Critical Thinker

1C Quiz 2 for Summer 2012

In 350-500 words, explain why Moldova is one of the most unhappy countries in recorded history.

It’s Beginning to Hurt Lesson 4: Compulsive Behavior and the Unconscious

 

“Cleanness”  103

1. What psychological profile can we glean about Roland on the story’s first page? He’s full of repressed desires, guilt, lives in the shadow of his father, is a man in bondage to fear and anxiety. Perhaps he blames himself, erroneously, for not saving his mother from his father. He is also guilt-ridden for hating his mother. See page 110.
2. Why is Rosemary compared to a planishing hammer on page 104? See 105 in which Roland divulges his pent up grief including the horror of seeing his mother as a sacrifice for her husband.
3. What evidences that Rosemary is a surrogate mother or even angel to Roland? 104
4. What ironies accompany Roland’s fall into a pool of filth? Both contamination and purgation. A baptism of sorts.
5. What is the Oedipus Complex on page 113?
6. What is the powerful image of re-connecting with Mother on the story’s final page? Is it an attempt to find unconditional love and escape the tyranny of a cruel patriarch?

“Caterpillars”

1. What toxicity roils beneath Craig’s flesh and lowers Caitlin’s opinion of the human race? 215. On page 220, we see that Craig is like the Misfit. “No real pleasure in life. Only meanness.”
2. What infantile demon unleashes on page 216? It seems some tribal war violence has awakened, making a roadblock for the SUVs. Violence for its own sake, wilding.
3. What is Caitlin’s disadvantage to being in a relationship with Craig as described on page 224? How is this evil similar to the story “Cleanness”?
4. What is the allegory of this story? See the ending.

 

It’s Beginning to Hurt, Lesson 3: The Rules for Writing a Love Story, Updated

Relevant Options for Essay

Option 1

Develop a thesis that answers the following question: How do characters in Lasdun's "love stories" reach the demonic state? Consider, the Faustian Bargain, settling, the dream of eternal adolescence, and the chimera for a comparison essay that includes at least 3 stories, "The Half Sister," "The Natural Order," and "Peter Khan's Third Wife." Be sure your essay is 1,000 words and includes a Works Cited page with a minimum of 2 sources.

Some helpful clues:

Characters feel helpless in a cycle of futility and this sense of helpless desperation makes them reach out for misguided, demonic love.

Characters are stagnant and not part of the natural human narrative of a beginning, middle, and end.

Characters are intoxicated by a false ideal of themselves and seek demonic means to reach their false ideal.

 Option 4

Compare the theme of the chimera (idealized love) and its resulting futility as it occurs in the "Peter Kahn's Third Wife" and F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Winter Dreams."  Observe that both stories follow the Faustian Bargain motif. Be sure your essay is 1,000 words and includes a Works Cited page with a minimum of 2 sources. Here's another link to "Winter Dreams."

Helpful Clues

Both characters lose sense of time.

Both characters live for a glorious future or long for a past ideal while squandering the present

Both characters idealize an unworthy person, either cipher or narcissist or both.

Both characters pursue their chimera dream with the intensity of a drug addict, severing relationships and alienating themselves from others along the way.

The Faustian Bargain or "deal with the devil" could be attributed to the following:

1. Trading our soul and independence of mind for Hakuna Matata, a delusion.

2. Compromising our integrity and intelligence for a velvet trap.

3. Giving up our personal dreams to conform to the family or tribe, resulting in self-abnegation and self-erasure.

Strategies for Writing an Essay Based on Today's Topic

The "love stories" in James Lasdun's collection are really not about love at all but are about the Irrational Mind evidenced by ____________, ______________, _________________, and _________________.

 In "Peter Khan's Third Wife" Clare gradually descends deeper and deeper into madness with no self-awareness or Third Eye. She descends into madness. We can conclude that her story is not a love story; it's a story about madness.

What is a love story? A story about the Irrational Mind, Madness, and Insanity.

Rule Number for Writing a Love Story: It's Never About Love. It's About Eros.

It's a story, for sure, but it's never about love. Love is just the packaging and the illusion experienced by the character. We are so sick in our need to package ourselves, and others, as illusions of love that these illusions result in divorce lawsuits.

If not love, then was is a love story pointing to? There are psychological explanations for "falling in love."

1. Unrealistic expectations based on boredom, immaturity, and desperation.

2. Novelty, the craving for something new to eat before spitting it out and going on to some other new thing. This is the mindset of a child.

3. The chimera, a figment of our imagination in which we chase phantoms produced by our unconscious. These phantoms represent our hunger for an Absolute an Escape, a form of Transcendence.

4. We fall in love often to escape a sense of our mortality. Falling in love makes us feel that we've conquered death, that we've transcended death because we've found something eternal. All crappy love songs are about rising above the transitory, shallow world and connecting with something deeper and larger than ourselves and this connection makes us feel like we will never die. We can't emphasize this enough: The hunger for connection saves us but it can also kill us, depending on the manner of the connection. Remember: Connection is a way of overcoming death.

5. We cannot bear to live in boring temporal world; falling in love, we connect with a parallel world to the one we live in. This parallel world feels eternal and makes the temporal world we live in more bearable.

When you fall in love, life is no longer boring. Look what happens to jeans and chewing gum when you fall in love.

Rule Number Two for Writing a Love Story:

Love Always Ends in Madness, Misery, Or Death, Or All of the Above

Because the love story is rooted in the human condition of desperation and because a love story captures a state of ecstasy which by its very nature is short-lived, a love story always has a crash, in which the character falls to earth and either comes out wiser or more often than not is permanently psychologically damaged or even dies.

Rule Three for Writing a Love Story:

There must be intense feeling of love, a form of ecstasy, followed by the curdling of love, which is a fancy way of saying hate and this hate makes us question if we ever found love in the first place. The ecstasy of "love" creates unrealistic expectations (because this bliss cannot be sustained) and because the intensity of love (always touching) must fade and its fading results in resentment and awkwardness.

Rule Four for Writing a Love Story:

We become convinced of our "love experience" to the point of being possessed with moral rectitude and we have contempt for the rest of the world for its incapacity to understand our rarified emotion. Additionally, we become defensive and hostile to anyone who questions the authenticity and superiority of our "love experience." As a result, we pity and condenscend to the world for its inability to taste our paradise. As such we become, by virture of falling in love, borish, pompous, insufferable asses. Happily, or sadly, depending on how we look at it, our "love" vanishes and we are sent back to Planet Earth and join misery with the rest of the human race.

Rule Five for Writing a Love Story:

We always give everything of ourselves for this "love," sacrificing everything "to make it work," but in the end this "love" devours us while giving us nothing in return. As a result, we exit our "love experience" feeling used, abused, exploited and the aftertaste of such an experience is intense bitterness, perhaps even suicide. Often this motif is referred to as the "Vampire Theory of Love" in which one subject gets bigger and stronger while the other gets smaller and weaker.

Rule Six for Writing a Love Story:

Love in a story is never about connection with reality; it is always about retreating into the solipsistic fantasies of self; therefore, a love story is always about a form of insanity. See, for example, "Peter Khan's Third Wife."

Rule Seven for Writing a Love Story

Love in a story is always about the confusion of noble emotions for what "love" really is, capricious, fickle, impulsive behavior. A love story is not about the pursuit of love; it is about the dalliance, the caprice, the fling and aggrandizing something so base and selfish with words like "love."

Rule Eight for Writing a Love Story

Love in a story is often about the sublimation (re-direction) of erotic desire manifest in melancholia, depression, and other poignant emotions associated with the spiritual world. See "The Half Sister." Or see the famous James Joyce short story, "Araby." Unfulfilled erotic love finds expression in acute sadness and defeat.

Rule Nine for Writing a Love Story

The subject is never interested in love; the subject is both bored and frustrated with his low place in life so he "falls in love" to create drama, a distraction from his horrible life. As soon as he no longer feels frustrated, he abandons his love project even if it means breaking the other person's heart. Why? Because a love story at its heart is about selfishness. If love is born from selfishness, fear, and desperation, then it must end badly.

Rule Ten for Writing a Love Story

It must never be about the compatibility of the sexes. It must be about their essential incompatibility. As George Carlin said, "In relationships, women disover that men are stupid and men discover that women are crazy and the reason woman are crazy is because men are stupid."

