Course Archive Campus Lecture Forums
		; Lecture Links
			Videos of each lecture will be stored in the Course Documents section of your Discussion Section's Blackboard Web Site. There are links to those sites here. Robert Frost - Vladimir Nabokov - Metaphor: The Road Not Taken or The Poem Not Written? Robert Frost vs. Monster.com. For your further reading, writing, thinking, listening, and viewing pleasure: Losing My Religion with three paintings by Caravaggio that look like models for the "renaissance" part of the video. Art from Art: Just as Frost rewrites Emerson in "After Apple Picking," here's a more modern example of artistic revision: Chuck Berry's reprise of "Johnny B. Goode" (1957)--"Bye Bye Johnny" (1960)--and Bruce Springsteen's memorial to the death of Elvis, "Johnny Bye Bye" (1983); a link to the Wired story and podcast about the modern master of multi-layered mash-ups (what he calls "plunderphonics"), Girl Talk; and a link to a visualization of his latest mashup, All Day. Originality? That's so last century. As a contemporary author explains, "It’s ‘Mixing,’ Not Plagiarism." Author Function-Reader Function. The old, communication model vs. an idea of an Author Function intersecting with a Reader Function to bring the Text into being. The Boy Who Cried Wolf? How about The Girl Who Was Scared by the Danielbeast? For all you YouTube fans, here's the saga of lonelygirl15; and then there's James Frey, the TV show 24, and confusion at the Andrea Yates trial; what's the truth got to do with it anyway? And here's Olivia Judson on the "intuition of science." We Won't Get Fooled Again. What does Frost Mean when he says that people who haven't been educated by poetry "don’t know when they are being fooled by a metaphor, an analogy, a parable"? What's the true definition of "Freedom of Choice" and what's its connection to a New York City billboard? Metaphor meets cognitive science meets politics in "The Framing Wars" (2005). What's a Metaphor For? Carlin Romano explains. Four articles from The New York Times that link the tragedy in New York to the concerns of this course: The Simile, The Villain, and First, Define the Battlefield, and from 2002, the late Susan Sontag's Real Battles and Empty Metaphors. A lesson in effective rhetoric from President Bush's speech writers: Stanley Fish explains how style can triumph over substance in "The Candidates, Seen From the Classroom." Metaphor Monopoly – Bill Gates has been educated by poetry; and so, apparently, has David Brooks; here's an even thornier metaphorical issue – Intelligent Design (and a link to a series of articles on the Evolution Debate); novelists, psychologists, and scientists all struggle with the mind as metaphor in "What's On Your Mind?"; Douglas Hofstadter argues for "Analogy as the Core of Cognition" in his 2006 Presidential Lecture at Stanford; and even Einstein's famous equation, we're told, needs to be explained with a metaphor, if it's to be fully understood. MacArthur Grant Fellow George Saunders visits “The Colbert Report” to discuss the short story format and his new collection, “Tenth of December,” deemed by New York Times Magazine as the “Best Book You’ll Read This Year.” Saunders illustrates the power of short stories by using brief analogies, but Colbert remains unmoved: “I’m sure it’s very good,” he says, “But I like to pay by the pound. That’s why I love Ayn Rand. It’s just two covers and she just shovels words in between.” How important are metaphors? Important enough for the government to build a "metaphor program" in order to spy on other cultures more effectively. The Mind is a Metaphor is an evolving work of reference – a collection of eighteenth-century metaphors of mind serves as the basis for a scholarly study of the metaphors and root-images appealed to by the novelists, poets, dramatists, essayists, philosophers, belle-lettrists, preachers, and pamphleteers of the long eighteenth century; the ATT-Meta Project Databank: Examples of Usage of Metaphors of Mind; and the Metaphor Analysis Project, where "metaphor is recognised as an important way of thinking – constructing analogies and making connections between ideas – and an important way of using language – to explain abstract ideas or to find indirect but powerful ways of conveying feelings." Understanding civil rights through metaphor: Gay Rights and the Race Analogy. After Apple Picking and two videos – Robert Frost reading the poem and some critical commentary from Frost himself, Seamus Heaney, and