Student Blogs – Page 31 – Quixotic Pedagogue

Music and Existentialism: Ellison Was Right!

Lauren sent me a link to this interesting story in USA Today that suggests that musicians are identifying their unique selves when they create music:

From Eric Clapton to Miles Davis to Yo-Yo Ma, we’ve long heard that when musicians improvise, they’re engaged in an intensely personal pursuit. A pair of scientists have scanned musicians’ brains and now say that’s true.

More precisely, when musicians improvise, they’re using the same part of the brain that responds to a simple request: Tell me about yourself.

March 7, 2008/by dpogreba

From the Blogs…

Student Blogs

I haven’t done a blog update for awhile, but the class has definitely had some good insight in the past few days and weeks about the short stories we’ve discussed:

H20Beachbum wonders about the cause of the narrator’s unhappiness in Sonny’s Blues;
Amy explores the idea of Sonny’s suffering and his response;
Chris asks whether or not we are just making things up when we interpret literature;
Shauna looks at the positive portrayal of human endurance in Tillie Olson’s work;
Haley gets the title wrong , but offers good insights about I Stand Here Ironing; while
LHartley discusses the role of religion and faith in The Handsomest Drowned Man.