“Peter Kahn’s Third Wife” 185

1. What romantic yet sobering thought informs the story? That romantic love overtakes us, defies logic, survives great obstacles, grows from desperate circumstances, and in many ways is unforgiving and self-destructive.
2. What ambiguity haunts us regarding Clare Keillor’s interactions with Peter Khan? Is the magic real, self-induced? Is Clare chasing a chimera? Is her life wasting away like the man Dexter in “Winter Dreams”? See 186 bottom.
3. On the bottom of page 186, we see a drugged, opium-like state in which Clare is “glazed off from the everyday world.” It appears that her life is enduring the intervals between one glazed off moment and the next. Is this true of all of us? We wait for grand moments that never come. She models diamonds to be the image of perfection for others when her real life is a huge mess. There is our irony. She finds comfort in her job where she escapes into chimera world.
4. With love, do we really deal with love or do we live inside our head, lost in a world of solipsism? Explain in the context of the story. Peter Khan seems oblivious to Clare, at least during his first two wives. Her "affair" is in her head.
5. Could we argue that it should be obvious to Clare that Khan is not worthy of her obsessive love? Explain. Could Clare’s abusive husband impair her judgment? Explain.
6. There are two worlds in this story: the glassed-in sphere on page 189 and the real world. What is the relationship between these two worlds and Clare?
7. Why is Clare satisfied to live in a hateful relationship with Neil? See page 192. Perhaps her hate “readies” her for the “love” she must have with Peter Khan, an illusion.
8. Does Clare really see Khan as a cipher on page 192?
9. Why does Clare lie to Neil by telling him she had an affair with Khan?
10.  How does the story end?

 Introduction:

Write a personal story about someone you know (could be you) in which the narrative is not about love but about madness.

Many years ago my friends were driving from their homes in Bakersfield to attend a Los Angeles Dodgers game. As they were riding over the steepest ascent of the Grapevine, they saw on the side of a road a smoldering, overheated vintage Volkswagen van. Standing outside of the van were four giddy, nubile, beautiful women, all Grateful Dead followers, “Dead Heads.”

Even though their orange rusted van was near ruin, the sun-darkened hippies were still giddy from a Grateful Dead concert and they greeted their rescuers by waving their tie-dye bikini tops and spaghetti-strap tank tops in the air like glorious semaphores. My three mechanically-adroit friends helped cool off their van’s steaming engine and spent the next hour making the van road-ready. The women invited the young men to accompany them to Santa Barbara for its annual Summer Solstice Festival. These were attractive women, the men told me, earthy women who, abjuring perfume, wafted the natural-producing odors of musk and desire.

But my friends had already bought their Dodgers tickets and were determined to catch the game, so after profusely thanking the women for their kind offer,  the three apologetic men rode off to Los Angeles, leaving the glowing, irrepressible pixies behind.

Years later my friends do not remember the Dodgers game, but they are still haunted by all the “what ifs?” that accompany their stupid refusal to go with the harvest maidens to the Solstice Festival. Whenever they tell the story, they argue with one another over who was at fault for insisting that they go to the Dodgers game. Their demeanors change during these accusations. They become beastly, red-faced, and seem to be foaming at the mouth.

Even ten years later, the mere discussion of their lost opportunity with the hippy goddesses reduces them to snarling, contentious animals. Bitter and resentful, they’re still possessed by all the unfulfilled possibilities that titillate their imagination and prevent them from sleeping in the deep of the night. They complain of insomnia, night flashes, half-conscious visions of splendorous encounters with those Bacchanalian nymphs.

Chained to the memory of an unfulfilled opportunity, they can not live in the present and as such they treat their girlfriends, quite attractive in their own right, with flagrant disregard. After all, their hearts are still trapped in a time warp—that fateful day they encountered the van of sun-drenched sirens and repelled their invitation to ecstasy.

My three friends cannot forgive themselves for their stupidity. They still hurl accusations toward one another. Each is to blame for declining the invitation and going to some stupid baseball game.  In short, my three friends are eternally miserable, still unable to live in the here and now because their minds and souls remain fixated on that hot summer day when tie-die bikini tops fluttered in the wind like the undulating gleam of a paradise now forever out of their reach. 

Being fixated on the past is my friends' destructive chimera, which has over-taken them and has made them lose all contact with reality. Indeed, we see a similar destructive chimeric power in the short stories "Peter Kahn's Third Wife" and "Winter Dreams," which show the chimera's deleterious effects, including __________________, _______________, ______________, and _________________. 

James Lasdun, “It’s Beginning to Hurt” (209)

One. “Strange, to be lying to her once again.”

The word “strange” is disingenuous since the definition of strange in this context is an unusual occurance, but the story evidences a husband who is a pathological liar. He tells lies as a matter of course. He is wrapped up in lies. We see a marriage in a condition of rupture. The story’s title in this context seems like an ironic understatement.

We read the husband is “thinking about the ceremony he just attended.” Is he rehearsing his lie for his wife? In fact, he did go to a funeral. The lie surrounds the circumstances behind the funeral regarding a woman named Marie.

Two. What chimera informs the husband’s affair with Marie?

They have their affairs in different houses—homes that are listed for sale in the real estate market—and each home is like being transported “into a different world.” This chimera creates an ecstasy, which becomes the husband’s addiction. And he must hide his addiction to his wife with an elaborate labyrinth of lies.

Three. What is the metaphor of the rotting salmon hidden in a basement drawer among beetle and rat traps?

The salmon, a metaphor of fertility and spawning, is dead and rotten. It is the underbelly of what should be a flourishing entity—marriage. Instead, the marriage is a cadaver reeking of stench and death.

 

  

 

McMahon Grammar Exercises: Pronoun Errors

 

Rewrite each sentence below so that you’ve corrected the pronoun errors.

One. Between you and I, there are too many all-you-can-eat buffets mushrooming over southern California because a person thinks they’re getting a good deal when we can eat endless plates food for a mere ten dollars.

Two. When children grow up eating at buffets, they expand their bellies and sometimes you find you cannot get “full” no matter how much we eat.

 Three. As thousands of children gorged on pastrami at HomeTown Buffet, you could tell we would have to address the needs of a lot of sick children.

Four. Although I like the idea of eating all I want, you can sense that there is danger in this unlimited eating mentality that can escort us down the path of gluttony and predispose you to diabetes.

Five. When a customer feels he’s getting all the food they want, you know we can increase your business.

Six. If a student studies the correct MLA format, you can expect academic success.

Seven. It’s not easy for instructors to keep their students’ attention for a three-hour lecture. He or she must mix up the class-time with lecture, discussion, and in-class exercises.

Eight. It is good for a student to read the assigned text at least three times. When they do, they develop better reading comprehension.   

Nine. The instructor gave the essays back to Bob and I.

Ten. We must find meaning to overcome the existential vacuum. Otherwise, you will descend into a rabbit hold of despair and they will find themselves behaving in all manners of self-destruction.

 

“Oh, Death” 137

1. How does the story set up the conflict between edenic and secular or temporal time? See 139. “Just somewhere to go . . . “ A man cave. See 140.
2. What can we glean about Faye in the story’s first few pages?
3. How is Faye destroying Rick’s life on page 138? The story is about the motif of consummation unto death.  
4. What is the main plot development on page 146?
5. Explain the narrator’s ambiguity toward Faye on page 148.
6. What elicits our sympathy toward Faye on pages 149 and 150?

 

“Lime Pickle” (197)

1. What is the metaphor of eating Indian food for the first time? The senses are heightened and this is one we’re vulnerable to things like “love” or its illusion.
2. What is the story’s purpose of juxtaposing the narrator and Anna on one hand and Anna’s father Roland Hamilton and Lesley on the other? The fallibility of love or its volatile, unstable nature becomes apparent. We are especially contemplating love as an indulgence, its sensual manifestation, Eros. See 200.
3. What evidences Roland’s selfishness? He destroys his daughter’s birthday by divulging an affair, putting it in her face and saying to “bottle things up is bad for digestion.”
4. What is Roland’s fate? See 206.
5. How does the story end?

McMahon's Approach to Writing a Thesis Based on Previous Lecture

When we're technically right about something, we often become blind to the related areas in which we're profoundly wrong, thereby maximizing our stupidity and making us submit to the Irrational Mind. In James Lasdun's masterful collection, three stories bear witness to this principle, "The Half Sister," "The Incalculable Life Gesture," and "The Natural Order."

In groups of 2 or 3, explain how the principle applies to the 3 stories.

 

"Oh, Death," "Peter Khan's Third Wife," and "Lime Pickle" are all love stories. The characters receive epiphanies about the truth behind their love or if they don't receive epiphanies at all, we the readers receive them from a careful reading of the story.

 

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Part of protracted adolescence is that college takes longer and people aren't in the job force until much later. This makes marriage almost a thing of the past.

 

Themes in the "The Natural Order"

The existential vacuum and ennui (a sense of stagnation and boredom) push us toward a moral crisis or struggle in many ways as we must confront:

self-delusion: our infinite capacity to fool ourselves into believing in fantasies or in our ability to deny reality. (football comeback)

feeling worthless and irrelevant (like a cog in the machine; man comes home and sits in his car drinking while waiting to go inside the house; when he does, everyone in his family ignores him)

 

The Causes of Self-Delusion (taking us away from metacognition)

1. The unconscious: forces we cannot see that spring from unknown needs and desires and fears. Often these desires and fears project into delusions such as a compulsion to collect brief cases (organization from chaos) or search for the perfect bed (search for lost mother).