Richard Wilbur. Here's someone who has been educated by poetry: Carina Chocano in, "How Tabloid Trainwrecks Are Reinventing Gothic Literature." The Boy Who Cried Wolf meets The Girl Who Wasn't There: Gail Collins explains how Manti Te'o's "girlfriend" fits male fantasies about athletes, sports, and self-sacrificing women. A quick guide on How to Search On Line Successfully; and another on How to Use Wikipedia. Hemingway: In 1963, a sixteen-year-old San Diego high school student named Bruce McAllister sent a four-question mimeographed survey to 150 well-known authors of literary, commercial, and science fiction. Did they consciously plant symbols in their work? he asked. Their answers are published here, in The Paris Review. Come Back to the Raft Ag'in, Papa Honey. As a young boy, Hemingway not only identified with Huck Finn, he actually dressed up like Huck to go hunting and fishing. He also got dressed up in dresses with his sister, Marcelline. Paintings by Giotto, Masaccio, and Piero della Francesca. Andrea Mantegna. Four pictures from this 15th c. Italian Renaissance Master -- mentioned prominently in Hemingway's "The Revolutionist" -- including "The Dead Christ" (c. 1490). Also, information on Horthy and Hungary from Wikipedia, and a link to Oxford University's First World War Poetry Digital Archive, that focus on WWI and the poetry of Wilfred Owen. Gender: The Modern Library's Choices for the 100 greatest books of the 20th century, including all of nine women, none women of color, and four male minority authors, along with their readers choices (who clearly love Ayn Rand but don't read anything but white authors), the 100 best works of nonfiction (ditto), the members of the Editorial Board who voted for the list, and a rival list from the Radcliffe Publishing Course.. Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Images of his wife, Elizabeth Siddal (1854), The Blessed Damozel (1875-78), Lady Lilith (1864-73), Ecce Ancilla Domini! (The Annunciation; 1849-50), where the Virgin Mary bears a strange resemblance to Kate Moss. "The Queen's Looking Glass" The back of the box description of The Last Seduction, another picture of Kate Moss, a parodic look at Obsession, some pictures of Medusa that bear an uncanny resemblance to Glen Close in Fatal Attraction, and here's the Insidestory: Fatal Attraction, courtesy of the Biography Channel; an article to contextualize Glengarry Glen Ross entitled, "Men Behaving Badly"; Mark Guarino wonders if the men in Glengarry are actually quaint in 2012; and an article and video about a new documentary entitled, "The Mask You Live In," that explores the "systemic societal problems caused by toxic masculinity." Look who's been brought back to life in The Snow White Project; and if G&G's reading of Sleeping Beauty is too Grimm for you, here's What Disney's Princesses Teach Young Girls; and The SecondCityNetwork offers up "Advice from a Cartoon Princess": with Snow White, Belle, and the Little Mermaid. Speaking of super heroes, ever wonder what it would look like if all of the Avengers posed like Black Widow? S & F Online: The Scholar and Feminist Online, published by the Barnard Center for Research on Women, with an especially interesting issue on HBO, The Sopranos, and Sex and the City; and a Women's Studies Database at The University of Maryland. In "Navigating the waters of our biased culture," Frank Kovarik explains the Bechdel Test for gender bias and how most literature fails it; a further look at the Bechdel Test at The Slacktiverse. In response to Lisa Belkin's article on gender relations in the classroom as opposed to the frat party - "After Class, Skimpy Equality" - Shannon Doyne and Holly Epstein Ojalvo ask students to reply to the question, "Who Has the Power in School Social Life?"; and are you what you dress up as? Annette Lynch looks at the latest styles in, "Porn Chic, Gender Performance, and Halloween Fashion." Have we entered the age of "Hipster Sexism"? And Buzzfeed explains, "Why The 'Fake Geek Girl' Meme Needs To Die." Of course things have changed since the 70s - just read, "Toughness Has Risks for Women Executives," from the August 10, 2001 New York Times, or listen to what some of Fortune's 50 Most Powerful Women have to say, or what things are like in Academia and in the world of Science, Engineering, and Technology; and here's Paul Krugman on the gender-coded campaign against Janet Yellen for the head of the Federal Reserve, "Sex, Money, and Gravitas.". In 2009, Judith Warner