Fences' Frightful Realization

GABE: Hey, Rose. It's time. It's time to tell St. Peter to open the gates. Troy, you ready? You ready, Troy. I'm gonna tell St. Peter to open the gates. You get ready now. (Gabriel, with great fanfare, braces himself to blow. The trumpet is without a mouthpiece. He puts the end of it into his mouth and blows with great force, like a man who has been waiting some twenty-odd years for this single moment. No sound comes out of the trumpet. He braces himself and blows again with the same result. A third time he blows. There is a weight of impossible description that falls away and leaves him bare and exposed to a frightful realization. It is a trauma that a sane and normal mind would be unable to withstand. He begins to dance. A slow, strange dance, eerie and life-giving. A dance of atavistic signature and ritual. LYONS attempts to embrace him. GABRIEL pushes LYONS away. He begins to howl in what is an attempt at song, or perhaps a song turning back into itself in an attempt at speech. He finishes his dance and the gates of heaven stand open as wide as God's closet. ) That's the way that go!

Based on your reading of this play, what might be the
"frightful realization" that Gabe is exposed to? Why do you think so?

Post Deadline: March 27, midnight

FUNNY FOR CREDIT

		February 11, 2008 - Cartoon Caption Contest # 133

Each week, the New Yorker magazine provides a cartoon in need of a caption. There's an official contest on the New Yorker website (see link below) and we'll be having our own unofficial extra credit contests here.

Your job is to think of the perfect, pithy (look it up) caption for this cartoon. Post it on the blog, read others' ideas, and then we'll vote. Winners get extra credit, of course.

Visit this link to see previous cartoon captions and winning ideas.

http://www.cartoonbank.com/CapContest/CaptionContest.aspx?tab=vote

"Meursault is "the only Christ we deserve"

Albert Camus prefaced his novel, "The Stranger," with the following note in 1955:

I summarized The Stranger a long time ago, with a remark I admit was highly paradoxical: "In our society any man who does not weep at his mother's funeral runs the risk of being sentenced to death."

... I also say that I tried to draw in my character the only Christ we deserve. It will be understood, after my explanations, that I said this with no blasphemous intent, and only with the slightly ironic affection an artist has the right to feel for the characters he has created.

1. Define the author's worldview -- his judgments about individual and the societal values -- and where he places blame -- based on this statement.

2. Do you agree with Camus' assessment of Meursault as "the only Christ we deserve"?

3. Do you agree with Camus' worldview?

WHAT IS FICTION FOR? DUE: 9/10

Math builds bridges. Science heals disease. What does fiction do? What real value do stories offer? Why read a story about a guy who falls in love, when that guy is not real anyway? What are stories for? How much do we need them?

FOR CREDIT, you must write one entry and make at least one thoughtful response to another entry. Use the above questions to begin your discussion. Try to use specific examples in your responses.

WHEN YOU RESPOND, PLEASE DO NOT
CREATE A NEW POST.
JUST CLICK ON THE WORD "COMMENTS"
(NEXT TO THE PENCIL).
AND ADD YOUR COMMENT
TO THE LIST IN WHITE.

Use complete sentences in your discussion. Use correct grammar, or at least try your best.

Note: If your discussion includes the words “think,” “feel,” relate,” or similar transitive verbs, you must be specific: in other words, “It really makes you think” or “You can relate to it” is not specific enough.