,
writer, screenwriter
Harold Ross The
New Yorker founder
Alexander Woolcott Critic
& journalist
Tallulah Bankhead Actress
Edna Ferber Author
& playwright
Harpo Marx Comedian
& film star
Ring Lardner Writer
Heywood Broun Columnist
& sportswriter
Frank Sullivan Journalist
& humorist
Ruth Hale Writer/Women's
rights
Brock Pemberton Broadway
Producer
Marc Connelly Playwright
One approach would be for each S/DG member to choose
one personality, and use half of the class for their presentation on this
personality, since there is so much information on each of the Round Table
members.
3. (AMM) AMERICA’S MILITARY IN THE 21ST CENTURY
The United States has
been “at war” for more than a decade. Yet as war has become normalized, a
yawning gap has opened between America’s soldiers and the society in whose name
they fight. For ordinary citizens, as former secretary of defense Robert Gates
has acknowledged, armed conflict has become an “abstraction” and military
service “something for other people to do”
rather than the business of “we the people.” In our
common reading, Andrew Bacevich examines the gulf between America’s soldiers
and the society that sends them off to seemingly perpetual war, and argues that
the responsibility for defending the country should rest with its citizens, not
with a “foreign legion” of professionals and contractor-mercenaries. Professor
Bacevich (history & international relations) served twenty-three years in
the Army (West Pointer), was company commander in Vietnam, and retired as a
lieutenant colonel. He has authored several books on military history and
policy, as well as numerous articles in various journals.
Presentations could address any aspect of
military policy, including moral and ethical issues with the use of drones,
recent technological advances, and our treatment of veterans, among many
others. The book will provide the foundation for interesting and informative
class discussions that will enrich our knowledge and understanding of how
American military policy has evolved and provide insight into what our future
policies should be.
Common
Reading: Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their
Country, by Andrew Bacevich (September
2013)
4. (ART) AMERICAN ART: A
CULTURAL HISTORY
Every artist is influenced by
the culture in which he creates—and, reciprocally, art influences the
culture. We will study the art, and its relation to culture, in the whole sweep
of American history. To give us a common base for our discussion, we will use American Art, a Cultural History, by David
Bjelajac. I quote a few sentences from the introduction to the book:
“Unlike earlier surveys, my
interdisciplinary narrative does not outline the stylistic evolution of
American art. Drawing on socio-economic and political studies as well as
histories of religion, science, literature, and popular culture, I analyze
individual art works within their specific historical contexts.
. . . I suggest how artists and architects, intentionally or not, expressed
various social and political values.”
Common
Reading: American Art, a
Cultural History, by David Bjelajac (August 2004)
5. (AUT) THE GLASS CAGE: AUTOMATION AND US
Not sure what effect our rapidly changing technology
will have on you and your grandchildren? This course will provide a look at technology
and a warning about its misuse, while
providing many areas to develop in more detail in presentations.
Carr's central thesis can be summed up in a quote
often attributed to Marshall McLuhan: “We shape our tools, and thereafter our
tools shape us.”
Carr's point, which he develops with many intriguing
examples ranging from airline pilots, through doctors, photographers,
architects, and even to farmers, is that this Faustian pact with technology
comes at a cost. The cost, in Carr's view, is a loss of direct, experiential,
formative contact with our work. The consequences of this slow loss of
familiarity and connection with our work are subtle, insidious and will only
increase while we follow this techno-centric approach to automation. In The Glass Cage, bestselling author Nicholas
Carr digs behind the headlines about factory robots and self-driving cars,
wearable computers and digitized medicine, as he explores the hidden costs of
granting software dominion over our work and our leisure. Even as they bring
ease to our lives, these programs are stealing something essential from us.
Drawing
on psychological and neurological studies that underscore how tightly people's
happiness and satisfaction are tied to performing hard work in the real world,
Carr reveals something we already suspect: shifting our attention to computer
screens can leave us disengaged and discontented.
From
nineteenth-century textile mills to the cockpits of modern jets, from the
frozen hunting grounds of Inuit tribes to the sterile landscapes of GPS maps, The
Glass Cage explores the impact of automation from a deeply human
perspective, examining the personal as well as the economic consequences of our
growing dependence on computers.