Sometimes we suffer from unconscious bias such as recently reported about science professors in their bias against female science majors.

2. Vanity is another cause of our self-delusions based on its very definition: excessive and exaggerated esteem and estimation of our powers, skills, talents, "good looks," etc.

3. Chimera, as we said in the first lesson, is a mirage that we chase because we are in love with the chase, but not the acquisition. We are too often in love with an idea about life but not life itself. Chimeras are always unconsious manifestations. The most common chimera is the "velvet trap"; it appears like paradise from the outside but offers hell within.

Another form of the Velvet Trap is the myth of Hakuna Matata, the land of no worries.

Often a chimera is a symbol of our broken dreams. For example, in the short story "The Half Sister" the lonely Charmian is the Priestess of Broken Dreams, a chimera who draws Martin into her lonely world where his guitar playing will be subsidized by Charmian's rich father.

HomeTown Buffet is a place of Broken Dreams, the dream of getting full. It is a feeding hut where metacognition doesn't exist. All the blood is out of the brain and in the belly.

Patrick Malloy's or some other night club is the Dream of Connection and Eros. Let's put it this way: Do good things happen to people who are in bars drinking at 3 A.M.?

And yet the people at HomeTown Buffet and Patrick Malloy's are emtpy and depressed.

When we pursue the chimera, we commit a Faustian Bargain, a deal with the devil, that demands every fiber of our being  but gives little.

4. Lust or concupiscence makes people use other people but the user wants to feel good about himself so he rationalizes his behavior.

5. Stewart from "The Natural Order" represents the chimera of Eternal Youth, Unlimited Possibilities, and Hedonistic Paradise.

Sample Thesis Statements

James Lasdun's stories show us that the tragedy of the Faustian Bargain is that once we are seduced by a false paradise, we submit our will to that sacrifice resulting in _____________, ____________, _______________, and _______________. 

Ennui or the existential vacuum makes us vulnerable to the Faustian Bargain in four ways, not the least of which is ____________, _______________, _____________, and ________________. 

The characters in Lasdun's short story collection are woefully lacking in free will evidenced by ________________, _______________, ______________, and __________________. 

 

“The Natural Order” Lexicon

One. Devil Spreads Seeds of Discontent. See page 24 in which Stewart says a wedding ring announces that a person is someone else's property. Stewert stirs the pang of envy and regret in Abel's heart.

On page 28 we see that Abel feels the need to justify his oppressive existence, that being a married man, a parent, was to choose a "freakish and bizarre approach to life."

He now wondered, on page 29, if his married life was that of a deliberate choice, a good thing, or "passive acquiesence," a bad thing.

Feeling inferior, he begans to dress up and groom, emulating Stewart and we wonder if all the grooming and fashion from the advertising world is to stimulate our Dionysian lusts and impulses.

Abel will wear a crimson disco shirt, which I would call meretricious, cheap and garish in its allure.

Two. Ubridled, Radical Individualism and Masculinity, an untamed beast who is possessed with a "ceaseless and exclusive preoccupation with sex" (25).

Three. Family life vs. satyr (Pan or Billy Goat) life represents the war between Apollonian and Dionysian Forces. See this other link about Apollonian and Dionysian Forces.

Stewart embodies the Dionysian spirit as we read on page 31: "under the man's crassness a fine, bright flame seemed to burn in him. One was almost physically aware of it: a steady incandescence of sexual interest in the world, the lively brightness of which was its own irrefutable argument."

In contrast, Abel feels disabled, like his life is "domestic contentment," not present with joy but absent of pain (31).

See the Satyr's Tool Kit on page 30: jars, tubes, bottles, vials, oils, lotions, etc. (my favorite passage)

At the story's end, when Abel crosses the line and commits adultery, he is full of "unfamiliar savage jubiliation," part of the Dionysian spirit.

In a marriage based on love, not dynasty, as we read in Tim Parks' essay "Adultery," marriage is afflicted with the "collision of sacred and profance, the scenes of domestic bliss undermined by evident allusions to more disturbing emotions: serpents and harpies warning rapturous newly-weds of obscure calamaties to come."

In other words, the marriage of dynasty, business, family, is an older, stronger form of marriage. Marriage of love is a newer type that is more vulnerable to the need for passion and ecstasy.

This hunger for ecstasy comes from the god Dionysus who "loosens and unties," creating chaos. "Dionysus is the river," we read in Parks' essay, "we hear flowing by in the distance, an incessant booming from far away; the one day it rises and floods everything, as if the normal above-water state of things, the sober delimitation of our existence, were but a brief parenthesis overwhelmed in an instant." In other words, passion is a tsunami that destroys the nest we've spent years building.

Four. Lies of omission: On page 33, Stewart flirts with a woman and tells her he lives in Connecticut, a truth, but doesn't tell her he's a husband and a father.

Five. Moral Inversion: to justify wrong behavior by turning the tables, as it were. Look on page 36 where Abel says to not have an affair, to not betray his wife would be a sin because he would be wasting a golden opportunity. Life doesn't offer many incredible moments to have great sex with another human being; what a waste to squander such an opportunity, he tells himself. He's BSing himself now.

Six. Like Martin from "The Half Sister," we see that Abel suffers from squandered dreams, lowered expectations, recurring futility, self-pity, and self-loathing (failed playwright) and wants to medicate himself with something: a sexual affair perhaps. See page 37.

Seven. The One-Armed Man. He represents hyper-masculinity (war prisoner  and sniper who had his trigger finger smashed and we see him chopping goat; there must be a rich metaphor in there somewhere) on one hand and crippled limitations on the other. Is he an image of Stewart the Satyr?

Eight. Slippery Slope and the Moral Abyss. On page 47 we read "it was impossible to get a sense of the scale of what he was confronting," which is a life of denial, lies, of living an outright, perpetual lie. This is the gorge or the abyss. This is nihilism, the death of meaning.

1. Stewart, who is hostile to marriage, represents what chimera to Abel? The chimera of unlimited opportunities and possibilities (more tech, more misery); all windows are open (ironically when you try to get through all the windows you fail at passing all of them). In fact, Stewart is a man-child beholden to concupiscence, desires that get worse when we try to feed them.
   
2. Most guys are familiar with a Stewart type. We both hate and admire the Stewarts of the world. Women despise them and justifiably so, for should we not hate that which can make us helpless and destroy us? Explain men’s ambivalence toward the Stewart. We want to be like him; at the same time, we know he’s evil and selfish, what we might call a sexual conquistador. We'd never want the Stewarts of the world to date our daughters, our sisters, and our mothers. See page 26. Abel is in shock and anger at Stewart's blunt arrogance and need to show off about his conquests, but he envies Stewart at the same time.
3. On page 29, we see Abel go down the slippery slope of self-delusion. Explain. We begin by watching Abel emulate Stewart’s dress code, that of a lascivious satyr. Abel claims to reject Stewart’s philandering while wanting to salvage Stewart’s good qualities, but in reality Abel is becoming the very image of the man he despises. And that is the beginning of descending into the abyss. Evil knows no compromise. Once we start down that road . . . In fact, by page 31, we see that Abel admires the flame of robust vitality that roils beneath Stewart’s exterior. He is a man of vitality who embraces life; indeed, Stewart has an appetite for life and lives life fully. He has now been idealized, put on a pedestal. Putting undeserving creatures on a pedestal is very dangerous and self-destructive.
4. On page 31, what doubt haunts Abel about his marriage? That domestic life was a way of hiding from life, from being a member of the walking dead, a fake life. Abel is a charlatan and an impostor, a sort of eunuch. Stewart in contrast is an adventurous Billy Goat. In Abel’s newfound perverted “wisdom,” having affairs is a sign of moral superiority evidencing a man overflowing with life. Living in a marriage is being a slave inside a prison, a castrated man pretending to be happy. He begins to believe in his own B.S. Very dangerous.
5. Does Abel cheat on his wife in a state of frenzied intoxication or calm acceptance? Explain. See page 35 top. Worse, than cheating on his wife, he realizes he no longer loves her. Now this happens BEFORE he cheats on her. Abel lives in two parallel universes: The universe he really lives in and the universe he WANTS to live in. That is his chimera.
   
6. On page 46, how does the scene evidence that Abel’s cheating temptations are more about vanity than lust?
7. Explain the metaphor of wilderness and dizzying heights in the story? They are about the loss of a moral foundation and the vertigo and self-loss that results.

Option 2

Analyze the dream of eternal adolescence and its corruption of the soul by comparing this dream to "The Natural Order" or "The Half Sister" and Joseph Epstein's essay "Perpetual Adolescence."    Be sure your essay is 1,000 words and includes a Works Cited page with a minimum of 2 sources.

Some Major Comparison Points

Fashion choices rebel against conformity and age: men choose to dress like teenagers as a sign that they're in denial of their age.

