Week 20: Cold War, Episodes 6 and 7

 Please watch Cold War, Episodes 6 and 7

Cold War Documentary Series

Week 20: A Supermarket in California

A Supermarket in California
BY ALLEN GINSBERG

What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for I walked down the sidestreets under the trees with a headache self-conscious looking at the full moon.
         In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images, I went into the neon fruit supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations!
         What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes!—and you, Garcia Lorca, what were you doing down by the watermelons?

         I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber, poking among the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery boys.
         I heard you asking questions of each: Who killed the pork chops? What price bananas? Are you my Angel?
         I wandered in and out of the brilliant stacks of cans following you, and followed in my imagination by the store detective.
         We strode down the open corridors together in our solitary fancy tasting artichokes, possessing every frozen delicacy, and never passing the cashier.

         Where are we going, Walt Whitman? The doors close in an hour. Which way does your beard point tonight?
         (I touch your book and dream of our odyssey in the supermarket and feel absurd.)
         Will we walk all night through solitary streets? The trees add shade to shade, lights out in the houses, we'll both be lonely.
         Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love past blue automobiles in driveways, home to our silent cottage?
         Ah, dear father, graybeard, lonely old courage-teacher, what America did you have when Charon quit poling his ferry and you got out on a smoking bank and stood watching the boat disappear on the black waters of Lethe?


Berkeley, 1955

Week 20: Listening Examples

Musical Example

Sorry, this piece no longer complies with Youtube policy. Here is a link to a wikipedia example. 

The Horst Wessel Lied

Week 19: Cold War

We are now starting a series of documentaries about the Cold War. These will be available in the links. 

Cold War Documentary Series

Week 19: Strangers on a Train

Week 19: La Mer

Week 19: No Other Love

Week 18: Listening Examples

Simone Weil's The Need for Roots

Simone Weil's (pronounced See-mone Vay) The Need For Roots (Please read Part 1, The Needs of the Soul pp. 1-38) 

Simone Weil wrote The Need for Roots as a memo to help guide the reconstruction of Europe after the defeat of Hitler.  At the heart of her ideas about establishing a good society is the concept of the golden mean, or that virtue can be found via the negotiation between extremes. In lieu of an essay, please bring three discussion provoking questions that analyze the text, try to parse out some essential idea from the reading, or which place these ideas into the larger context of the class. 

Week 17: Listening Examples

Week 17: Debate Tasks

Hi Seniors,

Here are things to have prepared this week as a group

1. Please edit the motion on the google doc. Debate Doc
2. Please bring a list of your sources.
3. An outline of your argument and its supporting points: Let's simplify this a bit, instead I would like you to choose your subtopics on the google doc [same link as above]
4. At least twenty quotations: let's aim for 10 quotations per cohort.
5. Two to three anecdotes that could help bring your argument to life.