Month: August 2023

For Thursday, read the first chapter – – “Of Our Spiritual Strivings” – – of W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk (1903). (If you want to peruse the whole, astonishing book – – free electronic versions can be found here.)

Make three annotations on “Of Our Spiritual Strivings.”  Each of your annotations should focus on this question: What is the connection here between Du Bois and Adams?

For Tuesday, let’s stick with Henry Adams’ “The Dynamo and the Virgin.” Make three annotations.  For these annotations: reply to three questions or conundrums posed by your classmates in their annotations.

First, make sure you’ve practiced a few annotations on Phil Levine’s “They Feed They Lion.”

For Thursday (8/24), read and annotate the excerpt chapter – – “The Dynamo and the Virgin” – – from Henry Adams’ The Education of Henry Adams.  (On Friday, I will post an update on work due for next Tuesday, August 24).  Try to finish reading/annotating Adams by Friday (8/25) at noon.

Make three annotations on “The Dynamo and the Virgin.”

Here’s how to annotate this text: Confusion is a critical part of reading – – if you don’t experience moments of confusion or questioning, you’re probably either not reading very seriously or reading something pretty uninteresting.  Your annotations of Adams should focus on moments of confusion in the essay/chapter.  For each annotation, highlight the sentence or sentences (or even individual words or phrases) that seem to be confusing.  Pause and think about why this moment in the text is confusing. Your annotations should explain what makes these moments confusing.