Dear Unthinkable Mind Students,

This talk by Richard Feynman reminds me of Emily Dickinson’s poem number 530 At minute 4:31 he says

“How is it the sun is so jiggly-

So hot-

I’ve got to stop somewhere-

I’ll leave you something to imagine”

Thanks to Occipital Lobe for finding this video for us.

Dear Unthinkable Mind Class,

In blizzard conditions remember Emily Dickinson’s Poem # 530.

What would that poem mean if I told you it was Jackson Jackson’s favorite poem?

What would it mean if I told you it was Jo Ann Beard’s favorite poem? She’s the person who wrote the story I read to you yesterday, “The Fourth State of Matter”

What would it mean if I told you it was the shooter’s favorite poem?

What if I told you all of them had it memorized and turned to it often?

Professor Old Skull turns to that poem often and wonders how so few lines can hold so many different views. Is it a prism?

Above, your homework pages for the Unthinkable Mind Class #8 which includes a quote from an Alice Monroe story called “Child’s Play”.

Poem #530 seems to contain it as well. How?

Where ever you are, I hope you are warm.  (If you need it, the  link to our fireplace video is here.)

I’m looking forward to seeing you all again on Wednesday.

Prof. O.S.

Twenty students in The Unthinkable Mind class were told they had a week to memorize Emily Dickinson’s Poem #530.

Two days later, before most of them had started working on it, they were asked write down what they could remember of the poem, no presented here in no particular order.

QUESTION: What traces does a poem leave behind after one has read it only once or twice?

Poem # 530

You cannot put a Fire out --
A Thing that can ignite
Can go, itself, without a Fan --
Upon the slowest Night --

You cannot fold a Flood --
And put it in a Drawer --
Because the Winds would find it out --
And tell your Cedar Floor --

EMILY DICKINSON ACTION MOVIE TRAILER for Unthinkable Mind assignment due Monday, February 18th, 2013, 1:20pm.

Emily Dickinson wrote on small pieces of paper, whatever was on hand.

This is a letter from Lynda Barry to the students in The Unthinkable Mind which begins on January 23, 2013 at the University of Wisconsin- Madison. The class is composed of 21 graduate and undergraduate students; eight with interests in the sciences, eight with interests in the humanities, and five wild cards.

It’s a writing and picture-making class with focus on the basic physical structure of the brain with emphasis on hemispheric differences and a particular sort of insight and creative concentration that seems to come about when we are using our hands (-the original digital devices) —to help us figure out a problem.

No artistic talent is required to be part of this class, but students must have an active interest in learning about the physical structure of the brain, how memory, metaphor, pictures and stories work together, the relationship between our hands and thinking, and what the biological function of the thing we call ‘the arts’ may be.

This is a rigorous class with a substantial workload. Along with twice weekly writing, picture making, and memorization assignments, students will be required to complete a handmade book using visual and written elements by the end of the semester.

Before the first meeting, students will have read the introduction to Iain McGilchrist’s book on the brain’s hemispheric differences, “The Master and His Emissary” (Download Introduction) and will have memorized Emily Dickinson’s poem number 937

I felt a Cleaving in my Mind —
As if my Brain had split —
I tried to match it — Seam by Seam —
But could not make it fit.

The thought behind, I strove to join
Unto the thought before —
But Sequence raveled out of Sound
Like Balls — upon a Floor.

Class activities, assignments and relevant material will be posted on this tumblr page throughout the semester.