— In which John Green concludes teaching you about Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. You’ll learn about the historical contexts of Things Fall Apart, including 19th century colonization and 20th century decolonization. We’re going to learn a little bit about Achebe’s childhood between two cultures, cover Okonkwo’s sad, sad end, and even learn a little…
If One Finger Brought Oil – Things Fall Apart Part I: Crash Course Literature 208
— In which John Green teaches you about Chinua Achebe’s 1958 novel, Things Fall Apart. You’ll learn about Igboland, a region in modern day Nigeria, prior to the arrival of the British Empire. Achebe tells the story of Okonkwo, an Igbo villager who has worked his way up from life as a sharecropped and become…
Reader, it’s Jane Eyre – Crash Course Literature 207
— In which John Green teaches you about Charlotte Brontë’s classic coming of age novel, Jane Eyre. Look, we don’t like to make judgement values here, but Jane Eyre is awesome. By which we mean the book is great, and the character is amazing. When Jane Eyre was published in 1847, it was a huge…
Frankenstein Part II: Crash Course Literature 206
— In which John Green continues to teach you about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. You’ll learn about romantic vs Romantic, the latter of which is a literary movement. John will also look at a few different critical readings of Frankenstein, and you’ll learn about Victor’s motivations. We’ll also look a little bit at the moral limitations…
Don’t Reanimate Corpses! Frankenstein Part 1: Crash Course Literature 205
— In which John Green teaches you about Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein. Sure, you know Frankenstein the cultural phenomenon, but how much do you know about the novel that started it all? You’ll learn about the Romantic movement in English lit, of which Frankenstein is a GREAT example, and you’ll learn that Frankenstein might just…
Ophelia, Gertrude, and Regicide – Hamlet II: Crash Course Literature 204
— In which John Green teaches you MORE about Bill Shakespeare’s Hamlet. John talks about gender roles in Hamlet, and what kind of power and agency Ophelia and Gertrude had, if they had any at all (spoiler alert: we think they did). You’ll also learn about regicide, Ophelia’s flowers, and Hamlet’s potential motivations. Also, Oedipus…
Ghosts, Murder, and More Murder – Hamlet Part I: Crash Course Literature 203
— In which John Green teaches you about Hamlet, William Shakespeare’s longest and most-performed play. People love Hamlet. The play that is, not necessarily the character. Hamlet is a Tragedy with a capital T (I guess I don’t have to point that out, since you can see clearly in the text that the T was…
Fate, Family, and Oedipus Rex: Crash Course Literature 202
— In which John Green teaches you about one of the least family-friendly family dramas in the history of family dramas, Oedipus Rex. Sophocles’ most famous play sees it’s main character, who seems like he’s got it all together, find out that he’s killed his father, married his mother, had a bunch of incest children,…
A Long and Difficult Journey, or The Odyssey: Crash Course Literature 201
— In which John Green teaches you about Homer’s Odyssey. If it was Homer’s If Homer was even real. Anyway, that stuff doesn’t really matter. John teaches you the classic, by which I mean classical, epic poem, the Odyssey. The Journey of Odysseus as he made his way home after the conclusion of the Trojan…
Crash Course Literature 2 Preview
A reading list.
A reading list.
‘Before I Got My Eye Put Out’ – The Poetry of Emily Dickinson: Crash Course English Lit #8
— In which John Green concludes the Crash Course Literature mini-series with an examination of the poetry of Emily Dickinson. Sure, John explores the creepy biographical details of Dickinson’s life, but he also gets into why her poems have remained relevant over the decades. John discusses Dickinson’s language, the structure of her work, her cake…
Conservation and Restoration Ecology: Crash Course Ecology #12
— Hank wraps up the Crash Course on ecology by taking a look at the growing fields of conservation biology and restoration ecology, which use all the kung fu moves we’ve learned about in the past eleven weeks and apply them to protecting ecosystems and to cleaning up the messes that we’ve already made. —…
Holden, JD, and the Red Cap- The Catcher in the Rye Part 2: Crash Course English Literature #7
— In which John continues the discussion of JD Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye. This week John reads the novel with Salinger’s life story in mind. John explores how Salinger’s war experience, educational background, and romantic life inform the events of Holden Caulfield’s life. How did Holden get to be such a whiny, self-absorbed teen?…
Pollution: Crash Course Ecology #11
— Hank talks about the last major way humans are impacting the environment in this penultimate episode of Crash Course Ecology. Pollution takes many forms – from the simplest piece of litter to the more complex endocrine distruptors – and ultimately, humans are responsible for it all. — — Transcript I think we should do…
Language, Voice, and Holden Caulfield: The Catcher in the Rye Part 1
— In which John Green examines JD Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye. John pulls out the old school literary criticism by examining the text itself rather than paying attention to the biographical or historical context of the novel (that’s for next week). Listen, words matter. The Catcher in the Rye has managed to…
5 Human Impacts on the Environment: Crash Course Ecology #10
— Hank gives the run down on the top five ways humans are negatively impacting the environment and having detrimental effects on the valuable ecosystem services which a healthy biosphere provides. — — Transcript At this point people have been studying the impacts that humans have had on the world around us for a solid…