TOPICS OFFERED
FOR FALL 2019
Classes
start September 3rd and end
December 27th.
Holiday periods are adapted to
by individual class
voting.
1. (ACW) ART THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
Understand art from a completely new
perspective.
This S/DG will look at art through the lens of history and
transformation of
the world and the culture within it. Seminal
works of genius are portrayed in their historical context,
with attention paid
to the culture of the time and the lives of their creators.
Possible presentation topics
include: Choosing
an artist and a time period and
presenting on how that person transformed the world around
them with their
art.
Common Reading:
Art
That
Changed the World: Transformative Art Movements and the
Paintings That
Inspired Them, by
DK (August 2013)
2.
(AME)
AMERICAN
EDEN
As Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr
prepared for
their duel in 1804, Dr. David Hosack – a friend of both men –
was there to
assist if needed. A
brilliant surgeon
and a world-class botanist, Dr. Hosack was a pioneering
thinker in many
areas…conducting some of the first pharmaceutical research
studies; introducing
new surgeries; and championing public health and science.
One goal drove Hosack above all
others: to build the
Republic’s first botanical garden. “Where
others saw real estate and power, Hosack saw the landscape as
a pharmacopoeia
able to bring medicine into the modern age.”
The proposed book for this S/DG tells the story of his
life and his
voice in the post-Revolutionary generation to the powers and
perils of nature
for a blend of history and botany.
Possible presentations could cover
various gardens
world-wide and their history; others who were prominent in the
development of
parks and gardens (e.g., Frederick Olmsted, etc.); the
national parks; and use
of organic/natural medicine.
Common Reading: American Eden: David
Hosack, Botany, and
Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic, by
Victoria Johnson (June 2018)
3.
(APR) ACCIDENTAL PRESIDENTS
The
strength and prestige
of the American presidency has waxed and waned since George
Washington. In our
common reading, Accidental Presidents looks at eight
men who came to the
office without being elected to it. It demonstrates how the
character of the
man in that powerful seat affects the nation and world.
Eight men (John Tyler, Millard
Fillmore, Andrew
Johnson, Chester Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge,
Harry Truman, and
Lyndon B. Johnson) have acceded to the presidency when the
incumbent died in
office. In one way or another they vastly changed our history.
Only Theodore
Roosevelt would have been elected in his own right. Only TR,
Truman, Coolidge,
and LBJ were re-elected.
Presentations can focus on any of
the achievements or
character traits of these men or of another “accidental
president,” Gerald
Ford, who also was never elected but succeeded to the
Presidency following the
resignation of Richard Nixon.
Common Reading: Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America by Jared Cohen (April 9, 2019)
4. (BMS)
BROADWAY
TO
MAINSTREET - HOW
SHOW
TUNES ENCHANTED
AMERICA
The music of Broadway is
one of America's
most unique and popular genres. From sheet music to radio broadcasts to recordings, all
influencing stage,
television, the motion picture industry and now streaming and
the internet.
Broadway to Main Street
is a
fascinating look at show music's hold on the American
imagination. We
will explore the music from Jerome Kern to Lin-Manuel Miranda,
from Tin Pan
Alley to John Legend and feature interviews with Stephen
Schwartz, Harold Prince,
Sheldon Harnick, prominent record producers and music critics
to mention a
few. Each class member will choose a favorite
Broadway show and
share some of its showstoppers as a presentation. There
are 14
informative chapters in the book that will provide the class
with interesting
discussion questions as each member chooses one to
facilitate. This class
is designed for music lovers of Broadway and the book will
prove to be an ideal
companion for all fans of musical theatre and popular
music. So, Leader,
"Strike up the Band"!
Common Reading: Broadway to Mainstreet - How Show Tunes Enchanted America by Laurence Maslon (August 2018)
5.
(CAP) HISTORY
OF AMERICAN CAPITALISM
America has always been a capitalist
venture. Each of
the colonies was a business organized as a corporation, a new
concept at the
time. Over time, as the colonies were largely self-governing,
they came to view
themselves as states, separate countries. Very different forms
of business
evolved, including that exploiting human bondage. Protective
tariffs and other
forms of government assistance were employed to promote
business, but also
regulations and trust busting to constrain monopolies, and
with welfare
programs and government sponsored research and development
arising in the 19th
century. Our common reading is a history written by a
successful immigrant
businessman.
