School

[David Morris]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1U7B48GDi0

A webcast lecture on the work of 20th century novelists Franz Kafka
and Jorge Louis Borges. This is the first ten minutes. For the whole
lecture go to http://www.winchesterjournalism.co.uk/kafka.html

On Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 9:07 AM, Keith Davis <kbob42 at gmail.com> wrote:
> A musician friend, a drummer, turned me on to Borges many years ago. Why do
> you appreciate him? Probably for the same reasons; line construction,
> world-creation, general weirdness and originality. Then there is the
> non-fiction, displaying the wide-range of his thinking on different
> subjects, but again, coming back to the beauty of expression.
>
> Cheers.
>
> On Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 2:22 AM, Alex Colter <recoignishon at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> A-and, Keith, do tell us your thoughts on Borges. He is one of my
>> favorites, though I have only been able to access him through Andrew
>> Hurley's translation... sad I know... and I grew up so close to the Border,
>> too...
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 1:20 AM, Alex Colter <recoignishon at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Having graduated about five years ago I cannot say I learned anything
>>> from High School... maybe a thing or two about girls that I promptly
>>> forgot... mostly I taught myself how to read...
>>> how to keep my dogeared copy of Gravity's Rainbow from the (un)watchful
>>> eyes of the teacher...
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 1:08 AM, Brian Kempf <btkempf at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Having just graduated high school I may have a different perspective on
>>>> this, but here's my two bits...
>>>>
>>>> When having writing assignments, we were given a rubric. We were
>>>> expected to include all aspects of the rubric in our paper to get the most
>>>> points. From my memory, around 90% of possible points on most papers were
>>>> about substance. How well did your paragraphs support your thesis statement?
>>>> How many sources did you use? Many of my peers would hit high marks in these
>>>> categories. Style (syntax, grammar, spelling), however, made up only about
>>>> 5-10% of the possible amount of points. Occasionally my friends and I would
>>>> proofread each other's papers. They would hit all of major items they need
>>>> to cover and much more, but sentences would be run-on's, "then" and "than"
>>>> were used interchangeably, and how the message was being communicated - as
>>>> opposed to *what* the message was that was being communicated - was
>>>> neglected.
>>>>
>>>> In my high school experience (and I would be interested in hearing other
>>>> perspectives on this), we are not taught how to write. We are taught about
>>>> having supporting paragraphs, vocabulary, similes and metaphors, etc. but
>>>> not how to combine these elements into making good writing. That being said,
>>>> I thought that my HS's English department was outstanding and inspired me to
>>>> take English as a major in college. But for those who don't care about the
>>>> subject, they only learn how to follow directions to get from point A to
>>>> point B. But that is only half of the battle. As the cliche goes, "it's the
>>>> journey, not the destination". This applies to writing, where what you say
>>>> is equally, if not more important than how you say it.
>>>>
>>>> As an anecdote, when my mom went back to college to take classes in
>>>> early childhood education, she was shocked that her professor had to
>>>> specifically tell students that "texting language in papers" was not
>>>> allowed.
>>>>
>>>> B.K.
>>>>
>>>> On Aug 9, 2012, at 11:08 PM, Keith Davis <kbob42 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Tomorrow is the final day of summer session at Furman, where I teach
>>>> Jazz Piano.
>>>> This summer I've been teaching Intro to Jazz, my first time teaching a
>>>> class other than a workshop
>>>> or Taiji class. It has been very gratifying, until time to read the
>>>> research papers. These kids
>>>> obviously did the research, but the writing, for the most part, is
>>>> horrible. I found myself correcting
>>>> grammar and syntax, until deciding that was not my job in this course.
>>>>
>>>> I'm obviously no Mr. P, but these kids, for the most part, don't even
>>>> know how to write proper sentences
>>>> or separate thoughts into paragraphs. It is a real eye-opener, and not
>>>> in a good way.
>>>>
>>>> Anyway, I'll be finishing M & D tonight, and then treating myself to
>>>> some Borges, so, onward...
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> www.innergroovemusic.com
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> www.innergroovemusic.com