Due Monday, 3/3.
Dear Son,
I want you to read The Odyssey...
This is how I want you to start your letter to your son. Post in on your blog. Write a meaty and thoughtful letter. One day you might need it...
Hopefully, reading, and having finished reading, a great piece of literature makes you feel that you did something worthwhile. I've always told my students that a truly good book needs to be read and re-read many times in a persons life, for with each new reading he or she will gain more insight and understanding into why the book was written and where its deepest power comes from. Sadly, most young students who readThe Odyssey for the first time have an experience that ranges from confused to apathetic because they could not find a way to relate to the book in any kind of meaningful way. I need you to man up and avoid that fate.
So, you will write a letter to your son. You know, you might actually share this with your own son someday, so write thoughtfully and carefully. Write the letter as a way to guide him in his approach to reading The Odyssey; tell him what to look for; tell what was toughes for you and why; tell him what you had to overcome; weave in those five scenes that were so memorable to you, and try to capture a bit of the Heroic Cycle (which we will discuss in class tomorrow).
Make it a beautiful letter that captures the depth and breadth and magnanimity of your spirit and heart.
You will one day be fathers, and now is the time to prepare, for you are no longer "clinging to your boyhood..."
Due on Monday, 3/3, Post to your journal and comment on your classmate's letters.
I want you to read The Odyssey...
This is how I want you to start your letter to your son. Post in on your blog. Write a meaty and thoughtful letter. One day you might need it...
Hopefully, reading, and having finished reading, a great piece of literature makes you feel that you did something worthwhile. I've always told my students that a truly good book needs to be read and re-read many times in a persons life, for with each new reading he or she will gain more insight and understanding into why the book was written and where its deepest power comes from. Sadly, most young students who readThe Odyssey for the first time have an experience that ranges from confused to apathetic because they could not find a way to relate to the book in any kind of meaningful way. I need you to man up and avoid that fate.
So, you will write a letter to your son. You know, you might actually share this with your own son someday, so write thoughtfully and carefully. Write the letter as a way to guide him in his approach to reading The Odyssey; tell him what to look for; tell what was toughes for you and why; tell him what you had to overcome; weave in those five scenes that were so memorable to you, and try to capture a bit of the Heroic Cycle (which we will discuss in class tomorrow).
Make it a beautiful letter that captures the depth and breadth and magnanimity of your spirit and heart.
You will one day be fathers, and now is the time to prepare, for you are no longer "clinging to your boyhood..."
Due on Monday, 3/3, Post to your journal and comment on your classmate's letters.