“All this he saw, for one moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered.”
•Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
Writes Professor Jennifer Cole:
In the photo you see John Felix, retired Deputy Director of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Wetlands Regulations Division, in class with students Michaela Younger and Anthony Lambros.
Writes Professor Jennifer Cole:
In Eating and the Environment, we invested three hours touring our own Mass Art cafeteria— the front of the house, back of the house, and loading zone which includes the composting, recycling, and trash facilities. We gathered in a classroom and engaged with our panel of experts. Students asked great questions about sustainable dining. Preparers and end users (students) come to understand each other.
They came to see how we can work together to make dining at MassArt and beyond more sustainable and healthy.
In the rear of the cafeteria the plaque admonishes : ” Food Will Win The War. Don’t Waste It!” Washington D.C. 1918.
Above left: Ishtar, Queen of the Night. Relief. Iraq. 1800-1750 BC. Above right: Gilgamesh. Stoneware fired clay (40 cm x 30 cm). Neil Dalrymple c. 2000 AD
In Sumerian cuneiform from ancient Babylon (c. 2000 BC) comes Gilgamesh, the world’s oldest written narrative. Professor Albert Lafarge passes along questions and student answers for a Literary Traditions quiz on this story pitting life against death. Read the whole quiz here. Or try the first question below.
Question 1. How does Gilgamesh react when Ishtar comes on to him?
Student Answers: Ishtar asks for Gilgamesh’s hand in marriage (and sperm) .. Over the top! “You are the door through which the cold gets in” (Ferry, p. 30) … Gilgamesh says she manipulates men for their seed then they end up dead …Gilgamesh talks about how Ishtar has screwed over all her exes … She is not faithful to them and kills them, or dominates their destiny … [Gilgamesh says] she is “a flimsy door that keeps out neither wind nor draught” .. he continues to insult her .. instead of just saying no and moving on .. to me, this seems a little excessive .. could have been done with a simple no …Gilgamesh was unenthused and rejected her snarkily … [he] starts listing people she’s messed with and tells her he isn’t interested in getting his life ruined … This contradicts his previous and almost uncontrollable behaviors towards women and shows how truly powerful he is and can be. Ishtar is not pleased … she has been unacceptably controlling to past lovers and Gilgamesh asks why he should expect to have any better luck with her. This spewing of blatant truth shocks and angers Ishtar … He rips into her + calls her out on her poor past behaviors.
“Gilgamesh, where are you hurrying to? You will never find that life for which you are looking…” And did they sing the story of Gilgamesh…plunked on a lyre…when stars lit the sky like fireflies…four thousand ago? Listen here.
“Anglus Novus,” Paul Klee (1920). Oil Transfer and Watercolor on Paper
Writes Professor Richard Murphy:
When teaching first-year writing, I assume that students have been indoctrinated by family, religion, schooling, and pop culture, so I try to give them new language to see the world. Through various short readings I introduce what I call lenses for them to use to write about art.
Each of the four papers that students write on art has at least one lens to assist them in seeing differently and writing with a new perspective. For instance, when writing about Paul Klee’s “Angelus Novus,” I often have them read Walter Benjamin for his interpretation of the image. In addition, over the course of the semester I introduce them to what thinkers have written about the idea of struggle. I do this because their last paper assignment, a short research paper, will include the idea struggle, and I want them to include one of the concepts/definitions or struggle as a major focus of the paper. By the end of the semester they will have been introduced to struggle as Heidegger, Camus, Bauman, Benjamin, Nietzsche, and Zizek have understood it.
“Benny and Mary Ellen Andrews,” Alice Neel (1972)
What my focus on concepts as lenses produces in their writing has always surprised me and has kept me interested in student writing.
Below is an example of a student using the male and female gaze to interpret one of Alice Neel’s couch paintings. What strikes me about this thesis and outline of arguments is the promise it makes for the rest of the paper:
“By examining each character, it can be interpreted that Neel represents the quintessential male position – the one of apathy and laziness – in her 1972 painting “Benny and Mary Ellen Andrews.” Benny lounges and mopes, while his wife sits upright; apologetic.”
The student is separating this couple and coming to an understanding of each of the postures. And I couldn’t wait to read what the writer wrote about “apologetic.”
The second student example is from the research paper assignment. The writer uses Zygmunt Bauman’s idea (borrowed from Goethe) that life is one of days of struggle with here and there a sunny day, a sunny day from satisfaction in resolution of a struggle or a segment of one. When writing the research paper students are asked to include work of theirs from a foundation course or something they are doing outside of the classroom.
“After stepping back from my nearly finished drawing, however, I realized that I allowed my perfectionism to take over. I became far too fixated on the naturalistic representation of the drapery and lost any sense of gesture or movement. Although “life-like,” I created something that felt stiff and void of feeling.”
Later in the paper, the writer attempts a wonderful way to embrace a perceived fault.
“When you think about it, perfectionism implies a few admirable qualities in itself: hard work and perseverance. Ironically, one solution to my struggle could be using these admirable qualities in the right amounts, having a positive outlook and starting anew.”
I think of these two examples, of many I could have used, as the fruits of student labor, their struggles in first-year writing. It makes my work reading these papers rewarding while I am hopeful that they are learning to engage ideas with thinking and to develop perspectival habits in their lives and in their writing.