This section of the test was not as good as I expected. I do not feel that you prepared for it as much as you should have. I may sound a bit cranky below... just trying to make it clear why the scores were low. If you want your bluebook, or you want a more detailed explanation of how I determined your grade, you need to see me in office hours next quarter.
1. Gladwell (17 answers, avg. = 7.88)
If you didn't bother to figure out what a dialect was... well, you had a week, what can I say? Successful answers tended to focus on the exclusivity of dialects, the regional/historical contextuality of dialects, the mutability of dialects, or some combination thereof. Some of you argued that dialects, unlike languages, cannot be learned... you just know them or you don't... this is a highly dubious theory, almost as if you are suggesting that they are hereditary. According to Gladwell, people who are cool appear to have authenticity because they are either skilled at creating/adapting new dialects or at very quickly learning them.
Gladwell means that cool comes from something distinct from what is considered normal by most people. For example, dialects are only understood by some people and not all; however a language is understood and spoken by many. In the same way, when something is cool, it is so only because not everyone understands or follows it. And that is why when everyone starts to understand the phenomenon of what 'cool' is, it becomes no longer cool. In his article, Gladwell gives examples of the Harajuku district in Japan, where many coolhunters go to be inspired by new fashion. What people wear to be different or just because it is different, and how they pull it off is interesting to coolhunters. That is how new trends start a new fashion, and when most people start following the trend, it goes 'out of fashion.' (10 points)
2. Gorky (16 answers, avg. = 8.88)
Successful answers mentioned explored the relationship between at least a couple of the following concepts: socialist realism, collective production, class struggle, the problem of artistic or intellectual exclusivity under capitalism, Soviet educational reforms, revaluing labor. Those who took "head" in the sense of government or "head of state" had difficulty with the quotation, which is about the relationship between mental/intellectual activities and the manual/physical activities. I was a bit disappointed that nobody referenced last quarter's "thinking with the body" concept.
According to Gorky, social and cultural progress only occurs when resources, ideas, and labor are circulated, meaning everyone should have their share. It first starts with the hands teaching the head; labor is what makes the country work and ideally everybody does their share, meaning less work. Then, as the head grows wiser, it teaches the hands. In translation, the head, or mind, would devise ways in which labor can be less intensive; that way the work day would go more efficiently and that leaves more leisure time, where the hand, grown wiser, promotes the growth of the mind. Laborers would thus be given the chance to again cultivate [the arts] - the opportunity to live a fulfilled life. Ideally, this would benefit the nation because workers are the ones that make it work, socially and culturally. (10 points)
3. Jacobs (13 answers, avg. = 7.08)
Jacobs thinks that the street is a good environment for humans, and thinks that city houses should not face into garden courtyards. The quotation comes from the part of the book where she is criticizing/ridiculing the theories she disagrees with. It is hard for me to see how anyone who read some of that book and attended two lectures about it could have missed that. "Street" here includes sidewalks; it is not the opposite of sidewalks... again, reading the book and reading this page with care would make that clear. Oh, and Death and Life of Great American Cities is not a novel. Successful answers discussed the problems with trying to "cleanse" cities and its ideological roots, what makes streets work or fail, what makes parks work or fail, crime, spontaneity/"sidewalk ballet", public/collective use, etc.
Jane Jacobs, author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, drew a line between the consequences of living in cities and suburban areas. In this particular quotation, she expresses her dislike of houses that are "turned away from [the street] and faced inward toward sheltered greens." In contrast, she would favor houses that are facing the street. Homes and streets are much safer when there is what she calls a "sidewalk ballet" taking place on the street, when there is a great "succession of eyes" that are perusing the streets. This is evident in the chapters entitled "City Sidewalks: Safety and Contact." Jacobs expresses in these chapters her dislike of closed-off and isolated areas. She also mentions her own street, where most everyone are strangers or at most acquainted. Despite that, many people who live nearby confidently give their keys to the main in the shop nearby. Houses that are turned away are much more dangerous than home located on city sidewalks because there are no "eyes" or "sidewalk ballet." Jacobs mentions a man who hurt himself on the city streets was immediately helped by a stranger walking by, who was never seen again. In contrast, if a girl is trying to escape from a potential predator, she might try to run to the nearest house to ask for help - if the houses nearby are all gated up, or "turned inwards," she is less likely to grasp their attention, exposing her to danger. (10 points)
4. Hitler (18 answers, avg. = 8.00)
Most of you recognized that degeneracy was somehow related to expressionism or modern art more generally, but a good answer to a question about Hitler is going to explain why he finds the art objectionable, and that's going to relate somehow to his racism/antisemitism and his nationalism/anticommunism. Otherwise you're just paraphrasing his statement instead of analyzing it, and in that case I couldn't care less whether you've memorized the exact date of the speech. Degeneracy is a concept that links biology to art and politics... it means "born wrong"... again, you had an entire week to figure this out. Some of you linked to the "small cliques" idea, which is good so long as you see its antisemitic and/or anticommunist basis. This is a propaganda speech... Hitler isn't an egalitarian in the sense that Gorky is... referring to "the people" as the judges of art is a rhetorical trick, insofar as the Nazi regime itself asserts full control over what counts as art.
