#mpcdiscussion

In lieu of a discussion question you'll be turning in an annotated poem from your Williams' packet. Check the Poetic Terms page on the blog (which you are also reviewing for homework) to identify these devices in your poem. Your annotations should also include some of the points we discussed during our in-class conversation on annotations. Most importantly, include some points where Williams' career and poems intersect. 

Bring these points with you to class and enjoy what the MPC has to offer on the wonderful world of William Carlos Williams! 

We're doing something a little different this week, which will prepare you for the difference of Gertrude Stein. In lieu of a discussion question you should write a response to a Gertrude Stein poem from your packet and post the response on your student tumblr. Here are more detailed instructions:

Read the work from your Gertrude Stein Packet. You will notice how very different these poems are from any we have read. They don't make "sense."  Stein was not interested in making sense. She was not interested in writing poems that explored human situations and emotions. She was interesting in language stripped of its conventional meaning. She wanted to use language the way the painters of her time (Picasso, Braque) were experimenting with new ways to paint. Look at the cubist paintings on the MPC.  She used words to create sound not image.

Read them aloud. Listen to her reading. 

Find your way in to a poem or poems. Read a poem and watch how it gets under your skin. Post your response to reading Gertrude Stein on your student tumblr. Say something particular, rather than "I didn't get it. or I didn't like it...." Find something from another part of your brain. Maybe you like reading a certain line out loud, and the more you read it the more you come to understand something about it. 

 After the interviewer asks Stein to explain her “Van or Twenty Years After. A Second Portrait of Carl Van Vechten” (1923), she proceeds to chide him for trying to “understand” the verse with the same kind of brilliant indignation with which Flannery O’Connor once scolded an English teacher for letting interpretation rob reading of joy.

First of all, I want to extend my apology to you all. I had a few tech issues on my side that kept me from being able to post this discussion question on our agreed upon time. In the meantime it's my hope that you've enjoyed taking in all the content Dickinson has to offer here on the MPC.  As the week continues, I'll be adding more to help you further grasp what her world was like. I think the Voices and Visions documentary lays a great foundation. So let's dig a bit into the content there: 

What kind of America did Emily Dickinson inhabit? What kind of town and community was she a part of?  What was her role a woman, what was expected of her, as opposed to what she did. In contract, what was expected of men at the time? 

Hey Everyone! 

Hey Everyone.

So glad that so many of you have already gotten the hang of Tumblr and are responding to the discussion questions with relative ease. Please be prepared to share a bit about your posting experience in class on Tuesday. The discussion for Whitman is now closed.

You've done a great job answering the questions so far. You've all brought some very interesting points together about the type of America Whitman believed in and the way in which this changing environment, shaped his voice and his work. Metamorphosis, identity, and individuality were themes you all mentioned and attributed to Whitman's work. The last question is in two parts: 

First, how did these themes manifest themselves not only in the subject matter of Whitman's work but also in the form itself, where did they come from ? 

Secondly, how was this work received by the America of his time, as opposed to now? Where in time do you think this shift took place? 

Note:

Our conversation will end tonight (Sunday, Feb.2.2014) at midnight; as a reminder, anyone who has not participated in this discussion on Whitman will not be given credit for this assignment after tonight at midnight. 

Those of you who have answered discussion question one, and discussion question two do not have to answer the questions above. These questions are for the remaining class members who have not answered any discussion questions. However, if you're burning with Whitman fire and want to answer feel free. 

Greetings Everyone! Great job to those who’ve already answered question one! Stick around and see if you have any input as the discussion blossoms. For those who haven’t answered the question yet, never fret! The conversation is just getting started and you can answer the following question:

As stated, we have a new nation experiencing rapid change. Also, a constant barrage of battle after battle, war after war. We are not just fighting together for expansion and land against it’s native peoples (to one day be Americans themselves), but also against each other. The issue if slavery, and economy lead us into the civil war. As an American durning this time period, I imagine change was thick in the air. How did this constant metamorphosis of the America Whitman lived in contribute to his voice? And how did this impact the intention his first work, Leaves of Grass ?