Crowds and Power - Worth a re-read

 

I'm interested in the feelings of being in crowds - the sense of belonging. The vertiginous sense that all control will be lost. It's been many years since I read Canetti on this topic but he's always worth a read. His memoirs: The Tongue Set Free (1977), The Torch in My Ear (1980), The Play of the Eyes" (1985) and the novel Auto-da-Fé (1935), are also worth a visit.

Deep Map Assignment

Since I am getting some very strong writing from an undergraduate liberal studies class in response to this exercise I thought I would share it.

The assignment is introduced during a lecture/discussion on the works of Baudelaire, Joyce, deCerteau, William Least Heat-Moon, and Tim Robinson, writers unified by their emphasis on walking, dwelling, eclectic attention, genre-blending and so forth.

Deep Map

In this short essay assignment choose a neighborhood or even a small part of a neighborhood and develop a Deep Map of this area. The objective is to examine this urban location in a highly interdisciplinary way.  It is very important that as you develop your essay that you physically visit the place: the essay to a large extent should draw upon the processes of becoming familiar with the chose location.