Titus

I thought the readings for Tuesday were interesting, especially the voice for lavinia piece. I hadn't thought of it from that point of view, and didn't notice the language around rape that was used in the play when I first read it. I also liked the point made by the irreligious piety piece. It's point was more along the lines of what I had thought was what the play was about. A lot of the violence in the play is justified by saying it is necessary for religious reasons, and the criticisms of the ancient roman religious beliefs and culture also apply to the Christianity and culture of both SShakespeare's and our time. I think the movie so far is interesting, it is defiantly a strange adaptation but i don't think i find it as strange as some people in the class seem to. I like the combination of modern and old things and the vauge time and place. It adds the the univerality of the film.

Thoughts from the first week of Febuary

I thought the Most interesting part of the discussions from Tuesday was the discussion about if the mission was worth the man. In my opinion sending six men to rescue one men is not worth it unless that person is tactically important to the overall victory of the war. In the case of saving private Ryan he was not an important person so I believe the mission was not worth it. The manpower could have been used in a more productive way. I hadn't really thought of whether or not the mission mattered or not the first time I saw the movie.
I thought several parts of Thursday's discussion were interesting. I thought it was interesting that the focus was on whether she was a lesbian and not on whether it mattered or not. I think that whether it matters if a teacher is homosexual is a more interesting topic. In my opinion it doesn't matter. I thought it was interesting that I had two different classes that discussed the topic of heteronormativity this week, both this class and my intro to women and gender class. before this week I had never heard that term and had never thought about how our society is heteronormative or the implications that could have for certain people and groups. I thought it was interesting that several people thought of children as not lying. I've always thought of lying as a childish act and something that children do frequently. Maybe the kids that I teach aren't very good children.