last updated: 9/27/07
"Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer.” E. M. Forster, Howards End (1910), ch. 22
"We go for a walk in nature, we see a beautiful sunset — we breathe the order in through our senses, we feel connected. The inside begins to mirror the magnificent outside. In the Vedic tradition that connectedness is called 'yoga.'”
Chris Adamason, Vedic Architecture http://www.newlifejournal.com/aprmay04/adamson_0504.shtml
‘One day when I was twenty-three or twenty-four this sentence seemed to form in my head, without my willing it, much as sentences form when we are half-asleep, ‘Hammer* your thoughts into unity’. For days I could think of nothing else and for years I tested all I did by that sentence [...]”* William Butler Yeats, Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature (*cited in Frank Tuohy, Yeats, 1976, p.51 )
*hammer images "Thor's Hammer is a symbol of the struggle against chaos and evil. It's the weapon used by Thor against giants, monsters, and other trollish folk who threaten the common good. It seems particularly appropriate in these troubled times" (http://www.ragweedforge.com/ThorsHammer.html). See especially http://www.mackaos.com.au/Articles/Mjol.html
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subject to change
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The importance of READING DIRECTIONS in this course.
In terms of your future success even more important than reading literature with care is the ability to read directions carefully and follow them fully and faithfully. Employers regard that as a key asset, and of course see weakness in this area as a serious liability. You can not expect an employer to hold your hand throughout an assignment the way you may have expected your parents or previous school teachers to do so. Now that you are in college you must make the transition clearly stated in the traditional address to Freshmen at Amherst College, words that your instructor heard on his first day of college. On the other hand, ifinstructions and schedules often have ambiguities and sometimes even obvious errors. So, if after reading the directions carefully, you still have questions, you are strongly encouraged to ask questions in class, email the instructor, or come to see him in his office hours. I look forward to getting to know you and helping you in any way that I can. I want you to succeed here!
If you have to do this excursion on your own, follow these directions. Make sure to include yourself in a number of the photos in front of the buildings to prove you actually went there rather than just surfed the net.
[1] At the capitol, to identify briefly with ancient Greece, either photograph or identify with EXACT locations, examples of Doric, Ionic, and Cornithian columns (one pt. each).
[2] To identify with ancient Rome, lay down on your back as close to the center of the capitol dome as possible. Look up and describe the effect on you of the dome. (up to seven points.) What Roman buildings are famous for their domes (two pts.)
[3] With the map in front of you of Victorian/Historic Downtown Austin, go from building 1 to building 48. Identify the symbol on this building that connects you to ancient Israel (one point).
[4] Proceed to building 47. To identify with medieval Christianity, looking at the front of the building, explain how it fits Ruskin's second principle of "The Nature of Gothic" (one point). Enter the church and describe the effect on you of the interior (up to seven points).
[5] Check out buildings 46, 7, 8, 9, 10 on the way to building 11. To explore your identity as a Texan, identify the examples of Ruskin's fourth principle on the outside of the building (one pt.) and explain the relevance of the term "Widow Maker" to the interior (one point).
Note that all these buildings were built in this town around the same time and thus demonstrate that to be a Texan is also to be an ancient Greek, a Roman, an Israelite, a medieval Christian, and ..........
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