Research/presentation topics might
include: logging,
fishing, manufacture, ship building, the slave trade, tobacco,
cotton,
textiles, …
Common Reading: Americana: A 400-Year History of American Capitalism by Bhu Srinivasan (September 2017)
6. (CBP) LET’S GET GRAPHIC: COMIC BOOKS FOR BIG PEOPLE
This course is an introduction to
graphic
(illustrated) novels intended for an adult audience. Despite the cartoony
illustrations, graphic
novels often have complex, well-developed characters, and can
deal with serious
themes.
We’ll read and discuss the two texts
indicated below.
Presentation
topics:
·
Biography of
authors
·
History of the
graphic novel
·
Introduction to other
graphic novels & artists
·
Effect of
differing styles of illustration used
·
Hollywood
renderings of graphic novels
Suggested
Common Reading (2 texts):
Maus. I: A
Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History
by
Art Spiegelman (August 1986; 159p/ $12)
The
first installment of the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel
acclaimed as “the
first masterpiece in comic book history” (The
New Yorker) and “the most affecting and successful
narrative ever done
about the Holocaust” (Wall
Street Journal).
Widely
hailed as “the greatest graphic novel ever written,” Maus won numerous awards in addition to the
Pulitzer.
Spiegelman,
a stalwart of the underground comics scene of the 1960s and
'70s, interviewed
his father, Vladek, a Holocaust survivor living outside New
York City, about
his experiences. The artist then deftly translated that story
into a graphic
novel. By portraying a true story of the Holocaust in comic
form--the Jews are
mice, the Germans cats, the Poles pigs, the French frogs, and
the Americans dogs--Spiegelman
compels the reader to imagine
the
action, to fill in the blanks that are so often shied away
from. Reading Maus,
you are forced to examine the
Holocaust anew.
The Sandman
Vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes
by
Neil Gaiman
(October
2010; 240p/ $16)
New York Times best-selling author Neil Gaiman's transcendent series The Sandman is often
hailed as one of
the finest achievements in comics storytelling. Gaiman creates
an unforgettable
tale of the forces that exist beyond life and death by weaving
ancient
mythology, folklore and fairy tales with his own distinct
narrative vision.
This
graphic novel--a perfect jumping-on point for any
reader--includes the
introductions of Morpheus, Lucifer and The Endless, all
intricate parts of this
enduring series that is still as relevant today as ever.
*The
class may decide to use the following award-winning texts as
supplementary
material or as the basis for a member’s presentation:
Persepolis:
The Story of a Childhood, by
Marjane Satrapi (June 2004)
Wise,
funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolis
is a memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic
Revolution. In powerful
black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of
her life in
Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow
of the Shah's regime,
the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating
effects of war with
Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed
Marxists and the
great-granddaughter of one of Iran's last emperors, the author
bears witness to
a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.
"Persepolis paints
an
unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the
bewildering
contradictions between home life and public life. Marjane's
child's-eye view of
dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of
the revolution
allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating
country and of
her own extraordinary family. Intensely personal, profoundly
political, and
wholly original," Persepolis
is
at once a story of growing up and a reminder of the human cost
of war and
political repression. It shows how we carry on, with laughter
and tears, in the
face of absurdity. And, finally, it introduces us to an
irresistible little
girl with whom we cannot help but fall in love.
The Best We
Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir
by
Thi Bui (March 2017; 336p/$12.50)
The
story of a family’s daring escape after the fall of South
Vietnam in the 1970s,
and the difficulties faced building new lives for themselves.
This
beautifully illustrated and emotional story is an evocative
memoir about the
search for a better future and a longing for the past. It
explores the anguish
of immigration and the lasting effects that displacement has
on a child and her
family,
At
the heart of Bui’s story is a universal struggle: While
adjusting to life as a
first-time mother, she ultimately discovers what it means to
be a parent—the
endless sacrifices, the unnoticed gestures, and the depths of
unspoken love.
Despite how impossible it seems to take on the simultaneous
roles of both
parent and child, Bui pushes through. With haunting, poetic
writing and
breathtaking art, she examines the strength of family, the
importance of
identity, and the meaning of home.
