If you want to get a jump on the weekend reading, head to Jonathan Lethem’s article at Harper’s.com. We’ll discuss it Monday, pulling from The Pirate’s Dilemma and your own experiences in writing/creating art/stealing music/plagiarism.

P.S. Be sure to check out his "Works Cited" at the bottom.

I’ve had a few questions regarding this phase of the project. To clarify, there are two goals I want to achieve and two parameters I wish you to follow.

Goals:

• Achieve an understanding what your archetype is, on an essential level (which you should be discovering as you find your 50 examples)
• Represent that essence visually using an original image of the medium of your choice (from photography to Photoshop or ink to paint; it doesn’t matter).

Parameters of project:

• Must include the image described above
• Must incorporate (either through text or smaller images) the fifty examples you have found.

If you create your project on the computer, do not worry about printing it. Simply email the file to me, burn it to a disk, stick it on a flash drive, or upload it to MediaFire or another hosting service.

If you create your project by hand, it may be letter-sized.

Email any questions.

To the individual journeying into the underbelly of the world’s stories:

How is the search coming? I have been unable to consume anything without coming across various incarnations of the Trickster or Damsel; I found myself watching an odd mixture of Princess, Anti-hero, and Warrior yesterday (rhymes with Muffy the Mampire Slayer). They seem to be everywhere.

They’re even in my dreams.

I wonder if you haven’t found yourself in a similar situation? If so, perhaps writing them down, getting them out of your head would be the best course of action. They can’t surround you if they’re trapped on the page—right?

We should meet tomorrow and trade advice. Perhaps there is some essential understanding we can gain from one another. I have around 25 on my page so far, but they just keep coming. I keep my list in the freezer; it’s safer that way.

To tell you the truth, I’m a bit apprehensive of Thursday. You and your co-conspirators will be parading your archetypes for all to see, all drawn up and…listy.  There should be hundreds all together.

Best of luck in your search,

Stallings

P.S. Keep in touch.

JS

Dearest Students:

There comes a time in every unit when the reading schedule must be updated. Now is just such a time. I know it can be frustrating (if you put off a concert to discover Pearl’s true nature) or relieving (if you didn’t), but it must be done.  Therefore:

Monday—Review of essays and "Chapter VI: "Pearl," discussion of "Chapter VIII: The Elf Child and the Minister"

Tuesday—Discussion of "The Leech" and "The Leech and His Patient"

Wednesday—Discussion of "The Interior of a Heart" and "The Minister’s Vigil"

Thursday—Discussion of "Another View of Hester" and "Hester and the Physician"

Friday—Essay. (In the interest of not giving anything away, I’ll explain the prompt at the appropriate moment. Just know it will be argumentative [not an analysis] and will focus on the ethical treatment of a few characters.)

With warmest regards and best wishes,

JS

You guys are doing great. The handout I gave you today is not meant to get you thinking about the paper, but rather how to continue your search. Online is a great start, but you might think about dropping by Barnes and Noble or Gardner’s. Take a peek around the mythology section (or the children’s section) and see what you dig up. Share your sources!

As always, email me with questions or comments.