Paper 4 Topic Update

Paper 4 on Toni Morrison’s A Mercy & its Political Fictions

Set in the American colonies (Virginia) in the 1680s, it tells of an Anglo-Dutch trader, Jacob Vaark,  who gathers around him no fewer than four traumatized girls.

First he buys Lina, a Native American survivor of a smallpox epidemic, to help manage his household.

Then, after negotiating another “sale,” he marries Rebekkah, a 16-year-old English girl whose parents always treated her with “glazed indifference.”

Then he takes in a young orphan called Sorrow.

Finally he accepts, as payment for a debt, a slave girl called Florens.

Jacob Vaark dies of with smallpox and Rebekkah is then ill, too, Florens is sent on a journey to find a free black man who did iron work for Jacob on his estate.  It is believed that the free black man has shamanistic powers that will cure Rebekkah, if he can be found and sent to them in time.

The novel is organized into loose “chapters” (although not marked or labeled) and each one is in a character’s voice re-telling an episode in their lives.

As an essential theme, Morrison has said, the novel explores various kinds of human enslavement and wants to present a portrait of slavery in America that pre-dates the pre-occupation with the narrative about African slavery.

Paper 4 Assignment

You will choose ONE character or chapter, the one most interesting and fascinating to you, for a discussion on the following:

Describe the living conditions, the rootless-ness and the social place of the character you have selected.  Identify important elements that show why and how these conditions exist.  Explain the political fictions that dominate their lives – real or imagined, explicit and implicit – and the impact on these human lives to overcome any barriers at all.

Consider these scenes:

You are not limited to these scenes but are strongly encouraged to select one of them for the paper.

• Jacob visits the Portuguese merchant and notices the rich home and reluctantly accepts Florens as payment for a debt.
• After Jacob becomes sick, the four women must face threats from outside the farm.  Their will to face these threats puts them in very real danger.
• On the journey to find the free black man, Florens is taken in for the night by a white villager and her daughter.  She encounters powerful images of hatred and humanity.
• Scully and Willard live in a foggy non-existence without any family, property, aspiration or attachments.  They are friends to each other.  Their survival is unlikely in the face of bondage, scarcity, deprivation and ignorance.
• Rebekkah's voyage from England to Virginia is complicated and also revealing in the ways people faced enslavement and bondage.  Her humanity is salvaged first by her cabin-mates on the ship and then by her good fortune in being "sold" to Jacob.
  

You will bring to class on Thursday, November 19, TWO typed copies of the draft of this paper for peer review (warm/cool feedback) and the basis for our class discussion.

Class Change for Thursday, Nov 12

Click on the flyer below to make it larger:

This Thursday, November 12 we will NOT MEET at the classroom.

Instead, we have a special opportunity to meet photographer Sue Kwon at Clic Gallery - which is an easy 5-minute walk from 1 Pace Plaza to 424 Broome Street


Here for Google Map link! 

Here is the plan:

Meet at 5:30 at the gallery for those who can come early / leave early.

Sue will greet us, introduce the photos on exhibit, answer questions.

Wayne will be there from 5:30-6:30 to see that everyone who can attend the show will have me there to greet them.

Sue is a wonderful photographer and is happy to meet you!


Here to see images by Sue Kwon 

Why are we doing this?

Sue takes photos of New York City - the streets are filled with all kinds of fictions!  I contacted the gallery and asked if our class could visit when she is there for a book signing.  They agreed to meet us first at 5:30 and then the general public is welcome.  So, even if you cannot come early, you can make it on time (plan your change in travel accordingly!) and meet Sue.

We also get the opportunity to have an "insider" tour with a gallery owner, the photographer and gallery manager - something I don't think we get to do every week!

How does this change our class syllabus?

In class we would have handed in final for Paper 3.
Take another week for that paper.
In class we would have written a first response to Toni Morrison's novel A Mercy.
I will post the writing prompt this weekend and you will bring a draft of Paper 4 and ready to discuss the completed novel for Thursday, November 19.

What if I can't attend the gallery show?

Email me in advance that you will not be coming.  Simply not showing up and not hearing from you is unacceptable.  Not attending the gallery show and not meeting Sue does not adversely affect your grade, however, I do need to hear from you if you choose not to come.

I strongly urge all of you to join me - I look forward to sharing the visit with you.  Let's look forward to an evening outside the classroom, an opportunity to meet Sue Kwon and to have a different kind of conversation - one that includes photography.

Sammy Sosa "comfortable in his own skin"?

Reports are coming out this week about baseball player Sammy Sosa who appeared over the weekend at a Las Vegas event with significantly LIGHTER skin,

Here for msnbc video on the story

Here for Chicago Tribune story

Man strikes gold!

