Secession & Succession
Portfolio II
October 28th, 2010
Due Thursday, November 4th, 2010
Overview: In chapter three of The Curious Researcher, Ballenger provides a compelling argument for the many advantages of what he refers to as “writing in the middle.” In support of his case, he discusses the important skills of summary and paraphrase, particularly as these assist in the appropriation of texts and ideas. As he does in every section of his book, he includes exercises to assist his reader. Please draw heavily from these as you complete the following:
Part I.
Directions: Revisit Christine Rosen’s essay “Virtual Friendship and the New Narcissism” on pages 134-143 of The Curious Researcher, and craft a two to five paragraph summary of her argument. Follow this with a brief response of two or four paragraphs, summarizing your own response to her essay as it relates to your own “take” on the topic at hand.
Part II.
Please carefully read and think about the following excerpts, then craft a one or two paragraphsummary of each:
“To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds will separate between him and what he touches. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. Seen in the streets of cities, how great they are! If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.”
“Nature” – R.W. Emerson
“I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone let him be where he will. Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows.”
“Solitude,” from Walden – H.D. Thoreau
Part III.
Please carefully read and think about the following excerpts, then craft a one paragraph paraphrase of each:
“We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.”
“Where I lived, and What I lived for,” from Walden – H.D. Thoreau
”I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to "glorify God and enjoy him forever."
“Where I lived, and What I lived for,”from Walden – H.D. Thoreau
“Any prospect of awakening or coming to life to a dead man makes indifferent all times and places. The place where that may occur is always the same, and indescribably pleasant to all our senses. For the most part we allow only outlying and transient circumstances to make our occasions. They are, in fact, the cause of our distraction. Nearest to all things is that power which fashions their being. Next to us the grandest laws are continually being executed. Next to us is not the workman whom we have hired, with whom we love so well to talk, but the workman whose work we are.”
“Solitude,”from Walden – H.D. Thoreau
Part IV.
Imagine that you are tasked by the university newspaper to provide a brief overview of Victor Erice’s film El Sol del Membrillo (The Sun of the Quince). In order to give your readers a taste of what they might expect to encounter upon first viewing the film, please provide a one page summary of the first ten minute segment of ESDM. As you know, this can be found on You Tube.
PS. The artist “documented” throughout the film is Antonio Lopez Garcia
Extra Credit:
“I'm in Tomelloso, in front of the house where I was born. On the other side of the square there are some trees that never grew there. In the distance, I recognize the dark leaves and golden fruits of the quince trees. I see myself among those trees, together with my parents, accompanied by other people whose features I don't manage to recognize. The murmur of our voices reaches me, as we chat peaceably. Our feet are sunken into the muddy ground. Around us, suspended from their branches, the wrinkled fruits hang ever softer. Big blotches make inroads upon their skin, and in the still air I notice the fermentation of their flesh. From the place where I observe the scene, I cannot know if the others see what I see. Nobody seems to notice that all of the quinces are rotting beneath a light that I don't know how to describe: bright, and at the same time somber, which turns everything into metal and ash. It isn't the light of night, nor is it that of twilight, nor that of dawn."
An account by Antonio Lopez in the "Painter's Dream" sequence of The Quince Tree Sun
(Clip 13 on You Tube)
The quote above appears near the end of Erice’s film, but it is hard to tell if it constitutes a summary of all that has come before. Up to this point of our discussion of the film, we have not gone into much detail regarding the relationship between this dream sequence and the “subject” of the film. However, it is still possible for you to speculate about what the director is up to in his inclusion of this dream sequence in his presentation of the artist’s method and motivation. Please write a paragraph or two “talking back” to the film maker about your reaction to this sequence as it hit you upon first viewing. Please see page 116 of the Ballenger text for guidance here.