amimetobios

Brief considerations of the historical, political and personal background of "Upon Appleton House," and then the rest of the class on "The Unfortunate Lover."  Worst love poem ever written?  Or amazing and strange outlier.  Hint: the latter.  Some talk of vexillogy, in particular of heraldic blazons, for those who get excited by that sort of thing.

We start by viewing one of the film projects that a student did for his midterm: blinking eyes.  This will be more or less silent in the podcast, for a minute or two.  Then a discussion of blinking, partly Erwin Goffman style.  And then on to Vertigo, another movie about repetition: one's own; the world's; the other's.  Comparison to Groundhog Day and Source Code.  Opening considerations on Freudian repetition, as in Beyond the Pleasure Principle, via an account of the relation of pleasure to instinct or drive (the incentive that a drive aims at or the incentive to reduce unpleasure that drives the drive), and the the beginning of a discussion on repetition compulsion among shell-shocked veterans of the Great War.

First class on Marvell: Introduction mainly about what we (what I) don't know, but with some historical context.  (There's a new biography, which I haven't read, which apparently has lots of new information.)  Empsonian explanation of pastoral.  Eliot on minor vs major, good vs great poetry.  "The Mower Against Gardens," and being rich in hay.  Figuration in "The Garden."  A lot of this course is about the fascinating subtleties of figuration in our poets, and this is something we'll concentrate on in "The Garden," both this class and next.

Final class on Source Code and Groundhog Day.  Acting.  Repetition.  Subject and object.  Death and other minds.  Why Groundhog Day is a more radical movie than Source Code (in case you need to know).  Counterparts.  Would you transport yourself to another world where you'd switch places with your counterpart in order to be with the surviving counterpart of your dead love here?  Would that be enough?

Never got to "Love" (III).  We go through "The Forerunners" again and the relationship of the soul to language and expression in that poem, and Herbert's addresses to his own language; then on to "The Pulley" and the interplay of wealth and poverty there (as in "Redemption").

Herbert's view of poetic subject.  "Jordan" (I); "Easter Wings" and its prosody.  "The Flower," and a start to "The Forerunners."

The plausibility of Source Code.  Possible worlds in Lewis.  Truth-makers.  ("If a sentence is true, there's something that makes it true." --Donald Davidson)  Some vague, but licensed BS about quantum theory and the many worlds interpretation, and how that fits in with Source Code.  Differences between Source Code and Groundhog Day,

A class on repetition in Groundhog Day; a little bit of discussion of Kierkegaard and the idea that repetition is always a step behind.  How this plays out in the movie: what comes first before it's repeated.  How much is left to elision.  How philosophical issues in the movie overlap with technical and narrative demands of film making.  Groundhog Day compared to Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman, and to the Mr. Magoo version of A Christmas Carol.

His relation to his vocation as priest and as person.  His ministry.  Typology - prefiguration and correlative types.  Being an Aaron: "Aaron Dressing," "Denial," and "The Collar."