Monday

Finish with Fahrennheit 451

Homework- Study!

Tuesday

APLACfest

Homework- Study!

Wednesday

Short Answer Test

Homework - 

Thursday 

The 1960’s

“Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. Five years later? Six? It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era—the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run . . . but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant. . . .

History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of “history” it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time—and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.

My central memory of that time seems to hang on one or five or maybe forty nights—or very early mornings—when I left the Fillmore half-crazy and, instead of going home, aimed the big 650 Lightning across the Bay Bridge at a hundred miles an hour wearing L. L. Bean shorts and a Butte sheepherder's jacket . . . booming through the Treasure Island tunnel at the lights of Oakland and Berkeley and Richmond, not quite sure which turn-off to take when I got to the other end (always stalling at the toll-gate, too twisted to find neutral while I fumbled for change) . . . but being absolutely certain that no matter which way I went I would come to a place where people were just as high and wild as I was: No doubt at all about that. . . .

There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda. . . . You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. . . .

And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . .

So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.”

― Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Making Sense of the Sixties- Documentary

Discuss connections between:

• JFK’s Democratic Acceptance Speech
• Pericles Funeral Oration
• JFK’s Inaugural address

Pericles Funeral Oration Questions:

- What does this speech reveal about Greek civilization? For example, in the picture above one can see a sculptor pausing from his work to listen to Pericles. From this one can infer the value of the arts to the Greeks. What can be inferred from the "picture" given of Greek life by Pericles in his speech? 

- What does this document reveal in terms of history as a genre of writing at that time? What was worth recording, and why do you think Thucydides chose the methods he used?

- What was Pericles’ purpose in the Oration?

- Picking up off the last suggestion from history, how does the additional historical information you researched help us better understand the kairos for Pericles' oration?

- Analyze the arrangement of his speech. What significance is there to the order in which the ideas were given? 

JFK Inaugural Address Questions:

- Identify those segments of President Kennedy’s Inaugural Address where he acknowledged the significant dangers posed by the arms race and the nuclear threat. Howdid he explain his concerns?

- Beginning with the paragraph “To those old allies,” select two paragraphs where JFK defined our relationship with another nation and / or region. Then, list and explain the specific pledge he held out to the nation and / or region you selected.

- How can you explain President Kennedy’s emphasis on international concerns while at the time of his inauguration the United States was facing serious internal issues regarding poverty and civil rights?

- How did President Kennedy urge the citizens of the United States to rise to the challenges that faced mid-twentieth-century America?

The Big Question: Does Ginsberg’s “America” adhere to the Kennedy ideals of responsible citizenship or does it go against them?

How do the lyrics from Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A Changin” reflect the transition to the Kennedy Era and the “New Frontier”?

“The Times They Are A Changin” - Bob Dylan

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin'
And you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
The battle outside ragin'
Will soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'

"Times are a Changing” Analysis - Bob Dylan

1.What does the expression ” the waters around you have grown” mean?

2. Explain “you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone.”

3. What does the poet ask the writers and critics?

4. What is the battle implied in “There’s a battle outside and it is ragin’?”

5. What does the line “the first one now will later be last” imply.

6. Explain “Your old road is rapidly agin'”

7. What is the context of the song” The Times They are A-Changing”?

8. Why does Bob Dylan say that the present now will later be past?

Blowin’ In the Wind - Bob Dylan 

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly
Before they're forever banned?The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the windYes, and how many years must a mountain exist
Before it is washed to the sea?
And how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn't see?The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the windYes, and how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
And how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take 'til he knows
That too many people have died?The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind

Homework- Read about The Berkeley Free Speech Movement

Friday

Questions:

1. What was Rule 17 and how did it apply to the area immediately outside Sather Gate in 1964?
2. What options did students have other civil disobedience to get Rule 17 changed? Should they have resorted to these options before choosing civil disobedience? Why or why not?
3. Mario Savio said the issue at Berkeley was student free speech. UC President Clark Kerr said it was a matter of the rule of law. Who do you think was right? Why?
4. Would you have voted for or against the amendment to the motion before the Berkeley Academic Senate? Why? How would you have voted on the main motion itself? Why?

Mario Savio - Rage Against the Machine

The Big Question: Does free speech have limitations? Are there things we cannot say?

Vietnam Touched Off a Firestorm

Homework- Make sure you bring The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien to class on Wednesday.