--
"To me education is a leading out of what is already there in [students']
souls.
[. .. Putting] in . . . something that is not there. . . is not what
I call education. I call it intrusion."
Spark, Muriel. (source)
To not recieve knowledge as if it were an intrusion, however, one needs
to open oneself to learning
and interacting with what one has learned.
This take-home exam aims to help you further recollect and interact
with what you have learned.
Postmodern City Texts: Toronto and Taipei as Examples
2004 Spring
Final Exam
*
Instructions:
1. Four altogether: Altogether you should answer four questions,
two from part I, and two from Part II.
2. Group and Individual work: You are encouraged to answer one
of the four questions with your group.
If not, be ready to present your answers in class. A group's answer
is to be presented orally and with
an outline which shows the group's job division. On your final exam
file, please also indicate in one sentence
which topic you have answered with your group and the part you are in
charge of.
3. Fair Coverage: In your final exam answers, there should be
a fair coverage of the important elements of our class.
In other words, you should be engaged in both theoretical discussions
and fictional texts,
both those on Taipei, and those on Toronto.
10 points will be taken off if any of the above four elements is not
dealt with.
I. Close Analysis: (3 paragraphs) choose two from the following film
stills and excerpts to discuss
1) their meanings and how these meanings are presented;
2) their significance in their contexts, and
3) whether you can find examples similar to or contrary to them.
A. --> B
A. 1
那時候的體液和淚水清新如花露，人們比較願意隨它要落就落。
那時候的人們非常單純天真，不分黨派的往往為了單一的信念或愛人，肯於捨身或赴死。
那時候的樹，也因土地尚未商品化，沒大肆開路競建炒地皮，而得以存活得特別高大特別綠，
像赤道雨林的國家。
那時候鮮有公共場所，咖啡館非常少，速食店泡沫紅茶KTV、PUB更是不用說
，少年的只好四處遊蕩猛走，但路上也不見人潮洶湧白老鼠一般。(〈古都〉 p. 151)
A. 2
The bridge goes
up in a dream. It will link the east end with the centre of the city.
It will carry traffic, water, and electricity across the Don Valley. It
will carry trains that have not
even been invented yet.
. . .
And the cyclist
too on his flight claimed the bridge in that blurred movement, alone and
illegal.
Thunderous applause greeted him at the far end. (In the Skin of a Lion
pp. 26-27)
A. 3
The wares, too,
which the vendors display on their stalls are valuable not in themselves
but
as signs of other things: . . ..Your gaze scans the streets as if they
were written pages: the
city says everything you must think, makes you repeat her discourse, and
while you believe
you are visiting Tamara you are only recording the names with which she
defines herself and
all her parts. . . .you leave Tamara without having discovered it. Outside,
the land stretches, empty, to the horizon; the sky opens, with speeding
clouds.
(Invisible Cities p. 14)
A. 4
在幽森的黑暗裏，我看到他那顆殘禿得發了白的頭顱在上下的浮動著。那天晚上，
在學校的化學實驗室中，我也看到趙武勝那顆光禿大的頭顱，在急切的晃動。. . .
那晚，我躺在那張實驗桌上，腦裏一直響著鐵錘的敲擊聲音：咚、咚、咚，一下又一下，
一直在我的天靈蓋上敲打著。
我看見他們將一枚枚五寸長的黑鐵釘，
敲進弟娃那塊薄薄的棺材蓋裏。鐵錘一下去，我的心便跟著緊縮起來。
那麼長的鐵釘，刺下去，好像刺進弟娃的肉裏一般。
前一天的下午，弟娃剛下葬，腳夫們將他那副薄棺材緩緩的降入那個黑洞穴，
當棺材轟然著地的那一刻，我眼前一黑，昏死了過去。空隆－－空隆－－空隆－－
中華商場外面鐵路上，有火車急駛過來。穿過西門町的心臟。車聲愈來愈近，愈響，
就在窗下，陡然間，整座中華商場的大樓都震撼了起來。我企望著窗外那些閃爍的
燈光，突然興起一股奔逃的念頭，往那扇窗戶外面，飛躍進去。可是我並沒有馬上離開，
我將一團溫濕不知數目的鈔票塞進褲袋裏，又扭開了水龍頭，嘩啦嘩啦，
在黑暗中，一直讓涼水沖洗我那雙汗汙的手。(《孽子》Part 2, chap 8)
A. 5
"Even pretending you aren't catering to male fantasies
is a male fantasy: pretending you're
unseen, pretending you have a life of your own, that you can wash your
feet and comb your
hair unconscious of the ever present watcher peering through the keyhole,
peering through
the keyhole in your own head, if nowhere else. You are a woman with a
man inside
watching a woman. You are your own voyeur. "
(The Robber Bride p. 441-42)
--> B
