Uli Jon & Cee-Lo & Roland Barthes & Judas Coyne

Last Friday, it was this:

You can read it.

& that guitar--the "Sky Guitar," he calls it--is simply awesome.

He played w/ The Scorpions in the '70s & then unleashed his Jimi/neo-classical stylings threafter.

Yep, he did.

Great guitarist.

Key tracks: "War of the Winds," Transfiguration," "The Heart of Chopin," & "Sky Overture."

Today it was this:


You can read that 1, too.

We won't get into the difference between "Forget You" & the other version, except to sat I am interested in the controversy around the Grammy nomination. Last I remember was The Black-Eyed Peas song "Let's Get It Started," which also came to be w/ a different title.

I am no fan of censorship--part & parcel to being an "English teacher"--but I can understand this one completely. Really, really catchy song.

Juniors:
Does the author matter?

Well, it probably all hinges on the way in which you choose to think about that question.

Barthes says "no," but I say "sometimes."

& I think many of you agree w/ me.

& in our discussions, which included Christopher Nolan & Rob Zombie from the movies; Snooki, Hillary Duff, Joe Hill, John Edgar Wideman, Tim O'Brien, & many others from literature (well, at least "fiction"); & even Salvador Dali in at least 1 class, we all saw the differences between our preconceptions of "author" & mayhaps the reality therein.

In How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas C. Foster states that

Long story short, Barthes wants us all to think about the work, not just the author.

I love the final line: "the birth of the reader must come at the cost of the death of the author."

See, that empowers you to do what you want to do w/ this reading, this writing, this project.

I know some of you are a tad "scared" now, wanting me to tell you what to do.

Think of this as your 1st college paper: you are choosing the topic; I am giving you the advice & the tools--& the 1 serious prepositional phrase "w/ a literary slant," but you will read, write, think, & learn in about as close to  guided independent study as we can get.

Those of you who have spoken, w/ me--great stuff thus far.

Those of you who haven't--well, you're probably not reading this anyway, but, I implore you to take control of your education (at least as much control as we can offer).

Sophomores:
We discussed the character in the book I just read, Heart-Shaped Box, by Joe Hill, in order to provide an example of character analysis. Many of you chose to do the OR assignment--1/2 of which we did in class last Friday, & the other 1/2 which you could have finished in class today.

Note: his name is "Judas Coyne." Think about it.

Note 2: he re-named himself. Think about it.

Note 3: he re-names his girlfriends by their birth states. Think about that.

What we get: he wants to distance himself from his past (hence the name-change); he wants to shock people (hence the "Judas" & to another extent the "Coyne); he wants to keep distance form his "girlfriends" (hence the lack of using their names).

A pretty good paragraph can be written about this guy just from the info above, & a really good 1 w/ more info added in, oh, let's sya the 50 pages you should be reading each week.

It's time to choose to succeed.

More grammar tomorrow, vocab Thursday, OR Friday, good times all around.

be cool