In lieu of documentary viewing today, we explored the roots of our culture's love of Turkey day by reading and discussing Michael Chabon's short piece "The Comforts of Not-Home" from Bon Appetit (PDF). We also completed (and dropboxed) some questions about the work (Word).
For homework (December 2, when we return from Thanksgiving Break): Read Thoreau's On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1015-1032 in The Language of Composition... or via PDF here). Also, please complete the blog post that you were supposed to start in class: Chabon spends more time describing the milieu, the environment, than he does describing the food. Select an “eating environment” for close observation and purposeful commentary; describe how that environment (perhaps more so than the food) shapes social interaction or individual introspection. Write an analysis of a selected food environment; use your experience there to present an implicit claim based upon this “eating environment.” I'm looking for no more than 500-750 words.
Finally, as I mentioned in class today, you'll read World War Z over Christmas Break. You should purchase / borrow this text yourself, and we'll begin work on it at the start of the third quarter.
Enjoy your