第二星期作业 -- 书中描绘了维米尔的哪几幅画

第二星期：四月17-24 《书中描绘了维米尔的哪几幅画》—Online post

Which of his paintings are mentioned in the book? Give some details. Make a post, state a fact, or ask a question. Please identiy them and add 1 or 2 to the shared document. I have put in the 1st one. Don't wait till all of them identified by others.

大家填填看：每幅画的名字可以填在这里

两点申明

1. 为什么采取每星期作业的形式: 我们每个人都有独到, 精辟的见解，而每次却因时间的关系不能畅所欲言。如果大家随时将自己的看法和问题等出来，供大家讨论，借鉴，等到大家见面时就会把重点放在更有趣的问题上，希望大家支持.
2. 英文和中文；我常用英文发言是因为用英文打字比较快。打中文太浪费时间。希望大家见谅。

如果你错过这个星期的作业，你可以随时补上，直到五月七日。

my approach

Imagine you were about to be working in this revered artist’ home. What was in store for you was fate of a maid, whose skin would be cracked by soaking your hands in bleached water, walking in bitter cold along the canal to the meat market, your back hurt from cleaning, hauling the water, and your mind numb from involvement in this ever growing family and caught in between. But you were no ordinary maid. You were a mind of sharp perception and intuition for colors and shapes, and yet you were at a tender age of sixteen.

This small and seeming petty novel is no longer trivial to you. You will be transported to another place, another time. It is a like a magic. Trust me. It worked for me.

第一星期作业 -- 你所知道的维米尔

After months of reading of serious stuff like race, gender, prejudice and search for meaning of life, “Girl with a Pearl Earring” might be a diversion and will lead us to intimacy of an artist’s studio and into the intriguing details of creation of art work. (It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, yet there is homework you have to complete)

作业：Everyone is required to do it each week ( 每人至少发言一次)

第一星期：四月10 -17《你所知道的维米尔》—Online post
Do some research online and make a post, ask a question, or make comments on existing posts about Johannes Vermeer, his life, his works, and significance of his paintings.

1st item on our agenda--
话不过三: 3 facts about Vermeer, of his time, life, family, and significance of his paintings. Everyone is required to make 3 statements, no more or no less, and no repetition of what other people have said. So be familiar with Vermeer as much as possible.

Why purple

a little poking around turned out some revealing info, quite similar to what we discussed:

Shug Avery, a self-confessed sinner who is denounced by the churchgoing community, defends God. God is not “him” to her, but rather “it.” She espouses a pantheistic view of the world in which all nature is God, and God appears in all nature. God is a joyful and loving being. The novel’s title reflects this as Shug tells Celie that she thinks God may become angry when people walk past a field and fail to appreciate the color purple. In her view, God appears in church only when the people themselves bring him in. Her religion stresses love, compassion, and pleasure.

...

The color purple itself becomes, along with Celie's sewing, the central symbol in the book. Suggestive of royalty, creativity, surprise, it becomes for Celie symbolic of the wonder of the creativity of God. The first new dress she owns (not a hand-me-down), she wants to be purple. Purple not available, she opts for blue. When, at the end, she finally has her own house, she sleeps in a room painted purple. The pants she sews for Sofia have one red leg, the other purple. Purple is also the symbolic color of lesbianism; Celie's passionate love for Shug Avery is one of the poignant centers of the plot. When Shug leaves her for a young man, Celie is so crushed she can only communicate to Shug by writing notes: “I pray to die, just so I don’t never have to speak.”

"Color Purple" Tonight! Reminder

Hi all, please bring your thoughts, experiences, reflections, and most importantly questions to this evening's discussion!

One of the questions posed by the newcommer is that,

Why is the book titled as color purple? How is that related to the content of the book?

I will gather more questions at the beginning of the disussion and let's say what answers we can come up with on site!

You can hardly leave politics out ot it

Alice Walker : Obama is the change that America has tried to hide