Link to Documentary

Here is the link to the 2 part Frontline documentary The United States of Secrets. If you miss a day this week make sure to make it up by viewing it independently.

Test: Pick one of the following. Due by Wednesday May 20

A. Watch the PBS presentation of the film 1971 this week (it is currently streaming) and answer the following questions from PBS Talkback:

As we’ve become more technologically advanced and dependent, is it worth the potential trade-off in privacy? And if you felt your privacy was being exposed, what lengths would you go to fight it?

Minimum Length 300 words. 

or

B. The Reauthorization of Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act is scheduled to be voted this week. Write an email to our representatives with your approval or opposition to Section 215. You may forward or print out a copy of the sent email. 

Find your house representative here.

Contact our senate representatives here.

1984 Part One

Link to 1984 Summary

We started reading the summaries for each chapter last Friday. Please have all of Part One read by Wednesday, May 13th.

The Hours - Film Response

Choose one of the following prompts. Write an essay response (minimum 2 pages) Due date: 5/5/15

A. Virginia and Laura are both, in a sense, prisoners of their eras and societies, and both long for freedom from this imprisonment. Clarissa Vaughan, on the other hand, apparently enjoys every liberty: freedom to be a lesbian, to come and go and live as she likes. Yet she has ended up, in spite of her unusual way of life, as a fairly conventional wife and mother. What might this fact indicate about the nature of society and the restrictions it imposes? Does the film imply that character, to a certain extent, is destiny?

B. What does the possibility of death represent to the various characters?  Which of them loves the idea of death, as others love life?  What makes some of the characters decide to die, others to live? What personality traits separate the "survivors" from the suicides?

C. The film plays with the notions of sanity and insanity, recognizing that there might be only a very fine line between the two states. What does the novel imply about the nature of insanity? Might it in fact be a heightened sanity, or at least a heightened sense of awareness?  Would you classify Richard as insane? Does insanity (or the received idea of insanity) appear to be connected with creative gifts?
 

Homework

Read "The Duchess and the Jeweller" by Virginia Woolf. It can be found in our class folder.

T.S. Eliot

On Monday, April 27th, you will take a quiz on the 3 T.S. Eliot poems we read in the textbook: "Preludes," "The Hollow Men," and "The Naming of Cats."

In addition, a test grade will be given on the packet of questions pertaining to "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock" that will be due on Monday. Check out this video!

April 15, 2015 The Daily Show Satirical Journal Entry

Explain what is being satirized and how humor helps in understanding the more serious topics. (The Video Can be Found Here.)

On the News Media and News Coverage:

• The urgency to cover insignificant news.
• The methods in which serious, graphic, news is covered.
• The use of language censor versus graphic censor

Questions to Discuss "The Future of Christianity" Segment

• Do you agree/disagree with either one of the people interviewed regarding the future of faith?
• Can AI (Artificial Intelligence), once it becomes aware of itself,  convert to a faith?