July 2009 Archives
What’s a Culture Snob to Do?
Discussion Resource:
Vanity Fair | August 2009
"What’s a Culture Snob to Do?"
Pity the culture snob, as Kindles, iPods, and flash drives swallow up the visible markers of superior taste and intelligence. With the digitization of books, music, and movies, how will the highbrow distinguish him- or herself from the masses?
By James Wolcott
Discussion Questions:
- Why are people's identities tied with their possessions? What other definitions of identity are there? Which frameworks of identity have prevailed throughout history?
- Where is the line between "cultural snobbery" and "keen connoisseurship?"
- How do you identify with your possesions? How do you relate to others based on their possesions?
- Wolcott suggests that our stuff will shift from expressing our aesthetics to expressing our ethics. Do you agree or disagree? On what grounds might he be holding this forecast?
- Do you take Wolcott to be more of a prophet figure--reproving cultural waywardness--or a nostalgic luddite simply complaining about the changing times?
(NOTE: It is suggested that you tackle a few, but probably not all of, the following. In a group of 3-10, it is likely that one or two of these questions can result in the conversation taking off on it's own. Let it! These are merely here to help steer the conversation when needed.)
(This article was the source material for the July 22 IAM New York Wednesday Morning Discussion Group.)
Home Sweet (Urban) Homestead
Discussion Resource:
The New York Times Magazine | 5 July 2009
"Home Sweet (Urban) Homestead"
A new kind of preservation society attends a D.I.Y. dinner party in Oakland, Calif.
By Christine Muhlke
Discussion Questions:
- What is "urban homesteading?"
- What might be some reasons that people are so eager to learn it?
- Are we, in fact, disconnected? How has this come to be, or why do people think we are?
- What is your experience with food as it relates to family, community, city?
- What is the relationship between food and our connectedness? Between food and community? How can it help? Can it hinder?
(NOTE: It is suggested that you tackle a few, but probably not all of, the following. In a group of 3-10, it is likely that one or two of these questions can result in the conversation taking off on it's own. Let it! These are merely here to help steer the conversation when needed.)
(This article was the source material for the July 15 IAM New York Wednesday Morning Discussion Group.)
Beauty and Desecration
Discussion Resource:
City Journal | Spring 2009
"Beauty and Desecration"
We must rescue art from the modern intoxication with ugliness.
By Roger Scruton
Discussion Questions:
- What is the "illunminated sphere of contemplation?" What are your expereiences with it?
- What is the relationship between beauty and home? And then, what of your own home? House -> Neighborhood -> City -> etc.
- How has it come to be that "[f]or the most part, trasitory purposes orgainze our lives?" Do you, in fact, find this to be the case in your own life?
- "But why is beauty a value?" (emphasis added)
- As we live in a Scruton's so called "culture of transgression," what, if any, responsibilties fall to us, especially regdarding beauty and the sacred?
(NOTE: It is suggested that you tackle a few, but probably not all of, the following. In a group of 3-10, it is likely that one or two of these questions can result in the conversation taking off on it's own. Let it! These are merely here to help steer the conversation when needed.)
(This article was the source material for the July 8 IAM New York Wednesday Morning Discussion Group.)
Show or Tell
Discussion Resource:
The New Yorker | June 8, 2009
"Show or Tell"
Should creative writing be taught?
By Louis Menand
Discussion Questions:
- What are the arguments for and against creative writing programs?
- How do learning and teaching creative writing differ from learning and teaching other arts? (What if we pose the article’s underlying question to painting, singing, designing, etc.?)
- How has contemporary fiction (a specific work or in general) affected your life?
- “Universities have become restaurants that bake their own bread.” Is the cycle of universities studying works by the very authors they train (or “encourage”) more like a refinery or a royal family?
- How has writing/creating affected your reading?
(NOTE: It is suggested that you tackle a few, but probably not all of, the following. In a group of 3-10, it is likely that one or two of these questions can result in the conversation taking off on it's own. Let it! These are merely here to help steer the conversation when needed.)
(This article was the source material for the July 1 IAM New York Wednesday Morning Discussion Group.)
Article-Based Discussions
Articles are curated from various publications and provide a context for discussion. (We offer five or six questions to get the ball rolling.)