With
a characteristic blend of history and philosophy, poetry and science, Carr
takes us on a journey from the work and early theory of Adam Smith and Alfred
North Whitehead to the latest research into human attention, memory, and
happiness, culminating in a moving meditation on how we can use technology to expand
the human experience.
Common
Reading: The Glass Cage: Automation
and Us, by Nicholas Carr
(Sept. 2014)
6. (AWW) SHORT STORY MASTERPIECES
BY AMERICAN WOMEN WRITERS
Fourteen short works of fiction by noteworthy
American women authors offer entrancing tales of redemption, betrayal,
tradition and rebellion.
Dating from the 19th to the 21st century,
these tales offer a revealing panorama of perspectives on women's ongoing
struggles for dignity and self-sufficiency.
Many of these women authors you will
recognize immediately: Edith Wharton, Edna Ferber, Willa Cather, Marjorie
Kinnan Rawlings, Joyce Carol Oates and more.
The titles of these short stories are
attention-getting: "Miss Grief", "The Revolt of
Mother", "Roast Beef, Medium", "Coming, Aphrodite",
"The Life You Save May Be Your Own."
These stories are considered classic,
making lasting impressions due to their authors’ creativity. Each one
will result in a meaningful and thought-provoking discussion.
Common
Reading: Short Story Masterpieces by
America Women Writers,
edited by Clarence C. Strowbridge
(2013)
7. (BRO) THE FOUNDING
BROTHERS: THE STORIES
OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS, THEIR
INTERACTIONS DURING THE
1790s, AND THEIR
LASTING EFFECT
The United States was
more a fragile hope than a reality in 1790 when a group of greatly gifted but
deeply flawed individuals-- John Adams, Aaron Burr, Benjamin Franklin,
Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington--
combined the ideals of the Declaration of Independence with the content of the
Constitution to create the practical workings of our government. This S/DG will
examine the intertwining of the lives, beliefs and personalities of the
“Founding Brothers” (or Founding Fathers) as they hammered out the decisions
and compromises that formed our new republic. We’ll discuss some of the
decisive events that shaped the political ideas and institutions. In
retrospect, it seems as if the American Revolution was inevitable. But was it?
In Founding Brothers, Joseph J.
Ellis reveals that many of those truths we hold to be self-evident
were actually fiercely contested in the early days of the republic.
Ellis focuses on six crucial moments in the life of
the new nation, including a secret dinner at which the seat of the nation's
capital was determined--in exchange for support of Hamilton's financial plan;
Washington's precedent-setting Farewell Address; and the Hamilton and Burr
duel. Most interesting, perhaps, is the debate (still dividing scholars today)
over the meaning of the Revolution. In a fascinating chapter on the
renewed friendship between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson at the end of their
lives, Ellis points out the fundamental differences between the Republicans,
who saw the Revolution as a liberating act and hold the Declaration of
Independence most sacred, and the Federalists, who saw the revolution as a step
in the building of American nationhood and hold the Constitution most dear.
Throughout the text, Ellis explains the personal, face-to-face nature of early
American politics--and notes that the members of the revolutionary generation
were conscious of the fact that they were establishing precedents on which
future generations would rely.
Common Reading: Founding
Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation,
by Joseph J. Ellis (February 2002)
8. (BSN) THE BEST SCIENCE
AND NATURE WRITING
OF 2014
Deborah Blum is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
and a writer about environmental chemistry for The New Yorker. “Undeniably
exquisite....The essays in the collection (are) meditations
that reveal not only how science actually happens, but also who or what propels
its immutable humanity.” (Maria Popova-
Brain Pickings) Sample essay titles: What Our Telescopes Couldn't See; TV as Birth Control;
Imagining a Post-Antibiotics Future.
Common Reading: The Best
Science and Nature Writing of 2014,
edited by Deborah Blum (October 2014; 26 essays)
9. (CTY) THE HAPPY CITY
More people than ever are moving back to the
city. Scientists and intellectuals say
this is good for the environment and will help ease resource crises. But is it
good for our happiness?
Find out by taking an exhilarating journey through
some of the world's most dynamic cities. We’ll meet:
·
a visionary mayor who introduced a "sexy"
bus to ease status anxiety in Bogotá;
·
the architect who brought the lessons of medieval Tuscan
hill towns to modern-day New York City;
·
the activist who turned Paris's urban freeways into
beaches; and
·
an army of American suburbanites who have hacked (?)
the design of their own streets and neighborhoods.
