I've been busting my behind trying to explain formal terms of literary analysis to my second years lately. Stuff I've known for so long I can't remeber not knowing it. Stuff that's so foreign to them that it takes some truly inventive example-concocting and, occasionally (I'm not proud of this) me standing on the instructor desk flapping my arms and squawking. But I think I've got it now!
Juxtaposition: placing incongruous items adjacent to one another to create new meaning from the comparison that results.
So.
Ready?
Today, I got this email:
Dear Mimi,
I’m writing because I have still not received your completed Office of [Money] cover sheet for your [Big Ole Major Grant Application] that was submitted on October 7, 2008. Please fill out and submit your completed coversheet at your earliest opportunity. http://www.lottabureaucracy.ca/forms/
Best regards,
Pynchon
Pynchon Lastname
Research Coordinator,
Grants and Government Research Contracts (Fancy Agency Names)
Office of [Administration]
[Triangular Building], Room XXXX via 1043
Phone: 519-555-5555 ext. 12345
Fax: 519-555-5555
Okaaaaayyyyy, sure, but I got it from this guy:
It's hard to take a form letter--from your husband!--too, too seriously, when you've just downloaded photos of him with your bra on his head. Caught in that position, naturally, he raised a glass of local microbrew. Of course!
Form letter: meh. Bra head: wtf? And yet? There's something about that combo that seems to exceed the sum of its parts, I think.
So. Juxtaposition. Any questions?
Monday, November 03, 2008
Juxtaposition
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6 comments:
He kind of looks like Piglet.
Whaaaaat? Why is he sending you cover sheet request letters?
Don't all husbands wear bras on their heads? I thought that and No PAnts was the at-home uniform.
I'm laughing, just laughing over here!
Obviously you will stop at nothing in the pursuit of teaching your students!
Beck: Pynchon works at the same university as me now. And we have had some minor professional dealings--which obviously we haven't quite figured out how to navigate gracefully ...
A glass? Methinks it was more than 'a' glass!
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