Revised Readings and Quiz Schedule

Readings for the week beginning:

10/10 Read the article entitled "Hallucinations" in the journal Scientific American by Dr. Ronald Siegel, M.D. (on reserve at Wilson Library) and three short first person narrative descriptions of altered states of consciousness available on the internet. The first narrative is entitled "real or hallucinations? (or Story 15)" and is located at a website where users of LSD submit first person accounts called "Acid Stories." It is located in the "stories" section of that website whose web address is:

http://members.tripod.com/~JPendley/UntitledFrame-5.htm

The second and third narratives are by Terrence McKenna regarding his experiences while using the drug DMT. These can be found at: a) http://deoxy.org/h_alove.htm and

b) http://deoxy.org/h_twha3.htm

Quiz: Tuesday 10/17

Needless to say these readings are NOT an endorsement of these dangerous and illegal drugs (basically hallucinogens chemically poison the brain stem and disrupt the normal neurotransmitters of the brain and may cause cancer) but they do concretely illustrate the various stages of altered states of consciousness described by Dr. Siegel. Other stories on the "Acid Stories" website describe various "bad trips" people have had and of course there are no narratives from those drug users who have died from diving off of buildings because they thought they could "fly" or who had long term mental disabilities from ingesting these powerful chemicals. Illegal drugs are notoriously erratic in their dosages and are unsafe. Terrence McKenna, (who wrote the description of a DMT hallucination) died of brain cancer on April 3, 2000.

10/17 Read the article entitled "The Signs of All Times: Entoptic Phenomena in Upper Paleolithic Art" pp. 201-217 (not including the Comments and Reply which will be read the following week) in the journal Current Anthropology by David Lewis-Williams and Thomas Dowson. Although this journal article is only 16 pages long it may be the most challenging, intense, and difficult academic reading you will have for this class so plan your scheduled study time accordingly. Use your dictionary to look up words that you do not understand.

Quiz: Tuesday 10/24

10/24 Read the Comments and Reply section (pp. 217-238) to the article entitled "The Signs of All Times: Entoptic Phenomena in Upper Paleolithic Art" by David Lewis-Williams and Thomas Dowson. This classic article has been intensely debated ever since it came out and has generated much new research about rock art around the globe. The Comments and Reply demonstrate the "dialectic" nature of academic research where "discussion and reasoning by dialogue [is] a method of intellectual investigation" (Merriam-Webster Dictionary 10^th Ed). These exemplars also demonstrate the persuasive writing styles of 18 different academics critically analyzing and arguing the same topic.

Quiz: Tuesday 10/31

10/31 Read Chapter 32 in the Longman Handbook on "Commas."

Quiz: Tuesday 11/7

11/7 Read Chapter 33 "Semicolons and colons" and Chapter 34 "Apostrophes."

Quiz: Tuesday 11/14

11/14 Read Chapter 35 "Quotation marks" and Chapter 36 "Periods, etc."

Quiz: Tuesday 11/21

11/21 Read Chapter 37 " Special Punctuation Marks" and Chapter 20 "Sentence Fragments"

Quiz: Tuesday 11/28 (Thanksgiving is on Thursday, 11/23 and there is no class that day).

11/28 Read Chapter 21 "Comma Splice, Fused Sentences" and Chapter 22 "Pronoun Reference."

Quiz: Tuesday 12/5

12/5 Read Chapter "Misplaced Modifiers" and " Chapter 24 "Shifts"

Quiz Tuesday 12/12

12/12 Last day of class (There is no final exam in this course).