asks, "Is there a general resentment against smart women?"; and here's Amy Rebecca Klein, the only girl in the band Titus Andronicus, wondering whether Rock and Roll Is Dead to women in 2010. In 2013, Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook tells Davos women are less liked as they become more successful; Nicholas Kristof comments on Sandberg's comments in, "She's (Rarely) the Boss" (note: the Kristof piece is full of links to useful information); Stephanie Coontz explains, "Why Gender Equality Stalled"; and Debora Spar, President of Barnard College, tells us why "Leaning In" may not be enough to break through the glass ceiling. An article/survey from Amy Sennet, called "Work and Family," that looks at the experiences of the Class of '75 (me) vs the expectations of the Class of '06 (you); the latest word (2007) on women in the workplace in The Feminine Critique; the moment when gender reared its head in Hillary's campaign, the differing reaction it drew from one mother and daughter, and Judith Warner's complicated thought about feelings about it; how Sarah Palin and her "family values" changed the mix in "A New Twist in the Debate on Mothers"; Deepak Chopra on "Obama and the Palin Effect"; and the true tale of the "Zombie feminists of the RNC." And here are two points of views on a 2011 report at Princeton University about gender bias and the limits on leadership called, "Limits, still." Fifty Shades of Grey, "Girls," Katie Roiphe - Ginia Bellafante asks, are these the "The New Shades of Feminism?" First Katy Perry, then Carla Bruni-Sarkozi: "Why are women scared to call themselves 'Feminists'?"; Katherine Connell, an associate editor at the National Review, discusses them in, "Benevolent Sexism." "Curing feminist indoctrination": An online men's group knows just who's to blame for the world's ills-- Women! Just check in at antimisandry.com. For something completely different, here's John Tierney on "What Women Want" and Neil French on "One man's take on why women never seem to get ahead." And here's what some women at elite colleges say they want themselves (with a response from the male side of the equation and another from Jack Shafer at Slate), but are these young women just the next Betty Drapers? But now the New York Times wonders whether successful women are destroying romance? and Salon counters by examining "The Terror of Successful Women." Caribs Cochina looks at what it means to be a "strong female character" in "‘Tough, Cold, Terse, Taciturn and Prone to Not Saying Goodbye When They Hang Up the Phone.’" A sports metaphor, a Huck Finn allusion, and a new take on gender: Susan Faludi looks at Hillary Clinton's candidacy in "The Fight Stuff"; a montage prepared by the Women's Media Center called, "Sexism Sells -- But We're Not Buying It"; after all, Judith Warner argues, it worked for "Sex and the City" in "Woman in Charge, Women Who Charge." Hillary speaks at the Democratic Convention on the anniversary of the 19th Amendment, but Susan Faludi explains why that's little compensation in "Second Place Citizens." “The most powerful people in the world are old white men and pretty young women”: Postfeminism and Other Fairy Tales. Girls Gone Wild. A review of Ariel Levy's book that argues that women have bought into unhealthy ideas of their own sexuality; and for you Sex and the City fans, "Throwing the Baby Out with the Bath Water: Miranda and the Myth of Maternal Instinct on Sex and the City." Does Wikipedia have a gender bias? Read "Wikipedia: It's a Man's World." A science report that tries to answer the question, "Is Hysteria Real?"; and a report on Women, Depression, and Marriage from the Science News. So What's A Modern Girl To Do? Here's Maureen Dowd with the answer and her answers to readers' questions; and Joanne Lipman, a former deputy managing editor at The Wall Street Journal, examines the lack of progress she sees in 2009 in "The Mismeasure of Woman." Tired of trying to have it all? Rebecca Traister says, "Screw Happiness." If there were ever a single-page statement of what this course is about, it's this 2005 Commencement Address by the late David Foster Wallace; and here's tribute to the talk, by Gustabo Leon. Race and Ethnicity: The Jefferson - Hemings Controvery. Why were Jefferson scholars so reluctant to admit to Thomas Jefferson's relationship with his slave Sally Hemings? Here's a series of 1998 editorials that discuss the controversy surrounding Jefferson and Sally Hemings: Annette Gordon-Reed (author of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings) on the "objectivity" of History and historians; William Safire on the contemporary political implications of "Sallygate"; Orlando Paterson on Race, History, and what to make of the whole shebang; Brent Staples, writing in 1999 that there's still no place at the Jefferson table for the Hemings clan. A set of Jefferson - Hemings Resources at Monticello-The Home of Thomas Jefferson, including the Minority Report disputing the DNA findings; and just when you thought it was all over, Brent Staples again in 2005 with "Lust Across the Color Line and the Rise of the Black Elite." A history of Literature and History that's a little bit, well, literary: Just the Facts, Ma'Am; Maureen Dowd looks at history in recent movies in, "The Oscar for Best Fabrication"; and more in, "Confronting the Fact of Fiction and the Fiction of Fact." A conversation about race? Here's what happened when they tried to have one on The Daily Show. When Are You White? Lise Funderburg takes to the streets and asks this question of friends, strangers, and celebrities; a blog devoted to explaining the Stuff White People Like; a link to an NPR program that explains Whiteness Studies; an interview with historian, Nell Painter about her book, The History of White People; and DNA testing shows students at Penn how complicated the concept of race can be. And, conversely, When Are You Black? Jason Plak examines the "One Drop Rule" in his blog in Psychology Today. Does the representation of race on TV have an effect on us? An article at Salon -- "Your brain on white people" -- says that neuroscience shows the media's overwhelming whiteness really is changing our minds. A comprehensive map of America, showing how racially segregated our cities and towns have become. It shows one color-coded-by-race dot per person, according to the 2010 Census. Test the Roots of Your Prejudice. You say you're not biased? Take this test -- called the Implicit Association Test -- developed by researchers at Yale University and the University of Washington. Researchers created the test in 1995 to expose hidden thoughts and feelings. It can reveal unconscious attitudes that could affect how you interact with people of a different race. Also, a link to the IAT Home Page, that includes links to tests on Age and Gender implicit preferences; and an annotated article about the test's findings by Charles M. Blow, "A Nation of Cowards?" Think you can't be racist just because you went to college? From Jezebel: "A Complete Guide to 'Hipster Racism.'" An article by Robert Jensen on how "White Privilege Shapes the U.S."; a similar piece by Peggy Macintosh, "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack"; and here's what Louis C. K. thinks about it; and, finally, here's how you can use white privilege as a force for good. Speaking of white privilege, here's Jon Caramanica talking about Big Brother 15. A 2009 ABC News/Washington Post Poll that shows what we agree on when it comes to race; and a review of Touré's book, Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness: What It Means To Be Black Now, including an interview where Touré explains the difference between post-blackness and post-racial. How's that again? What Jay Z and Rush Limbaugh have in common. A Project of the American Anthropological Association: RACE - Are We So Different? The project’s Web site presents quizzes, timelines and other interactive activities designed to consider questions on the history of race in America, human variation across the planet, and race as a “lived experience.” Both the project and the Web site underscore three key themes: How we define race has changed over time, and its very concept is of recent human invention and shaped by groups that hold power; Race is a cultural phenomenon that places people into groups according to arbitrary biological and cultural characteristics and does not accurately describe human variation; and Race and racism are embedded in our culture and shape our understanding of ourselves and those around us. It shows how racism is less overt than in the past, yet discrimination continues and racism holds sway over many of our daily choices. How Race Is Lived in America: The New York Times series that documents the experience of race in America at the beginningt of the twenty-first century: "Shared Prayers, Mixed Blessings" by Kevin Sack; "Best of Friends, Worlds Apart" by Mirta Ojito; "Which Man's Army" by Steven A. Holmes; "Who