Peter Pan Syndrome: fighting life's natural narrative, what Aristotle called a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Jung's Four Stages of Life Vs. Teenage Stagnation

Athlete

Warrior

Statesperson

Spirit

Teenage stagnation glorified by novels (Catcher in the Rye), music, movies (Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler, Judd Apatow), sports, cult of self-esteem. 

We've become a culture of narcissism under the veil of "staying young."

Concupiscence, infantile desire: Stewart never grows out of the stage (a toddler's stage); Abel regresses to it.

There are toddler foods in America: Hot Pockets, pizza, HomeTown Buffet

Link to Lesson on Documenting Sources in MLA Format

 

  

 

“Totty” (a desirable woman, page 164)

1. What suggests that “free love,” that is infidelity, is just a tiresome, humiliating rigmarole? See page 166. June has to convalesce from her Bacchanalia and retreat into the outskirts.
2. What stagnation and ennui does June suffer from on page 166?
3. How does Mrs. Dolfuss represent Apollonian forces warring with Dionysian forces? Her name sounds like “dull “ and “fuss.” Two extremes in the story.  Apollonian forces refer to control, restraint, and routine. Dionysian forces refer to chaos, anarchy, self-abandonment, and self-indulgence.
4. In what ways is Paul Crawford a devil? See the damage done to June on page 178 in which she is shunned by Mrs. Crawford and Mrs. Dolfuss.
5. How is Paul’s son, Martin, connected to music and how does this connection affect June? See 171.
6. Explain June’s revenge plot. Do you agree with it? Explain.

Related articles

What If Meaning Exists in Our Head as a Mass Delusion?

Having a Chimera Will Make Your Life Miserable, But Not Having a Chimera Will Make Your Life Even More Miserable

Are All Chimeras Equal?

It’s Beginning to Hurt Lesson #1: Love and "Settling" in "The Half Sister": a Faustian Bargain Tale

 

Finding Logical Fallacies in "Facts and Fallacies About Paycheck Fairness"

"Facts and Fallacies About Paycheck Fairness" by Phyllis Schlafly

A look at the false premises that build Schlafly's argument

Seven Options for Essay

Option One

Develop a thesis that answers the following question: How do characters in Lasdun's "love stories" reach the demonic state?

By "demonic" I mean several things:

They go mad.

They become irrational.

They become obsessed.

They lose contact with reality.

They become blind to their own self-destruction.

They lose sight of their meaningful connections and as a result they lose those connections.

They chase a pipe dream or a chimera and obliterate themselves in the process.

They become bitter at their wasted life and realize they've squandered their existence on a "crap dream." They're overcome, as a result, with self-hatred and remorse.

Consider, their madness as the result of the Faustian Bargain, settling, the dream of eternal adolescence, and the chimera for a comparison essay that includes at least 3 stories, "The Half Sister," "The Natural Order," and "Peter Khan's Third Wife." Be sure your essay is 1,000 words and includes a Works Cited page with a minimum of 2 sources.

 

Option Two

Analyze the dream of eternal adolescence and its corruption of the soul by comparing this dream to "An Anxious Man," "The Natural Order" or "The Half Sister" and Joseph Epstein's essay "Perpetual Adolescence."   

By perpetual adolescence, we meaning the following:

Chasing Eros instead of maturing.

Chasing the ego's needs instead of maturing.

Adulating or worshipping the culture of youth while shunning wisdom.

Chasing the compulsivity of youth and never learning the self-control of maturity.

Chasing the hedonism of youth instead of finding connection and meaning.

Pursuing Dionysian impulses instead of Apollonian inclinations. Some say that all literature is about the conflict between Dionysian and Apollonian forces.

Be sure your essay is 1,000 words and includes a Works Cited page with a minimum of 2 sources.

Option Three

Analyze the corruption of fatherly love in "Cleanness" or "Caterpillars" (or both) with Erich Fromm's notion of the Authoritarian Personality.  Be sure your essay is 1,000 words and includes a Works Cited page with a minimum of 2 sources.

Option Four

Compare the theme of the chimera (idealized love) and its resulting futility as it occurs in the "Peter Kahn's Third Wife" and F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Winter Dreams."  Observe that both stories follow the Faustian Bargain motif. Be sure your essay is 1,000 words and includes a Works Cited page with a minimum of 2 sources. Here's another link to "Winter Dreams."

Option Five

In a 1,000-word essay, compare the Faustian Bargain in "The Half Sister" to the H.G. Wells short story, "The Country of the Blind."

“The Half Sister” (page 64)

Be sure your Works Cited page has no fewer than 2 sources.

 

Option Six

 

Analyze "An Anxious Man" in terms of the Faustian Bargain described in the essay "Love People, Not Pleasure," by Arthur C. Brooks.

Option Seven

Analyze at least two stories as examples of the "emotional car crash" the characters have become because they either have no metacognition or the misapplication of metacognition.

 

 

Lesson on Finding and Evaluating Sources for Your Research Paper (adapted from Practical Argument, Second Edition)

When you use sources for a research paper, the sources supplement your ideas; however, it should be clear the sources do not take over the writing of your essay. Your voice, your knowledge, your deep thinking about the issue are all on center stage of your essay.

Some people say a research paper is 80 percent your words and another 20 percent of quotations, paraphrases, and summary from your research sources. That sounds about right.

Your college library has a Website, containing its online catalog, electronic databases, and reference works.

 

 

Evaluating Sources

 

You must assess six things to determine if a source is worthy of being used for your research paper.

The author’s objectivity or fairness (author is not biased)

The author’s credibility (peer reviewed, read by experts)

The source’s relevance

The source’s currency (source is up-to-date)

The source’s comprehensiveness (source has sufficient depth)

The author’s authority (author’s credentials and experience render him or her an expert in the field)

Warning Signs of a Poor Online Source

Site has advertising

Some company or other sponsors site

A political organization or special interest group sponsors the site.

The site has many links to other biased sites.

Summarizing Sources

“A summary restates the main idea of a passage in concise terms” (314).

A typical summary is one or two sentences.

A summary does not contain your opinions or analysis.

Paraphrasing Sources

A paraphrase, which is longer than a summary, contains more details and examples. Sometimes you need to be more specific than a summary to make sure your reader understands you.

A paraphrase does not include your opinions or analysis.

Quoting Sources

Quoting sources means you are quoting exactly what you are referring to in the text with no modifications, which might twist the author’s meaning.

You should avoid long quotations as much as possible.

Quote only when necessary. Rely on summary and paraphrase before resorting to direct quotes.

A good time to use a specific quote is when it’s an opposing point that you want to refute.

Using Signal Phrases or Identifying Tag to Introduce Summary, Paraphrase, and Quoted Material

Examples

According to Jeff McMahon, the grading rubric in English classes is used in such a way by instructors that soon there will be no such thing as an “easy” or “hard” professor. They’ll all be the same.

Jeff McMahon notes that the grading rubric in English classes is used in such a way by instructors that soon there will be no such thing as an “easy” or “hard” professor. They’ll all be the same.

The grading rubric in English classes is used in such a way by instructors, Jeff McMahon observes, that soon there will be no such thing as an “easy” or “hard” professor.  

The grading rubric in English classes is used in such a way by instructors that soon there will be no such thing as an “easy” or “hard” professor, Jeff McMahon points out.  

Common identifying tags

 

 

  

 

 

Seven Options for Essay

Option One

Develop a thesis that answers the following question: How do characters in Lasdun's "love stories" reach the demonic state?

By "demonic" I mean several things:

They go mad.

They become irrational.

They become obsessed.

They lose contact with reality.

They become blind to their own self-destruction.

They lose sight of their meaningful connections and as a result they lose those connections.

They chase a pipe dream or a chimera and obliterate themselves in the process.

They become bitter at their wasted life and realize they've squandered their existence on a "crap dream." They're overcome, as a result, with self-hatred and remorse.

Consider, their madness as the result of the Faustian Bargain, settling, the dream of eternal adolescence, and the chimera for a comparison essay that includes at least 3 stories, "The Half Sister," "The Natural Order," and "Peter Khan's Third Wife." Be sure your essay is 1,000 words and includes a Works Cited page with a minimum of 2 sources.

 

Option Two

Analyze the dream of eternal adolescence and its corruption of the soul by comparing this dream to "The Natural Order" or "The Half Sister" and Joseph Epstein's essay "Perpetual Adolescence."   

By perpetual adolescence, we meaning the following:

Chasing Eros instead of maturing.

Chasing the ego's needs instead of maturing.

Adulating or worshipping the culture of youth while shunning wisdom.

Chasing the compulsivity of youth and never learning the self-control of maturity.

Chasing the hedonism of youth instead of finding connection and meaning.

Pursuing Dionysian impulses instead of Apollonian inclinations. Some say that all literature is about the conflict between Dionysian and Apollonian forces.

