ENG 101
10/24/2002
Rasmi Sporny

Portrait of an Ideal World

Questions:
Who is Pithecanthropus erectus?
Mencken writes, “the average duration of human life to be cut down by 50%, would be an infinitely happier and more charming world than that we live in today”. Did Mencken want to die early or was it because the Prohibition law angered him at the time?

Themes:
1) The plus points of having an occasional drink
2) The dangers of drinking
3) Drinking as a social habit
4) Death by alcohol as a good thing
5) Religion (Christianity)

Idea for research:
Observe the behavioral patterns of people under intoxication. What are the after-effects?
You could also do research on the role alcohol played during past centuries.

Idea for Presentation:
- Collect lines from songs that have the words: “drinking”, “duped”, “high” or any other words that have a relationship with drugs and alcohol.
- Make a list of over 50 colloquialisms that mean “drunk” or “high”
E.g.: pickled, tipsy, out of it, three sheet to the wind, not all there, boozy, liquored-up, smashed, polluted, sloshed, stoned and stewed.
(refer :“Under the Influence” -pg 609)

ENG 101
10/24/2002
Rasmi Sporny

Only One Life

Question:
Is Tom Wolfe implying that the statement “If I’ve only one life, let me live it as a____” has a negative effect on people, because it makes them realize that they are missing something in their lives? Why does he do this?

Themes:
1) People’s dissatisfaction with life
2) Truth hurts
3) Obsessive behavior with appearance and social integrity
4) The “Me Decade”
5) Contemporary fads of the 1960s

Ideas for Research:
Find the different ‘trends’ of ‘fads’ that were practiced in the 60s.
Watch the movie “Scenes fro a marriage” and decide what the movie’s message is.

Idea for presentation:
Take a fairytale, like “Snowhite and the Seven Dwarves” and re-write it where all the characters are selfish, as if they were under the “Bergman spell”, and write dialogues between them where they try to see “who can take it”.