Directions: For this Forum, you must post an original statement between 150-300 words before 23:59 Sunday night. You may 1) respond to a prompt made by the professor below, or 2) respond to a post made previously by a classmate, or 3) come up with your own original topic (so long as it deals with one of the readings assigned for this week). Please make clear by title/author/page number, which part of which text you discuss. Responses to these questions don’t have “right” and “wrong,” provided you make a good faith effort to deal with the readings. In fact, each of the prompts I have composed asks in one way or another for you to link some experience from your own life with something from the readings. So, definitely no right and wrong there. If you prefer to start your own thread here are some suggestions.
PROMPT 1 From any three different readings this week, pick out a single sentence that you think would make an excellent passage to quote if an essay question asked about the connection between art and culture war. For each passage you select, a) explain the immediate context in the source material; b) explain why you like the passage or how it clarified your understanding of the topic it discussed. [This exercise also builds the skill of identifying strong quotes for exams. Now the value of a passage clearly depends on the wording of the prompt; however, we are not working from any specific prompt at the moment. Thus, you should hone the skill of identifying sentences that either a) summarize a main idea, or b) illustrate a main idea in a compelling way.
PROMPT 2 Two of this week’s readings dealt with religious faith. Identify a passage from Trend and one from Hartman that either contradict each other, or that offer different spins on the same issue, or that absolutely reinforce each other because the authors reached similar conclusions.
PROMPT 3 Two of the readings that discussed the controversy about The Perfect Moment did so in the 1990s, when the incident was still recent (Meyer and Hunter). Two other sources mentioned discussed the controversy from a more reflective position, long after the heat of the moment had subsided (the article from Smithsonian magazine, and Barrie himself in the assigned video from 2015). Pick one of these two approaches. A) Identify some aspect of that event that was discussed or remembered differently in the recent two as compared to the discussion of the same issue in the earlier two. Or, B) Identify some aspect of that event that was discussed in very similar terms despite the passage of 25+ years.
PROMPT 4 You are invited to initiate your own discussion by selecting a portion of an assigned text to comment on that wasn’t addressed in the prompts above. This discussion may include asking questions about what an author meant, disputing their conclusions, or explaining what their ideas mean to you on a personal level.