Be sure your essay is 1,000 words and includes a Works Cited page with a minimum of 2 sources.

Option Three

Analyze the corruption of fatherly love in "Cleanness" or "Caterpillars" (or both) with Erich Fromm's notion of the Authoritarian Personality.  Be sure your essay is 1,000 words and includes a Works Cited page with a minimum of 2 sources.

Option Four

Compare the theme of the chimera (idealized love) and its resulting futility as it occurs in the "Peter Kahn's Third Wife" and F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Winter Dreams."  Observe that both stories follow the Faustian Bargain motif. Be sure your essay is 1,000 words and includes a Works Cited page with a minimum of 2 sources. Here's another link to "Winter Dreams."

Option Five

In a 1,000-word essay, compare the Faustian Bargain in "The Half Sister" to the H.G. Wells short story, "The Country of the Blind."

“The Half Sister” (page 64)

Be sure your Works Cited page has no fewer than 2 sources.

Option Six

Analyze "An Anxious Man" in terms of the Faustian Bargain described in the essay "Love People, Not Pleasure," by Arthur C. Brooks.

Option Seven

Analyze at least two stories as examples of the "emotional car crash" the characters have become because they either have no metacognition or the misapplication of metacognition.

 

Lexicon

One. Faustian Bargain, AKA Deal with the Devil: You're enticed to take a "free meal" when in fact it's not free; you lose your soul, your autonomy, your freedom, and become a slave to what appears to be the "easy life." As a slave, you live in the Land of Death.

In any Faustian Bargain, you give away more than you get in return. This is true of any addiction and is evident in this Ted Talk presentation about dopamine response in boys who've grown up with Internet addiction.

Martin not only wants a "free lunch," he's lost, a man with crushed confidence in his dreams and ambitions. This makes him vulnerable.

The father John Knowles sizes up Martin as easy prey on page 66. The sad sad daughter Charmian represents the malaise of settling for less than we deserve because of our lowered expectations.

Charmian's metaphor as death is further explored on page 69 in which we see she tends a garden: "Everything from potting azaleas to digging bloody great ditches with a bulldozer," as the father says, alludes to a graveyard churning up corpses.

To further Charmian's image as death we see on page 69 that she has a "dead eye" with "light out in its gray iris." Likewise, the light is gone from Martin with his curdled ambitions.

We see that Charmian the half sister keeps looking at Martin with "anguished sympathy" suggesting they are two peas on a pod, two members of the living dead.

In a Faustian Bargain, or Deal with the Devil, we see the following:

1. willed blindness or willed ignorance is asserted in order to settle in what appears to be the Womb Where Struggle Ends.

2. loss of self-possession, autonomy, and independence in order to conform to the Evil Power's ways.

3. a sense of recurring futility, failed dreams and learned helplessness that compel the individual to succumb to "the Bargain." The mentality is "My life is crap. I've got nothing to lose, so I might as well take what I can get."

4. Overwhelming fear and lack of self-confidence that compels the person to seek "rescue" from a force outside his or her self. Of course, this "rescue" is really a trap that further imprisons the person inside his or her protracted period of ignorance, also known as the Jahiliyyah.

5. We are seduced by the bells and whistles of the Trickster who in the end is an ugly monster, a Charmian. We all must steer clear of our own Charmian who is coming to get us. Take a culture that is seduced by the bells and whistles of the Internet and prefers virtual relationships to real relationships. We see this happening with the young generation in Japan.

6. We are most vulnerable to the Faustian Bargain when we've "hit an all-time low," a breakup, a form of rejection, a form of humiliation, a form of failure, etc. 

Two. The Myth of the Alpha Male Past on page 64 in which Martin remembers, perhaps with exaggeration, that he was playing the guitar at college while surrounded by "beautiful spellbound women." 

Three. The danger of a post-humous existence in the aftermath of failed ambition discussed on page 65. When we compare our present day life, one of banality and boredom, with the myth of past glories, we become depressed and seek a Faustian Bargain.

Four. The garden, which is really Martin's graveyard, is a Trickster, the promise of his youthful dream of playing the guitar and enticing beautiful women. Now it's something else, something very, very ugly. See page 69.

The Trickster in fiction takes us through four levels of emotion over and over and over again: earthly, angelic, mystical, demonic.

Five. Poser or Pretender, someone who lacks substance and lives to create an effect, an impression. See Martin on page 71 who wants to impress a woman at a health food restaurant who he thinks might be impressed with his invitation to Covent Garden opera house. Martin doesn't have the confidence to be real, so he's a poser and we learn a terrible lesson. When we become posers, we become empty shells, also known as ciphers, people with no value or importance.

Six. Futility on page 74 in which we see the futility of Martin's existence; his failure to connect; rather, he has a series of superficial relationships that never take off the ground. The repitition is so god-awful he can already anticipate the futility of a relationship before it happens. "Then all the usual crap would start." (past lovers, fights, falling in and out of love, etc., etc., etc.) In other words, he knows his life is complete BS. Thus is the "pattern of his life" and there's no reason for him to fall in love.  

Study Questions

1. What is the connection between the Knowles’ garden and Martin’s childhood dream of becoming a guitarist and how does this connection inform the story’s theme? We act in ways that affect our lives on a massive scale by being compelled by our unconscious. When we're ruled by our unconscious, we're showing a lack of metacognition.
   
2. What evidences stagnation, and even possible mediocrity, in Martin’s guitar career? See top of page 65. Also on page 67, Martin now sees the guitar as a way of “simply paying the rent.” In our misguided calculus we sometimes move from one trap into an even bigger trap. "Don't run from the fox into the mouth of the tiger."
   
3. What class differences are evident on page 65? The refinement of the family vs. the crudeness of Martin. Or at least this is how Martin sees it, giving him a sense of inferiority. Ascending to a higher social class is a common chimera rendered well in the original film The Heartbreak Kid (1972).
   
4. What garden metaphors, thorns included, suggest a curdled milk of false bounty in the story? See page 65. (sorry for mixing my metaphors) The garden is a sign of the Trickster.
   
5. How is John Knowles, like Morton Dowell from “An Anxious Man,” a devilish figure? See page 66. Both are Tricksters taking their victims from the earthly, to the angelic, and to the demonic. Clearly, John is eager to dump his daughter on someone. He feels no parental duty to her, only shame and inconvenience; therefore, he is a devil figure.
   
6. What do we make of Charmian based on her description as a strange woman in a shapeless brown dress? Is she the Priestess of Broken Dreams, Mediocrity, Grotesque Complacency, and the Easy Life (which is never easy)? Are we all tempted by some abhorrent variation of a Charmian, some deformed chimera? See page 67 and 68. One of her gray eyes is dead with no light in it. Clearly her “landscaping business” is a ruse; she has mental problems. The family will recluse her on a distant cottage property and need someone to tend to her. That someone is Martin.
7. What is the story’s theme? When we are stagnant, we descend into a condition of ennui (the soul becomes bored, apathetic, and lethargic) and when we suffer ennui, we are susceptible to the devil’s marketing and packaging of any variation of Charmian.
8. What is the most perverse aspect of the story? It appears that Martin is physically attracted to Mrs. Knowles and would marry Charmian, a repugnant woman, in order to be close the woman he truly desires.
9. When we read on page 70, that Martin feels uncomfortable under Charmian’s transparent gaze, what is suggested? That perhaps Martin sees a reflection of his own spiritual death? Could the penetrating eye be the God’s Eye judging and condemning him for his character deformities?
10. What evidences more character faults in Martin on page 71 and 74? He wants to go to opera to impress Rebecca. He is superficial, vain, and lacking in confidence. Then we see Martin’s fantasy of controlling the submissive Charmian. Then we see that Martin disciplined himself to not fall in love. Why? He’s afraid of losing control, of living life fully? But he’s controlled by his fears. He’s controlled by his need to control. He fails to see the irony.
11. What does the story’s conclusion say about free will? Martin is no dummy. He know he is being judged as a candidate to take on damaged goods. He is fighting not to go to the opera, the beginning of the end of his life.

 

Review Faustian Bargain

In a Faustian Bargain, or Deal with the Devil, we see the following:

1. willed blindness or willed ignorance is asserted in order to settle in what appears to be the Womb Where Struggle Ends.

2. loss of self-possession, autonomy, and independence in order to conform to the Evil Power's ways.

3. a sense of recurring futility, failed dreams and learned helplessness that compel the individual to succumb to "the Bargain." The mentality is "My life is crap. I've got nothing to lose, so I might as well take what I can get."

4. Overwhelming fear and lack of self-confidence that compels the person to seek "rescue" from a force outside his or her self. Of course, this "rescue" is really a trap that further imprisons the person inside his or her protracted period of ignorance, also known as the Jahiliyyah.

5. We are seduced by the bells and whistles of the Trickster who in the end is an ugly monster, a Charmian. We all must steer clear of our own Charmian who is coming to get us.