Our text is rich with new insights from psychology,
neuroscience, and urban experiments. We learn about the New Urbanism
–which embraces a research-backed vision of the city
which is both better-functioning and leads to happier citizens.
Common Reading: Happy City: Transforming Our Lives
Through Urban Design by
Charles Montgomery (October 2014)
10. (CUL) AMERICA’S RIVAL
CULTURES
The early European settlers of North America came
from a small number of specific cultures. They brought with them ideas, beliefs,
and behaviors characteristic of the region and social group from which each
came. These cultures became established and dominant in specific colonies and
regions of North America, setting a tone in each that significantly
characterizes those regions to this day. Some of these transplanted cultures
have been in conflict, sometimes violently, for hundreds of years. The
differences between these colonial groups explain a great portion of the
political disagreements in the USA today. A side benefit of the common reading
is to dispel many of the historical myths with which many of us were
indoctrinated in school. This S/DG will examine USA history in this light and
endeavor to assess the impacts on our present lives and the future of this
country. Possible research/presentation topics might include: personal
experiences of local culture in different regions of the country; specific
political/social issues which are affected by these regional historical
differences; assessment of how the country is weakened and/or strengthened by
these cultural differences; how this makes it difficult to compare USA to other
countries, even those from which America was settled; possible extension of the
book’s analysis to include the introduction of new, and further conflicting, cultures
after about 1880; and counter arguments to the book.
Common Reading: American
Nations – A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North
America, by Colin Woodard (2011)
The British publication The
Economist is known for its
informative and thought-provoking reporting on political and economic
developments around the world. In this S/DG, we will discuss articles selected
from four key areas (America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa) plus
the occasional “Special Report” of the last two issues as catalysts for
informed and lively discussions on the burning topics of our time. The Economist is available as a magazine
subscription, a web site, or as Apps for your I Pad or smart phone. All
Articles selected are easily accessed online at no cost at www.theeconomist.com.
Common Reading: Current issues of The
Economist.
12. (EXT) THE SIXTH EXTINCTION
Over the previous half-billion years there have been
five major mass extinctions when the diversity of the species of life on earth
has suddenly and dramatically contracted. This book explores what seems to be
another major extinction, the first since the impact of an asteroid wiped out
the dinosaurs (and many other species) about 100 million years ago. This time
the culprit appears to be the astounding success of Homo sapiens -- you, me and all the rest of us. Scientists from many
disciplines are studying this phenomenon including changes in man's use of and
impact upon our world's oceans, fresh water sources, land, atmosphere, plants
and all the other creatures that share this world with us, along with life
style issues. Come join us and learn for yourself what is happening and how it
seems to be affecting the world.
Common Reading: The Sixth Extinction, by Elizabeth Kolbert (2014)
13. (FLM) NOT TO
BE MISSED: 54 FAVORITES
FROM A LIFETIME
OF FILMS
Kenneth Turan’s fifty-four favorite films embrace a
century of the world’s most satisfying romances and funniest comedies, the most
heart-stopping dramas and chilling thrillers.
Turan’s Not to be Missed blends cultural
criticism, historical anecdote, and inside-Hollywood controversy. His
favorites range across all genres. From Bicycle Thieves (I believe the film
is called The Bicycle Thief) to All About Eve , A Touch of Evil and Chinatown,
these are all timeless films—classic and contemporary, familiar and a bit
obscure, with big budgets and small—each underscoring the truth of
director Ingmar Bergman’s observation that “no form of art goes beyond ordinary
consciousness as film does, straight to our emotions, deep into the twilight
room of the soul.”
We will view at home, and then discuss films from
Turan’s fifty-four selected films.
Discussion topics will include each film’s:
Ø
Place within the filmmaker’s filmography, and within the overall “world of
film”
Ø
Time and Place (setting)
cast, plot summary, etc.
Ø
Key themes, characters, events, montage, symbology, imagery, messages,
political or social commentary, interpretative frameworks, music/score,
language, etc.