Gets to Tell a Black Story?" by Janny Scott; "A Limited Partnership" by Amy Harmon; "At a Slaughterhouse, Some Things Never Die" by Charlie LeDuff; "When to Campaign With Color" by Timothy Egan; "Reaping What Was Sown on the Old Plantation" by Ginger Thompson; "Growing Up, Growing Apart" by Tamar Lewin; "The Hurt Between the Lines" by Dana Canedy; "The Minority Quarterback" by Ira Berkow; "Guarding the Borders of the Hip-Hop Nation" by N.R. Kleinfield; "Why Harlem Drug Cops Don't Discuss Race" by Michael Winerip; "Bricks, Mortar, and Coalition Building" (about Houston) by Mireya Navarro; "Getting Under My Skin" by Don Terry; and "America, Seen Through the Filter of Race" -- a series of editorial statements by Patricia Williams, Jack Kemp, Linda Chavez, and others. Barack Obama's 2008 speech on race, "A More Perfect Union"; a July 2008 survey and story on "Racism and the Race"; an article that wonders, "Is Obama the End of Black Politics"; Michael Cohen asks the question, "What Does Obama Have in Common with Frederick Douglass?"; and from 2012, Ta-Nehisi Coates writes about "Fear of a Black President" in The Atlantic. What I.Q. doesn’t tell you about race: "None of the Above." "Tragedy in Black and White" -- How race played a role in Hurricane Katrina; an article on Race in America, 10 years after the OJ Trial; some staggering percentages on how different races see race in Tim Wise's "See No Evil'; and closer to home, "Welcome to the Neighborhood" -- a canceled reality show from Austin's own Circle C. Brent Staples again on "Census Categories That Don't Apply"; and Marcus Mabry explores "Where Whites Draw the Line." Moby,"Essay Two" from the liner notes of Everything Is Wrong. The same attack, quoting the same biblical passage, as Frederick Douglass in his "Appendix." Signifying Monkey, as sung by The Big Three Trio (with Wiilie Dixon; recorded on 3/11/47); a slighty racier version of a Signifyin' Monkey Poem, collected by Henry Louis Gates; and Rudy Ray Moore, better known as Dolemite, recites his own Signifyin(g) Monkey story. Little Eddie has a joke to tell -- Here's Eddie Murphy's own bit of Signifyin(g): Thanksgiving 1968, from the movie, Raw. Like Dolemite's story, this one has the monkey losing in the end. Kenneth Warren asks, contentiously, "Does African American Literature Exist?" An homage to T. S. Eliot: Crash Test Dummies sing "Afternoons and Coffeespoons" and a link to The Songs Inspired By Literature (SIBL) Project, Inc. -- described as "a creative nonprofit producing advocacy and educational materials exclusively for the literacy movement. We use music as a vehicle to engage, inspire and reinforce the magic of literature and the power of reading. We have launched an awareness and outreach campaign for one of this country's most critical, least discussed problems: adults who cannot read or write. Based in Northern California, we're made up of musicians, authors, teachers, and journalists. Our programs and projects inspire adults who need to improve their literacy skills, and attract volunteers and supporters on behalf of literacy providers, many of whom do not have the financial resources or expertise to launch such a massive public awareness campaign. Our partners include the California State Library, The Library of Congress and Friends of the Library USA. (see letters of support)." Leda and the Swan. A variety of classical representations of Leda and Zeus. A link to Salon Audio and to recordings of Langston Hughes reading and talking about his poetry, including "The Negro Speaks of Rivers." "Who Says a White Band Can't Play Rap?" by Joe Wood in The Village Voice (1991). Asks the questions: Is racial identity a matter of consumption in the 90s? Who gets to produce culture? Who gets to consume it? Who gets consumed? Was Elvis the King or just the King of Tacky? Listen as Little Richard battles Pat Boone (with a little Elvis thrown in for comparison) in 1956. Wood also asks the question: is Chuck D an American poet? You be the judge. The lyrics and a video clip for "Can't Truss It" (1991). Did somebody mention Eminem? "A Season in Hell" is one of the best articles I've seen on the white-hot wonder, and here's a late word on rap and whiteness and violence from Brent Staples. And while Snoop might like the Gourds' version of "Gin and Juice" (here), the former members of NWA are less happy about Dynamite Hack. And here's the granddaddy of all white-southern-rap fusions: Bubba Sparxxx and the video of "Ugly"; the Seattle-based