More Literature: Hell & Dante's Divine Comedy

Dante Alighieri was born in 1265 and died in 1321. He wrote the Divine Comedy, a poem that is one of the most famous ever written. It is difficult to go through high school and college without hearing about it.

Dante lived in Florence, Italy, a city that was one of the most powerful in the World. It was powerful in terms of money, political power, and wealthy families. Dante found himself in trouble with the powerful people of Florence and found himself driven out of the city that he loved. He wrote a poem about his feelings toward those responsible for making his life very difficult. He followed an idea first written by a Roman poet by the name of Virgil.

The setting takes place in the afterlife. He, as a mortal, is allowed to view what the afterlife is about. The most intriguing trip takes him to Hell, where he places many of the villains of history suffering outrageous punishments for all eternity. He also puts people who lived in Florence during his own time as sufferers in the Hell that he created.

Dante's Hell was shaped like a cone or a triangle. The highest part of Hell (and also the widest), is inhabited by the people whose sins are the least serious but still bad enough to put them into Hell. The bottom (or the narrowest point of the cone) is the closest to the Devil himself. Very few people inhabit this area. Their sins were the worst and they suffer the greatest torments. I have supplied you with the ninth circle, where the worst of the worst live out their torments closest to the Devil himself. I also included those who sinned against gluttony- those who eat too much and take too much from the world without giving anything back.

I want you, in three to four pages, to describe the suffering that takes place in each level and then tell why you think the ninth level is definitely the worst. I hope you enjoy Hell, and it may even keep you warm during these very cold days of MN winter.

Dante's Divine Comedy
Canto XI
Canto XXXIV



T.S. Eliot, The Wasteland

Passing of a most unique mother

Mrs. M.P. (Lorraine) Rinde

Lorraine M. Rinde, age 86, of Faribault, was born April 9, 1921 as a defiant three-pound preemie and continued her non-conformist life until she died Thursday, December 20, 2007 at the Infinia at Faribault Care Center following a brief illness. She was a diligent worker, politically incorrect, lover of books, purveyor of music, good mommy, spectator of all sports, Czech-heritage promoter, political activist, church worshipper, independent thinker, poor joke re-teller, obliging helpmate, wearer of color, avid stroller, freethinker, brimstone retorter, compassionate heart, contradictory responder, early riser, homespun philosopher, school savior, green-thumbed resuscitator, depression-raised saver, match maker, defiant general, friend maker, and an eccentric granny to many.
Lorraine Marie Vosejpka, the daughter of Benjamin and Frances (Novak) Vosejpka, was born on April 9, 1921 in Lonsdale, MN. She attended Catholic school in Lonsdale and graduated from Montgomery High School. She was married to Avery Fenne on November 20, 1941. They had a son, Terry. They were later divorced. On December 29, 1960, she was married to Martin P. Rinde on December 29, 1960 in Sioux Falls, SD. He preceded her in death on January 14, 1973. Lorraine worked for North American Life Insurance in Minneapolis, for Dr. L. B. Kucera in Lonsdale, as a bookkeeper at Webster Co-Op Dairy, for 15 years as operations clerk at Northern States Power in Faribault, and most currently a paper “girl” for the Faribault Daily News. She was a member of St. Lawrence CCW, was past Vice-President of the District One Hospital Auxiliary, 4-H leader, and was a very active member of the Faribault Area Senior Center. At the Senior Center she was the director of the SEMCAC Kitchen Band and leader of the senior exercise classes for many years.
She is survived by her son, Terry Fenne (and Elizabeth Lonetti) of Minneapolis; two step-daughters, Toni (and Harold) Amundson of Florida, and Karen (and Gerald) Flom of Prior Lake, MN; brother, Richard B. (and Lois) Vosejpka of Excelsior, MN; six grandchildren (Christine, Terry Jr., Gina, Aimee, Kendra, and Patrick); five great grandchildren; five step grandchildren; several step great grandchildren; and other relatives and friends.
She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, and former husband.
Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, December 26, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. at the Parker Kohl Funeral Home in Faribault. Interment will be at the Meadow Ridge Memorial Park in Faribault.
Visitation will be held on Wednesday from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the funeral home. Bring a good story and a kazoo.

Literature Requirements

I apologise for not writing for a week on this blog. Events have robbed me of the time that is needed to properly keep giving you what is needed.

