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Additonal Readings & Films

Recommended

Readings

The readings here are meant to provide a better understanding of the material. We believe that having a context through social science research and classic works of literature will enhance the students' grasp on this complex topic.

Social Science


Everything is relative, and that’s the point. Like an airplane pilot landing in the dark, we want runway lights on either side of us, guiding us to the place where we can touch down our wheels. (Dan Ariely)







Literature



The mind is divided in many ways, but the division that really matters is between conscious/reasoned processes and automatic/implicit processes. These two parts are like a rider on the back of an elephant. The rider’s inability to control the elephant by force explains many puzzles about our mental life, particularly why we have such trouble with weakness of will. (Jonathan Haidt)







Watch



  • Michael Pollan, Botany of Desire, section on tulips (documentary is also available on PBS)
  • Karen Ho, Liquidated (on culture of young all Street traders)
  • Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed
  • Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
  • Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated
  • The Piano [Film]
  • Fitzcarraldo [Film]
  • Andy Crowson, The Value of Life
  • Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies
  • Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun
  • Jessie Redmon Fauset, Plum Bun
  • Michael Chabon, Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
  • Imitation of Life [Film]
  • Spike Lee’s Bamboozled [Film]
  • Joseph Mitchell, Up in the Old Hotel
  • Joseph Mitchell, Joe Gould’s Secret
  • Yezierska’s Salome of the Tenements [Film]
  • Louise Erdrich, The Painted Drum
  • Indecent Proposal [Film]
  • William Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice
  • Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman
  • Lenny Bruce, How to Talk Dirty and Influence People
  • Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times and City Lights
  • Charles Johnson, Exchange Value
  • William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!, Chapter 7 – it contains the young Sutpen’s “innocent” commentary on the value of a rifle
  • Anzia Yezierska, Soap and Water
  • Franz Kafka, A Hunger Artist
  • Morgan Spurlock, Supersize Me
  • George Orwell, Animal Farm
  • Doctor Who, Episode The Beast Below (11th Doctor, Series 5 in 2010, episode 2, #204) [Netflix]
  • Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
  • George Orwell, 1984
  • Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go (also a film)
  • Scott Westerfeld, The Pretties
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