mc Macklemore explores the conundrum of being a white rapper on "White Privilege." Finally, a picture of the Young Black Teenagers; "A Short History of Class Antagonism in the Black Community" by Brent Staples; a series of articles on Class Matters (New York Times, 2005); a set of readings and resources on Minority Studies at the Voice of the Shuttle; and resources on Race in the US, courtesy of The English Server (Carnegie Mellon); a piece by Staples entitled, "Decoding the Debate Over the Blackness of Barack Obama"; the Chicano answer to the King: El Vez; and the latest look at Elvis (and Chuck D) in "How Did Elvis Get Turned Into a Racist?" And here's how the 2013 VMA performance by Miley Cyrus perpetuates the idea that black culture can only be made palatable if it's performed by a white body. And here's the story of what happened when white rapper Macklemore (see above) won the 2014 Best Rap Album Grammy over Kendrick Lamar, Jay Z, and others; just for grins, compare it to when Chuck D (a great American poet?) and LL Cool J inducted The Beastie Boys into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012. Since the mid- to late-nineties, the art world has been claiming to be Post-Black, but the Barbie Doll Test shows that residual attitudes are hard to shake; same goes for A Girl Like Me. Race and Hollywood: Focusing on The Help, Nelson George looks at the ways American movies portray race relations during the struggle for civil rights; and here's Aibelene's side of the story. Border Crossings. An experiment in hypertextual relationships by Karla Tonella of the University of Iowa that explores the common ground between Cyborgs, Gender, LesBiGay, Dispora, La Frontera, Border Incidents and Other Borders. With His Pistol in His Hand. Some information about "The Corrido on the Border" from Manuel Peña and Américo Paredes; The Américo Paredes Center for Cultural Studies here at UT, as well as The Center for Mexican American Studies; more information on Gregorio Cortez; a link to a recording of the Corrido de "Gregorio Cortez" (by Maya y Cantu); a link to Elijah Wald's page about the latest stage of the corrido, the Narcocorrido. Much like the Gangsta Rap on which they're based, however, these songs have come under fire, as the San Antonio Express-News attests. Also from Elijah Wald, Corrido Watch, a page of current topical songs, currently featuring corridos of Sept. 11, Osama bin Laden, and the war in Iraq; finally, a copy of Jenni Rivera"s "La Chacalosa" with the lyrics; a feature called "The Corrido North of the Border"; and "El Corrido de los Jaguares" from Economedes High School in Edinburg, TX. A picture of Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales from "Imagenes Xicano," a historic collection of documentary photographs exploring political activism during the seventies from a Chicano perspective maintained by Jesús M. Mena Garza; and a two-part, short dramatization of I am Joaquin by playwright and director, Luis Valdez. Onda Latina - a collection of 206 digitally preserved audio programs including interviews, music, and informational programs related to the Mexican American community and their concerns from the radio series "The Mexican American Experience," which was part of the Longhorn Radio Network, 1976-1982. Sergio Troncoso, the son of Mexican immigrants, was born and grew up in the unincorporated neighborhood or colonia of Ysleta on the outskirts of El Paso, Texas. His parents built their adobe house, and the family lived with kerosene lamps and stoves and an outhouse in the backyard during their first years in Texas. His book, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays won the Bronze Award for Essays in ForeWord Review’s Book of the Year Awards, and Second Place for Best Biography in English in the International Latino Book Awards. Latino Literature brings together more than 100,000 pages pages of poetry, fiction, and over 450 plays written in English and Spanish by hundreds of Chicano, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and other Latino authors working in the United States. Among the gems of the collection are nearly 800 items (poems, novels, and plays) that have never been published before. Researchers will also find numerous Chicano folk tales and audio files of selected poems and plays. It contains over 133,465 pages. It turns out Pat Boone was an equal opportunity offender. Here's his version of "Speedy Gonzales" and an updated cover of Manolo Muñoz's version by the