Wednesday, February 11

Happy Oreo Wednesday! Snaps to Lauren and Kendra for bringing us Oreos!

Homework:

• Discussers for friday: make sure you have your syllabus ready
• The first part of our Last Lecture (childhood) is due Friday
• Write feedback on Smith's Last Lecture
• Project due February 20. 

Discussion: 

First, we circled up and talked about our first thoughts on Dorian Gray and the reflection papers we wrote about the preface.  Some points we covered were:

• Wilde's book is a piece of art b/c we are still "admiring"/studying it today
• people don't like to see their flaws, nor do they like perfection because it makes them look that much worse
• Wilde says art is useless, yet his book is considered art, and he has an artist as a main character in his book and the painting itself is a very important element in it. -->paradoxes
• Anything can be art because art is anything people use to express themselves
• only the artist fully understands the ideas behind his work, or aren't there any hidden meanings?
• What if the preface was satirical? he could be saying that art is overrated, most art isn't true art...
• When the book was written Wilde was in jail/on trial. Is that why he says that no book is immoral or moral, just good or badly written? --> defending himself for what he wrote in the book. "Delve into book at your own peril" quote means that people have to make their own choice on whether they want to read a book with this kind of content. 

Vocab:

• Hellenic: relating to Greek culture
• Aestheticism: viewing all things for their beauty
• Morals: beliefs, good/bad
• Caliban: character in Shakespeare's Tempest, portrayed as monstrous
• Realism: when everyday, real-life stuff is portrayed in art
• Romanticism: emotions, senses, "aesthetic experience"

Characters:

• Basil: rich artist, friends with Lord Henry, met Dorian Gray at a party and now he is obsessed with Dorian and is painting a picture of him. Basil is mysterious and secretive but confides in Lord Henry about almost everything. 
• Lord Henry Wotton: Very rich man, had a good education and is outspoken in his opinions and ideas about life, always smiling and adds humor to book. He is manipulative, clever, bored, shallow,  uses his money for power?, persuasive, humorous. He met Dorian Gray at Basil's house. 
• Dorian Gray: orphan, he is beautiful, charming, and lively. 

Project: 

Then we talked about our new project due on the 20th. There are copies of the sheet we need to guide us on the website. 

Objective: reveal the artist's conflict, the struggle of the facade we are forced to have because of society and who we really are (how society views us and how we view ourselves).

Project: We need to come up with two self portraits, one that shows how society views you, one that is how you view yourself/who you truly are. You can show this through poetry, a song,  a video, a collage, a painting, etc. Be creative and unique! See the rubric on the web page if you have questions