Ø
Unique characteristics, techniques, technology or breakthroughs
Ø
Filmmaker’s and critics’ reviews and commentaries on the film (as
available)
Ø
S/DG members’ “personal critiques”
Ø
Important scene viewing from the DVD (Optional—as time allows)
This S/DG will take a broad—rather than a
deep—look at the selected films and directors identified by Turan.
The desired outcome is to understand better the selected films and the various
filmmakers’ special talents and contributions—within both film
appreciation and film studies contexts.
Kenneth Turan’s fifty-four favorite films embrace a
century of the world’s most satisfying romances and funniest comedies, the most
heart-stopping dramas and chilling thrillers. Per Turan, the film images and
memories that matter most are those that are unshakeable, unforgettable.
Common
Reading: Not
to be Missed : Fifty-four favorites from a Lifetime of Films by Kenneth Turan (June 2014)
14. (FRA) THE HISTORY OF
MODERN FRANCE
With the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle
of Waterloo in June 1815, the next two centuries for France would be tumultuous
- including the extraordinary sequence of events from the end of the First
Revolution through two others, a return of Empire, three catastrophic wars with
Germany, the wrenching loss of colonies in the post-Second World War-- all
leading to periods of stability and hope interspersed with years of uncertainty
and high tensions. Germany’s attempts to become the leader of the European
union were a constant struggle, as was her lack of support for America in the
two Gulf Wars of the past twenty years. Alongside this came huge social changes
and cultural landmarks but also fundamental questions about what this nation,
which considers itself exceptional, really stood - and stands - for. That saga
and those questions permeate the France of today, now with an implacable enemy
to face in the form of Islamic extremism within the country. Presentation topics could include key
historical events as well as current events within France.
Common Reading: The History
of Modern France: From the Revolution to the Present Day, by Jonathan Fenby, (July 2015)
15. (HIA) HOMELESS IN
AMERICA
The issue of homelessness is finally reaching the
front papers of newspapers. Local cities
are developing various strategies to address the problem…some are constructive
and some are punitive. Trying to understand the problem is like trying to put
your arms around an octopus. Who are the
homeless? Why are they homeless? What are the real numbers? What efforts have
been tried? What efforts have worked? Who is responsible? These are just some of the questions that
will be asked and discussed in this SD/G.
Using the common reading as a springboard, member presentations will
cover topics such as homeless Vets, the mentally Ill, the working homeless,
homeless children, motel families, chronic homeless vs. transitional homeless,
the Los Angeles City Homeless Census, agencies for the homeless.
Possible Common Reading:
·
Silent Voices: People With Mental Disorders on the
Street, by Robert L. Okin (September 2014)
·
The American Way of Poverty: How the Other Half Still
Lives, by Sasha Abramsky (August 2014)
·
Homelessness (Essential Issues), by A. M. Buckley (August 2011)
16. (IDM) INTUITION AND DECISION
MAKING
Most people trust their intuition when
making many decisions while behavioral research has shown that for certain
situations most people are wrong.
In a 2011 book Daniel Kahneman presents recent research on when we can
and cannot trust our intuition. This
Nobel Prize winner’s research shows that there are two systems that drive the
way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower,
more deliberative, and more logical. He exposes the extraordinary
capabilities—and also the faults and biases—of fast thinking, and
reveals the pervasive influence of intuitive impressions on our thoughts and
behavior. The class will explore how
everyday decisions can be best understood by knowing how the two systems work
together to shape our judgments and decisions.
Topics for presentations could include anchoring to earlier knowledge,
the law of small numbers, similar research by others
in the field of behavioral research, etc.
Common
Reading: Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman (October 2011)
17. (IND) DEADLY LEGACY OF
INDIA’S PARTITION
Nobody expected the liberation of India and birth of
Pakistan to be so bloody — it was supposed to be an answer to the dreams
of Muslims and Hindus who had been ruled by the British for centuries. Yet,
street-gang fighting broke out. A cycle of riots — targeting Hindus, then
Muslims, then Sikhs — spiraled out of control.
As the summer of 1947 approached, all three groups were heavily armed and on
edge, and the British rushed to leave. Then all Hell let
loose. Some of the most brutal and widespread ethnic cleansing in modern
history erupted on both sides of the new border, searing a divide between India
and Pakistan that remains a root cause of many evils. This book selection focuses on the issues in
this region. However, other examples of
land divisions based on geography versus ethnic or cultural divides are evident
in the news today and would serve as possible topics for presentations.