·
Los Angeles
Public Library Best of 2017 Nonfiction
·
NPR’s 2017 Great
Reads
·
Finalist, 2017
American Book Awards
7. (COC) THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS
A look back at
Huntington’s “A Clash of
Civilizations:” How well or poorly did his predictions work
out? S. P.
Huntington has postulated a new model for international
interactions after the
end of the Cold War. The
important
entities are “civilizations,” not nations.
Example civilizations include: The
West, Islamic, Sinic (China+), Hindu, etc.
Common blood, history, values, religion, language and
geographic bases
define these civilizations.
Peoples not
in one’s own civilization can be seen as potential or real
enemies.
Reading this
1996 publication after 9/11/2001, the
onset of the War on Terror and the U.S. experiment in “regime
change” and
“nation building,” one cannot but be amazed at the accuracy of
its
prognostication and the degree to which its advice was not
heeded. The basic
thesis of the book is that it is impossible to impose Western
political,
religious and cultural values on non-Western countries. This
model provides an
important perspective for assessing current world events, and
hopefully, aiding
in avoiding future calamities.
Possible
subjects for research/presentation: Is the West really
in decline? Are
the Balkans a “world in miniature” from this
perspective? Should
we embark on future
wars of intervention: e.g.,
Iran, China
vs. Taiwan, or the Middle East, and if so, under what
conditions? Have we
learned anything from our present “wars of intervention”:
Iraq, Afghanistan,
Libya? What is the “Davos Culture”, and how does it relate to
“Globalization”
and “Anti-Globalization”?
How might
expanded education and the expanded role of women affect the
course of
civilizations and their clashes? How does the UN fit into this
new world
model? What is
“multiculturism” in the
USA, how does it fit with Huntington’s model, and what are the
potential good
and bad effects of it? What
are the
commonalities and points of conflict and what are the lines of
communication
between civilizations? Our goal is to gain a new perspective
from which to
assess, evaluate, and perhaps understand the lessons of the
past thirty years.
Common Reading: The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order by Samuel P. Huntington (August 2011)
8.
(EDU) EDUCATED
As a starting
point, the book provides an opportunity to discuss a wide
variety of topics and
to develop presentations.
Possibilities
include: available
“safety nets” both
public and private to insure children are not isolated or
abused; pros/cons of
education offerings from public, private, charter,
home-school; defining and
explaining how “gaslighting” is used to control and
manipulate an individual’s
reality; impacts of family abuse and enabling on individuals
and society;
survivalists and those that go beyond preparing for
emergencies; how the lack
of access to resources such as libraries, the Internet, and
technology will
increase the equity gap; and examples of other individuals
who move beyond
poverty and family situation (e.g., Hillbilly
Elegy).
Common Reading: Educated: A Memoir, by Tara Westover (February 2018)
9.
(EUR)
EUROPE: A
HISTORY
Here is a masterpiece of historical
narrative that
stretches from the Ice Age to the Atomic Age, as it tells the
story of Europe,
East and West. Norman Davies captures it all--the rise and
fall of Rome, the
sweeping invasions of Alaric and Atilla, the Norman Conquests,
the Papal
struggles for power, the Renaissance and the Reformation, the
French Revolution
and the Napoleonic Wars, Europe's rise to become the
powerhouse of the world,
and its eclipse in our own century, following two devastating
World Wars. This
is the first major history of Europe to give equal weight to
both East and
West, and it shines light on fascinating minority communities,
from heretics
and lepers to Gypsies, Jews, and Muslims. It also takes an
innovative approach,
combining traditional narrative with unique features that help
bring history
alive: 299 time capsules scattered through the narrative
capture telling
aspects of an era; 12 snapshots offer a panoramic look at all
of Europe at a
particular moment in history; full coverage of Eastern
Europe—100 maps and
diagrams, 72 black-and-white plates. All told, Davies’s Europe represents one of the most important and
illuminating
histories to be published in recent years.
This course has been offered before
and was well
received. Classes
split the book in two
and covered it in two trimesters. This approach is
recommended since there
is a lot of information on the history of Europe.
Common Reading: Europe: A History, by Norman Davies (January 1998)
10.
(FOW) FUTURE OF
WORK
The American worker is in crisis.
