Author: Sarah Schmerler (Page 2 of 2)

Hi. Please have your papers with you for our brief sessions tomorrow — that is, if you need any clarification of my markings, et al. It’s best for us to see them in black and white (or green, or red). That said, we can talk about whatever topics you wish. Time is limited, however.

Peer Mentor will be visiting our classroom at some point. Not sure what time. Take advantage of his help by being ready with questions or concerns, as well.

Look forward to seeing you in class.

Office Hour is on today, as per usual, in the Campus Bookstore cafe, 11:30 to 12:30.

Number 5 Train to Brooklyn College Flatbush Ave. Friday. It is hot and sunny outside and the train is crowded today. I ride this train daily to get to school. It is a normal, sort of average day. I am tired and a little sleepy.

I hear ding–dong sound of the train moving. “Please avoid the closing doors.” Lots of indistinct muttering of people on the train.

Dung dung, dung dung, dung dung…. The train makes sounds in a rhythm.

Again: “Stand clear of the closing doors.” People continue to talk. I also see people tired, sleeping and others just staring out in to space.

Dung dung, dung dung, dung dung….

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M3 Bus. Wednesday. 10:00AM. The bus is crowded. It is a sunny day.

“Back door!”

[muffled sounds of the bus] brrrr brrrrd brrrrd

“Please exit through the rear door.”

Chatter. The indistinct sound of many things that people are saying.

Thump thump. Click clack. There is also the sound of loud music coming out of someone’s headphones in the back. I think it is Country Road. “Almost heaven, West Virginia…”

Loud sounds of air conditioning.

beep of the bus’ stop request. Klnk. Dull thud sound of dropping of a phone

Um

A man drinking a whole gallon of Minute Made. Driver saying, “Next stop.”

[Thumping sound of the bus ramp being lowered for a wheelchair passenger to board.]

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A Train. Tuesday. It is a rainy day. The train is fairly empty.

A middle-aged woman, dressed pretty normally, is asking for money. As she walks around the train car, she hands out little flash cards that read, “I have a baby….” And “Please return.” After she solicits us, she goes around and takes back all the cards. “Thank you so much—have a good day,” she says rather mechanically. You get the sense that she has done this many times before.

“Say what?!”

“Jesus Christ is coming back!”

An old man with grey hair in a blue sweater is talking to a young man in a hoodie.

Old Man: What are you doing tonight with your son?

Man in Hoodie: I don’t know yet. We might see 11/9, that new film. In it, Michael Moore, the director, says, “Climate change is not a hoax.” Literally. I agree with him.

“Hellooooooo?!,” A baby shouts to no one in particular.

320 is a little over budget

Sir

I felt ill when I woke up. I was in a cold sweat for part of the night because I think I ate something “off” yesterday.

My son never told me that the hummus he bought was kind of…funky. He just left it out on the table.

Later, he told me.

Okay. Maybe I am just a hypochondriac.

What do you think?

Meet the great philosopher who inspired so much of your Professor’s thinking, here.

Here is a link to Wikipedia/s page on Surrealism

You can see the above artwork, called simply “Objet,” but commonly known as “Fur Teacup and Saucer,” at MoMA in Manhattan. It is by Meret Oppenheim and was created in 1936.

The following is taken from a piece by Nina Martyris for NPR.org:

“As the art critic Will Gompertz writes in his 2012 book What Are You Looking At?,“Two incompatible materials have been brought together to create one troubling vessel. Fur is pleasing to touch, but horrible when you put it in your mouth. You want to drink from the cup and eat from the spoon — that is their purpose — but the sensation of the fur is too repulsive. It’s a maddening cycle.”

At the MoMa, the sculpture is known by the unadorned title that Oppenheim gave it: Object — not Luncheon in Fur, which was the sensual name Breton chose. His idea was to reference not only Edouard Manet’s famous painting Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe(“The Luncheon on the Grass“), but also, more cannily, Venus in Furs, the 1870 sadomasochistic novella by the Austrian writer Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (whose surname is the root of the word masochistic).

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Here is some info on the Oulipo Group and a few lipograms — writings that omit one or more letters — by A. Ross Eckler Jr. (1927–2016), an American logologist and author:

Original
Mary had a little lamb
Its fleece was white as snow
And everywhere that Mary went
The lamb was sure to go

He followed her to school one day
That was against the rule
It made the children laugh and play
To see the lamb in school

Without “S”:
Mary had a little lamb
With fleece a pale white hue
And everywhere that Mary went
The lamb kept her in view

To academe he went with her,
Illegal, and quite rare;
It made the children laugh and play
To view the lamb in there

Without “A”:
Polly owned one little sheep
Its fleece shone white like snow
Every region where Polly went
The sheep did surely go

He followed her to school one time
Which broke the rigid rule
The children frolicked in their room
To see the sheep in school

Without “H”:
Mary owned a little lamb
Its fleece was pale as snow
And every place its mistress went
It would certainly go

It followed Mary to class one day
It broke a rigid law
It made some students giggle aloud
A lamb in class all saw

Without “T”:
Mary had a small lamb
His fleece was pale as snow
And every place where Mary walked
Her lamb did also go

He came inside her classroom once
Which broke a rigid rule
How children all did laugh and play
On seeing a lamb in school!

Without “E”:
Mary had a tiny lamb
Its wool was pallid as snow
And any spot that Mary did walk
This lamb would always go

This lamb did follow Mary to school
Although against a law
How girls and boys did laugh and play
That lamb in class all saw

Without half the letters of the alphabet:
Maria had a little sheep
As pale as rime its hair
And all the places Maria came
The sheep did tail her there

In Maria’s class it came at last
A sheep can’t enter there
It made the children clap their hands
A sheep in class, that’s rare^[21]