ENGL / MUSIC 297c

Weekly Reading Responses

On most Thursdays, I will post a prompt to get you started on a short writing assignment about the readings for the following week.[1] These should be around 300 words—about one good page, double spaced. At the very end, they should include two possible questions for class discussion per reading (so if there are two readings that week, 4 total questions). These should be specific: questions you personally had about parts of the text, or larger questions about specific themes and arguments. These should be submitted to the Course Dropbox before 9:05 on the morning they are due. You do not need to include the prompt in your response. You can cite outside sources if relevant and appropriate, but this is not a requirement unless explicitly stated.

Notes: Please submit your response as a PDF, and name your file "Lastname - Reading Response N", where N is the reading response. For example, Eley - Reading Response 1.pdf. The writing prompts for each week are posted below.

Writing Prompts

January 21

• Both of these readings introduce and then challenge a binary formulation of “nature” and “culture”: Sterne through the idea of sound, and Cronon through the idea of wilderness. For this response, I first want you to explain the stakes: why do these authors think it is important to challenge these notions? Then, I want you to reflect on whether or not you agree or find their reasons compelling. How do you feel about nature?

January 28

• Option 1: Idhe and Attali introduce modes of listening that we might hear as supplmentary to the three modes proposed by Chion. Expand on some of these modes, and reflect on their usefulness. How does music start to factor in to the discussion? In your opinion, is music a special case, or should we treat it like any other kind of sound?

• Option 2: If you have never worked in GarageBand (or any other DAW) very much (or at all), spend this weekend exploring the materials available at the MediaCommons and play around with adding your voice and some other audio into a project. Then write a response that reflects on what you learned, what you struggled with, and what you would like to know more about.

February 4

• Both Hirschkind and Crawford present their research as “counter-histories,” or histories that challenge some of the dominant stories and assumptions about a particular subject. Discuss the role that sound plays for each of these scholars in constructing their counter-histories. Some other questions you might consider: How does sound and listening construct a “public”? Have you thought about your own online presence as a kind of “listening”? How might Facebook factor into Crawford’s arguments?

February 11

• In "The Soundscape," Schafer presents the idea of "keynote sounds" and argues for their importance in the soundscape. Discuss and evaluate his argument here, and then make your own argument about 1 or 2 keynote sounds for your life here in State College.

February 18

• In his article “No Corner for the Devil to Hide,” Richard Cullen Rath says, “Perhaps because of its very nature, sound remained difficult to regulate and order.” Drawing on examples from Rath, Smith, and Corbin, your response should discuss the ways that sound can be difficult to control, and what some of the consequences are. How does sound’s “difficulty” affect your notion of “the soundscape”?

March 4

• Option 1: In both LaBelle and Hilmes's essays this week, they discuss the ability of sound to have both physical and social attributes. Compare and contrast the way that they present the influence sound can have over particular people and places. How are radio and sound art different, in your opinion? What qualities might they share?

• Option 2: Many people have rightly pointed to the connections between *The Converation* (released in 1974) and the Watergate scandal, where people were unknowingly wiretapped. But what kind of connections can you see between the film and the various NSA-related domestic surveillance issues today? What is the relationship between sound technologies and national security? Sound and paranoia? Sound and personal intimacy? Did you find Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) to be a sympathetic character?

• Option 3: For those of you that attended my lecture on Tuesday, write a response to it in some way—and don't just say "it was good." I tried to argue that animal imitations were the first "nature" recordings. Do you agree or disagree? Why?

March 25

• Both Mowitt and Kittler discuss the relationship between recording media and our physical bodies—including our ears, our brains, and mental functions such as memory. What, according to these authors, is the relationship between recording and memory? How does that jibe with your own experiences? Are there songs in your life that bring back very specific memories?

April 1

• We haven't discussed the role of film sound very much in class to this point. Respond to these authors and the ways that they theorize sound and the cinema.

Final Responses

There are four more possible responses due this semester, for a total of twelve. If you managed to get behind sometime in the semester, you can do all four—as a reminder, your highest ten grades count toward this portion of the class. These can be done and submitted at any time before the last day of class on May 1st. I want you to use our last weeks together smartly by balancing time for reading, responses, and working on your final projects. Obviously, I can see when these are turned in, and I’m hoping to not get a whole slew of submissions right at the deadline. As always, I provide some prompts, but you can also write on a topic of your choice.

1. Respond to Dr. Fristrup’s visit to class, as well as the readings. How does the notion of animal hearing complicate notions of the soundscape, if at all? How does it complicate your personal feelings about sound, nature, or even the National Park System?

2. John Peters writes, “As new media proliferate…we can expect an ongoing rediscovery of past amenities.” What, in your opinion, does he mean by that? And how can you relate it to Hagood’s article about noise canceling headphones?

3. What kind of assumptions do you hear in Allen and Kellogg’s description of their work in the 1930s? Why do they use the metaphor of hunting? How might you analyze these essays from a historical perspective in light of other readings from the course?

4. Required: Write a response to me about this course. The online form that you will also fill out is fine, but for my files and for future reference it is helpful to know what worked and what didn’t, especially in a new course like this one. Be honest—and if it makes you more comfortable, you do not have to put your name on it (and your uploaded files cannot be traced back to you using our current uploading system). Everyone will get full credit for this assuming everyone turns one in.