THINGS I'VE HAD TO LOOK UP FOR CLASS, Part 1, vol. 1

• Hemingway's A Movable Feast: mentioned in my Intro to Critical Theory class. Prof. Ronci said that he loved the book in college and basically took it to Paris and used it as a city guide as to which bars and restaurants to go to. Classy.
• Black Elk Speaks, a narrative of American history from the perspective of a Native American. Ronci used this to illustrate the point that no perspective on history is more valuable than others. And that often undervalued opinions are the most telling.
• Pruitt-Igoe Project: Also from Ronci - example of modernist utilitarian architecture used in a St. Louis housing project (1954-70) that made people feel dehumanized -- so they trashed it. I had NO IDEA about this.
• Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States: Ronci says this should be required reading for being a human being. History from the perspective of the non-white poor non-males.
• Julian of Norwich and the 'cloud of unknowing': 13th C. English female mystic, author of the first book written in English by a woman (Revelations of Divine Love) famous for the phrase: "...All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well"
• badjocks.com - website that criticizes college atheletes because of their behavior posted on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace.
• Sage Francis: hip-hop artist that my professor's son has recorded beats for.
• McPoem: another one of the things in postmodernism with the prefix of "Mc-" Basically meaning, totally generic.
• HBO's Rome: Ronci says it's the best TV series in years, and he doesn't watch TV. (NYTimes review)