Arts One in a nutshell

I decided, in my procrastination* of packing for the summer, to lay out a quick guide to Arts One reading, group A. Since it is the second year of these readings, it is time for an adjustment of the book list, but here's to you hoping it won't change too much. Anyways, a flash guide to the reading list of 2011/2012:
*Also, don't do this too much. Soon, you will have accumulated days, not hours, on the couches in the commonsblock, most of which was watching reruns of Seinfeld and How I Met Your Mother, telling yourself that after just the next one you will write a paragraph or two, that inspiration is in that very paragraph, and you know, deep down, that it really isn't, but somehow you will find a way to finish just before the time runs out and you will make it back to bed with the bittersweet feeling that although you finished a not-quite as good as it can be paper, you will be going to sleep and happily forget how miserable you were until the week after next when the cycle renews itself.

Book of Genesis
Eat an apple, go through remarkable pain once a month–for women only. For men, you get a slap on the wrist and an eternity with women who now have this monthly gut-punching.

Kant What is Enlightenment/Conjectural Beginning of Human History
Giving the finger to God and getting kicked out of Eden? Good thing.

Irvine Socrates on Trial
...cannot remember ...come back

Plato Euthyphro
...cannot remember

Sophocles Oedipus
Parents worried that their son would sleep with his mother and kill his father, so, of course, they made sure of it happening. They find out, it gets bloody. Kids are probably scarred for life.

Seneca Oedipus Tyrannus
See Sophocles, except make it into a soap opera and add more vaginal stabbings.

Plato The Republic
Philosophers are the best, everyone else are just sheep. We have metals in blood, meaning if you do not have a good metal, you are screwed. Also, man escapes from cave in Allegory of the Cave; men are given the chance to choose good/evil, they choose the opposite everytime they die, philosophers are the only ones who know what's up, of course.

Machiavelli The Prince
Lie, cheat, steal, and know your history to be a good prince. Don't be an idiot.

Marlowe Doctor Faustus
It may seem like a good idea to get everything you wanted for, you know, nothing big, but just your soul... it's not. Generally, trades with the devil, not a wise idea.

Brecht Life of Galileo
The Church is always right, even when it's wrong. Galileo was essentially given a horse head under his covers to shut up.

Shakespeare Hamlet
Doesn't do anything, ever... and when he does, he fucks shit up. All because he is an emo child.

Rousseau Discours on the Origin of Inequality
We were better off as post-Eden apes.

Shelley Frankenstein
Man builds monster, realises he built monster, chaos.

Lippman The Scopes Trial
The American South was a scary place.

Nietzsche On the Geneology of Morality
...forgot/no fucking clue

Wells Island of Dr. Moreau
Cutting open animals while still alive, good thing?

Chopin The Awakening
Spoiler: She kills herself.

Freud Dora, Sexuality, etc.
Subconsciously, all you want to do is sleep around with your father (or mother).

Foucault History of Sexuality Vol. I
Is the war on sexuality being waged? This one was a bugger...

Plath Bell Jar
...

Else The Case of Robert J Oppenheimer
Man builds bomb, realises he built bomb, chaos.

DeLillo End Zone
A stoned football player questions football.

Walter The Zero
Did not get this far in my readings.

McCarthy The Road
All hope is lost... Also, humans will scare the shit out of you after this one.


I will come back to revise and finish this, but, for now, that is pretty much Group A's list.