WEEK ONE ASSIGNMENTS
Canto 1 from The Cantos of Ezra Pound and my commentary
[Editors note: all Canto commentary here]
Read Fenollosa’s THE CHINESE WRITTEN CHARACTER
Read opening matter & Chapter One of Pound’s ABC OF READING
Read my commentary on Copulating Currency [source unknown]
In the first 2 weeks buy or rent or somehow view DW Griffiths INTOLERANCE and study it as continuous montage — i.e. Ideogrammic Method
Meditate [& if you will, contemplate] upon:
Midnight Haiku
Mottled blueblack sky.
A sudden moon — briefly!
Then: Blueblack mottled sky…
WEEK TWO ASSIGNMENTS
Read Cantos 8 to 11 with my commentaries —
an ideogrammic presentation of one
typically atypical Renaissance man,
Sigismundo Pandolfo Malatesta
Consider ideogrammic method in relation
to the concept of extensional orientation
in General Semantics —
In extension we do not define humans as
mammals, mammals as vertebrates,
vertebrates as life forms etc
as caricatured by Fenollosa.
In extension we define humans as Odysseus,
Helen of Troy, El Cid, Lorenzo de Medici,
Eleanor of Aquitaine, Tom Jefferson,
Cunizza daRomano, John Adams, Kungfutse,
Tai Tsong, Andy Jackson, Yong Ching,
JP Morgan, etc etc as in the ideograms of the Cantos.
Pound & Fenollosa consider ideogram the
heart of poetry. Korzybski thought extensionality
the essence of science. Think about this
and cuss and discuss in the forums.
WEEK THREE ASSIGNMENTS
Read Canto 12 & 13 & my commentaries
Discuss in forums the treatment of “individulism”
in the Cantos as represented thus far by Odysseus [Canto I],
Malatesta [Cantos 8-11], the usurers [Canto 12]
and Kung fu Tse. [Canto 13]
Does the poem seem pro-individalism or anti?
Or does it display a “hierarchy of values”– e.g. great,
good enough, bad, terrible?
Read posted article on language and thought.
Discuss in relation to ideogrammic method and EP’s changes in style between & within Cantos.
WEEK FOUR ASSIGNMENTS
Read chapters 2 to 5 in ABC OF READING
Discuss the equation “dichten=condensare” in the forums
Compare EP’s definitions with my own, “Greatness in writing signifies high INFORMATION.”
Do I disagree with Ez
or have I merely restated his view in cybertalk?
DARE to make your OWN personal list of Inventors, Masters etc. without reference to Ez’s list
Continue discussion in forums the treatment of “individulism” in the Cantos as represented thusfar by Odysseus [Canto I], Malatesta [Cantos 8-11], the usurers [Canto 12] and Kung fu Tse [Canto 13]
WEEK FIVE ASSIGNMENTS
Read Canto II with my commentary. Discuss
or just cuss in Forums.
Read the following selection from
Uncle Bob’s Treasury of Great Poems.
Read commentary below. Cusss or discuss. [material unonwn]
WEEK 6 ASSIGMENTS
Read Canto 17 with my commentary.
Discuss or just cuss in Forums.
Since you didn’t do it last week,
read and comment on the selection from
Uncle Bob’s Treasury of Great Poems (now in Assignment Archive).
Read updated commentary below. Cuss or discuss.
Norbert Weiner, co-creator of Information Theory
and thus of the Net on which we speak to each other,
wrote in 1948 that great poetry contains more information than political speeches.
We cannot measure or define Information without
including the Receiver in the measurement or definition.
This PRECISELY mirrors the observer/observed
synergy in quantum mechanics but has received less publicity.
The only Information scenically and mathematically
measurable = the inability of the Receiver to guess
what’s coming next [the next “signal.’] In political
speeches, measurable information runs very near
the theoretical infinitesimal; you always know
what’s coming next.
In a “good” poem you don’t
know what’s coming next;
the greatest poems
[or fragments of poems]
consist of those that
have the faintly “spooky” quality of never
losing something of their original unpredictability,
for at least some Receivers.
These “fragments I have shelved [shored]” wd not illustrate
this so well if I had attached the author’s name
to each, thereby triggering conditioned reflexes.
How does each poetry selection illustrate —
or fail to illustrate — Weiner’s definition of high information?
If you have no ideas on any of these topics,
discuss something else, so I’ll at least know you’re alive.
WEEK 7 ASSIGMENTS
Canto 20 with commentary
read, meditate and write your own comments in the Forum
WEEK 8 ASSIGMENTS
an ideogrammic
approach
to the ideogrammic age….. [source unknown]
Read and discuss article in the forum
WEEK 9 ASSIGMENTS
Be sure to see the movie of the week, Educating Rita,
and note isomorphisms with
Frankenstein, Simone and My Fair Lady.
Compare isomphisms of King Kong and Behind the Green Door
Based on the definitions given earlier,
write extensional/ideogrammic definitions of
men
women
pornography
Christians
Moslems
Buddhists
democracy
terrorism
government
science
energy
wealth
entropy
feedback
Guide: an extensional/ideogrammic definition of US presidents:
Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, Bush, Clinton, Carter, Roosevelt, Adams, Bush, Harrison, Harrison, Roosevelt etc
Read and discuss in forum:
an ideogrammic
approach
to the ideogrammic age…..
WEEK 10 ASSIGMENTS
Read E and E-Prime
and do the exercizes
WEEK 11 ASSIGMENTS
Study and discuss Cantos 31 & 32
[Commentary in the course forum…]
Compare this ideogram [Jefferson/Adams] with those concerning Odysseus, Malatesta, the Medici, Confucius, Baldy Bacon.
How much commentary seems really necesary?
How much does each ideogram ‘comment’ on the others?
Do you begin to grok ideogammic method?
Closing thoughts…..
WEEK 12 ASSIGMENTS
Well, this course ended more quickly than
I expected. I hope you all enjoyed yourselves
as much as I did — and maybe even learned as
much as I did!
Some final notions —
go to the World Game and explore [& have fun!]:
http://www.worldgame.org/wwwproject/
Does ideogrammic method help you strategize in this game?
Compare this ideogram [Fullerworld] with Pound’s Cantos
concerning Odysseus, Malatesta, the Medici, Confucius, Baldy Bacon, Jefferson/Adams.
Fuller and Pound knew and appreciated each other’s work.
How many points of isomorphism can you detect?
Hope to hear from you again, maybe in another course!
murkily,
grandpaw
