UNC Student Organization for Undergraduate Literature

Hey guys, I know I've been shirking my responsibility to this club, but it has been a crazy couple of weeks. I shall step up now that the craziness has passed.
I tried to register for Intro to Poetry Writing, but it said something about not meeting classification reqs. Can anyone tell me what's up?

What's up guys, for Dan's class I did a couple of projects that you may find interesting. For the first, I created a playlist to coincide with the poem Troilus and Crisseyde, by choosing songs to help explain the story. Then yesterday I made another playlist, all The Decemberists, that tells it's own story. Wanted to see if anyone is interested in seeing/reading them.

-Joel

Another play next weekend:

Synopsis

Arcadia is set in Sidley Park, an English country house in the years 1809 and 1989 alternately, juxtaposing the activities of two modern scholars and the house's current residents with the lives of those who lived there 180 years earlier.

In 1809, Thomasina Coverly, the daughter of the house, is a precocious teenager with ideas about mathematics well ahead of her time. She studies with her tutor, Septimus Hodge, a friend of Lord Byron, who is an unseen guest in the house. In 1989, a writer and an academic converge on the house: Hannah Jarvis, the writer, is investigating a hermit who once lived on the grounds; Bernard Nightingale, a professor of literature, is investigating a mysterious chapter in the life of Byron. As their investigations unfold, helped by Valentine Coverly, a post-graduate student in mathematical biology, the truth about what happened in 1809 is gradually revealed.

The play's set features a large table, which is used by the characters in both 1809 and 1989. Props are not removed when the play switches time period, so that the books, coffee mugs, quill pens, portfolios, and laptop computers of 1809 and 1989 appear alongside each other in a blurring of past and present.

Themes

Arcadia explores the nature of evidence and truth in the context of modern ideas about history, mathematics and physics. It shows how the clues left by the past are interpreted by scholars. The play refers to a wide array of subjects, including mathematics, physics, thermodynamics, computer algorithms, fractals, population dynamics, chaos theory vs. determinism (especially in the context of love and death), classics, landscape design, romanticism vs. classicism, English literature (particularly poetry), Byron, 18th century periodicals, modern academia, and even South Pacific botany. These are the concrete topics of conversation; the more abstract philosophical resonances veer off into epistemology, nihilism, the origins of lust, and madness.

The title refers to the pastoral ideal of Arcadia and to the memento mori spoken by Death: "Et in Arcadia ego", roughly translatable as "I too am in Arcadia", but the true meaning is enigmatic and the subject of much academic discourse.[1][2] The character of Septimus offers the translation "Even in Arcadia, there am I".

Some ideas in the play recall Goethe's 1809 novella Elective Affinities.

Times of showing are:

Friday, October 26 @ 8:15 pm
Saturday, October 27 @ 2:00 pm
Sunday, October 28 @ 8:15 pm
Monday, October 29 @ 4:00 pm and 8:15 pm
Tuesday, October 30 @ 5:00 pm

Maybe this time some more people will join me (one can always hope, right?)

-Joel

"You are invited to come see DDA Mainstage's fall production, Coyote on a Fence, by Bruce Graham and directed by PRC actor and drama professor Ken Strong!

Fri, Oct 12 at 8:15pm
Sat, Oct 13 at 8:15pm
Sun, Oct 14 at 8:15pm
Mon, Oct 15 at 4pm and 8:15pm
Tues, Oct 16 at 5pm

**guest speakers will give post-show discussions after the shows on Sunday night and Monday afternoon.

"Coyote on a Fence" is set on Death Row in a Texas prison. Two convicted murderers, John Brennan and Bobby Reyburn, form an uneasy friendship in the shadow of their impending executions. The two men, seeming opposites in background, education and sanity, prod and test one another's beliefs while revealing unexpected facets of their own personalities. In their cells, in the exercise yard, reacting with "outsiders" (a reporter and a prison guard) the fluid nature of guilt and responsibility, conscience and criminality are explored and tested by the pair.

(The play contains adult language, racial epithets and violence. It is recommended for mature audiences only. )"

I'm going, who would like to join me?

It turns out that Romeo and Juliet is playing currently until October 14th. We should pick a day to go on Thursday.
-Joel

So there's going to be a play this weekend, called Mere Mortals, and though it's not really literary, I'll be going.
It's described as
A collection of six one-acts by David Ives. Each performance will be in the Elizabeth Price Kenan Theatre in the Center for Dramatic Art on UNC's campus. Admission, as to all of Lab!'s shows, is free... so really, you have no excuse not to come!!!

Here are the performance dates and times:

9/28 at 8.15
9/29 at 2
9/30 at 8.15
10/1 at 4 and 8.15
10/2 at 5

Let me know if anyone wants to join me.

-Joel

I know a bunch of the acting community here, so if there are no objections, I would like to take it upon myself to organize trips to relevant plays when the season starts.

Oh, and anyone that recognizes the name Irrylath gets bonus points.

-Joel

I think members should get some sort of title. I was thinking underclassmen could be called "Disciples of SOUL", and upperclassmen called "Lords" or "Ladies of SOUL". We should take full advantage of the possibilities of our club name.