Common Reading: Midnight’s
Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India’s
Partition by Nisid Hajari (June
2015)
18. (MYS) PARTNERS IN MYSTERY
Imagine pairing up two of your favorite book
characters from different authors together in a short story…the bad guy never
stands a chance. An instant New York
Times and USA TODAY bestseller and “a thriller reader’s ultimate fantasy”
(Booklist), this one-of-a-kind anthology pulls together the most beloved
characters from the best and most popular thriller series today. Worlds
collide!
In an unprecedented collaboration, twenty-three of
the world’s bestselling and critically acclaimed thriller writers pair their
series characters in an eleven-story anthology curated by the International
Thriller Writers (ITW).
How about Steve Martini’s popular character, defense
lawyer Paul Madriani, working with Linda Fairstein’s character, DA Alexandra
Cooper to solve a cross-country case or Lee Child’s ex-military Jack Reacher
joining Joseph Finder’s protagonist Nick Heller in helping the “little guy”
out. Powerful partnerships are created to solve
crimes and mysteries by the authors of popular and powerful fictional
characters. Do the characters work
together or compete; can writing and sleuthing styles
mesh together; and does the ‘bad guy’ stand a chance? This SD/G will cover the collection of 11
stories edited by David Baldacci in “FaceOff”
that feature the series characters from 23 crime writers in action
together. Presenters will discuss the
authors, their body of work, the characters, and the story.
Common
Reading: Face Off, collection
edited by David Baldacci for the International Thriller Writers (June
2014)
19. (NTR) RE-THINKING THE
SCIENCE OF NUTRITION
“For more than 40 years, Dr. T. Colin Campbell
has been at the forefront of nutrition research. His legacy, The China Project, is the most
comprehensive study of health and nutrition ever conducted.”
His latest book: Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition, is about the revolution
in the science of what we eat. We will gain insight into the complexity of what
actually happens in our bodies when we eat various foods and how those foods
contribute to our health.
In The
China Study he revolutionized the way we think about our food. In this new book he explains the science behind that
evidence, the ways our current scientific paradigm ignores the fascinating
complexity of the human body.
Whole is an eye-opening, paradigm-changing
journey through cutting-edge thinking on nutrition, a scientific tour-de-force with powerful
implications for our health and for our world."
If you want to learn more about your own
body and the foods you eat, this is the perfect class for you. We will do
further research on current trends in nutrition to amplify our knowledge even further.
Common Reading: Whole: Rethinking the Science of
Nutrition, by T. Colin Campbell (May
2014)
20. (PAG) PAGANS: THE END
OF TRADITIONAL RELIGION
AND THE RISE OF
CHRISTIANITY
A provocative and contrarian religious history that
charts the rise of Christianity from the point of view of “traditional”
religion from the religious scholar and critically acclaimed author of Augustine.
Pagans explores the rise of Christianity from a surprising
and unique viewpoint: that of the people who witnessed their ways of life
destroyed by what seemed then a powerful religious cult. These “pagans” were
actually pious Greeks, Romans, Syrians, and Gauls who observed the traditions
of their ancestors. To these devout polytheists, Christians who worshipped only
one deity were immoral atheists who believed that a splash of water on the
deathbed could erase a lifetime of sin.
Religious
scholar James J. O’Donnell takes us on a lively tour of the Ancient Roman world
through the fourth century CE, when Romans of every nationality, social class,
and religious preference found their world suddenly constrained by rulers who
preferred a strange new god. Some joined this new cult, while others denied its
power, erroneously believing it was little more than a passing fad.
In Pagans, O’Donnell brings to life various
pagan rites and essential features of Roman religion and life, offers fresh
portraits of iconic historical figures, including Constantine, Julian, and
Augustine, and explores important themes—Rome versus the east, civilization
versus barbarism, plurality versus unity, rich versus poor, and tradition
versus innovation—in this startling account.
Common
Reading: Pagans: The End of
Traditional Religion and the Rise of Christianity, by James J.