Wages have
stagnated for more than a generation. Automation is
eliminating careers and
jobs. Companies are hiring part-time workers instead of
full-time or using
Uber’s concept of “independent contractors” thereby
eliminating many
company-supplied benefits. All too many workers are unprepared
for the changing
conditions while at the same time many job openings cannot be
filled. Reliance
on welfare programs has surged severely stressing government
budgets. Life
expectancy is falling as substance abuse and obesity rates
climb. These woes
are the direct consequence of a
decades-long economic consensus that prioritized increasing
consumption―regardless of the costs to American workers, their
families,
and their communities. Donald Trump’s rise to the presidency
focused attention
on the depth of the nation’s challenges, yet while everyone
agrees something
must change, the Left’s insistence on still more government
spending and the
Right’s faith in still more economic growth are recipes for
repeating the
mistakes of the past.
Our systems of education and
training, business and
labor law, tax and welfare were created under very different
conditions from
those of today and are all in need of rethinking. Our common
reading selection
provides stimulation and shift of perspective as aids to such
rethinking.
Research/presentation topics might
include: how
Sweden’s more cooperative triumvirate of
labor unions – businesses – government might be adapted to fit
America;
Universal Basic Income (UBI), transferring previous company
supplied benefits
(pension, health) to a combined State-Private system; updating
occupational
training to include soft-skills to enhance working with others
and skills to
apply advancing technology, along with skills and mechanisms
for continuing
retraining; how we might enhance the dignity of work as
central to our culture.
Common Reading: The Once and Future Worker: A Vision for the Renewal of Work in America, by Oren Cass (November 2018)
11.
(HDD) HOW DEMOCRACIES
DIE
Drawing on decades of research and a wide range of
historical and global
examples, from 1930s Europe to contemporary Hungary, Turkey,
and Venezuela, to
the American South during Jim Crow, Levitsky and Ziblatt
show how democracies
die—and how ours can be saved.
Presentations can focus on other countries such as
Venezuela or Hungary,
historical analogies, or events in our own country.
Common Reading: How Democracies Die, by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt (paperback 2019)
12. (HIH) HOW THE INTERNET HAPPENED
The story of the
internet is often
focused on hackers and software engineers. Who wrote the code?
Who did it
first? And who did it best? There is plenty of this in Brian
McCullough’s book,
but there is also the broader view showing how a handful of
powerful companies
came to dominate the technology.
The
internet didn’t happen only because of wizardly coding and
cheaper computers. It
also happened because of serendipity,
failures, friendships and feuds; and through it all a flood of
cash eased the
path to success. We will look at the interlocking histories of
start-ups and
how entrepreneurs and CEOs battled one another on the
technological and
financial playing fields. There were business clashes among
Yahoo, Microsoft,
Google and Facebook; heroes often looked like fools and fools
looked like
heroes. Some of the most interesting moments in How the Internet Happened occur when we meet the
already forgotten
players of the early days that gave rise to the dominating
businesses of today.
In many ways, the history of the internet was ugly, but as the
smoke clears, we
find that we are left with something truly new, ubiquitous and
even beautiful,
like the sleek new iPhone.
Presentation topics
include social
networking, mobile phones, search engines, online services,
Ecommerce,
community sites, and the key players in the evolution of the
internet.
Common Reading: How the Internet Happened: From Netscape to the iPhone by Brian McCullough (October 2018)
13. (HWK) THE HEARTBEAT OF WOUNDED KNEE
In
The Heartbeat of Wounded
Knee, David Treuer (a
member of the Ojibwe from Minnesota) melds history with
reportage and
memoir. He shows
how the Indians not
only have maintained their culture and civilization through
some dark years,
but in some parts of the country are thriving.
Some
of what he
covers, and which could be expanded upon for presentations,
includes what the
government did, beginning in the 1970s, to make things better
for the
tribes. The
Religious Freedom Act of
1978, e.g., allowed tribes to exercise religious traditions
that had been lost
to them. The 1988
Indian Gaming
Regulatory Act had an effect on the social and economic lives
of some, but not
all Indians. One
could also present on famous
American Indians, on programs designed to lift Indians out of
poverty, or on
why there is a perceived benefit in declaring oneself to be
part Indian.
Common Reading: The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present, by David Treuer (January 2019)
14. (ICE) HOW THE LITTLE
ICE AGE CHANGED
HISTORY
Starting in the
fourteenth century
and lasting several hundred years, cooling temperatures
disrupted the world’s
economic and social structures—contributing to the rise of the
modern world.