6. We are most vulnerable to the Faustian Bargain when we've "hit an all-time low," a breakup, a form of rejection, a form of humiliation, a form of failure, etc.

 

Lexicon of The Irrational Mind for "An Anxious Man"

Irrational Principle #1: Pascal's Principle of Trouble

The French philosopher Pascal wrote that all of man's problems stem from his inability to stay quietely in his room.

What he means to suggest is that man is restless and anxious and in this state of anxiety man seeks to quell his restlessness by doing things that dig him deeper and deeper into a hole.

In other words, man is the creator of his own problems. He is his own curse. This is the human condition. We are cursed with not only anxiety but its self-destructive consequences unless we can find a meaningful way to engage and nullify the anxiety: through meaning and connection with others.

Or put it this way: We're only happy when we make a mess of our lives. People dig a hole for themselves because climbing out of the hole is something for them to do and is preferred to boredom. Now that's irrational. 

Notice Joseph's life has less and less meaning and connection with others as his stock market addition spikes. Therefore, he is caught in a vicious cycle.

Irrational Principle #2: Basing Our Happiness on Lady Fortuna

She is the Goddess of Good and Bad Luck. People who stake their happiness on her, like Joseph, are doomed to a life of misery and regret. They have no foundation to weather Lady Fortuna's tumultuous storms of highs and lows. They are subject to the whims and carpices of Lady Fortuna.They are subject to gambling addiction and the like.

Some people become addicted to the state of constant anxiety confusing anxiety with "excitement."

Therefore, these addicts must live in a state of heightened anxiety always looking over their shoulder for the "next shoe to drop." In other words, to worship Lady Fortuna, as Joseph does, means to be a slave to constant anxiety and fear, to never be able to let go and live life.

Irrational Principle #3: Acting Out in the Face of Ennui

Viktor Frankl writes that man's most basic and powerful drive is his need to find meaning. Without meaning, life is unbearable. We become haunted by a sense of emptiness and compels us to fill the void with trinkets, trivialities, BS, lies, and other malignancies that spread inside our souls like a cancer devouring us mercilessly.

Even when we find some pleasure that makes us feel "happy," we acclimate to that pleasure (hedonic treadmill) become numb to that pleasure and find ourselves bored and compelled to spike the pleasure: But we can never heighten the pleasure to match our ever-growing acclimation and numbness to it. Therefore, without meaning we are fated to ennui.

Irrational Principle #4: All Or Nothingness Fallacy

In many places throughout the world, including the United States, we are afflicted with the fallacy that we either achieve a high state of wealth and fame or our lives are afflictions worthy of shame, scorn and self-loathing. There is no in-between. Joseph gambles his family's money on the stock market because he believes it's the best way to reach a higher economic status that will bring him and his family dignity and high esteem. However, the opposite is true. His belief in the All Or Nothingness fallacy makes him a groveling, fearful soul with no dignity, courage, integrity, or meaningful human connection.

Irrational Principle #5: Lacking Self-Possession or The Third Eye

Those who are not self-possessed are fated to a life of the irrational. To be self-possessed means to be grounded. To be grounded means that we have the Third Eye (self-awareness and metacognition), self-control, humility to learn from our mistakes, and developing strategies as solutions to problems rather than wallowing in the drama of our problems.

All of the qualities come from a moral sense, so that when we say we are grounded we mean we have a moral center that directs our thoughts and actions.

Joseph is a cursed man because he has no self-possession, but is rather a slave to Lady Fortuna, ennui, and the All Or Nothingness Fallacy.

Irrational Principle #6: Lacking Empathy Pushes Us into the World of the Irrational

Recent studies show that the more wealthy we become, the greater our sense of entitlement and entitlment is the enemy of empathy: the ability to connect, feel, and sympathize with others.

When we don't grow into empathy, we do not grow into mature adults. Instead, we retreat, like Joseph, into solipsism, which is the ultimate form of self-centeredness and narcissism, a form of insanity. One of insanity's key components is that we cannot connect with others and the real world; rather we "live inside our head."

Irrational Principle #7: The Trickster Pushes Us into the Abyss of the Irrational

The Trickster is a well-known literary character who manifests as Morton Dowell in the story. The Trickster takes us from the earthly realm, to the angelic, to the mystical; then he crashes us into the demonic. Just when we're about to give up on the Trickster, he lifts us again, for a brief time, before pushing us off a cliff. We allow the Trickster to do this to us over and over and over.

One of the most common Tricksters is the chimera. The chimera is evident in the story "The Half Sister."What do we make of Charmian based on her description as a strange woman in a shapeless brown dress? Is she the Priestess of Broken Dreams, Mediocrity, Grotesque Complacency, and the Easy Life (which is never easy)? Are we all tempted by some abhorrent variation of a Charmian, some deformed chimera? See page 67 and 68. One of her gray eyes is dead with no light in it. Clearly her “landscaping business” is a ruse; she has mental problems. The family will recluse her on a distant cottage property and need someone to tend to her. That someone is Martin.

Martin is vulnerable to this trap or chimera because he is stagnant. When we are stagnant, we descend into a condition of ennui (the soul becomes bored, apathetic, and lethargic) and when we suffer ennui, we are susceptible to the devil’s marketing and packaging of any variation of Charmian.

When we read on page 70, that Martin feels uncomfortable under Charmian’s transparent gaze, what is suggested? That perhaps Martin sees a reflection of his own spiritual death? Could the penetrating eye be the God’s Eye judging and condemning him for his character deformities?

Irrational Principle #8: Adrenaline World Vs. Civilian World

These two worlds clash in the story "An Anxious Man." The former world of adrenaline eats the latter. In choosing the former, we embrace misery, panic, and anxiety because we prefer drama and its power to distract us from death and vapidity. See page 7 and 8. Does it not seem Joseph knows he’s made a deal with the devil yet can do nothing to stop himself? What does this say about free will? Once we get the wheels in motion, we can accelerate toward our demise with no opportunity to veer away from the danger.

Inevitable Stock Market Fatigue in "An Anxious Man"

See page 8. You never invest enough; you never sell quickly enough; you sell too soon; your life is one of second-guessing yourself and regret and anger. You become bitter but you keep coming back for more and more of the stuff that poisons you.The irony is that this despair becomes an addiction.

Common Student Writing Error: Sentence Fragments

Defining Sentence Fragments

Sentence Fragments on Purdue Owl

 

 

After each sentence, write C for complete or F for fragment sentence. If the sentence is a fragment, correct it so that it is a complete sentence. 

One. While hovering over the complexity of a formidable math problem and wondering if he had time to solve the problem before his girlfriend called him to complain about the horrible birthday present he bought her.

 

 Two.  In spite of the boyfriend’s growing discontent for his girlfriend, a churlish woman prone to tantrums and grand bouts of petulance.

Three. My BMW 5 series, a serious entry into the luxury car market.     

Four. Overcome with nausea from eating ten bowls of angel hair pasta slathered in pine nut garlic pesto.   

Five. Winding quickly but safely up the treacherous Palos Verdes hills in the shrouded mist of a lazy June morning, I realized that my BMW gave me feelings of completeness and fulfillment.

Six. To attempt to grasp the profound ignorance of those who deny the compelling truths of science in favor of their pseudo-intellectual ideas about “dangerous” vaccines and the “myths” of global warming.

Seven. The girlfriend whom I lavished with exotic gifts from afar.  

 

Eight. When my cravings for pesto pizza, babaganoush, and triple chocolate cake overcome me during my bouts of acute anxiety.

Nine. Inclined to stop watching sports in the face of my girlfriend’s insistence that I pay more attention to her, I am throwing away my TV.

Ten. At the dance club where I espy my girlfriend flirting with a stranger by the soda machine festooned with party balloons and tinsel.  

Eleven. The BMW speeding ahead of me and winding into the misty hills. 

Twelve. Before you convert to the religion of veganism in order to impress your vegan girlfriend.

Thirteen. Summoning all my strength to resist the giant chocolate fudge cake sweating on the plate before me.

MLA In-Text Citation Rules

Basics of MLA In-Text Citations on Purdue Owl

Bedford MLA In-Text Citations

 

 

Lesson on Logic and Logical Fallacies (adapted from Chapter 5 of Practical Argument, Second Edition)

 

Logic comes from the Greek word logos, meaning, word, thought, principle, or reason. Logic is concerned with the principles of correct reasoning.

Deductive reasoning starts with general premises and ends in specific conclusions. This process is expressed in a syllogism: major premise, minor premise, and conclusion.

 

Major Premise: All bald men should wear extra sunscreen on their bald head.

 

Minor Premise: Mr. X is a bald man.

 

Conclusion: Therefore, Mr. X should apply extra sunscreen.

 

 

 

A sound syllogism, one that is valid and true, must follow logically from the facts and be based on premises that are based on facts.

