名著精读笔记|海明威和费兹杰拉德合体的 Graven Image《世界短篇小说50强》

今天是Oscar名著精读课【critical thinking levlel】的第二次课。

一整天哪儿都没有去，把今天要讲的government and politics 主题的小说又备了一遍。当然又有了更多体会。

每节课都在总结上节课的不足之处，希望让孩子认识到，这节课他们所看到的Oscar已经不是上周的我。如果每个人不能两次踏进同一条河流，那么每天的自己也必然是新的。

我跟学生说：

你现在看到的我=上节课看到的我+两节课间隔中我增加的观察，思考，阅读和修订-我这段时间发现的自己的错误，误区，偏见和局限。

所以，我厌倦一成不变的我。 I am forever renewing myself. I hate monotonous regularity.

如果每节课都是一个先自我发现，然后启发自我发现的过程的话，今天这个课赚大了。

因为我发现了一个了不起的作家，John O'Hara.

一开始吸引我的是连续三个likend的对象：海明威，费兹杰拉德，自然主义作家们，都是我喜欢的作家。让人倒吸一口凉气，太厉害了。

O’Hara has been likened to F. Scott Fitzgerald for interpreting the United States of the 1930’s through fiction as Fitzgerald had the United States of the 1920’s.

He has been likened to Ernest Hemingway in the cleanness and spareness of his style.

He has been likened to the great naturalistic writers because of his trapped, doomed characters.

What can be said with certainty is that he was a master craftsman, a prolific creator of works which have demonstrably pleased the reading public for many years.

课堂收获有：

1. 简练的文风

他文风超级简练，简练到什么程度呢？ 二八法则重出江湖，这个可是真烧脑，可是我喜欢！一个废字都没有，一句废话都没有。

O’Hara’s fiction balances on a tightrope, telling you just enough to figure out what he means (most of the time), offering up a puzzle with about 80% of the pieces filled in, and leaving it to the reader to imagine how the rest of it should look

2. 烧脑的推理

为了填补那20%的空白，我需要做大量的调研，可是一旦填补上了以后，舒服啊，舒服。

比如这篇小说一共留了这么多空白：--对应Purpose题目和infer题目

A. doorman为什么说：“well，it was a long time coming. It took him longer than most, but sooner or later all of them--”我必须补齐他没有说完的话。

B. 文中一共5次斜体强调，比如Under Secretary说： Leave it there anyway. 最后一个词要强调。这五次斜体对整个文章三大线索的理解有什么影响？

C. 文章一共有两次frown,一次是doorman目送副国务卿进门， 一次是副国务卿看到哈佛同学装逼跟大厅经理秀法语。这两次frown的背后是什么conscious 和unconscious的motive？

D. 文章里面躺枪的分别有senators(two son of a btiches), Union League or Junior League( the big jerk),  Havard Porcellian (bastards), 为什么？

E. CHARLES BROWNING两次提到under secretary所在的阶层，都用的是you fellows. 但是语气完全相反！

F. 文章里面The obvious reason为什么是 “My country, "tis thee"?, 这个有什么典故？

3. 条理的梳理

文章一共三条线索：

A. 人物形象线索--对应charaterization题目

named有名有姓的：

Under Secretary(JOE)

CHARLES BROWNING

FRED

unnamed路人甲：

doorman

captain

maitre d'hotel

cursed 被骂的

如上条D.

他们彼此之间的关系是什么？

B. 故事发展线索---对应shift题目

进餐厅

在餐厅

离开餐厅

整个故事发展的最大的shift of focus是什么？

C. 情绪和态度线索-对应mood attitude题目

这么多人，他们的情绪都是怎么变化的，都有什么原因？

4. 文摘选登：

Reluctantly-and quite obviously it was reluctantly-the Under Secretary grinned. " All right. I was baiting you."

"You know him?"

"Sure, I know him, but that doesn't say I approve of him."

5. 文学评论的写法：

5. 额外收获：

个人感觉最多的是要想讲清楚这么多问题，就得上天入地搞清楚，以下这些信息是烧脑过程中的收获：

亲爱的James老师随问随答：【江博AP美国历史和founding documens老师，北京最好最负责的外教】

本文作业：

请所有本班同学别忘了本周用我这个日记来回放一下课堂，并完成如下作业：

2017春季英语名著精读.SAT读书课（李江老师）作业-4.12：

1.打卡【按照我这一篇的格式，内容不用这么详实】。

2.做ACT真题。

3.练习册Lesson2完成

4.预习William Faulkner的That Evening Sun

温馨提示：本班下周三4月19号晚上18:20-20:50正常上课，请同学们认真完成作业，带好教材准时来上课

彩蛋：

这篇文章的题目来历：

Question: "What is a graven image?"

Answer:The phrase “graven image” comes from the King James Version and is first found in in the second of the . The Hebrew word translated “graven image” means literally “an idol.” A graven image is an image carved out of stone, wood, or metal. It could be a statue of a person or animal, or a relief carving in a wall or pole. It is differentiated from a molten image, which is melted metal poured into a cast. Abstract , carved wooden covered in gold leaf, and etchings of gods accompanying Egyptian hieroglyphics are all graven images.

The progression of idolatry in a pagan religion generally starts with the acknowledgement of a power that controls natural forces. The presence of the force is then thought to indwell an object, like a stone, or a place, like a mountain. The next step is altering a naturally occurring object, like a standing stone, a deliberately planted tree, or a carved Asherah pole and asking the force to indwell it. When the idolatrous culture has had time to contemplate the personality of the god, they then make corresponding physical images—a statue that looks like a woman or a relief carving that looks like an animal. Graven images can be either of the last two steps.

The spiritual progression is similar. People start with wanting something (; ), often children or prosperity or good crops. They observe the circumstances (which some acknowledge are God-ordained, and others think are independent) that lead to these things and begin to ascribe to the causal forces human characteristics—thus creating gods. Places are set aside to commune with these false gods. For convenience sake, smaller items, thought to hold the power or the communication line of the gods, are brought into homes. Before long, the people are ensnared by the compulsion to give homage to a thing of their own definition instead of to the God of the universe.

The second commandment, recorded in , reads, “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them.” Likely, this refers back to the first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before Me,” and specifically forbids the creation of idols. But it is equally dangerous to create an image of God Himself. God has given us reminders enough of His power and glory () without man attempting to use created things to represent the Creator.

Functionally, there is no difference between a “graven” image () and a “molten” image (). Both are man’s attempt to define and confine the power of God who works over creation. Both are the result of greed and covetousness, along with the fear that God does not have the worshipers’ best interests at heart. Graven images, whether an idol, a crystal, or a charm, are attempts to limit the power of God and reduce it to a small package that we can control. As with any kind of worship, the object of adoration inevitably controls us.

为这篇文章配音乐比较麻烦，这个应该能合拍：

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