This epoch is known as the Little Ice Age, during which
average earth surface
temperatures dropped by as much as two degrees Celsius, or 3.6
degrees
Fahrenheit. (This is the same amount of temperature change as
the goal to limit
global warming now.) These cooling temperatures and
accompanying major storms
reduced crop yields which disrupted the feudal and guild
economic and social
structures of the time, giving rise to the modern world.
People migrated,
cities grew, food was transported long distances, banking
emerged and money
became more important. The fur trade expanded across all
northern climes,
motivating European expansion into North America and Siberia.
These social and
economic changes were coincident to the beginnings of modern
science, the
Enlightenment, and the innovation of capitalism. It is timely
to examine this
critical period for the possible parallels to our current
social and economic
upheavals and changing climate.
There are several
good books dealing
with various aspects of the Little Ice Age. The one
recommended focuses on the
resulting new economic system and the philosophical and
cultural trends that
accompanied it, particularly in Northern Europe. Climate is
central to the
story that it tells, but the book does not attempt to
establish solid cause and
effect relationship.
Possible research/presentation
topics include:
physical causes of the climate cooling; erratic harvests in
China bringing down
the Ming Dynasty; river freezing allowing "frost fairs" in
Europe;
destruction of the Spanish Armada by an unprecedented Arctic
hurricane in 1588;
the contribution of the Little Ice Age to the Great Fire of
London in 1666; and
many more links, associations, and correlations between
climate and society.
Common Reading: Nature’s Mutiny: How the Little Ice Age of the Long Seventeenth Century Transformed the West and Shaped the Present, by Philipp Blom (February 2019)
15. (JNY) DESPERATE JOURNEYS
Refugees
are people who leave their homes to escape war, persecution,
or political upheaval.
Most are uprooted with little warning and endure great
hardships during their
flight. One in every 113 people on the planet is now a
refugee, and half of
them are children. Most of us don't stop to consider the risks
they take and
daunting distances they travel to reach safety.
This S/DG will be anchored on the
book, Let Me Tell You
My Story, created by a
group of artists and volunteers working directly with
refugees. It is a
powerful collection of stories,
interviews, photographs and paintings of real people at the
heart of the
refugee crisis. We
will also watch a
number of award-winning documentaries that bring home the
strength and
determination of refugees to survive and to protect their
families.
Suggested presentation topics
include: Why people are
leaving their home countries, countries that welcome refugees
and those that
shut their borders, long dangerous journeys, life in refugee
camps, private and
government aid groups.
Common Reading: Let Me Tell You My Story, compiled by TSOS (Their Story is Our Story) (October (2018)
Documentaries: 4.1 Miles, Fire at Sea, God
Grew Tired of
Us, Human Flow and The
Jangmadang
Generation
16. (LIB) LIBRARIES
The S/DG will examine the role of
libraries in society
and in our lives, as well as reading about the 1986 fire at
the Los Angeles
Central Library where we trace the early history of this local library and
its colorful head
librarians; we read about the issues that face libraries
today (homeless users)
as well as the puzzling self-contradictory man who was
accused of but probably
did not start the library fire.
Presentation
topics could include the changes
libraries face as interest in books is being replaced by
digital media, the
rise of internet use in libraries, the history of libraries
in America, the
history of famous libraries in ancient and medieval history,
and the role of
the Library of Congress.
Common Reading: The
Library Book,
by Susan Orlean (October
2018)
17.
(LUH) LIFT UP
HUMANITY
“If you want to lift up humanity,
empower women. It
is the most comprehensive, pervasive, high-leverage investment
you can make in
human beings.” These are the words of Melinda Gates in her
book, The Moment of
Lift, the common reading
for this S/DG. This book describes the challenges of poor
communities around
the world and the work that the Gates Foundation is doing to
alleviate them. It
also reveals some of Ms. Gates challenges in causing all this
to happen.
Research/presentation topics might
include: specific
projects of the Gates Foundation; opportunities to participate
in or contribute
to such activities; other aspects of constraints on women,
e.g., unequal pay or
the glass ceiling; specific payoffs from educating girls;
proposals for women
empowerment in USA; etc.
Common Reading: The Moment of Lift: How
Empowering Women
Changes the World, by Melinda Gates (April 23,
2019)
18.
