Library visit on Monday

Group,
Remember that we'll meet in the library on Monday, Dec. 1 in the 4th floor computer lab. This is the "cube" located behind the OSL offices.  Don't forget to bring along a copy of your research questions that day.

Lots going on!

Don't forget that PechaKuchas are due tomorrow. I've put a link to our shared folder in the PechaKucha assignment description. Drop it there before class, and we'll be ready to hit the ground running on TechnoTuesday. Don't forget these other exciting assignments:

• Research paper initial questions: due Wednesday! Bring a hard copy to class. If you're game, post it on your blog, too. Who knows what kind of interesting feedback you might get?
• Second blog post due Monday, Dec. 1.  Hack your own life.
• Read Thoreau for Wednesday, and start reading Menand  for next week.

These are your arguments...Read 'em!

Folks, the first blog posts are in. And here's a taste of what your classmates see as an argument. I've chosen seven posts from Section 1 and six from section 2, linked below.  Your job over the weekend? Check 'em out. I've selected them not necessarily because they are the best in the class (though they're all good) but because they represent different sorts of "arguments"--some of which deal with the way that arguments are made online, which might allow you to connect them to our readings. In class today, some of you will get the specific assignment to comment on a few of these; others will be assigned to comment IN CLASS on the sorts of conversations they witnessed online. But everyone can check them out, and I encourage you to comment (look for links on the lower right here regarding how to comment well).

Section 1:
I'm Cool. I Died for You, Bro
a case against silence and anonymity
A very human argument.
From gunpowder treason to picket lines
The controversial arches
The Sexualization of Pride: Liberation or Fetishization?
Tweet Tweet

Commenters:  Liam, Allison Bb., Mahvish, Katie G., Claire
In-class responders: Ashton, Grace, Victoria

Section 2:
This is an argument.
This gesture is an argument.
Can you work too hard?
Do you hear the people sing
The argument etched on my skin
It's a bird. it's a plane. No, it's an argument.

Commenters:
Josh, Tori, Marlen, Nicole C., Anna, Kia
In-class reporters: Jaime, Morgan, Nikki

Lederhosen are an Argument

 “Trachten” is the name for traditional German clothing: lederhosen, dirndls, checkered shirts and sweaters with metal buttons shaped like edelweiss. But the Trachten worn by young people today are not always the frumpy skirts and aprons of the Von Trapp family before Maria got to them--they're satiny numbers worn boldly with stilettos, lederhosen with heavy metal T-shirts. It’s a national costume turned party wear: happy, kitschy, sexy, Bavarian.

Germans I’ve talked to aren’t sure to what change in Zeitgeist they should attribute the recent return to Trachten.  One woman told us that her mother wore dirndls, and that she associated interest in Trachten, forebodingly, with the 1930s. One of the concepts I teach in my Honors class is Benedict Anderson’s “imagined community” – the idea that nations and nationalisms arise primarily through a creative process in which we imagine that we are linked to others even though we will never meet them.  Rituals, pageants, and print and electronic media all facilitate these ways of imagining community.  And, of course, as our current political scene tells us, ethnic communities CAN fracture nation when their imagining becomes strong enough to turn violent.  I suppose in that sense, Trachten smacks of Bavarian nationalism.

Yet I’m not convinced that the resurgence of Trachten is a sign of scary nationalism. Kids in lederhosen and satin dirndls have grown up knowing only a Germany that is part of the European Union, part of a borderless economic and political entity. They are worried about about the power that the EU might wield over decisions that affect drugs, food, the environment, the contents of their clothes. A mega-nation, a global world, can be a lonely, more rootless place. No wonder, in a time in which it’s hard NOT to think about the constant flow of stuff and ideas and culture across borders, we tend to think about who we are, and seek solace in what we think we’ve always been.

Maybe that’s why I have a painting of the Mississippi River and an old map of my city on the wall of my dining room; why I tore up the nondescript conifers in my front yard and planted prairie grasses and native flowers; why we buy Wapsipinicon Peach tomato seeds every spring. I’m not from Iowa originally, but my mother is, and most of us need to know we are from somewhere, especially when our clothes are made in Cambodia and end up in Haiti.

You don't have to be German to get your Trachten on. Last spring, I watched the Trachten-wearers flowing  into the Mai-Dult festival, where they recognized each other as "Bavarian," if just for the night. I suppose it’s a way to forget the bigger, scarier meanings of what it might mean to be German, or Iraqi, or American, or Chinese, in the coming decades.  In the big tent at the Dult, I suspect they weren’t  thinking about the EU when they were singing “Die Haende zur Himmel,” the nutty drinking song by die Kolibris : they were thinking about how nice that guy (or girl) looked in his (or her) lederhosen, and how good the beer tasted.

If you sometimes feel so alone

Believe me, it doesn’t have to be that wayBecause tonight, we’re going to celebrate

The whole world is a community

Heads Up for Wednesday's class

• After you read Lunsford et al's "Everything is an Argument," you can test your knowledge of the different types of argument they outline by playing some games on Quizlet.
• As you read Vowell's essay "The Partly Cloudy Patriot," be on the lookout for the different objects, media, places, experiences, and even body parts(!) that she interprets as arguments. *Perhaps* there will be an in-class writing.
• If you have a chance, have a look at the PechaKucha website on the homepage links. That way, you'll know what I mean when I say "PechaKucha" and you won't say "Bless you."

Thanks for a good first day. I learned a lot from your introductions!  Three things:
1) Don't forget to send me the title of your blog once you've set it up. As you can see, I'm adding them to the lists on the right.
2) If your blog is listed on the right and the link isn't working, try changing the settings (on the right of your dashboard). Under "basic," make sure it's set to "public" and "listed on blogger."
2) The reading for tomorrow will crop up as a pdf titled Thompson "Smarter" - the chapter title is called "Public Thinking," from a book called Smarter Than You Think.  This is the one you want!

Welcome to the course!

This is the instructor blog for both sections of Foundations, winter term 2014-15.  You can find information about the course here (syllabus, readings, updates, etc.) as well as link to all of your classmates' blogs.