Hi all:
Welcome to the winter quarter, 2013, blog for Writing 2 ACE.
I will ask you to
make comments on this blog. These will be used as sources of class
discussion and as a repository for quotations for writing.
Please
note: this blog is out in public space. Anyone can access it. If you
do not want your name on this blog, be sure to use a false name when you
post a comment. Be sure to let me know what that name is...and we will
go from there.
In the meantime, once again: Welcome.
Nick
Hi all:
This is a pretty easy and straight forward read on the
early stages of consumer society.
Sort of interesting to realize
how long the basic elements of it have been around, since probably the
18th century.
But, as we will see, it wasn't until the 20th
Century that it came to full flower.
The reading points to a
number of issues basic to an understanding of consumer society: the
difference between want and need (if we can figure that out); the role
of advertising; the social construction of desire as infinite. A whole
bunch of stuff.
Pick
a quotation from the
reading, type it into comment box, and write about why you picked it.
Thanks.
Nick
Hi all:
This reading is a bit long, but not hard, mostly facts, history, mixed with analysis.
It's about the development of consumerism in the early part of the 20th century. That was an amazing time. Much like our own. Very rapid changes and adjustments, of course, for human beings as a result.
Hard to believe but back then Henry Ford said he was going to make just ONE car, and it was going to be a damn good one. But then a man named Sloan, who worked for GM, came up with the idea of different models for different years and economic groups. Today we take that for granted, but it was not always so.
For this entry pick a quotation
(could be a paragraph long), type it into the comment box, and then say
why you picked that particular quotation.
Nick
Hi all:
"Why the Self is
Empty" is an academic article. It's
too long, the print is too small, it's full of citations and names you
won't (and don't have to) know.
Forget that stuff and read for
the main idea. Cushman is trying to talk about how consumerism shaped
identity as older and more traditional forms of identity formation
slipped away.
Or to put the matter another way: Cushman is interested in consumerism as a psychological rather than economic phenomena.
Do as you did with the last blog comment. Pick a
quotation you find interesting and then write about why you found it
interesting (you agree/disagree; something you had not thought about
before; important to over all argument; no clear or confusing).
You
might end up using this article or parts of it in some way in your
paper 1. Clearly it ties in with parts of the other readings that all,
so far, mention the role of consumer society in the creation of
identity.
Thank
you.
Nick
Hi all:
This article is
by Zygmunt Bauman. I have never had any
heroes (except maybe for Micky Mantle and Bob Dylan). But now Bauman is
my hero, not so much for what he has to say about consumer society, but
because he is still saying lively, interesting stuff at 85 years of
age. I can only hope my brain works as well as his at 85.
He is an acute observer of the consumer society; in this long-ish piece he distinguishes the act of consumption from the consumer society and begins to discuss the psychological implications of the latter for the life we now live.
You
have to take time with his writing. It's not fast food; you can't just
swallow it down on the go. You have to sit down and chew a little.
Again,
as with previous posts to the blog, pick an interesting quotation, type
it in, and write a few lines about why you picked it. Or try to
paraphrase his line of thinking. You can of course include a quotation
in this too.
Nick
Hi all:
This is another piece by Zygmunt Bauman.
He elaborates here on some of the themes in the previous article with special attention to the question of happiness.
Are we happy, he asks, in the consumer society? How can we be, he seems to ask, if consumerism depends on exciting ever new desires? How then can we ever be satisfied?
Again,
as with previous posts to the blog, pick an interesting quotation, type
it in, and write a few lines about why you picked it. Or try to
paraphrase his line of thinking. You can of course include a quotation
in this too.
Nick
Hi all:
Sometimes it's good to read old stuff. This piece was written in 1928.
It's sort of an eye-opener. The author says things that few would dare to say today (at least in public). We are so polite. But he makes no bones about it.
This is Edward Bernays on the uses of propaganda (advertising).
Pick a quotation, type it into the box, and say why you found it interesting.
Nick
Hi all:
Susan Linn covers a good deal of territory in her book on advertising to children.
Pick what you think is the most interesting quotation from the article. Type it into the comment box and indicate why you picked it.
Nick
Hi all:
Write a paragraph or so on your view of advertising to
children as based on our readings last week and for today,
Think of the paragraph or two as a potential start on your paper 2 should you decide to write on advertising to children.
Nick
Hi all:
Using the notes you took and the comments you wrote after viewing The Truman Show, write a plot summary of the film.
You can write as much as you like but try to make it at least a 100 words.
See you..
Nick
