Your reading for today is
a) the cover sheet to "Culture Essay Reading Packet #1: Do Movies Tell Us Who We Are?"
b) the table of contents to Signs of Life in the USA, which takes up the first few pages of the packet;
c) "Hollywood's Class Warfare" by A. O. Scott, which ran in The New York Times in December of 2010.
In a comment to this post, please do the following:
- pick one title out of the table of contents of Signs of Life and write a sentence or two about why you might find it useful/interesting to read that title. ("Um, cuz I like South Park" is not such a great answer. "I'm interested in what our advertising supposedly says about us, and this author seems to have a weird take on that" is a pretty good one.)
- Respond to something Scott has to say in his piece. (You can find a copy of it here.)
- Can you add four or five more titles to his list? How and why do these titles either play along or enhance something Scott writes? Please be specific.
- Is there a point of his with which you initially disagree? If there is, be specific about what it is and why you disagree, and supply counterexamples that help support your position.
- Do you have a point of agreement for which you can offer something more current to enhance his position?
- You can respond in a more open response, but please make sure to stay on the general topic of what can we learn as writers from this piece. What's his perspective on our culture, and how can we draw upon this piece, add something that is of real value to a conversation.