(MID)
VIEW FROM THE
MIDDLE
The “heartland of America” has often
be used to
describe that large portion of the country between the
Appalachian and Rocky
Mountains and north of the Mason-Dixon Line. It is highly
agricultural and
industrial and many who live along the East and West Coasts
consider it “fly
over country,” “a flat undifferentiated mass of square tracts
and crop
circles,” “a land of farmers of northern European descent … a
psychic fall-out
shelter in which to seek refuge from a changing and dangerous
world.” The
region is much more complex than that. This S/DG will explore
this region and
the viewpoints of its residents and voters with aid of our
Common Reading. This
region will almost certainly decide the next U.S. presidential
election, which
will be one of the most crucial in our country’s history.
Research/presentation topics might
include: cultures
of the residents, e.g., where and when they or their ancestors
came from;
political histories of the region; rise and fall of the
American auto and/or
steel industries; food production and processing; etc.
Common Reading: The Heartland: An American History, by Kristin L. Hoganson (April 23, 2019)
19. (MND) THE DISORDERED MIND
Disorders of the mind have meant
different things to
different people at different times. In Plato’s “Phaedrus,”
Socrates extols
divinely inspired madness in mystics, lovers, poets and
prophets; he describes
these disturbances as gifts of the gods, rather than maladies.
Our own
culture’s conception of the varieties of mental illness took
shape first from a
deck of cards curated by the pioneering German psychiatrist
Emil Kraepelin over
a century ago. Each of the cards contained an abstract of a
patient’s medical
history, and by grouping them according to similarities he
observed among the
cases, Kraepelin delineated for the first time some of the
major categories
physicians now use to diagnose psychiatric diseases. Kraepelin
was a staunch critic
of psychoanalysis and passionate advocate for understanding
mental phenomena in
strictly biological terms — attitudes now also ascendant in
psychiatric
biomedicine. According to our author, Kandel, mental illnesses
are simply brain
disorders, and all variations in behavior “arise from
individual variations in
our brains.” Kandel is particularly focused on the importance
of genetics. But,
the majority of implicated genes are only weakly correlated
with disease.
Neurobiology may indeed be well poised to promote this kind of
synthesis.
Kandel himself bridges science and humanities in a chapter on
the link between
mental illness and artistic creativity. He also tries to
reconcile
Kraepelin-style biologism with more humanistically oriented
psychotherapy, correctly
assailing the false dichotomy between these two approaches,
which in practice
both act on the brain. There are many indications that the
brain’s interactions
with the rest of the body, either during development or later
in life, can have
a major impact on health. This does, however, highlight the
need to consider
our brains in the social, environmental and bodily contexts in
which they
operate — contexts that help make us who we are, in both
sickness and health.
This S/DG will explore modern models
of mental
disorders. Research/presentation topics might include
Alzheimer’s, autism,
addictions, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression,
criminal proclivities,
etc.
Common Reading: The Disordered Mind - What
Unusual Brains
Tell Us About Ourselves, by Eric R. Kandel (2000 Nobel
Prize in Medicine
for Physiology) (August 2018)
Supplemental
Reading: The Biological Mind: How Brain, Body, and Environment
Collaborate to
Make Us Who We Are, by Alan Jasanoff, who directs
the Center for
Neurobiological Engineering at M.I.T. (March 2018)
Plus others
20.
(POE) ANTHOLOGY
OF POETRY
Did
you ever take a class in high school or college on poetry? Did
you ever read
poetry again? Of all literature poetry is the most succinct
but, in the 21st
century, the least popular. Yet it wasn’t always like that;
poetry has been
written for over one thousand years, from the medieval period
to the present.
Poets’ names are famous, from Shakespeare to TS Eliot, WB
Yeats and Dr. Seuss!
Similar
to a short story class, presentations topics will be drawn
from the book, with
each member choosing a poet and poems to share and
discuss.
Common Reading: The Norton Anthology of Poetry, 5th Edition, Edited by Margaret Ferguson, Ph.D., Mary Jo Salter, et al. (Paperback, January 2005)
21. (REC)
RECONSTRUCTION
- THE
WORST PHASE
OF AMERICAN HISTORY
At the end of the Civil War, the
United States began
the effort of putting the country back together again. This
meant restoring
commerce, governmental processes, and dealing with the
multitude of freed,
black slaves. This whole process was very badly handled and
resulted in even
greater division in the country than there had been before the
war. For
example, the border states of West Virginia (broken off from
Virginia during
the war), Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri shifted their
sympathies from the
North, to the South. These Appalachian people had largely
hated the wealthy
Southern land and slave holders, but found the self-righteous
Northern
“reformers” even more offensive.
