Working on Developing Responses to the Readings
General Questions:
- Do you agree or disagree with this
author’s ideas?
- Do you like or dislike this essay?
- Do the author’s ideas connect to you
personally?
- Can you apply the author’s ideas to your
own life?
- Can you add any ideas to what the author
has given?
Luc Sante, “What Secrets Tell” – pp.
508-514
- Do you ever use the internet for
researching “secrets” about someone or something? Do you ever watch TV shows
like Entertainment Tonight or Jerry Springer, or do you ever
read tabloid magazines or newspapers, to find out about “secrets”? Do you
agree with Sante that the internet and other media in our culture “devalues”
the secret, since we find out about so many?
- Do you personally ever feel any urge to
confess your hidden transgressions to an audience of strangers?
- Do you agree with Sante that we “need”
secrets, that there is a deep human need for them? If so, why? If not, why
not?
- Do you see other types of secrets beyond
what Sante listed, or do you have your own categories of secrets?
- What secrets do you know right now, about
other people, events, or things?
Stephen L. Carter, “The Insufficiency of
Honesty” – pp. 321-326
- How do you define “integrity”? Do you
feel that you personally have integrity?
- If “honesty” means “not lying,” do you
feel that you are an honest person? Are you honest in some situations but not
in others?
- Have you ever been honest without
having integrity? For example, have you ever been honest and hurt someone
else in the process? (If so, when, where, with whom, and why?)
- Have you ever been honest at great
“personal cost” to yourself? (If so, when, where, with whom, and why?)
- Have you ever been honest about what you
believe, but you found out later that what you believed was wrong? (If so,
when, where, with whom, and why?)
- Have you ever been honest with someone to
avoid responsibility? (If so, when, where, with whom, and why?)
- Do you agree that we should have
“character education” for young people, possibly even in our public schools?
Kathleen Norris, “The Holy Use of Gossip”
– pp. 460-465
- Do you see any connection between Luc
Sante’s “secrets” and Kathleen Norris’ “gossip” in today’s society and
culture, particularly in our popular media?
- Have you ever lived in, or visited at
length, a small town? If so, did you notice the close-knit relationships
among people? Did you overhear and/or engage in any gossip while you were
there? Did gossip strengthen communal bonds, provide comic relief, give
identity, take away privacy?
- Have you ever read a book about, or seen
a movie about, life in a small town? If so, were the relationships among the
people close-knit? Did the characters engage in any gossip? Did gossip
strengthen communal bonds, provide comic relief, give identity, take away
privacy?
- Do you gossip with your friends? Why or
why not? Does gossiping with your friends strengthen your bonds, provide
comic relief, give identity, take away privacy?
- Have you ever been negatively affected by
the gossip of others? (If so, how, when, where, with whom, and why?)
- Do you agree with Norris that gossip has
“religious” qualities?
Harold Bloom, “In Praise of the Greats” –
pp. 613-621
- How do you read, and
Why do you read? (For example, do you read for pleasure, to
return to "otherness," to alleviate loneliness?)
- Do you have your own
"sampling of works what best illustrate why to read"? (Perhaps make up
your list based on what your demon whispers, "I love.") If so, how is
your list similar to and different from Bloom's list?
- Do you agree with Johnson,
Bacon, and Emerson on how to read: " . . . find what truly comes near to you,
that can be used for weighing and for considering. Read deeply, not to
believe, not to accept, not to contradict, but to learn to share in that one
nature that writes and reads"? (par. 19, but also par. 6)
- Do you agree with Bloom on
the importance of Shakespeare? Have you ever read any Shakespeare
before? If so, what? How did you feel then (and how do you feel
now) about what you read by Shakespeare?
- Do you agree with Bloom that
we read "in order to strengthen the self, and to learn authentic interests"
and that "the pleasures of reading indeed are selfish rather than social"?
- How do you understand
Bloom's use of the word "irony"? Do you agree that "the loss of irony is
the death of reading"?
Last Updated on
09 July 2009 by SRS