Adolf Hitler explains in this quote from his speech at the opening of the House of German Art why some art - modern art in particular - should be considered degenerate, and why the artists who produced such art should no longer be able to do so. He connects degeneracy to art in two manners: physical degeneracy and political dissent. In both cases, Hitler, like Plato, argues that art is leading people astray in showing them things contrary to how they really are. Unlike Plato, he does believe there is good art, but he maintains that it should be regulated to promote "the people." Good art comes from the "right" people with the "right" ideals, creating the "right" kind of art. To hitler, only certain people can create good art, and the rest must be considered degenerate. (10 points)
5. Davis (12 answers, avg. = 7.31)
I basically decided to make this one optional because we didn't actually discuss the essay much until last week's after-class review. I was surprised how many of you took an interest. Everyone who answered this understood the "self-fulfilling prophecy" that creates the ghetto, or the "unsafe," "undesirable" neighborhood, and most of you saw the link to Jacobs. But better answers discussed the role of class conflict/exclusion, and the implications of racism... a couple of you linked to the L.A. riots as an example of the ghetto fighting back in this "war," but if you read/watch the news, you know that the war in poor neighborhoods is almost always the residents vs. the police, and/or the residents vs. themselves. You can imagine what a communist would say about this... they would say it is a suppression or diversion of class conflict. (If you think that Davis is complaining about the poor terrorizing the rich and ruining Los Angeles, it's hard for me to believe you read this essay carefully.) Davis was somehow transformed into both "Daniels" and "Mitchell'... I wouldn't say that's a huge problem, but it sure doesn't buy you the benefit of the doubt as to whether you've read carefully.
Davis looks down on Los Angeles' attempt to ever less discretely separate the poor from the well-off. As fences are built to gate communities, card keys made to enter parks, and security systems installed to protect homes, a clear line is drawn to establish those with money and social status and those without possession of either. As security systems are installed for the rich, one cannot deny that it is intended to restrict access, and it irks Davis that people focus more on segregating social classes than on integrating people with multiple [???]. Thus he refers to this phenomenon as a "zero-sum game" where the upper class clearly wins all the monetary and social benefits while the poor are left with nothing. This can be seen as public parks and beaches are replaced by strip malls and museums. Such outings require than an individual have some money or social status to enjoy, which Davis believes to be completely unfair. (10 points)
6. Pravda (13 answers, avg. = 7.85)
Some of you told me all about Shostakovich and his opera without really analyzing the quotation. Then again, some of you jumped right to the quotation without establishing that it was about the opera. Successful answers explained why the reviewer would reject "apolitical" art (not celebrating the revolution, individualistic, etc.) and why he would reject "confusing" art (can't convey propaganda, maybe sexually confusing, form for form's sake, etc.), and what that has to do with Shostakovich.
The anonymous Pravda writer expresses his dislike of Lady MacBeth, written during the time of Joseph Stalin's reign over the Soviet Union. This writer closely resembles the preferences of Stalin himself. The Pravda writer criticizes the "Western" or "leftist" influence on the musical component of Lady MacBeth. He believes there are too many degrading influences, such as jazz, that taint the production. Also, he finds it demeaning that the woman chooses the bourgeois over the proletarian. This article doesn't seem to rationally criticize the production itself. Rather, it is being debunked by the writer's preferences. He seems to idealize Gorky's "classless society" and Stalin's dislike for any Western influence. And because the "bourgeois audiences abroad" enjoyed Lady Macbeth, it gives the writer every right to criticize and ridicule it. He asks his readers rhetorically about why the bourgeois like it. He's implying that those from the Western part of the world enjoy being politically unaffiliated, and that they are demented for liking things that are "confusing." This article is more of a political attack than anything. (10 points)
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