Multicultural Summer Institute
 Summer 2003

Squaring The Circle
Wednesday, July 27, 2005

 

Reading

Revoyr, Nina. Southland. New York: Akashic Books, 2003.
Supplemental Reading None!
GOAL  Wrap-up the course; prepare for the final exam

http://faculty.oxy.edu/ron/msi/05/07272005.htm

Beginning of Colloquium Announcements

  1. Lecture Notes available on the web
  2. Final Version of paper #4 due FRI 9am; Final Exam Tomorrow!

Squaring The Circle is a mathematical term which described the process of trying to find a square which had the same area as a particular circle. Basically, it is a search for the exact value of the square root of π (pi, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its radius, also known as 3.14151926535...). In ancient times, the phrase "to square the circle" gained the connotation "to do the impossible (or very very difficult)."

The philosophy here involves determinism. The problem was that the Greeks believed that they everything was determinable and knowable. But is it? That's the topic of today's lecture. Can we know everything there is to know about the novel Southland and the southland its set in, Los Angeles?  Together let's discuss what progress we've made so far.

What did we learn in MSI?

ACTIVITY: On your index card, write down

  1.  One fact that you learned in MSI which surprised you
  2. The most interesting part of the academic side of the program
  3. The least interesting part of the academic side of the program