Class:
1. Brief discussion of Regarding the Pain of Others and possible connections
2. Look over sample annotation
3. Choosing Sources
4. Handback D'Agata responses
HW:
1. Annotated Bibliography due on Mon 11/28
2. Also, please read the two sample research essay handouts. Pay careful attention to how these student writers balance source information and their own ideas/argument.
3. The rough draft of your research paper is due at our conference, which will take place W 11/30 - Fri. 12/2.
Possible Sources
I. Sources we've read as a class:
1. "Is Google making Us Stupid" by Nicholas Carr
2. "Why I Blog" by Andrew Sullivan
3. "The Numbing of the American Mind" by Thomas de Zengotita
4. "Braindead Megaphone" by George Saunders
5. "Regarding the Pain of Others" by Susan Sontag
6. "You, Yes, You Are Time's Person of the Year" Time Magazine
II. Sources from the Sources Page
III. Sources (particularly Scholarly Sources) you have found using the library research database
IV. Any other essays from our OTHER WORDS textbook
*Ideally you want a variety of sources that relates directly and indirectly (i.e. you do the work of relating them / applying them) to your topic.*
Possible Connections for Susan Sontag's "Regarding the Pain of Others."
Susan Sontag focuses her essay primarily on the image. Her claim that "we only remember the photographs" seems to support George Saunders analogy of megaphone man. What Sontag is interested in with regard to visual images is parallel to what Saunders is discussing with regard to the talking heads of the news media...
Sontag's argument is also linked to some degree to what Nicholas Carr argues in "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" Both authors are interested in discussing what they feel is an overload of information. While Sontag worries that repeated viewing of horrific photos shocks and desensitizes, Carr worries that search overload causes us to become mere decoders of information. According to Sontag, viewers tacitly sanction whatever is depicted in a photo simply by viewing it. According to Carr, the more we use Google the more our brains begin to function like it. The photo and the Google search, then, both exercise a great amount of power over us. They both come to exist as part of our understanding of how the world works, or of what is normal, and both of these authors want to point out the possible dangers associated with these worldviews.
Sample Annotation
In his essay, "The Numbing of the American Mind," Thomas de Zengotita expresses a level of surprise that most Americans "moved on" so quickly after 9/11/01. Zengotita explains that this happened because we are so over-stimulated by an onslaught of information, that we can only react by becoming partially numb. Zengotita shares with Susan Sontag, author of "Regarding the Pain of Others," an interest in exploring the possible effects of desensitization. I see Zengotita's claims as an extension of Sontag's. While Sontag primarily considers the desensitizing affects of war photos, Zengotita considers the desensitizing effects of the onslaught of partially fabricated images many Americans confront daily. Both of these authors are also interested in what these images teach us. Sontag claims that horrific images inform our memory, but she worries visual images do not help us understand. Perhaps most notably, she claims that even viewing a photo sanctions what it depicts in some way. Zengotita is concerned that we are unable to take the time to understand the images we see, and so what we are taught by such images are increasingly nuanced strategies for "moving on." I will attempt to apply Zengotita's argument to my analysis of the role of the text-message in society. If Zengotita were to study text messages, he would likely view them as a means by which texters keep moving. Text messages may actually be evidence that we have learned very well how to keep moving, and sending and receiving texts might be evidence of how we practice our need to keep moving. Another thing Zengotita's essay makes me wonder with regard to text message is to what degree they serve to give the text sender and receiver a sense of connection with the overly digitized world? From this perspective, it may be possible for me to argue that text messages serve a vital need of providing connection and reassurance within an increasingly aggressive onslaught of stimuli. The possible irony here is that text messages are also themselves part of the information overload.
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