Hypotheticalizing the San Francisco Renaissance

Hypothetically, if I hypothetically had all the hypothetical time in the hypothetical world to

design a hypothetical unit on the non-hypothetical San Francisco Renaissance, I would, hypothetically...

ASSIGNMENT:

This is a two-part assignment on the San Francisco Renaissance focusing on Ginsberg's "Howl."

First, students will be assigned to read "Howl" in its entirety and come up with a short analysis-response to it. The assignment will be designed to be non-intensive but to get the students to start thinking about how they read the poem. They'll be asked to come up with a set of 5 short questions for discussion. They will then pick one of those questions to answer in a page-long response. When students come to class, we'll discuss their questions and responses to those questions in an open forum.

For the following class period, students will be assigned watch (or watch in class) the first part of "Howl" as envisioned by animator Mark Mentzer (self-proclaimed "New Media Pioneer") on youtube. Link here.**

Then, students will be asked to think about the animation in relation to the poem and their reading of the poem (and/or their classmates' readings. They'll then answer the following questions in relation to the animation. The intent of these questions will be to evaluate the animation and decide how (or indeed whether) looking at (or making) new media objects like this are valuable (and, by extension, the possiblity of animations like this and other similar new-media artifacts to interpret meaning in and analyze literature in general).

• Does watching the video help you read the poem?
• Are there any parts of the animation that seemed to corroborate your readings or your classmates'? Does it refute any? Which parts and why?
• How literal is the animation? Does it help in reading the poem?
• As literary students, does something like this help you interpret the poem? Does it help you read it? What's the difference? What's more valuable?
• Does Mentzer's animation add anything to Ginsberg's poem?
• Think about the performative aspect of Ginsberg's poem, as it was read as a performance. How do you think Ginsberg would feel about an animation like this? Is it an extension of his performance for the modern age, or a bastardization of it? How and why?

Thinking about these questions, students will write a short, thesis-driven essay evaluating the video. They'll have to make a clear statement of what they think of the video in relation to the poem, and back up their opinions with evidence that includes some kind of interpretation of the poem (or part of the poem).

When students come to class, we'll talk about what they thought. If students generally seem to take to the animation, we'll discuss what the animation does well, and how it helps us read and interpret. If not, we'll discuss how they think it could have been done better.

A possible extension of the assignment would be to have the students come up with a similar animation-type project, either for "Howl" or a different Beat poem. Their goal would be to help their classmates "read" the poem, or to use the animation to present their own reading of the poem. Since they're not animators, they might use a storyboard approach, in which they storyboard the scenes and perhaps string them together in a PowerPoint presentation to present to their classmates. They might include in their presentation an analysis of how their proposal is different (better?) than Mentzer's and why.

**Note: Those interested can find the full version in fullscreen on Mentzer's website.