Tuesday AM   

This will be the second of three courses on Tolkien’s novel The Lord of the Rings and will focus on The Two Towers. Needless to say, this is a masterwork. Richard is prepared to build the case from a literary perspective and also to share how Tolkien drew from other great myths of the world: Celtic, Norse, Anglo-Saxon, Finnish, Greek, and Indian. His goal was to create a myth for his “northern” people, and he did so borrowing from many other traditions. This is not unlike what Homer and other great writers of the past did with their great myths. This will be a page-by-page examination, like you might experience in graduate school.

New remote course. Format includes lecture and discussion.

REQUIRED BOOKS: The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien, ISBN 9780547928210 (Mariner Books)

In this course, we will trace the evolution of literature specifically written for children - from its earliest forms to the modern era. We will begin with the oral traditions that underpin all storytelling, then follow the shift toward published works created specifically with young readers in mind. We will survey key moments and turning points that shaped the growth of children’s literature as a distinct field. We will conclude by analyzing how well-known children’s literature has evolved over time. 

The music we stream, the photos we swipe through, the real time news we consume, the books we read or listen to – all have been radically reshaped by digital technology. This course will explore how media is created, stored, and experienced in a digitized world. We will unpack fundamentals like text files, encoding and decoding, pixels, and algorithms in clear, easy-to-understand ways – no prior computer knowledge needed. Each session will focus on a different medium, comparing its analog origins with its contemporary digital version. We will also consider the impact of Generative AI and speculate on future trends. Topics will include text (books, e-books, news portals), images (photography and movies), music, video games, social media, and media ownership (physical media, streaming, and copyrights).