We'll continue this on Friday, and also look at the Souweine combo, including the architect. We'll also take a look at the plan for the house--why it seems "perfect" for Jonathan, and why Judith gets along so much better with the carpenters--to the point of participating in the carpentry herself. Is there something about Jonathan vis a vis Jim Locke's father which makes the relationship between Jonathan and Jim particularly tense? What do you think?
I want to move then to a discussion of Kidder's book, starting with a look at some human relations. First, I'd like to look at some inter-generational relationships. On the Apple-Core Side, I'd like to look at the father-son relationships between Jim Locke and his dad, Richard Gougeon and his family history and story, Ned Krutsky has a third kind of life history, and comes to construction by a different route, and while it seems like it would be the most normal way to enter the construction field, Krutsky is often the least happy of the carpenters on the job. Is there anything in his family of origin which might explain this? Finally, Alex Ghiselin. Any of you with some insight into psychiatry might be able to explain first, what his favorite part of the job is, and second, why he may have left his first career for his second one. Could you imagine doing the same thing?
We'll do on Monday what we would have done on Friday if everyone had done what I asked them to do on Wednesday. Please do your outside-class work outside of class. I try to base my discussions on that, and without your help I'm stuck ad-libbing, and getting perturbed about it. I shold have mentioned this before, but I am not fond of scolding students. especially when a few of them do not deserve it.
We will hold our first general discussion of the BOOK, House. by Tracy Kidder. I will be looking for your general impressions of the book, and what your impressions of the various characters in the book are. This structure means something different to each of the persons represented in the book. We'll be looking at a lot of issues, gender differences, class differences, and more. You will probably be a bit surprised by the career paths of the members of the Apple Corps company. You may already be surprised, if you've read that far in the book.
The House involved. How many very similar houses have you seen in Bristol or Warren? You might try taking some pictures of some of them. We'd enjoy making the comparisons. (The Bristol houses are well over 100 years older).
