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K. ZimolzakCORE 112, S. 63554Spring 2014January 24: Long Day’s Journey Into NightHousekeeping: Don’t forget the blog & Dropbox!Analytical blog Observational blog.Both film screenings will be in this room,THH 119, at 5 p.m. on January 20 (BlackSwan) and March 27 (Fight Club).Assignments 1-3 will be due by 10 a.m. onthe given dates (January 31, February 14,March 7).Points to Discuss:So. Much. Drinking. Becca: Five bottles ofwhiskey between (mostly) three people in thecourse of twelve hours. Morphine: Why is Mary the subject inEdmund’s lines, but Tyrone is of his own?Why is Tyrone’s a question and Edmund’s aredeclarative? Why do the Tyrones generallyavoid the word while not at all avoiding thesubject of suspecting Mary? Why are thesethe two characters who do say it? Anna “decided to explore a little bit and lookat how and what O’Neill had to face,understand, and forgive in order to completethe play” — the beasts of history? What are the repercussions of shovingproblems under the rug? O’Neill“Cloak[s] the Tyrone home in a shroud ofmystery.” KaylaChristine: Where does the journey go?Carrie: What would a novel version looklike? Where’s the creative license for adirector (also an observation Andrewmade)?Ameet: Lousy home lousy family?Ly: author research — Balzac & good/evil characters; Zola & bad families;Stendhal & irony/psychology;Schopenhauer ascetic atheist; Nietzsche& “god is dead;” communist & anarchistauthors. Generally social critics.Andrew: what’s the obsession withfatness? Fat healthy?

K. ZimolzakCORE 112, S. 63554Spring 2014January 27: Long Day’s Journey Into NightJanuary 27: Devices / Motifs Hands: Becca & KaylaBaudelaire: “Pour n'être pas les esclavesmartyrisés du Temps, enivrez-vous;enivrez-vous sans cesse!” (Kayla; “literaryname-dropping,” Nim)Does the title suggest each day’sprogression towards something?Francesca: Cards—luck skill winning?Where does the fault lie? Is addiction achoice?Jack: Meta-theatre speculations – “I’venever felt at home in the theater” (104)! Who “owns” the space?Ryan: Stage directions vs. poetics of other(roughly) contemporary playwrightsThemes Andrew: Fog vs. Drugs – which is the true escape from reality? Ameet: “The power of [sincere] love [is] a theme I feel is lost within the play.” Ly: Family—you’re doing it wrong?External References Carrie: “ I take the key in my hand and it opens up the day / I take the key in my handand it takes the pain away / But if I had love I’d throw it all away.” — Mary? Rhythmicsong, repetition, female vs. male voices. “I wish she hadn’t led me to hope this time.” (Anna) – The Lion King’s “Circle of Life”? Ben: Jamie vis-à-vis Pop-Eye: “I yam what I yam” [n.b. does he eat Açai Bowls withspinach added?] Hepburn’s performance: yea or nay?Housekeeping / ImportantMatters of Time January 30, THH 119, at5 p.m. – Black Swan January 31, 10 a.m. –Assignment One due viaDropbox personal folders February 2, 8 p.m. –Blog due on Black,Butler, or Mulvey

K. ZimolzakCORE 112, S. 63554Spring 2014February 3: Black Swan, Laura Mulvey, and Reading FilmDiscussion Points Becca: Nina’s black swan destroysbeauty could we call it “venereal”?Mirrors (Kayla, Carrie, & Nim): reflection,identity, ideal vs. real, doppelgangersgaze vs. look? female desires? (Kate)Mommy Issues (Nim & Francesca) Shelooks at her mom just before she jumps!Christine: Suicide (or not)?Fails to fail? (Ryan)“The only person standing in your way isyou. You need to let her go. Loseyourself.” Ly (Nina’s out to get Nina)Francesca: Should we blame ballet?Aretha Franklin vs. Carol King (Ben)Sound effects (Carrie)Andrew: Bathroom motif Swan Lake as a representation of “purewomanhood” (Anna) The unhealthy/disciplined body: scratching,purging, nail file & scissors, goosebumps,“moving sweaty pieces” Ryan: the performer in the flesh “What is often reflected for Nina is notreality, but her disturbing and conflictedview of it.” Andrew “When Nina thinks she notices herself inanother person, she's worried that heridentity is being compromised.” Carrie Ameet: Vice vs. Virtue (drugs set her free) Lily – (Francesca & Jack) performance oflesbianism & catering to the lesbian gaze “The spectral/apparitional lesbian”

