We wrapped up our discussion of the soul and radio broadcast today. Unfortunately, we ran out of time just before I blew your minds with insight into this thing we call “the sublime.” More tomorrow.

If you haven’t started reading Frankenstein yet, go ahead. As I said in class: we won’t have a reading schedule for this novel, but I’d like to be finished reading/discussing by September 6th ((the day after Labor Day weekend)). Read and journal for an hour or so tonight, then see how far you’ve made it. Adjust your reading schedule accordingly.

We’ll begin with #4 in your syllabus on Thursday of this week. As you journal, note any interesting sentences or passages you’d like to discuss with the class. Type up the section, send it to me in an email, and come to class ((We’ll sign up for this tomorrow.)) on your scheduled day prepared to discuss the quotation’s importance to the novel, connection to something we’ve been discussing, or general awesomeness ((Run this “awesomeness” by me before you present.)). We’ll come away from the discussions with some interesting quotations, a clearer connection between the book and other topics/works, and a better sense of presentation style. All good things.

You received your first graded article analyses today ((Unless you’re in fifth hour, in which case some of this post will refer to your future….)). I was glad to see some very strong writing samples–this will be a good year.

You may have noticed that there were no grades on them–only corrections and suggestions. I want to emphasize that nearly everything you do in this class is practice, so don’t hesitate to take a chance. I won’t hesitate to let you know when you rocked it.

We’ll discuss an excerpt from Jonathan Lethem’s “The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism” tomorrow, but feel free to click the link to read the whole article.

Over the past few days we’ve delved into a number of philosophical perspectives on identity. Your current assignment is to research one of the philosophers we’ve discussed, read a selection of his work, write a synopsis of your reading, and present your findings to the class. ((We are essentially crowd-sourcing our research for this paper.)) For your benefit, here’s a list of authors:

• René Descartes (1596-1650)
• Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)
• Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716)
• John Locke (1632-1704)
• George Berkeley (1685-1753)
• David Hume (1711-1776)
• Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832)
• William Blake (1757-1827)
• William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
• John Keats (1795-1821)
• Lord Byron (1788-1824)
• Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
• William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
• Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)
• Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
• Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)
• Karl Jaspers (1883-1969)
• José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955)
• Albert Camus (1913-1960)
• Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
• Erving Goffman (1922-1982)

We’ll sign up for presentation dates tomorrow with the first presentation the following day. If you’ve got your eye on an author, snag a reading (let me know if you have trouble), send me a link, synopsize it, and be ahead of the game for Thursday.

We began listening to an episode of the radio program To the Best of Our Knowledge on Friday. Entitled “Does the Soul Still Matter?,” it brings together scientists, philosophers, believers, poets, and skeptics to offer their opinions on the subject. You can listen here. ((We left off before Parker Palmer’s story (around the 23:00 mark), but you are free to keep going.)) Be sure to take notes, as we’ll continue our discussion Monday.

A few questions that came up as we listened:

• What happens after death?
• What does it mean to be human?
• Is moral freedom the essential test of a human being?
• Is there more to the mind than what is in the brain?
• How do I think about the soul?

It would be a good idea to revisit the notes you took during our listen and attempt to answer the questions you asked. If the answer takes some research, major bonus life points if you bring a copy and share with the class on Monday.

You can find the rest of the series here. If something catches your attention, you may use it for #1 in The Cycle ((check your syllabus))–just let me know before you begin synopsizing.

In case you’re looking/planning ahead, your final project during our study of the Romantic movement will be a researched paper addressing this question:

Why is Frankenstein considered a Romantic novel?

We will delve much deeper into the movement as we begin the novel, but rest assured: our soul/mind, religion/science discussion will be very relevant to your writing.

We began this year with a few poems as a review of your final projects as sophomores. If you would like to revisit them, you can find them here:

“We Wear the Mask” (1895-6) by Paul Lawrence Dunbar

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1917) by T. S. Eliot  (also check out the author reading it here)

“Not Waving but Drowning” (1957) by Stevie Smith

We’ll wrap up our discussion of “Love Song” tomorrow and begin our discussion of this story from To the Best of Our Knowledge.