“Persons See Differently”: Aesthetic Education and Social Reconstruction

In her book And It Was Good, Madeleine L’Engle explains that when she goes to a museum, she is “not going just to look at an exhibition of painting or sculpture in order to be au courant with the latest cultural fashion; I am going in order to look for that reality which will help me to live my own life more fully, more courageously, more freely” (p. 45). In much the same way, this paper argues that aesthetics in education function as transformative encounters that invite students into realities capable of opening new possibilities for perceiving and inhabiting the world.

The First Email

The First Email

            The first email was sent in 1971 by Ray Tomlinson, a 30-year-old computer engineer. As Tomlinson studied “ways in which humans and computers could interact,” he wanted to find a way to send files between machines rather than just between different users on the same computer. In a room in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Tomlinson sent the first electronic mail message to himself. I imagine the moment unfolding like a movie scene—feverish and frantic, Tomlinson sitting on the edge of the precipice of a technological revolution. The air thick with the near-tangibility of a moment that could alter how humans communicate forever. Instead, the moment is remembered as uneventful and underwhelming. Tomlinson was unable to even recall the message of the first email. Tomlinson claimed it “perhaps said something along the lines of ‘QWERTYUIOP.’” The very first message of a culturally-redefining method of communication. And all we have is a “perhaps.” Maybe this shouldn’t trouble me as much as it does, but I figured Ray would have at least taken the chance to be silly or sentimental. A ceremonial “Here goes nothing!” could have sufficed. But instead, all we know is that Tim thinks he typed gibberish. 

Story as Truth: Course Plan

 Link to Course Plan Google Doc 

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” – Neil Gaiman

“Storytelling is more than just a tool. It is beyond any implement–almost a requirement of being alive. Insofar as it has anything to offer, it generates fresh depth and breadth of perception. It enables us to surmount a humdrum world where everything makes sense and is logical, and get to that realm where deeper meaning is revealed.” – Steve Denning

“Story conveys truth, and the truth conveyed by story goes beyond that of mere facts.” – Erika RS

            What makes a story true? Can something be true without being real? Especially as it pertains to storytelling, where do we draw the line between fact and fiction, truth and falsehood? Why does the phrase “based on a true story” at the beginning of a film mean so much to an audience? What does it really mean to believe in a story? 

In this course, we will explore how the fictional can be “true” beyond the matter of fact. This semester-long study of narrative truth will begin with Elizabeth Acevedo’s The Poet X to discover the power of verity through self-expression and personal identity. From there, we will begin to blur the lines between fact and fiction with Helena Maria Viramontes and Tim O’Brien’s short stories, as the worlds of magical realism and metafiction guide us on a search for “Truths with a capital T.” As a poignantly culminating blend of personal truth and collective truth, Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close will urge us to uncover both the role of narration and memory in truth-telling and the utility of storytelling as a means of memorialization. These works of verse poetry, postmodern metafiction, and collage bildungsroman will afford us an expansive view of what it really means for fictional stories to be constructed in the pursuit of Truth. Throughout the semester, students will create their own works of poetry, short story, and pastiche collage. Students will also have the opportunity to participate in peer-review workshops and literary analysis seminars/discussions.   

As a famous tweet reads: “Haha, what a wicked and ironic comment bro. Now try saying something true and beautiful.” Amidst Gen-Z’s disaffected and disillusioned digital age, this course will challenge students not only to seek those sublime glimmers of eternal truth in the texts, but also to create “something true and beautiful” out of their own stories. 

Primary Texts: 

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo, novel-in-verse

“The Moths” by Helena Maria Viramontes, short story 

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, novel/collection of short stories 

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, pastiche novel 

Potential Texts for Further Exploration: 

Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje, (fictionalized) memoir 

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, novel 

Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, novella

Lord of the Flies by William Golding, novel;       

Night by Elie Wiesel, memoir  

The Life of Pi by Yann Martel, novel/film       

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahir, novel 

Beneath the Roses: A Supernatural Thriller Adventure?

 19 July 2024

Beneath the Roses: Cinematic Photo Study

        In a captivating photograph from Gregory Crewdson’s Beneath the Roses (2003-5), the cinematic image depicts an average suburban scene with a striking irregularity – a beam of light, shining down like a spotlight from the sky down on a lonesome person. Upon even a cursory glance at this vivid image, the viewer can quickly imagine the narrative that might unfold within the world of the still. Perhaps a UFO is hovering slightly above the frame, readying to snatch the person from the ground and whisk him or her to an alien planet. Maybe the person finds themselves within a dystopian society, and a secret government agency has finally located the last person needed to aid in the fulfillment of their revolutionary mission. To me, it seems that the person standing in the light beam is about to embark on the adventure of the supernatural thriller variety. Clearly, if one were to contextualize this still within the narrative of a film, the imagined story easily takes the characteristics of a surrealistic style. The unconventional visual structure and details, the dreamlike imagery, and the psychological depth all point toward a film style of surrealism. 

Coming-Of-Age in the Comic-Book Aesthetic

Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse: Coming-Of-Age in the Comic-Book Aesthetic

        When examining the technical and formal elements of a live-action film, there is commonly an awareness that the best one can do is simply guess at the auteur’s intentions. Though the aesthetic impact is surely felt by the audience regardless of whether it was intended by the director, the “am I just reading too much into this?” question still lingers, haunting all of the poignant observations and didactic metaphors we interpret in the film. However, the experience of watching an animated film is largely free from that nagging question. Every movement, every frame, and every editing choice of an animated film feels intentional, loaded with an awareness of how meticulously each shot was created. In Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the auteurs’ purpose of bringing a comic-book to life translates easily across the screen in the new visual language tailor-made for the film’s narrative. The formal elements of the film work together to create the aesthetic experience of a bildungsroman story. Given the superhero-genre of the film, you might guess that this is certainly no ordinary coming-of-age story; however, in many ways, it is. In the “Leap of Faith” scene, the culmination of Miles Morales’ bildungsroman serves as the perfect example of this aesthetic experience.  

Freedom as the Chance to Hope for Something Bigger in Native Son

As a nation, America was built upon the idealized tenet of freedom. Freedom could be defined as the chance to do something; it is the ideal on which the pursuit of every other American ideal is predicated. In his essay “Of Our Spiritual Strivings,” W.E.B. Du Bois posits that there is a veil separating the African American experience from true freedom, as a debilitating sense of self-doubt results from the measuring of one’s selfhood through the eyes of others. As the tragic protagonist of Richard Wright’s novel Native Son, Bigger Thomas personifies this plight. Bigger Thomas stands markedly outside of the American ideal of freedom. 

Stepping Into the Glimmering Effect of Oz

Stepping Into the Glimmering Effect of Oz

With a film like The Wizard of Oz, of which nearly every sequence has become part of the iconography of American popular culture, it can be difficult to locate a singularly affective scene. This past week, I rewatched the film sitting next to my grandmother, who very well could have been sitting next to me the first time I watched it 20 years ago. Although we try our best to be quiet, respectful movie-watching companions, there was one scene that made me mutter aloud to her, “It is so beautiful. How did they film this?” and then promptly scour online bookstores for MGM production tell-alls. The scene that elicited such a response from me was none other than Dorothy’s entrance into Oz. As Dorothy literally steps into Technicolor, we are invited to journey with her into a world unknown.