Scrapbook idea for writing assignment (Shemira)

For the writing assignment I would like to create some form of scrapbook describing the characters of the books we read, conflicts they are faced with and the solutions they come up with to overcome the problems. I will also include important historical events that surround the characters of the books and write a brief description of the actual events. Doing this will help me remember and understand the material we read a lot better. 
I want to do this for at least the first couple of novels we read and see how well it works out.

Women and Sexual Identity in Czechoslovakia (Sarrah)

I am going to write about women's sexual identity in Czechoslovakia during the time frame each book.

For the Miracle Game, I'll be focusing on 1949-1970's (?)and relate that back to female characters in the book.

I've started my own blog for my project, http://sarrahidst234.blogspot.com/, here I'll post things I find during my research and pictures.


This early in my research I haven't came across anything on the male sexual identity, bet we'll see.

Check out my blog to find out more

Journal Entries Idea by Zach

Im thinking about a journal entry for the first half where I will detail what we have learned or read, and then I will put my feedback into it. The way im looking at this is kind of the way in which we read diaries of the past.  Give it that personal account feeling. I want to wait until we read more of the other novels to do something more creative with the characters and ideas.  I would really like to focus on the greengrocer concept and the effect of ideology.  I will probably throw some twist and turns on occasion.

Czech village of Jistebnice (Anicka)

This is the Czech village of Jistebnice, in the South Bohemian region of the Czech Republic. There's a lot I don't know about it, but here's something I do know: in 1909 (give or take a few years) my great-great grandfather Matej Schánilec (on my father's side; the accent was later dropped in America) came from there, and it is there that the Schánilec family farm still resides. One of my aunts and my grandfather (and a great-uncle?) visited a few years ago, and we still keep loose ties with our family there.

I've never visited myself. I've never even been to the Czech Republic--but I was raised in a rural setting, just like my extended family, and my great-great grandfather. Because of this, for the first half of the semester I would like to find out more about how the political changes we're reading about affected farming families and rural communities, and turn those finding/thoughts into a narrative loosely based on my family's background, hopefully also incorporating my mother's side of the family (also Czech) into my writing as well by also looking into how Roma Gypsies were treated in this period (my family oh my mother's side is very mysterious and Bohemian), and definitely taking advantage of any personal narratives I can get from my family members about the time period that we're studying.

Striking a chord (Kate)

For this half of the semester I would like to write journal entries documenting my reactions or ideas, or just things that strike a chord with me, from the readings. A lot of times with “academic writing” the focus falls more on creating a thesis or main point and only using details from the text that support your thesis. However, I would like to focus on details in the readings that correspond with the class but that I might not necessarily pick up on if I had to write an analytical paper. I prefer to write my journal entries by hand, but I am considering either starting my own blog or (more likely) posting the journal entries on this blog. Depending on what I pick up from the readings, I may write smaller entries, more like half a page, more often, or pick out two separate details from the readings.

Bill on Tumblr

I wanted my writing to be a separate blog that you, my friends, could comment on, give me some direction. So I started another blog on Tumblr, which is even easier than Blogger. Come visit: http://idst234sp12.tumblr.com/.

Will the United States Become A Communist Nation? (Ray)

       A road that we will surely run into many times this semester are peoples view on politics. This is the reason I wanted to do research on something that will ultimately be influenced by class discussions on politics. Hejdavek from Havel's book claims that "Socialism is the off-spring of Liberal-Democratic traditions." Since we have this ideology that the United States is a pure democratic society, I would like to challenge that assumption. Recent policy changes in the current administration have almost mirrored characteristics of a modern day socialist society. Historically most socialist societies have failed. Is the United States at risk of becoming a socialist society with all of its efforts to make everyone equal? Is there a good balance between a Democracy and Socialism? Is the United States unique? These are questions I hope to answer in my research. I will be looking at Marx's model for showing how socialism can turn into communism and making comparisons to the United States.

What I am going to write... (Ulysses)

For this class I will be working on a short story of my own, not necessarily parallel to the Miracle Game we are reading, but of the same style minus the jumping around of time periods. The short story will mainly focus around one character's perception of events like Danny in the novel we are reading. It will be more on the funny  side and deal less with politics and more with social issues that cause individuals to live within a lie. I am pretty interested in doing this because I see it happen too much but I could just be seeing things the wrong way. So, once the story is done I would like to see what people think and get feedback on my character to see if he is really living a lie. The story will be a mix of fiction and a true story.

Resistance, conformity, authenticity in The Miracle Game

Your thought? What you wrote in class on Thursday? This would be a good place to share. Use comments instead of making new posts.

What are you going to write, and how

By sometime on Monday, you should all post here an account of your preliminary plans for writing in this course. The total for the course ought to be the equivalent of between 15 to 20 pages of edited, revised, worked over text; but you can approach this task in any way you like. You do not need to say right now what you will do for the whole course, onl for the first seven weeks (by midterm). I would like to see at least 100 words toward this end -- posted here. Please DO NOT comment on my post, but post your own entry. If you have gone through the short process of becoming an author of this blog -- just follow the link in the email I sent you last week -- then there will be a button at the top of thge page that says "new post." Click away and compose your own post, which will then become part of the blog. Everyone likes pictures. Only about half of you have verified your invitation to become authors on this blog, so everyone will need to do that. More tomorrow!

The green grocer and his new wine

I want to write about Havel's green grocers, to try to understand what he is saying about ideology, freedom, living in the truth and living in the lie. "[Ideology] is a veil behind which human beings can hide their own 'fallen existence', their trivialization, and their adaption to the status quo." What Havel says is compelling, and may have been an accurate reflection of what living in the truth meant to him, but I wonder whether his truth is everyone's truth, if everyone was 'fallen.'

This is my friend Eva's father, Josef, who worked in a farming cooperative in Slovakia during the communist years. Before, his family had owned land that they had farmed. Now he is retired, and spends much of his time working in the "garden" -- a farm really, in its own right -- stretching down the hill behind the house Eva and Graham are very slowly building. Josef makes wine and spirits, and at this party he went around and filled everyone's glass, over and over. We don't share much language, but if he is fallen, then I am fallen further.

This is what I want to write about. And this is how I want to write. Look for me at Cowbird.

Josef Škvorecký, 1924-2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/09/josef-skvorecky