Kumbia All-Starz. Sex in the City meets House on Mango Street in the latest in Chicano literature: Chica Lit. Here's the "Chica Lit Canon"; The Latina Book Club, featuring The Dirty Girls Social Club, by Alysa Valdes-Rodriguez; and Mary Castillo's blog, Chica Lit. Huckleberry Finn, Realism, and Romance: Was Samuel Clemens the Trey Parker of the 19th Century? A copy of Mark Twain’s "Date 16o1. CONVERSATION, AS IT WAS BY THE SOCIAL FIRESIDE, IN THE TIME OF THE TUDORS" with slightly modernized spelling. Written during the same summer (1876) that Twain began Huck Finn, this rarely printed, x-rated piece makes you wonder why people get so upset about South Park; "Twain Quotes on Race," including one about a black law student that he sponsored; and information about the "Twins of Genius" tour that Twain took with George Washington Cable from the Mark Twain in his Times site at the University of Virginia; and the Mark Twain Project Online, a site that "applies innovative technology to more than four decades' worth of archival research by expert editors at the Mark Twain Project. It offers unfettered, intuitive access to reliable texts, accurate and exhaustive notes, and the most recently discovered letters and documents." Realism vs. Romance. Some definitions from the OED: realism, real, realistic, romance, and romantic (note: these links work only if you are on an ISP that subscribes to the UT library or the OED), and some definitions from Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary; an explanation of Romance (vs. the Novel) from Nathaniel Hawthorne and an explanation of the Real (vs. the Romantic) from Henry James; and then there's the whole James Frey debacle: "Can Oprah Change the Phoney-Memoir Culture?" Finally, what reality really means to the Bush administration; Plato's problem with Pop Culture; a blog formed in response to the Bush administration's comments called, "The Reality-Based Community"; and why the "laws of language [and metaphor] are hard to defy" from George Lakoff. Def Poet Julian Curry gives his take on using the n-word in all its variations. "Does One Word Change Huckleberry Finn?": A debate among critics in The New York Times; and the best commentary ever on the controversy from Larry Wilmore at The Daily Show. How hard is it to find a good man? The lyrics and a recording of "Nebraska" -- a song Bruce Springsteen wrote about Charlie Starkweather, who shot ten people on a killing spree with his girlfriend. Springsteen had been reading Flannery O'Connor when he wrote the song. And speaking of O'Connor, here's a link to The Catholic Encyclopedia to check out those words (like ACCIDENT) that you thought you knew the meaning of. Are you like the Grandmother (and everyone else) in "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"? Is your immortal soul in danger of eternal damnation? Here's how to make an Act of Perfect Contrition (as opposed to an act of attrition). The pictures from The Black Mask that illustrate the shift to a "Hard-boiled Masculinity." 2019: Off-World. A great collection of Blade Runner articles, information, and resources; two Blade Runner fan sites - BladeZone and BRmovie.com; the Media Resources Center, a site devoted to all aspects of Cinema and New Media and the primary link for resources from the UC Berkeley Film Studies Program; and a way to understand California politics through the "fear of Blade Runnerization." Modernism - Postmodernism: Pablo Picasso. An image of Picasso's "Demoiselles D'Avignon" (1907). Modern - Postmodern. Some illustrations to accompany Fredric Jameson's "Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism"; and A Picture Dictionary of Modern Architecture, where you see the most distinct differences between the Modern and the Postmodern. Unheard Voices. From a site called "Slashdot: News for Nerds. Stuff that matters" -- a link to Voices from the Hellmouth, a collection of e-mails from self-proclaimed "geeks, nerds, and oddballs" that give voice to the unheard part of the conversation surrounding the tragic events at Columbine HS and tell a disturbing story of the witch hunt that's developed as a result; "Our Violent Inner Landscape," a New York Times editorial by Gregory Gibson, that looks at the connections between Columbine, Rambo, and Richard III; Bob Herbert on Charles Whitman, Cho Seung-Hui, and the deadly combination of misogyny, homophobia, and guns; Mike White (School of Rock) wonders about what's involved in making violent movies in "Making a