 

Major Premise: All state universities must accommodate disabled students.

 

Minor Premise: UCLA is a state university.

 

Conclusion: Therefore, UCLA must accommodate disabled students.

 

A syllogism can be valid without being true as we see in this example from Robert Cormier’s novel The Chocolate War:

 

Bailey earns straight A’s.

 

Straight A’s are a sign of perfection.

 

But only God is perfect.

 

Can Bailey be God? Of course not.

 

Therefore, Bailey is a cheater and a liar.

 

In the above example it’s not true that the perfection of God is equivalent to the perfection of a straight-A student (faulty comparison, a logical fallacy). So while the syllogism is valid, following logically from one point to the next, it’s based on a deception or a falsehood; therefore, it is not true.

 

Syllogism with an Illogical Middle Term Is Invalid

 

Flawed logic occurs when the middle term has the same term in the major and minor premise but not in the conclusion.

 

Major Premise: All dogs are mammals.

 

Minor Premise: Some mammals are porpoises.

 

Conclusion: Therefore, some porpoises are dogs.

 

 

 

Syllogism with a Key Term Whose Meaning Shifts Cannot be Valid

 

Major Premise: Only man is capable of analytical reasoning.

 

Minor Premise: Anna is not a man.

 

Conclusion: Therefore, Anna is not capable of analytical reasoning.

 

The key term shift is “man,” which refers to “mankind,” not the male gender.

 

 

 

Syllogism with a Negative Premise

 

If either premise in a syllogism is negative, then the conclusion must also be negative. The following syllogism is not valid:

 

Major Premise: Only the Toyota Prius can go in the fast-track lane.

 

Minor Premise: The BMW 4 series is not a Toyota Prius.

 

Conclusion: Therefore, the BMW can drive in the fast-track lane.

 

If both premises are negative, the syllogism cannot have a valid conclusion:

 

Major Premise: The Toyota Prius cannot be denied entrance into the fast-track lane.

 

Minor Premise: The BMW 4 series is not a Toyota Prius.

 

Conclusion: Therefore, the BMW cannot be denied entrance into the fast-track lane.

 

Enthymemes

 

An enthymeme is a syllogism with one or two parts of its argument—usually, the major premise—missing.

 

Robert has lied, so he cannot be trusted.

 

We’re missing the major premise:

 

Major Premise: People who lie cannot be trusted.

 

Minor Premise: Robert has lied.

 

Conclusion: Therefore, Robert cannot be trusted.

 

When writers or speakers use enthymemes, they are sometimes trying to hide the flaw of the first premise:

 

Major Premise: All countries governed by dictators should be invaded.

 

Minor Premise: North Korea is a country governed by a dictator.

 

Conclusion: Therefore, North Korea should be invaded.

 

The premise that all countries governed by dictators should be invaded is a gross generalization and can easily be shot down under close scrutiny.

 

Inductive Reasoning

 

Inductive reasoning begins with specific observations or evidence and moves to a general conclusion.

 

My Volvo was always in the shop. My neighbor’s Mini Cooper and BMW are always in the shop. My other neighbor’s Audi is in the shop.

 

Now my wife and I own a Honda and Nissan and those cars are never in the shop.

 

European cars cost more to maintain than Japanese cars and the empirical evidence and data support my claim.

 

Recognizing Logical Fallacies

 

Begging the Question

 

Begging the question assumes that a statement is self-evident when it actually requires proof.

 

Major Premise: Fulfilling all my major desires is the only way I can be happy.

 

Minor Premise: I can’t afford when of my greatest desires in life, a Lexus GS350.

 

Conclusion: Therefore, I can never be happy.

 

Circular Reasoning

 

Circular reasoning occurs when we support a statement by restating it in different terms.

 

Stealing is wrong because it is illegal.

 

Admitting women into the men’s club is wrong because it’s an invalid policy.

 

Your essay is woeful because of its egregious construction.

 

Your boyfriend is hideous because of his heinous characteristics.

 

I have to sell my car because I’m ready to sell it.

 

I can’t spend time with my kids because it’s too time consuming.

 

I need to spend more money on my presents than my family’s presents because I need bigger and better presents.

 

I’m a great father because I’m the best father my children have ever had.

 

Weak Analogy or Faulty Comparison

 

Analogies are never perfect but they can be powerful. The question is do they have a degree of validity to make them worth the effort.

 

A toxic relationship is like a cancer that gets worse and worse (fine).

 

Sugar is high-octane fuel to use before your workout (weak because there is nothing high-octane about a substance that causes you to crash and converts into fat and creates other problems)

 

Free education is a great flame and the masses are moths flying into the flames of destruction. (horribly false analogy)

 

Ad Hominem Fallacy (Personal Attack)

 

“Who are you to be a marriage counselor? You’ve been divorced six times?”

 

A lot of people give great advice and present sound arguments even if they don’t apply their principles to their lives, so we should focus on the argument, not personal attack.

 

“So you believe in universal health care, do you? I suppose you’re a communist and you hate America as well.”

 

Making someone you disagree with an American-hating communist is invalid and doesn’t address the actual argument.

 

“What do you mean you don’t believe in marriage? What are you, a crazed nihilist, an unrepentant anarchist, an immoral misanthrope, a craven miscreant?”

 

Straw Man Fallacy

 

You twist and misconstrue your opponent’s argument to make it look weaker than it is when you refute it. Instead of attacking the real issue, you aim for a weaker issue based on your deliberate misinterpretation of your opponent’s argument.

 

“Those who are against universal health care are heartless. They obviously don’t care if innocent children die.”

 

Hasty Generalization (Jumping to a Conclusion)

 

“I’ve had three English instructors who are middle-aged bald men. Therefore, all English instructors are middle-aged bald men.”

 

“I’ve met three Americans with false British accents and they were all annoying. Therefore, all Americans, such as Madonna, who contrive British accents are annoying.” Perhaps some Americans do so ironically and as a result are more funny than annoying.

 

Either/Or Fallacy

 

There are only two choices to an issue is an over simplification and an either/or fallacy.

 

“Either you be my girlfriend or you don’t like real men.”

 

“Either you be my boyfriend or you’re not a real American.”

 

“Either you play football for me or you’re not a real man.”

 

“Either you’re for us or against us.” (The enemy of our enemy is our friend is every day foreign policy.)

 

“Either you agree with me about increasing the minimum wage, or you’re okay with letting children starve to death.”

 

“Either you get a 4.0 and get admitted into USC, or you’re only half a man.”

 

Equivocation

 

Equivocation occurs when you deliberately twist the meaning of something in order to justify your position.

 

“You told me the used car you just sold me was in ‘good working condition.’”

 

“I said ‘good,’ not perfect.”

 

The seller is equivocating.

 

“I told you to be in bed by ten.”

 

“I thought you meant be home by ten.”

 

“You told me you were going to pay me the money you owe me on Friday.”

 

“I didn’t know you meant the whole sum.”

 

“You told me you were going to take me out on my birthday.”

 

“Technically speaking, the picnic I made for us in the backyard was a form of ‘going out.’”

 

Red Herring Fallacy

 

This fallacy is to throw a distraction in your opponent’s face because you know a distraction may help you win the argument.

 

“Barack Obama wants us to support him but his father was a Muslim. How can we trust the President on the war against terrorism when he has terrorist ties?”

 

“You said you were going to pay me my thousand dollars today. Where is it?”

 

“Dear friend, I’ve been diagnosed with a very serious medical condition. Can we talk about our money issue some other time?”

 

Slippery Slope Fallacy

 

We go down a rabbit hole of exaggerated consequences to make our point sound convincing.

 

“If we allow gay marriage, we’ll have to allow people to marry gorillas.”

 

“If we allow gay marriage, my marriage to my wife will be disrespected and dishonored.”

 

Appeal to Authority

 

Using a celebrity to promote an energy drink doesn’t make this drink effective in increasing performance.

 

Listening to an actor play a doctor on TV doesn’t make the pharmaceutical he’s promoting safe or effective.

 

Tradition Fallacy

 

“We’ve never allowed women into our country club. Why should we start now?”

 

“Women have always served men. That’s the way it’s been and that’s the way it always should be.”

 

Misuse of Statistics

 

Using stats to show causality when it’s a condition of correlation or omitting other facts.

 

“Ninety-nine percent of people who take this remedy see their cold go away in ten days.” (Colds go away on their own).

 

“Violent crime from home intruders goes down twenty percent in home equipped with guns.” (more people in those homes die of accidental shootings or suicides)

 

Post Hoc, Confusing Causality with Correlation

 

Taking cold medicine makes your cold go away. Really?

 

The rooster crows and makes the sun go up. Really?

 

You drink on a Thursday night and on Friday morning you get an A on your calculus exam. Really?

 

You stop drinking milk and you feel stronger. Really? (or is it placebo effect?)