The following is what will be needed to complete this semester in the area of literature. Read each piece and tell me what you think the author intended to deliver to the reader when it was written. A paragraph or two (at least eight sentences) should be devoted to the task. You can also point out some of the things that you found interesting or not when you read the poem. Talk about its rhyme (if there is) and the rhythym. Have this completed by the end of the first week that you come back from school. I would suggest that you start it now.

Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
Robert Frost, Design
Gary Soto, Oranges
Edgar Allen Poe, The Raven
Joy Harjo, The Woman Hanging From the Thirteenth Floor Window
Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool
Langston Hughes, Dream Boogie
Sharon Olds, The Death of Marilyn Monroe
John Updike, Dog's Death
James Thurber, The Girl and the Wolf

Sugar

Sugar. Name a million uses for sugar, or maybe just ten- I bet you could do twenty. Where does it come from? What is it put into? And why is it so valuable? What are its pluses and what are its minuses? Sugar.

And there it is. See you tomorrow at 10:00 with bells on.

December 4th Schedule

Tomorrow, December 4, we will talk about the movie we saw last Thursday. We could also talk about the snow, but unless you are a skiier, you probably aren't iterested. We will be looking at the movie in relationship to our work in Philosophy. Possible questions would include:

• does the end justify the means?
• do all people make bad choices some of the time?
  
• was everyone in the movie guilty of making at least one unethical choice?

Also, don't forget the Gilgamesh reading is due Tuesday as well!

It looks like more snow tomorrow; winter is here.

What are the Twins going to get for Santana?

Have a nice evening!

Terry

More philosophy & dusty old literature

Hello learners & Zach! (Zach is really a great learner, but I take him to be more of an arguer than a learner????? Everyone agree with me if you want a grade!)

Lily and Katy will be resting tomorrow and Zach, who has weasled out on two other occasions, will be presenting the newest segment of Larson's philosophy class via Inver Hills. My suggestion is that you all bring rotten fruit, slimy vegetables, and medium-large chunks of coal to throw at him if he is not prepared.

Below I am including some of the last sections of the philosophy notes that may or may not be part of Zach's "seance".

Six-point assertion deductive
1. Substance is the cause of itself & it exists eternally (because you can’t get something from nothing)
2. Everything that exists is self-caused or caused by something external to it
3. If more than one thing is self-caused it could have no relation to any other thing that is self-caused (rejects dualism- how can something nonphysical effect something physical?)
4. This substance has always existed and always will exist, everything is part of this one cosmic substance which is God
5. Since one substance can not be produced by another substance, there can be only one substance AKA there is only one reality, no dualism
6. Everything that occurs is the result of its cause, hence nothing is free AKA God is cause of everything – God is the only free agent

Pragmatism (American Philosophy)
• Pragmu = action: philosophy of action
• Three founders:
1. Charles Pierce (1839-1914)
a. At sixteen goes to Harvard- 4 year chemistry/math degree
b. Works as assistant in astronomy and taught a course “Philosophy of Science”- stressed your place in it
c. What is real is based on our values
2. William James (1842-1910)
a. Went to Harvard, met Charles Pierce, discovered he is really depressed
b. Majored in chemistry, then went to medical school, but was sent home due to bout of depression
c. Charles tells him to choose life – get medical degree
d. Reality, for James, is always in the making free choice
3. John Dewey
a. Revolutionized justice and educational system
b. Teach how to learn/ education should have functional value
• What defines pragmatism?
1. Pragmatism is humanistic- people at center of reality, not God. We are here to make life better, make the world better
2. Problem solving philosophy- can do, will do attitude, a certain amount of arrogance
3. Reality is not a singular, it is pluralistic and is in the making- think of different roles we play in our lives: mom, teacher, wife, friend, etc.; continually changing by us
4. There is no distinction between mind & matter (talk to dead and it affects your life). Only those beliefs and actions that yield a cash value are valued
5. Pragmatism is consequentialistic- consequences of actions matter
• Criticisms of Pragmatism
1. Something can not both be an not be at the same time
2. Pragmatism denies all order to the cosmos
3. Truth can change

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But I have something much more exciting! If you think this is exciting, you will love staring at a 85" x 368" white wall for the next three and a half years. It actually is a great story created many thousands of years ago by the Babylonians- you know, the Fertile Crescent guys who starting planting crops, herding animals, and conquering the world. It is a very unusual story about arks, floods, snakes, and the fountain of youth. How cool is all that? And, if you are bored with it, just remember, I cut the story waaaay back so that you only read the good parts. This will be due Tuesday, December 4th. All you have to do is read it (Tablets IX through XI), and we will discuss it- snakes and all. A copy will be handed out in class tomorrow.