O'Donnell (March 2015)
21. (PEO) PEOPLING THE AMERICAS
Clovis First: Until recently, archaeologists hypothesized that the
Americas were first colonized at the end of the last Ice Age, about 12,000
years ago. Mongoloid people emigrated from Siberia, traveled east across the
Bering land bridge exposed by lowered sea levels, migrated south from Alaska,
through an ice-free corridor in Canada, and spread throughout North and South
America. Paleo-Indians were big game hunters who manufactured fluted bifacial
spear points (first found near Clovis, New Mexico). They traveled in small
bands, and extirpated 30 genera of megafauna in their wake. The Clovis people
are considered to be the ancestors of most indigenous cultures of the Americas
living today. While this model fits many archaeological findings, recent
discoveries indicate that people were living in North and South America
thousands of years earlier.
Pre-Clovis: Beringia is considered a refugium for founder
populations from 25,000 until 15,000 years ago. Other migrations to the
Americas are proposed to have occurred along different routes at different
times. Some Paleo-American settlers probably traveled along the Pacific coast
and islands by boat, and subsisted on diverse foods from the ocean. These early
New World peoples probably lived in stable coastal settlements later inundated
by rising sea levels. The Canadian ice-free corridor may have been populated
from south-to-north instead of the reverse. Ancient mariners from Europe may
have skirted the North Atlantic ice sheet reaching the then-exposed Grand Banks
of eastern North America using skills similar to those of modern Inuit people.
Suggested Topics for Presentations:
o
Timeline of
Archaeological Sites from Siberia to North and South America
o
Dating
Techniques (Radiocarbon C14, Uranium-Thorium, Thermoluminescence,
Archaeomagnetism, Dendrochronology, Potassium-Argon, Obsidian Hydration)
o
Stone and Bone
Tools (Spear Points, Atlatls, Scrapers, Knives, Arrowheads, Harpoons)
o
Clovis vs.
Folsom vs. Solutrean Stone Points
o
Extirpation of
Ice Age Megafauna
o
Effects of
Climate Warming After the Last Ice Age on Plants and Animals
o
Evolutionary Linguistics—Languages
as Living Fossils
o
Migration to the
New World by Land and Sea
o
Underwater
Archaeology of Coastal Settlements
o
Kennewick Man
9,000 years old
o
DNA Analysis of
Fossil Human Skeletons and Coprolites
o
Field trip to
the Calico Early Man Site at Yermo, California
Common Reading: First Peoples
in a New World: Colonizing Ice Age Americas by David J. Meltzer (2010)
Recommended Reading:
·
Mammoth Bones and Broken
Stones: The Mystery of North America's First People, by David L. Harrison
(2010) Juvenile Book Grades 5-7 (buy this for your grandchildren and read
yourself)
·
Bones, Boats, and Bison:
Archeology and the First Colonization of Western North America, by E. James Dixon (2000)
Accessible to the general reader
Reference Reading:
22. (PNY) LIFE STORIES:
PROFILES FROM THE
NEW YORKER
One of art’s purest challenges is to translate a human being into words. The New Yorker has met this challenge
more successfully and more originally than any other modern American journal.
It has indelibly shaped the genre known as ProfilThis collection presents
readers with profiles of glamorous and idiosyncratic figures from the twenties
to the present. It presents readers with literary investigations into character and
accomplishment, motive and madness, beauty and ugliness. They are unrivaled in their range, variety of style, and
embrace of humanity.
Readers in this Short Story discussion
group with have opportunities to learn more
about each author and person profiled by further research and discussion, aided
by probing discussion questions.
Common Reading: Life Stories: Profiles from
the New Yorker, by David
Remnick (May 2001)
23. (SCN) THE MYTH OF THE
SCANDINAVIAN UTOPIA
Common
Reading: The Almost Nearly
Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia, by
Michael Booth (January 2015)
24. (SHK) SHAKESPEARE: ALL
THE WORLD’S A
STAGE …
The Omnilorean New Globe Theater plans a
January-April season, reading one each of the Bard’s Histories, Comedies, and
Tragedies. With players standing and
with a few props, we propose to do reading walk-throughs of Henry VI, Part 1 (continuing our excursion through the 8 contiguous History plays, this
being the 5th), and a
comedy and a tragedy to be chosen during the pre-meeting planning in December.
