A Block- Post Lady Gaga

Ms. Stuart, I really really enjoy theorizing on modern day advertisements, trends, and common sense. Even though some people dread talking about theory (John Michael, HAHA), I think its truly interesting and somewhat important to exploring where all of these ideas come from.

So I know that we discussed Lady Gaga's impacts on society and theorized on her image, but what other modern day things could we theorize about?

An idea that I'd love to theorize about is how celebrities create this image about what it means to be beautiful. Society sees the typical beauty as a skinny figure, so where did this come from? I, however, think the super skinny figure to some girls makes them unattractive. Who created this specific image to beauty? Who is to judge what is beautiful and what is not? This all leads to the question of 'What is beauty'?

What do you guys think?

Last Clog Topic: Summarizing American Literature, Preparation for Memoir.

I personally thought that there was a consistent theme throughout American Lit class which is resistance. Emerson's essay about non-conformity, Thoreau's Walden both insist individual's independence from society. Beat Generation tried to go against society and chose drugs, sex, and alcohol as methods to do this. Sylvia Plath and Emily Dickinson isolated themselves from society and mentioned death as a total relief from the world. And I thought these all connect to common theme of resisting against society. What kind of pattern did you find in American Literature?, what did you relate to the most?

Debouis

Debouis referred to the double consciousness of black people in "The Souls of Black Folks". How does his revelation about this relate to Romanticism? And with the way that he defines his double consciousness, do you think his optimism about over coming it seem possible?

What are the poetic merits of T.S. Elliot's Wasteland?

T.S. Elliot's Wasteland is a poetic work no matter how confusing and jumbled it is. It is also included in the Norton which says that the poem benefits literature. What are the poetic merits of Elliot's Wasteland?