CPE Class Notes December 5, 2014
Dear Homescholars,
Class Notes December 5, 2014
The class feed using our new system functioned beautifully. Snowing video through the interface was a little jerky but it worked.
Class Event Page on Google Plus
https://plus.google.com/events/cjso4m1bfgrigpidbiehuvjudp0
Youtube Page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY8HJiEnqgs
The playlist for our 2014-2015 classes is here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLExCxI6q5_Xnpxfr0yI8ATzOnU6SmkO2x
To learn more about the class, please visit: http://abacus-es.com/eie/advancedwriting.html, see the links and watch the video.
The playlist of 2013-2014 classes is also on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLExCxI6q5_XmwbFdBDNpSar91svWKDe9Y
Notes
We went through submitted Assignments.
Shakespeare
Although the class had not studied it due to miscommunications, we started our discussion of one of Shakespeare’s most delightful comedies, As You Like It and examined some of the brilliant parts. Please be prepared to recite your favorite parts next time. This play takes please largely in a forest an has been performed in forests to great effect. The video presented in our As You Like It page does a wonderful job.
Excerpts: DUKE SENIOR
1 Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,
2 Hath not old custom made this life more sweet
3 Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods
4 More free from peril than the envious court?
5 Here feel we but the penalty of Adam,
6 The seasons’ difference, as the icy fang
7 And churlish chiding of the winter’s wind,
8 Which, when it bites and blows upon my body,
9 Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say
10 ‘This is no flattery: these are counsellors
11 That feelingly persuade me what I am.’
12 Sweet are the uses of adversity,
13 Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
14 Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
15 And this our life exempt from public haunt
16 Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
17 Sermons in stones and good in every thing.I would not change it.
AMIENS
18 Happy is your grace,
19 That can translate the stubbornness of fortune
20 Into so quiet and so sweet a style.
DUKE SENIOR
136 Thou seest we are not all alone unhappy:
137 This wide and universal theatre
138 Presents more woeful pageants than the scene
139 Wherein we play in.
JAQUES
139 All the world’s a stage,
140 And all the men and women merely players:
141 They have their exits and their entrances;
142 And one man in his time plays many parts,
143 His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
144 Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
145 And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
146 And shining morning face, creeping like snail
147 Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
148 Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
149 Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
150 Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
151 Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
152 Seeking the bubble reputation
153 Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
154 In fair round belly with good capon lined,
155 With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
156 Full of wise saws and modern instances;
157 And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
158 Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
159 With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
160 His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
161 For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
162 Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
163 And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
164 That ends this strange eventful history,
165 Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
166 Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
Robert Conquest’s Limerick summary of Jacques’ speech:
first mewling and puking,Then very pissed off with your schooling,Then fawns and then fights,Then judging other chaps’ rights,Then sitting in slippers, then drooling.
Please bring your own favorites and comments.
Updated Assignments
Please continue to submit papers, poems, diatribes, ruminations.
Let’s read Chapter 8 in the text.
As You Like It. This is a delightful Shakespearean comedy set mostly in the Forest of Arden, Warwickshire. Please watch/read the whole play. The version presented is superb but feel free to watch others. There’s also an excellent version set in Japan that we can seek out.
The accents of Shakespeare’s day
Please watch this video on Shakespearean pronunciation by Ben Crystal.
Language immersion
Let’s continue with our ongoing projects:
Documentary by Jonathan Miller: Madness Note that some of this material is rather heavy. Please skip any parts.
Documentary by Stephen Fry: Planet Word
Older Assignments
Essay Study
Essays by David Berlinski, a remarkably eloquent and incisive American author. Let’s continue with The Advent of the Algorithm, The 300-Year Journey from an Idea to the Computer
Here are a few more to choose from:
| Where Physics and Politics Meet |
| A Scientific Scandal |
| What Brings a World into Being? |
| Was There a Big Bang? |
The Jonathan Miller documentary: The Body in Question and The Machine That Made Us, documentary on the Gutenberg press by Stephen Fry.
Rowan Atkinson on freedom of speech
David Berlinski lecture: The Devil’s Delusion
A really rather fascinating lecture. Listen to it specifically for the language.
Lower Priority Assignments
Terry Eagleton on the war on terror. Prof. Eagleton is one of the great speakers.
Robert Fisk on writing and journalism. Fisk is one of the most highly honored journalists in the world.