Killing"; a look at the recent trend of "women who kick ass" in "Everything a Man Can Do, Decapitation Included"; a look at Fight Club through the lens of Richard Slotkin's thesis of "regeneration through violence"; and a reaction to the women who tortured at Abu Ghraib by Judith Warner in "Escape from the Gender Ghetto." Todd May asks: "Is American Nonviolence Possible?" A special section from Vanity Fair- Cinema Tarantino: The Making of Pulp Fiction. Alternate Endings. Some different looks at Tarantino in "The Unbearable Lightness of Being Cool" at the Bright Lights Film Journal and a three-part interview with Quentin Tarantino by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. about Django Unchained, including an explanation of Tarantino's use of the n-word and an interrogation of whether he uses the n-word too much. Part One in a month long series in Slate that examines what it means to be Cool in 2013. Taking our idea of Art from Art, the web site, Everything Is a Remix shows how postmodern pastiche has come to dominate cultural production. At 7:04 of Part II, Kirby Ferguson, the series' creator, pays particular homage to Quentin Tarantino, with an extended version on Kill Bill at Vimeo. A look at how homophobic discourse structures masculinity (with a mention of fraternity life here at UT) in "'Dude, You're a F-g'"; the title says it all, "'Bad-Ass Dudes in Pulp Fiction: Homophobia and the Counterphobic Idealization of Women. Steven Pinker answers the question, "Why We Curse." Putting It All Together: Copies of an interview with and an article about Toni Morrison, a link to some essays on Sula from a site dedicated to Morrison, and the words, music, and history to "Shall We Gather at the River." La Familia. Art from Carmen Lomas Garza, a Kingsville, TX native who uses her childhood memories and experiences to create work which recalls the traditions and folklore of Tejano Families. Carmen's paintings and prints have the power to make us remember our own childhood as they express her pride in her Latino/a heritage. Also, a link to a bio page on Lomas Garza at her web site; and a "thematic, inquiry-based art education resource" called "Chicana and Chicano Space" (worth checking out), sponsored by the Hispanic Research Center at Arizona State University; finally, links to CMAS (the Center for Mexican American Studies) and LLILAS (The Teresa Lozano Long Institute for Latin American Studies) here at UT. Documents of 20th-Century Latin American and Latino Art at the International Center for the Arts of the Americas at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: The ICAA Documents of 20th-century Latin American and Latino Art digital archive provides access to primary sources and critical documents tracing the development of twentieth-century art in Latin America and among Latino populations in the United States. Recovered texts provide a much-needed intellectual foundation for the exhibition, collection, and interpretation of art produced along this cultural axis. Countries featured in the first phase of this multiyear project include Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Latino USA. The ICAA Digital Archive reflects the findings of this monumental digitization project and is now available, free of charge, to the research and teaching community as well as to the public at large. The uploading of documents to the archive is an ongoing process. Sandra Cisneros's page at Voices from the Gaps: Women Writers of Color (UofMinn); a feature article in Texas Monthly, called "The Purple Passion of Sandra Cisneros," that documents the troubles Cisneros has had with her (purple) house in San Antonio; an article about the controversy surrounding Cisneros' winning a MacArthur Foundation Award called "Genius Can Come in Many Colors." Lone Star meets the Searchers, Sam Deeds meets the Duke. It's not bad enough that Sam Deeds has to contend with the ghost of his father, Buddy, but as his gesture in the Jailhouse (scene 7) shows, he's got the ghost of John Wayne (in John Ford's, The Searchers - one of the most influential movies in American film history) to contend with as well. And, as we hear in a clip, the Duke was paying homage to his cowboy hero, Harry Carey, when he struck the pose; and "Borders and Boundaries: An Interview with John Sayles" (online at your Discussion Section Bb site), where Sayles talks about the influence of Américo Paredes and the Alamo on Lone Star.
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