Reading:
James Baldwin, The Evidence of Things Not Seen, ISBN 0-8050-3939-2
1. [Evidence] Baldwin’s essay opens with the epigraph: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” How does he understand or complicate what counts as “evidence”? And more specifically, why does he question the case made against Wayne Williams?
2. [Closure and patterns] Scott McCloud, in Understanding Comics, discusses the concept of “closure,” and in a certain way, Baldwin discusses a similar process when he discusses how we see, or want to see, “patterns” (e.g., a pattern in the deaths that suggests a mass murderer or the pattern of the terror of being poor and black in America). In the story/stories you will be telling, what can you anticipate about the kinds patterns or assumptions your audience will recognize and the kinds of closure they may create about the evidence and digital assets you present in your stories?
3. [Social construction of place/race] On page 30, Baldwin discusses “‘becom[ing]’ White” as linked to the construction of a certain definition of nation. What does he mean by this, and how can you apply this concept to your PolyXpress story as a story about the making of place and of an (American) community?
4. [Form and content] One aim of creating our PolyXpress stories is to question received or dominant truths/histories of a place. Please consider what kind of storytelling forms help convey this kind of content that tries to unsettle crystallized truths or assumptions. Why does Baldwin write the way that he does when he is questioning dominant narratives (e.g., about Atlanta as a city to busy to hate or Williams as a mass murderer of black children)? How does form work in the other “counter-narratives” we’ve looked at (for example, Indeterminate hikes+ as a way to question assumptions about nature/wilderness, a People’s History (Radicalizing Teaching and Touring) or SLO Walking tour podcasts as a way to challenge (or not) narratives of place.
5. [Epigraph] Baldwin’s essay has a lot of rich passages. Choose one as a potential candidate for an epigraph to your PolyXpress story. Explain why this quote resonated with you.
Submit the assignment on or before May 28, 10am, via PolyLearn.