A Final Tale
Harvie Krumpet by Adam Eliot won the 2003 Oscar for “Best Short Animated Film.” How does Harvie’s story embody both Campbell’s hero journey and Jung’s individuation process?
Over the Garden Wall
The series of fairy tale cartoons takes us on a Campbell-Jungian journey …
Last Class
Our last meeting in class is this Wednesday at 12:50 pm. Check the syllabus on Canvas for a link.
For this class, there’s some reading I’d like you to do: Brother’s Grimm “Hansel and Gretel,” located here. If you are so inclined, also read the intro. But that’s not a must do.
Remote Learning Feedback
I want to invite all scholars from 1st and 2nd period to write about their experience with remote learning. What has worked well? What hasn’t worked well? What ideas do you have to improve remote learning?
As New Trier plans for next year’s classes, we would like student input on this experiment we’ve undertaken.
And as Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is prone to say, “Pray, be precise as to the details.”
Syllabus for 5/11 thru 5/15
HOW DOES THE HUMAN PSYCHE COPE WITH TRAUMA? Pi faces an unbelievable trauma and physical ordeal. He loses his entire family, and then is faced with what should be certain death. And yet, he manages to cope with this experience and endure. How can we adapt and survive such difficult experiences? When pushed to the limit, what happens to the human mind? We watch Pi's encounter with his shadow-self this week, and will witness what might be a psychic break and a delusion in the form of an island. Finally, students will finish reading the novel, and we will finish our class with a modern-day fairy tale.
MONDAY: GREY DAY/OFFICE HOURS
Today is a grey day, and you can meet with me during Zoom office hours 12:50 and 1:50 pm.
Check Canvas announcements for the link to Zoom.
TUESDAY: BLUE DAY / No class
Continue reading Life of Pi.
WEDNESDAY: GREEN DAY
We will start with a zoom meeting at 12:50, and the link is on our Canvas syllabus.
Starting with a journal entry: What is the moral/ethical/metaphysical compass by which you guide your decisions and your life?
Discussion: What are the observations Pi makes and the questions that Pi poses that help him better understand both himself and his place in the larger world?
Homework: Read up through and including chapter 91 (up to page 256)
THURSDAY: BLUE DAY / no class
Watch film selections on squarespace, “Monty Python / Madagascar," and, of course, keep reading.
FRIDAY: GREEN DAY
Starting with a Zoom meeting. The link is on the Canvas syllabus.
Together we will watch a documentary of physical endurance and psychological ordeal: The Endurance, the story of Earnest Shackleton.
Cannibalism, Pi, & Monty Python's Flying Circus
This is a clip from Python's treatment of being lost at sea:
And a clip of the “animals” both physically and psychologically trapped in isolation:
Syllabus for 5/4 through 5/8
HOW DOES ONE DEAL WITH TRAGEDY? All of the heroes we’ve studies have dealt with some form of personal crisis: Santiago leaves his sheep and then his true love in the desert; Rama loses first his true love, the his faith in her faithfulness; Tita is domineered by her Mama and forcibly separated from her love; Achilles loses first his honor, and then his best comrade in life. This is the first time we have seen a hero deal with a crisis of natural catastrophe. How does Pi adjust to the physical threat to his life, as well as the psychological and emotional trauma of losing his family? What are some of the comments are author makes about the meaning and purpose in life, through Pi’s trial?
MONDAY: GREY DAY/OFFICE HOURS
Today is a grey day, and you can meet with me during Zoom office hours 12:50 and 1:50 pm.
Check Canvas for the link to Zoom.
TUESDAY: BLUE DAY / No class
Finishing your reading in Life of Pi, up through and including chapter 45.
WEDNESDAY: GREEN DAY
We will start with a zoom meeting. Check Canvas for that link.
Starting with a journal entry: How does Pi use his zoological background and understanding of biology to attempt to understand his situation? What is the measuring stick that you use to try and understand your own world in this moment of pandemic crisis?
Discussion: How does Pi use biology to understand his current conflict? What insights does the author share through Pi’s predicament?
Homework: Read up through and including chapter 51 (up to page 145)
THURSDAY: BLUE DAY / no class
Watch film selections on squarespace, “Sinking of Ships”
FRIDAY: GREEN DAY
No zoom meeting today. Instead of class, use this time to get further ahead in the novel.
HW: Read up to and including chapter 67, up to page 198.
Sinking of Ships
Two clips from the iconic Spielberg film.
A clip from the film "Poseidon Adventure," when the tidal wave hits the cruise ship.
A short video on the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Syllabus for 4/27 through 5/1
ALREADY PISCINE MOLITOR PATEL REDEFINES what is true by giving himself a new name, a name which has—by the by—both mathematical and metaphysical implications for a person attempting “to become whole,” ala Jung’s individuation process. How is this new name emblematic of one’s attempt to determine one’s relationship between self and the universe? At the same time, we will see Pi’s father and Mr. Kumar assert an unchanging and universal truth in very practical and scientific ways. How is their definition of the world at odds with Pi’s approach to self-determination?
MONDAY: GREY DAY/OFFICE HOURS
Today is a grey day, and you can meet with me during Zoom office hours 12:50 and 1:50 pm.
Check Canvas for the link to Zoom.
TUESDAY: BLUE DAY / No class
Finishing your reading in Life of Pi, up through and including chapter 16 (up to page 50)
WEDNESDAY: GREEN DAY
We will start with a zoom meeting. Check Canvas for that link.
Starting with a journal entry: What is your position and role in your family? We will spend 10 minutes writing, and then will discuss, for at least 10 minutes,
Discussion: How does Pi see himself? How do the significant others in his life see him (Mamaji, his brother Ravi, his parents, his peers at school, Mr. Kumar, Aunti Rohini)? What is Pi’s worldview (his younger self—not the self narrating the story)?
Homework: Read up through and including chapter 25 (up to page 71)
Click on the image above to watch documentary on Christianity.
THURSDAY: BLUE DAY / no class
This weekend you will be watching and keeping notes on a documentary on Christianity.
FRIDAY: GREEN DAY
FOR CLASS: Zoom discussion: How is Pi using religion as a way of understanding his place in the universe? Why does it make sense that this character would turn to these three religions for a definition of self?
HW: Watch and keep notes on the above documentary. You will turn these in on Wednesday for class. Read up through and including chapter 45