[the] ENGLISH-BLOG [.com]

Hello Everyone,

This month there has been a lot of discussion about the concept of "truth." Do you recall the film Dekalog 8 by Krzystof Kieślowski? It had everything to do with telling "the truth," remember? So did the documentary Strongwoman. Several of you, I might add, expressed that you did not believe Justyna's testimony (which seemed to horrify Maria Z. who, in fact, did!)

In our last exercise we looked at Henry Adams's (1838-1948) admonition to learn as the prime directive. In other words, the ability to learn or the process of learning, above all, is the most important thing of all since it gives a person "enough" to get by in life. If we take this statement for granted, are we then to assume that we should be learning "truthful" things? Would Adams sound nearly as clever if he told us to go out and fill our heads with "untruths"? It seems important, then, if we are to learn let it not be wasted on lies and propaganda (useless data) but on knowledge that we somehow know to be true . . .

Photograph: 'Der Danzig Danse Macabre IV' © 2006 Lee Hobbs

“They know enough who know how to learn.” ~ Henry Adams (1838-1918)

Adams seems to have it all sorted out. How about you? Can you concur with this bit of pragmatic philosophy or is there more to know than this?

I originally gave my students a choice between . . .

Dear Convention-Defying Instructors,

When hurtful stereotypes and ignorant prejudices collide, a major accident is bound to ensue. Mao once said, "without destruction there can be no construction." I interpret this to mean that in order to construct (or re-construct), a positive deconstruction is sometimes necessary first . Crash is layered enough to do that and much more. If you have a class of top-level English students that seem open to receiving pop-cultural topics for writing and discussion subject-matter, you might have some success with this piece.

The film itself is a full two hours long and it took two complete class periods to show this film in its entirety to my class. Should you decide to screen this film, your students should be forewarned: It's certainly violent, graphic and has something to offend almost everyone. But, at the same time, some really important social issues are first toyed with and then brought to the surface. The narrative results in an amazing chain-reaction of hatred, prejudice and bigotry. Does hate fuel the uninformed and misguided opinions or do uninformed and misguided opinions inform the hate? In the third class period, I conducted a . . .

"I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land." - Mark Twain, A Pen Warmed Up in Hell.

Strong words indeed from such an overly-identified and stereotypical "American" fantasy writer.

Hello friends,

I just finished reading an article by Andrew Osobka on the topic of Cultural Imperialism . . .

Metro, Techno or Retro? Just what kind of Hetero are you anyway?