 

Non Sequitur (It Does Not Follow)

 

The conclusion in an argument is not relevant to the premises.

 

Megan drives a BMW, so she must be rich.

 

McMahon understands the difference between a phrase and a dependent clause; therefore, he must be a genius.

 

Whenever I eat chocolate cake, I feel good. Therefore, chocolate cake must be good for me.

 

Bandwagon Fallacy

 

Because everyone believes something, it must be right.

 

“You can steal a little at work. Everyone else does.”

 

“In Paris, ninety-nine percent of all husbands have a secret mistress. Therefore adultery is not immoral."

 

Lexicon of The Irrational Mind for "An Anxious Man"

Irrational Principle #1: Pascal's Principle of Trouble

The French philosopher Pascal wrote that all of man's problems stem from his inability to stay quietely in his room.

What he means to suggest is that man is restless and anxious and in this state of anxiety man seeks to quell his restlessness by doing things that dig him deeper and deeper into a hole.

In other words, man is the creator of his own problems. He is his own curse. This is the human condition. We are cursed with not only anxiety but its self-destructive consequences unless we can find a meaningful way to engage and nullify the anxiety: through meaning and connection with others.

Or put it this way: We're only happy when we make a mess of our lives. People dig a hole for themselves because climbing out of the hole is something for them to do and is preferred to boredom. Now that's irrational. 

Notice Joseph's life has less and less meaning and connection with others as his stock market addition spikes. Therefore, he is caught in a vicious cycle.

Irrational Principle #2: Basing Our Happiness on Lady Fortuna

She is the Goddess of Good and Bad Luck. People who stake their happiness on her, like Joseph, are doomed to a life of misery and regret. They have no foundation to weather Lady Fortuna's tumultuous storms of highs and lows. They are subject to the whims and carpices of Lady Fortuna.They are subject to gambling addiction and the like.

Some people become addicted to the state of constant anxiety confusing anxiety with "excitement."

Therefore, these addicts must live in a state of heightened anxiety always looking over their shoulder for the "next shoe to drop." In other words, to worship Lady Fortuna, as Joseph does, means to be a slave to constant anxiety and fear, to never be able to let go and live life.

Irrational Principle #3: Acting Out in the Face of Ennui

Viktor Frankl writes that man's most basic and powerful drive is his need to find meaning. Without meaning, life is unbearable. We become haunted by a sense of emptiness and compels us to fill the void with trinkets, trivialities, BS, lies, and other malignancies that spread inside our souls like a cancer devouring us mercilessly.

Even when we find some pleasure that makes us feel "happy," we acclimate to that pleasure (hedonic treadmill) become numb to that pleasure and find ourselves bored and compelled to spike the pleasure: But we can never heighten the pleasure to match our ever-growing acclimation and numbness to it. Therefore, without meaning we are fated to ennui.

Irrational Principle #4: All Or Nothingness Fallacy

In many places throughout the world, including the United States, we are afflicted with the fallacy that we either achieve a high state of wealth and fame or our lives are afflictions worthy of shame, scorn and self-loathing. There is no in-between. Joseph gambles his family's money on the stock market because he believes it's the best way to reach a higher economic status that will bring him and his family dignity and high esteem. However, the opposite is true. His belief in the All Or Nothingness fallacy makes him a groveling, fearful soul with no dignity, courage, integrity, or meaningful human connection.

Irrational Principle #5: Lacking Self-Possession or The Third Eye

Those who are not self-possessed are fated to a life of the irrational. To be self-possessed means to be grounded. To be grounded means that we have the Third Eye (self-awareness and metacognition), self-control, humility to learn from our mistakes, and developing strategies as solutions to problems rather than wallowing in the drama of our problems.

All of the qualities come from a moral sense, so that when we say we are grounded we mean we have a moral center that directs our thoughts and actions.

Joseph is a cursed man because he has no self-possession, but is rather a slave to Lady Fortuna, ennui, and the All Or Nothingness Fallacy.

Irrational Principle #6: Lacking Empathy Pushes Us into the World of the Irrational

Recent studies show that the more wealthy we become, the greater our sense of entitlement and entitlment is the enemy of empathy: the ability to connect, feel, and sympathize with others.

When we don't grow into empathy, we do not grow into mature adults. Instead, we retreat, like Joseph, into solipsism, which is the ultimate form of self-centeredness and narcissism, a form of insanity. One of insanity's key components is that we cannot connect with others and the real world; rather we "live inside our head."

Irrational Principle #7: The Trickster Pushes Us into the Abyss of the Irrational

The Trickster is a well-known literary character who manifests as Morton Dowell in the story. The Trickster takes us from the earthly realm, to the angelic, to the mystical; then he crashes us into the demonic. Just when we're about to give up on the Trickster, he lifts us again, for a brief time, before pushing us off a cliff. We allow the Trickster to do this to us over and over and over.

One of the most common Tricksters is the chimera. The chimera is evident in the story "The Half Sister."What do we make of Charmian based on her description as a strange woman in a shapeless brown dress? Is she the Priestess of Broken Dreams, Mediocrity, Grotesque Complacency, and the Easy Life (which is never easy)? Are we all tempted by some abhorrent variation of a Charmian, some deformed chimera? See page 67 and 68. One of her gray eyes is dead with no light in it. Clearly her “landscaping business” is a ruse; she has mental problems. The family will recluse her on a distant cottage property and need someone to tend to her. That someone is Martin.

Martin is vulnerable to this trap or chimera because he is stagnant. When we are stagnant, we descend into a condition of ennui (the soul becomes bored, apathetic, and lethargic) and when we suffer ennui, we are susceptible to the devil’s marketing and packaging of any variation of Charmian.

When we read on page 70, that Martin feels uncomfortable under Charmian’s transparent gaze, what is suggested? That perhaps Martin sees a reflection of his own spiritual death? Could the penetrating eye be the God’s Eye judging and condemning him for his character deformities?

Irrational Principle #8: Adrenaline World Vs. Civilian World

These two worlds clash in the story "An Anxious Man." The former world of adrenaline eats the latter. In choosing the former, we embrace misery, panic, and anxiety because we prefer drama and its power to distract us from death and vapidity. See page 7 and 8. Does it not seem Joseph knows he’s made a deal with the devil yet can do nothing to stop himself? What does this say about free will? Once we get the wheels in motion, we can accelerate toward our demise with no opportunity to veer away from the danger.

Inevitable Stock Market Fatigue in "An Anxious Man"

See page 8. You never invest enough; you never sell quickly enough; you sell too soon; your life is one of second-guessing yourself and regret and anger. You become bitter but you keep coming back for more and more of the stuff that poisons you.The irony is that this despair becomes an addiction.

 

“An Anxious Man”

1. What evidences Joseph’s lack of control in the opening scene? What are at the root of his compulsive behavior? Is he perhaps addicted to the rush of high stakes, like a gambling addiction? Does he thrive on the drama to compensate for something that’s lacking in his life?He is the fool who stakes his happiness on the whims of Lady Fortuna as described by Boethius. Possible explanations for Joseph's stock market addiction include: he's running away from ennui; he's running away from his own emptiness; he has defined himself as someone who needs to be a certain financial level; otherwise he will be suffering from an affliction. But he has made himself too vulnerable and he is not what he needs to be a successful person: He is not self-possessed.
   
2. How does page 4 set up Joseph’s sense of entitlement and discontent that never existed before? What does it mean to confuse necessity with desire? (see top of page 5) Studies show that wealth and a concern with money encourage privilege and degrade our powers of empathy.
   
3. How might some describe Morton Dowell, described on page 5, as a Trickster or a Devil, a figure who stirs the malignancies within Joseph’s soul? Good salesmen never sell; they give us “opportunities.”He is a sort of pimp or drug dealer who entices by escorting us through the various levels of human emotion.
   
4. What dichotomy of existence do we see in the story: Adrenaline World and Civilian World. The former eats the latter. In choosing the former, we embrace misery, panic, and anxiety because we prefer drama and its power to distract us from death and vapidity. See page 7 and 8. Does it not seem Joseph knows he’s made a deal with the devil yet can do nothing to stop himself? What does this say about free will? Once we get the wheels in motion, we can accelerate toward our demise with no opportunity to veer away from the danger.
   
5. Explain how regret is the defining emotion of stock market investment. See page 8. You never invest enough; you never sell quickly enough; you sell too soon; your life is one of second-guessing yourself and regret and anger. You become bitter but you keep coming back for more and more of the stuff that poisons you.The irony is that this despair becomes an addiction.
   
6. What does it mean to be “grounded”? What evidence is there that Joseph is not grounded? See page 18 among others. To be grounded means that we have the Third Eye, self-control, humility to learn from our mistakes, and developing strategies as solutions to problems rather than wallowing in the drama of our problems. All of the qualities come from a moral sense, so that when we say we are grounded we mean we have a moral center that directs our thoughts and actions.
   

 

  

 

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