You can find the complete text here (click on the next Tablet at the end of each section)



I was VERY impressed with all of you who were in class today. You did well in taking down the terminology and definitions. You asked intelligent questions and responded with brilliant answers. We will discuss the story Half a Day in detail right before Zach's theatrical presentation. We will also sail into the Chopin piece during the morning.


i GOING TO THE MOVIES! i
On Thursday we will be going to the movies at around noon. We will be seeing Gone Baby Gone, which is a celluloid philosophical quagmire. We should be able to use some of that philosophy you have all learned in order to examine how life deals us some strange moral dilemmas. More details will be unveiled tomorrow, so BE THERE!


The December calendar should be available, next Tuesday, the 4th. You can get it right here first if you really want it.

We will start reviewing the notes that you may be missing for the semester's finale. Remember, college is about paying money until you have none, and writing until your arm falls off. That's all for tonight.

Terry


p.s. I have no idea where JP is, but I can guess.

World Literature for 11.27.07

Tomorrow we will be looking at how we understand fiction. Fiction is a story that begins or originates in the imagination of the author rather than a set of facts that paint out history. Much of what we will be reading will be considered fiction even though it may use history as the beginning of the story.

We will be talking about the "plot" of a typical story. We will discuss the following terms in detail:

• conflict
• protaganist
• antagonist
• exposition
• crisis
• climax
• resolution
• deus ex machina
• in medias res
• flashback
• foreshadowing

We will be reading a story written by Kate Chopin (1851-1904). She was a writer who used Louisiana as the setting for many of her stories. The most famous were Bayou Folk and A Night in Arcadie. Chopin was one of the first feminists writing from that point of view. She created honest, sexually frank stories that surprised people who lived during that time. These stories were rediscovered in the 1960's and 70's. The story that you will be reading tomorrow will be entitled The Story of an Hour, written in 1894.

You can find The Story of an Hour here


The second story we will examine tomorrow is by Naguib Mahfouz. He was born in 1911 and I have no proof that he is dead, although he would have to be mighty old. He is one of the foremost writers of the modern Arabic world. He was born, raised, and lived most of his life in Egypt. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988. The story that we have here is entitled Half a Day, written originally in Arabic. We will talk about a parallel story written by an American author back in the early 1800's by the name of Washington Irving. Notes will be taken in class tomorrow about the literary terms that proceed these two stories. Everyone will take notes in our usual style, and will finish with a short essay describing a self-reaction to the two stories read. If you are not here tomorrow, you will have one week to create the intended material. The two stories are here online, and any good dictionary will give you definitions to the terms.

Read Half a Day here


*********************************************
REMINDERS (there are always reminders, and I usually forget to remind you of those things that you should remember- that's why we all get along so well):

• for those of you who work, you need to bring in a copy of your payroll stub- you need it for your work credit.
  
• for those of you who still haven't had your CLP signed by a parent, please have it done. We have given some of you five or even six forms that have somehow disappeared. Good luck!
• you need 75% attendance. Yep! You need to suffer at least 75% of the days that we are in session. Well, you could be back at traditional school five days a week. How does that grab you?

{p.s. You are cordially invited to include any comments about the prose and the independent study requirement. May CERTAIN that all of your comments are positive, thumb-suckingly clean, and will build you tall and magestic in the eyes of the teaching staff!!!}

Terry & JP

Reid threatens withdrawal of funding for Iraq war

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday that Democrats won't approve more money for the Iraq war this year unless President Bush agrees to begin bringing troops home.

By the end of the week, the House and Senate planned to vote on a $50 billion measure for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill would require Bush to initiate troop withdrawals immediately with the goal of ending combat by December 2008.

Read the full story here

11.12.07 ethics notes

• Aristotle was Plato’s student
• Myth tells role of reason: deep cave, men inside unable to speak, chained, face only back, can hear each other, can see shadows of outside shadow. Plato asked his brother what they would see as real- they answered the shadows, but no one escapes, very bright, person outside he wants to talk to, but talks to shadow- realizes that what is real is not shadow, tells others about reality but they don’t believe- AKA cave = ignorance and to get out is work
• Plato says reality is through reason, not just senses (do you “see” what I mean?)
• Cidos- to see with mind; to see reality with reason
• Must be something outside of “the truth” that makes it real
• Philosophy is an activity to get us out of the cave; search for reality