In this S/DG you will learn how to research all
perspectives of Shakespeare’s works — sources of each play upon which the
Bard builds rich characters and enhances the plots, how to play each character
“in character,” themes, symbols, images, motifs, commentary on issues of the
day, and all manner of rhyme and reason. Class members each serve on one play’s
Board of Directors, responsible for casting roles for the repertory and leading
discussions based on the research — optionally adding videos, music,
and costumes. For a glimpse of how we
live the Bard in this S/DG, check out http://omnilore.org/members/Curriculum/SDGs/15c-SHK-Shakespeare
to view the Fall Shakespeare class’s website of links to references relevant to
our plays and downloadable organizing artifacts.
There are no prerequisites, theatrical or
otherwise. You will find that the Bard
of Stratford-on-Avon will teach us, just as he’s taught others for four hundred
years. With plenty for the novice as
well as the veteran, it is a foregone
conclusion members will leave this class with a fuller understanding of the
masterful story construction, realistic characters with depth and humanity, and
the rich, evocative language which have earned William Shakespeare the title of
greatest writer in the English language.
Common
Reading: Selected Plays.
25. (SWA) THE STATE
OF WHITE AMERICA
1960 - 2010
Statistical data and research show that
the top and bottom of white America increasingly live in different cultures,
according to the recent book by Charles Murray.
Focusing on white America to eliminate differences due to race or
ethnicity, he argues that a new upper class and a new lower class have diverged
in core behaviors and values – but not due to income inequality. Members of the new upper class live in their
own enclaves largely ignorant of mainstream America while the new lower class
suffers from erosions of family and community life. This S/DG will examine the foundations of his
conclusions as well as other possible interpretations of the data.
Common Reading: Coming
Apart: The State of White America 1960-2010 by Charles Murray (2012)
26. (TPA) POETS OF TIN
PAN ALLEY
How often have you listened to contemporary songs and
were aghast at the lyrics. How often have you remembered the lyrics of the good
old days, or tried to remember them, and wondered why they were so great?
In our youth, the songwriters of Tin Pan Alley
dominated American music. Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Rodgers
and Hart--even today these giants remain household names, their musicals
regularly revived, their methods and styles analyzed and imitated, and their
songs the bedrock of jazz and cabaret. Their lyrics used deft rhymes, inventive
imagery, and witty solutions to breathe life into the songs that established
the new genres of music, shaping a golden age of American popular song.
In this class we will study the great lyricists,
including Irving Berlin, Lorenz Hart, Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Oscar Hammerstein
II, Howard Dietz, E.Y. Harburg, Dorothy Fields, Leo Robin, and Johnny Mercer.
We will take a survey of those who wrote for Broadway, Hollywood, and Harlem
nightclub revues, as well as for the sheet music industry. We will see how
lyrics emerge as an important element of American modernism. Lyricists, like the great modernist poets,
took the American vernacular and made it sing.
Possible subjects for research/presentation: favorite
lyrics, favorite lyricist biography, Broadway lyricists, Hollywood lyricists,
jazz lyricists, impacts on youth culture, impacts on popular vernacular,
reflections of social mores, wartime lyrics, lyrics as poetry, what happened to
“love”?
Our goal is to understand and appreciate the
lyricists that made Tin Pan Alley prominent.
27. (VIS) BINOCULAR VISION:
AWARD-WINNING SHORT STORIES
Award winning author, Edith Pearlman, is
one of our premiere storytellers. In this sumptuous collection of short stories
she provides a feast for fiction aficionados. Spanning four decades and three
prize-winning collections, these twenty-one vintage selected stories and
thirteen scintillating new ones take us around the world, from Jerusalem to Central
America, from tsarist Russia to London during the blitz, from central Europe to
Manhattan, and from the Maine coast to Godolphin, Massachusetts, a fictional
suburb of Boston. These charged locales, and the lives of the endlessly varied
characters within them are evoked with tenderness and incisiveness found only
by our most observant seers.
No matter what situation her characters are in, Edith Pearlman conveys their experience
with wit and aplomb, with relentless but clear-eyed optimism, and with a supple
prose that reminds us, sentence by sentence, page by page, of the gifts our greatest innovators can bestow. These
wonderful stories should provide an excellent backdrop for lively discussions
and further research by our short story loving Omniloreans.
Common Reading: Binocular Vision: New &
Selected Stories, by
Edith Pearlman (January 2011)