This S/DG will review the history of
this period and
what its impacts are on us today. We will consider how we
might correct the
various social and political structures that resulted from
Reconstruction.
Possible research/presentation topics might include: formation
and operation of
the KKK; how the South largely gained control of Congress and
how that plays
out today; the obstruction to access to education and other
social services and
how these continue to impede progress today; how the ghettos
came to be formed
in Northern cities and the multitude of social impacts that
had and which
persist, etc.
Common Reading: Reconstruction: A Concise History, by Allen C. Guelzo (May 2018)
22.
(SAN) THE BEST
AMERICAN SCIENCE AND
NATURE WRITING 2018
This
book
is a collection of articles that have recently appeared in
magazines such
as The Atlantic, The New Yorker, California
Sunday Magazine, Esquire,
Vox, Science,
e.g. All are
aimed at the general
reader.
Articles
run
15-20 pages and are on a variety of topics.
The
class
has been offered other years.
In
those offerings, the S/DG was formatted like a short story
class, in that each
presentation was based on one of the articles.
The whole class read the chosen article at home. The
presenter added
additional information and then conducted a discussion, based
on questions sent
out a week before.
According
to
the editor of the 2018 edition, Sean Kean, “This is one of the
most exciting
times in the history of science…Things aren’t perfect by any
means. But there
are more scientists making more discoveries in more places
about more things
than ever before.”
Common Reading: The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2018 edited by Sam Kean (October 2, 2018)
23.
(SBP) THE
SEVEN BASIC PLOTS
TO STORIES
It is often heard that there are
only so many story
lines or plots to all of the novels, movies, plays and tales
that we read or
see. Now here is
an author that has both
spelled them out, and explained how many stories we are
familiar with fit into
his categories.
He discusses stories as varied as
those from the
Greeks, the movies, fairy tales, Shakespeare, and contemporary
literature--from
Gilgamesh (the
oldest written story
known) and Beowulf
to Star Wars and
the Lord of the Rings--showing how they all fit into
his scheme of
plots.
His seven plots are: (1) Overcoming
the Monster, (2) Rags to
Riches, (3) The Quest, (4) Voyage and Return, (5) Comedy, (6)
Tragedy, and (7)
Rebirth.
Potential Topics for Research:
How a favorite story (of the
presenter) fits into one
of the seven plots. (Obviously this could repeat for many
presentations.);
other schemes for describing plots, e.g:,
"The 36
Basic Plots" (could also be repeated as class members find
different
historical schemes for categorizing plots); reasons why the
stories of at least
the Western World seem to be able to be categorized into
groups, from a
psychological point of view. Joseph Campbell's Hero With A Thousand
Faces and its
relationship to story plots; A Jungian explanation for common
story plots.
Common Reading: The
Seven Basic Plots:
Why We Tell Stories by
Christopher Booker (January
31, 2005)
24.
(SHK) SHAKESPEARE: ALL
THE WORLD'S A
STAGE …
·
Edward III is not
listed in the Folio compendiums of his plays from the years
after his death,
but Shakespeare scholars have increasingly endorsed that the
play was at least
partly written by the Bard.
Why it was
originally excluded opens a discussion on England-Scottish
politics of the
time.
·
Known as a
"feast of language," Love's Labor's Lost
is one of the
Bard's earliest comedies, in which four bachelors who have
dedicated themselves
to chastity and scholarly pursuits soon encounter the women
of their dreams.
With
players standing and with a few props and costumes, we will
do reading
walk-throughs and discussions of the three plays.
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/19a-SHK-Shakespeare to view the Winter/Spring
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.
SHK will be
limited to the first 24 enrollees and will not split.