K. ZimolzakCORE 112, S. 63554Spring 2014February 10: Theories of Sexuality / Sweet BirdPoints to Discuss Kim Cattrall: posturing, foreplay, and loneliness(Becca) Paul Newman: posturing, foreply, andheteronormativity? Adaptations: Why do we change Williams’ men?Castration anxiety (Kayla, Katie) Easter Sunday // Time and its Passage (Nim, Kayla,Andrew) Can we fight time’s progress? Why are theytrying to? Aging vs. “losing youth”: losing life’s purpose(Christine): “the moment when they no longer have areason to get out of bed,” gives a new perspective toself-destruction; are we meant to pity these characters,or do they become stereotypes of poor mental health? The fake, plastic, inconsistent world (Ameet)He used to do surgery / For girls in the eighties / But gravity always wins She looks like the real thing / She tastes like the real thing / My fake plastic love“The old have no human value” (!really?) Love is everything to Chance –physical or emotional? (Andrew,Ameet) Ly: Spectators vs. performers (inlove, life, etc.) – metatheatricalimplications for actors: “Does ithurt less if we lie to ourselvesthan if we confronted the realityand the pain?” The cinematic close-up (Jack) –“How successful are [the film andthe play] in expressing that idea?”(i.e. women as valuable commodities because of their ability to be viewed.)Naming: Heavenly, Fly, St. Cloud, Chance – does it dehumanize the characters and makethem too much like archetypes, or are they being set up to undercut their stereotypes?(Francesca)The Secret Word is youth. Carrie: soap opera material – would a fully depressing endingbe more satisfying? Why are they all so superficial and selfish? Housekeeping Bring two 3-4 page drafts to tutorials; A2 DUE on February 14 by 10 a.m.NO CLASS February 17th – read The Virgin Suicides during your week off

K. ZimolzakCORE 112, S. 63554Spring 2014February 24: The Virgin Suicides from Various LensesBlog Word Choices: infuriating, disgusting superficial, stereotypical ridiculous, pitiful,romanticizes suicide irreverent, off-putting,jarring, disturbing “made me want to throwthe book across the room”Narrative Voice & Eroticism Knowing the end changeshow we read & react to thenarrators; who present a“tone of depression rather than tragedy” (Andrew) “The men whose lives have been forever changed by their fierce, awkward obsession withfive doomed sisters” (Carrie) – uh, so what poor guys? “Weirdly erotic” way of describing Cecelia; Lisbon girls are a single entity? Privileged Boredom & Creepy Narrators: scopophilic (Kate & Nim)o “Provide a fairly objective viewpoint in regards to the novel.” (Nim) “A male gazey book [in which] the narrator and the reader derive pleasure out of invadingthe private space of these young women.” (Kate) “Recollection of memories” is the limited narrative voice. (Kayla) Men whose bodies can “warp into a drive to destruction.” (Becca) Very darkly ironic & comical? (Ryan) Two-faced approach: on (not) caring about our neighbors – denial of real social problem (Ly) “Not necessarily condoning the beliefs that are suggested by his subject matter.” (Ryan) “Preoccupations of young boys dog them [as] issues such as addiction and divorce.” (Becca)Mental Health’s Superficial Treatment Engages with notions of mental illness &problematic portrayals of women withoutcritiquing such behavior. (Kate) The men “have essentially no idea what is goingon in the sisters' heads and by default, we havethe same limited access.” (Kayla) Might the narrators also be depressed? “I choose to believe that the sickening feelingleft in your stomach is one that was verypurposefully generated by the author.” (Ryan) “It’s dangerous in how it misrepresents andidealizes suicide” & “Navigating the landscapeof mental illness is difficult” (Jack, Carrie) “Obviously, doctor, you’ve never been athirteen-year-old-girl” (Ameet, Carrie)

K. ZimolzakCORE 112, S. 63554Spring 2014Criticism: Critical Race Studies Overwhelming white-maleness inthe narrators’ p.o.v. (Jack) –“Repeated use of racial icons toexoticize and mythologize whitecharacters isn’t something youshould be doing, especially in a workthat is already painfully white andunquestioning of its characters’ lessthan-subtle racism.” Threat of “invisible minorities.” Jack: “I get that this whole book is about mythologizing and exoticizing people, but really?”– Eastern Europe, the Scary Turkish Sodomite, etc.Criticism: Ecocrit Time magazine photo essays “Detroit’s Beautiful, Horrible Decline” (Yves Marchand &Romain Meffre) and “The Remains of Detroit” (Sean Hemmerle) “Ruins are the visiblesymbols and landmarks ofour societies and theirchanges . the volatile resultof the change of eras and thefall of empires. This fragilityleads us to watch them onevery last time: to bedismayed, or to admire, itmakes us wonder about thepermanence of things.” Marchand & Meffre Fences & trees (Nim) “Apathy of middle-classsuburbia” & “bourgeoisieboredom” lets people “rotaway their lives” in a “lostparadise” (Ly)Criticism: Narrative Structuralism Lisbon Sisters: the Myth vs. the Reality (Francesca) Becca “fell far too easily into the trap of ‘uncomplicated, objectifying distance’ that Shoshtakmentions.” – selfish egocentrism of the boys, what this says about the reader’s complicity “Many criticize the boys for their lack of involvement, but whenever they are involved thingsseem to go horribly wrong” & the post hoc fallacy of causation (Andrew) The narrators are “so sure that it's a sex thing, and what little shreds of unbiased, un-narratedevidence we get show that it's so not.” (Christine) – n.b. the capacity for unbiased evidence Virgin, whore, baby-maker – misogyny (Christine, Kate) Ryan: why the “we”? “What [is it] about this voice that inspires a moral qualm?”