The copies of Ovid’s Metamorphoses are available at the Barnes & Noble at 41st under my name or the name of the school. You should read (and journal) through section two by Monday.

As you read, try to parse down the most essential elements of the stories (as we did today with Phaethon’s story), and record any connections you come up with between them and other works.

Hope you’re all enjoying your break.  I came across this book in B&N yesterday.  Thought you might want to check it out.

Lynda Barry’s What It Is

Hope you’re all enjoying your break.  I came across this book in B&N yesterday.  Thought you might want to check it out.

Lynda Barry’s What It Is

Scientists claim to have discovered, using mitochondrial DNA, a link between 95 percent of Native Americans and six women that lived around 20,000 years ago.  NPR Story

Remember the ballroom dancing documentary?  Bronx students learn Irish jigs (with video!): The Gothamist

There has been a mild uproar in the media over Fred Armisen (a white/Asian actor) playing Obama on SNL.  Is this an important discussion?  Newsweek Story

Mastadon skeleton for sale: $115,000.  Reuters Story

So, how’s the reading going? We will begin discussing the first eight chapters of Wilde’s novel (The Picture of Dorian Gray, remember?) on Monday. If you did your reading at the beginning of the break, it would be a good idea to skim over it so it’s fresh in your mind.
As you read (or re-read), refer to Wilde’s aphorisms from the preface. How do these aphorisms apply to the characters, specifically Dorian, Lord Henry, and Basil Hallward? And what’s the deal with Dorian’s reaction to Miss Vane’s death/suicide?
Wilde’s final pithy statement in the prologue:

We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as hedoes not admire it. The only excuse for making a uselessthing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless

My question, in the form of a quotation:

What-a is it good for?
-Edwin Starr