Common Reading: Selected Plays
25. (SSS) THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 2018
Roxane Gay writes in her
introduction to The Best
American Short Stories 2018 that she loves it when a
story has a powerful
message and when a story teaches something about the
world. In this
collection of short stories you
will be transported
from a fraught family reunion to an immigration detention
center, from a
psychiatric hospital to a coed class sleepover in a natural
history
museum. You will meet a rebellious summer camper, a
Twitter addict, and
an Appalachian preacher. These profound, artful, and
sometimes funny
stories with interesting characters and unusual circumstances
will show us what
we need to know about the lives of others. The
discussions pertaining to
these stories will prove to be thought provoking beyond our
wildest
imagination.
Common Reading: The Best American Short Stories 2018, edited by Roxane Gay (October 2018)
26. (SUP) THE SUPREME COURT
From
Amazon:
“In
the bestselling
tradition of The Nine and The Brethren, The
Most Dangerous
Branch takes us inside the secret world of the Supreme
Court. David A.
Kaplan, the former legal affairs editor of Newsweek,
shows how the justices subvert the role of the other
branches of government—and
how we’ve come to accept it at our peril.
With
the retirement
of Justice Anthony Kennedy and the appointment of Brett
Kavanaugh, the Court
has never before been more central in American life. It is the
nine justices
who now decide the controversial issues of our time—from
abortion and same-sex
marriage, to gun control, campaign finance and voting rights.
The Court is so
crucial that many voters in 2016 made their choice based on
whom they thought
their presidential candidate would name to the Court. Donald
Trump picked Neil
Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh—two key decisions of his
administration.
Based
on exclusive
interviews with the justices and dozens of their law clerks,
Kaplan provides
fresh details about life behind the scenes at the Court –
Clarence Thomas’s
simmering rage, Antonin Scalia’s death, Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s
celebrity, Breyer
Bingo, the petty feuding between Gorsuch and the chief
justice, and what John
Roberts thinks of his critics.
Kaplan
presents a
sweeping narrative of the justices’ aggrandizement of power
over the decades –
from Roe v. Wade to Bush v. Gore to Citizens
United, to
rulings during the 2017-18 term. But the arrogance of the
Court isn’t partisan:
Conservative and liberal justices alike are guilty of
overreach. Challenging
conventional wisdom about the Court’s transcendent power, The
Most Dangerous
Branch is sure to rile both sides of the political
aisle.”
“To illustrate the power of the
judiciary, Justice
William Brennan Jr. said many times,
typically while brandishing a wide wry smile and the fingers
on his left hand,
‘If you have five votes here, you can do anything”—Introductory quote at the beginning of the book.
Presentations
could
be on any of the justices, on particular cases from history or
cases that are
now before the court, or on proposals, such as the one to
increase the number
of justices, or on whether justices should still be given
lifetime
appointments.
Common Reading: The Most Dangerous Branch: Inside the Supreme Court's Assault on the Constitution, by David A. Kaplan (September 2018)
27.
(SWW) SPIRITUAL WRITINGS
BY WOMEN
Our common reading is a collection
of 6l works of
modern prose and poetry by women of various races and
religions, some acclaimed
writers and others--talented newcomers-- searching for the
sacred in their
lives.
Common Reading: Storming Heaven's Gate: An Anthology of Spiritual Writings by Women, edited by Amber Coverdale Sumrall and Patrice Vecchione (paperback, June 1997)
28. (WDP) THAR’ SHE BLOWS...DISCOVERING WHALES, DOLPHINS AND PORPOISES
It is impossible to live in the
South Bay without at
some time being treated to the beauty of our local cetaceans:
porpoises,
dolphins and whales. We
live in such
close proximity to them yet we do not know much about them. This S/DG will take
an in-depth look at the
past, present and future of these awesome creatures. Focusing primarily
on whales, we will look at
the evolution of this species, what we can learn from fossil
remains and
history, recent knowledge about the intelligence and brain
power of cetaceans
and what the future with climate changes holds for them. The course will use
the book Spying on
Whales by Nick Pyenson as
their common reading. Presentations
can
cover such related topics as the complexity of the whale
brain, the history of
whaling, ecolocation – what is it and how does it work, common
dolphins of
Southern California, what is the difference between a dolphin
and a porpoise, cetaceans
in captivity, The Cetacean Society and the Whale Census. Join
us for a deep
dive into the natural story of these marine mammals. Thar’ she blows!
Common Reading: Spying on Whales: The Past, Present, and Future of Earth's Most Awesome Creatures, by Nick Pyenson (June 2018)