Random thought

Don't you think Murder in the Cathedral would make such a good band name?

Holiday trips

Hi,

I've got certain ideas for a IP3 Lit field trip during the early December holidays, when you're done with project work and all the other obligations that you poor students have to fulfill and us poor teachers have to grade. Things like 1) a visit to Kranji memorial/Changi area for a WWI poetry reading session, since we're going to be reading Owen, 2) a visit to St. Andrews' Cathedral, where we will try to imagine Beckett being killed, and 3) some of us putting up an actual performance of at least PART II of Murder in the Cathedral, complete with Te Deum somewhere in the school amphitheatre as the sun sets, to be followed by some cheese-munching and bourgeois food-tasting, the likes.

Tell me if you would like to go for the ideas, or if I'm being too idealistic. : )

The Promos

Here's a reminder on the promo paper:

1) ESSAY ON MURDER
choice of 2 questions

2) ESSAY ON GREAT EX
Choice of essay and context

3) PC on 20th century poetry
Since you are H2s, you should link your reading of the poem to 20th century concerns

It's a 3-hour paper.

Make-up Lecture slot booked/ The Beckett Project

Hi guys,

I've booked LT AVA for lecture onthe 2/9/06. It starts at 8 am and it should end by 12 pm.

There's an alternative to coming back on Saturday, and that is, coming back on a Friday 1/9. The library's open then.

Meanwhile, check out The Beckett Project

"Like faintly recalled dream fragments, the images are subjective... spellbinding... presented with style and fire. They insinuate themselves into the viewer's mind and heart - L.A. Times

Critically acclaimed in Los Angeles, the UK, Ireland and Austria, The Beckett Project makes its Asian debut this August with performances of four plays by renowned Irish playwright Samuel Beckett.

Joining award-winning American actress Patricia Boyette and the third cohort of TTRP's graduating actor-students take on the difficult task of performing this diverse set of late plays by Samuel Beckett.

The Beckett Project showcases graduating actor-students in Play and Footfalls (in mandarin with english subtitles), and Patricia in her award-winning performances of Rockaby and Not I. These tightly-orchestrated plays offer moments that are in turn haunting, evocative, and humorous. Given their precision, all offer a tremendous challenge for the actor.

Performed to mark the Beckett Centenary, The Beckett Project is a unique opportunity to experience the range and diversity of plays authored by the Nobel prize-winning Beckett in one evening - another milestone for local theatre.

Beckett's work has garnered much criticism and debate. Some have viewed him as a pessimist, while others think his work captures our common human condition. Come decide for yourself!

(120mins, with staggered intermissions)
Performed in English
Footfalls in Mandarin with English subtitles

Modern texts for context

Hi all,

here's a link to some e-texts of prominent literary works or essays that encapsulate (i.e. "Hollow Men" by T.S. Eliot) Modern writing, or have had some influence on the shaping of ideas during this modern period (i.e. "Origins of the Species" by Charles Darwin).

Some notable things to read from the site:

- Origins of the Species (read the original!)
- John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism, The Subjection of Women,
- Charles Baudelaire
- Henry Ford "My Life and My Work" (an example of a life according to utilitarian principles)
-Einstein-Freud correspondance
- Futurist Manifestoes (look at how the Futurists embraced technology)
- (for aesthetics) Igor Stravinsky's writings on his music
- Lewis Mumford's "What is a city?"
- the lit in section 3