Man strikes gold (click here for link )

Farmer told metal detector dude "don't bother" (click here )

Antony sings cover of Beyonce's "Crazy in Love" (click here )

AIDS Experts Say Russia Needs New HIV Strategy (click here )

New Yorkers and their texting & sexting!  (click here )

Moustafa Bayoumi's book reviewed in Oprah's magazine (click here )

My blog on the creative arts in NYC and things to do (click here)

New York Times op-ed piece on texting and sexting culture (click here)

Berlin Wall memories - I was there before the fall of the wall 21 years ago - more on CNN (click here )

Anything else we covered and want a link?

Class Update for November 5 (Class 6)

Bring to class:
Moustafa Bayoumi text "How Does it Feel to Be A Problem?"
TWO COPIES of Paper 3 on Bayoumi text
FINAL DRAFT for a grade on Paper 2 (Angels)

Our class agenda:
Peer editing activity (warm/cool feedback) on Paper 3
Class discussion on Bayoumi text continues

Please come prepared with the following:

 On page 9, Bayoumi writes:

“Brooklyn is the concentrated, unedited, twenty – first century answer to who we , as Americans , are as a people."

• What does the story of each of the individuals in the first three chapters contribute to Bayoumi’s argument about racism and the Arab and Muslim community of the United States?
  
• What are the problems of what “we, as Americans, are as a people”?
  
• What do you propose as a solution to the problem or problems?

On page 214, Bayoumi writes:

“To my ears these young men were living uneasily in an unresolved contradiction."

•  Define “unresolved contradiction”
  
•  How does the idea relate to the individuals introduced in the last three chapters of the text?
  
• Cite text for support
  
•  How do you think they can resolve this "unresolved contradiction"?

Looking ahead to Class on November 12:

Bring Toni Morrison's novel A Mercy

In-class writing for Paper 4 on A Mercy

Bring Final draft for a grade of Paper 3 (Bayoumi)

Update on Paper 3 on Bayoumi Text

On October 22, we responded to the following In-Class Writing prompt:

 

        If you're Muslim or Arab American, you are in the news every day. Since 9/11, these two groups appear daily represented as Al Qaeda, Taliban, terrorists or sometimes in derogatory terms such as "towelhead" and "immigrant."

       Much like those of Japanese descent in the 1940s faced discrimination and slurs, now America has undertaken a new kind of conditioning of our national attitudes. This is a powerful and convincing political fiction that drives all activities and the related attitudes.

       How are Americans being conditioned to think, fundamentally, about FELLOW Americans and how does this impact the experience of Arab and Muslim Americans?
       Draw on your reading of Moustafa Bayoumi's How Does It Feel To Be A Problem? to identify examples of this new American conditioning, explain how this conditioning is happening and a specific experience from one or more of those interviewed in the book.

 

Your next draft for Paper 3 will include the writing you completed in class and developed further:

• Identify and develop reasons (all carefully explained in the text) why any of the seven portrait subjects faces a negative experience as fellow Americans (this is the conditioning from the larger American society)
• Idenitfy THREE of the portraits and their experiences to illustrate your ideas about the impact of conditioning
• Be sure to explain how this conditioning is happening:  the sources, the purveyors, the supporters, the actions and attitudes that get spread outward into American society

For advanced students (you know who you are):  Frame the entire paper in terms of how the treatment of Muslims and Arab Americans in America today is itself a "political fiction" (with real consequences). 

 

Reminders:
No class on October 29.
DUE ON NOVEMBER 5:  Final draft of Paper 2 (Angels) and TWO COPIES of draft of Paper 3.

 

Thank you to those students who come prepared for class.  When a student attends class having read the assigned pages, is ready to hand in TWO copies of the draft of the paper, and makes the effort to be really engaged in our discussion, it makes it a more menaingful class for everyone.

Film in this week's class features a Sikh family

SHEDDING LIGHT ON SIKHISM 

Sikhism originated in India in 1469. Although Sikhs are a minority in largely Hindu India, the country elected its first Sikh Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. J.J. Singh, the Indian Army Chief, also is a Sikh.


Sikhs believe in absolute equality for all people without regard to gender, race, caste or religion. They believe in one God common to all. They do not believe in war based on religion, proselytism or fasting. 


Men wear turbans to cover long, uncut hair. It is a mandatory part of the Sikh faith and not a social custom. It is not a hat and should never be removed in public.

Due to the turbans Sikhs wear and the relative scarcity of Sikhs, there have been incidents of mistaking Sikhs in Western countries for Middle Eastern men and/or Muslims. This has negatively affected Sikhs living in the west especially with respect to the 9/11 terrorist attack and recent Iraq War conflict.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, some people associated Sikhs with terrorists or members of the Taliban. A few days after the attack Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh man, was gunned down by Frank Roque, who thought that the victim had ties to Al-Qaeda.

CNN suggests that there has been an increase in hate-crimes against Sikh men in the United States and the UK.