The Use of Secondary Sources

When we're talking about PSAs, it's important to focus only on the primary source. But as you look to expand your paper and develop it into an analytical research project, you'll have to use secondary sources.

Secondary sources, according to Writing Analytically, have a number of uses, some of which include:

1) To provide context
2) To deepen understanding
3) To provide contrasts
4) To invite comparisons
5) To broaden the scope of your research beyond the primary source

As an example, we looked at the music video for Foster the People's "Pumped Up Kicks" (the primary source). Imagining that we were doing the Method on this video, we analyzed the images and tried to come up with some ideas about what the choices made in the video are trying to represent.

Looking at the lyrics to the song (a secondary source), we were able to better understand what the songwriter may have meant, and to use that as a reflective surface to re-evaluate our own judgement about the video.

As is often the case when secondary sources are introduced, our first impressions or ideas may have turned out to be quite different from our new reading/viewing/listening of our primary source.

As we complete our Annotated Bibliography project (the first step in the introduction of secondary sources into our papers), think and reflect on your experience finding sources for your PSA.

Was it challenging, and why?
Did you expect to take your research in the direction it went? What happened?
Do you see a value in the introduction of secondary source? If so, what? If not, why?
Any other comments/questions are welcomed.

Remember: like our secondary sources, we want to have a conversation in the comments, not just post for the sake of posting.

Foster The People - Pumped Up Kicks

Robert's got a quick hand
He'll look around the room, he won't tell you his plan
He's got a rolled cigarette
Hanging out of his mouth, he's a cowboy kid
He found a six-shooter gun
In his dad's closet with in a box of fun things
I don't even know what
But he's coming for you, yeah he's coming for you

All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet
All the other kids with the the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet

Daddy works a long day
He'll be coming home late and he's coming home late
And he's bringing me a surprise
'Cause dinner's in the kitchen and it's packed in ice
I've waited for a long time
Yeah the slight of my hand is now a quick pull-trigger
I reason with my cigarette
And say, "your hair's on fire, you must've lost your wits, yeah"

All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet
All the other kids with the the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet

Run run run run
Ru-ru-ru-run run run
Ru-ru-ru-run run run run
Ru-ru-ru-run run run ru-run run

(Repeat Chorus X2)

John Updike's "A&P"

We listened to a reading of John Updike's short story "A&P." What did you find most interesting or strange about the story? How is the way the story is told (in the first person by Sammy, in the present tense) working to affect your experience as a listener/reader? What were you initial assumptions about the story, and did they change at all after our discussion in class?
(Remember: write in the comments of this post, and try to have a conversation rather than individually posting your responses.)

The Arcade Fire "The Suburbs"

"The Suburbs"

In the suburbs I
I learned to drive
And you told me we'd never survive
Grab your mother's keys we're leavin'

You always seemed so sure
That one day we'd be fighting
A suburban war
Your part of town against mine
I saw you standing on the opposite shore

But by the time the first bombs fell
We were already bored
We were already, already bored

Sometimes I can't believe it
I'm movin' past the feeling
Sometimes I can't believe it
I'm movin' past the feeling again

Kids wanna be so hard
But in my dreams we're still screamin' and runnin' through the yard
And all of the walls that they built in the seventies finally fall
And all of the houses they built in the seventies finally fall
Meant nothin' at all
Meant nothin' at all
It meant nothin

Sometimes I can't believe it
I'm movin' past the feeling
Sometimes I can't believe it
I'm movin' past the feeling and into the night

So can you understand?
Why I want a daughter while I'm still young
I wanna hold her hand
And show her some beauty
Before all this damage is done

But if it's too much to ask, it's too much to ask
Then send me a son

Under the overpass
In the parking lot we're still waiting
It's already passed
So move your feet from hot pavement and into the grass
Cause it's already passed
It's already, already passed!

Sometimes I can't believe it
I'm movin' past the feeling
Sometimes I can't believe it
I'm movin' past the feeling again

I'm movin' past the feeling
I'm movin' past the feeling

In my dreams we're still screamin'
We're still screamin'
We're still screamin'

The Arcade Fire "The Suburbs"

"The first half of Spike Jonze's video for Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" is simple enough: a gang of teenagers biking around the suburbs, goofing off, shooting BB guns, roughhousing, enjoying each other's company. As with Where the Wild Things Are, Jonze is great at capturing the motion of being young. But what seems like a sweet and nostalgic ride around the cul de sac gets darker as the video progresses: The kids are shooting BB guns at heavily armed soldiers and cops, Homeland Security–looking types who are making their presence felt in the burbs (and who are also played by Arcade Fire's own Win Butler and Régine Chassagne). If at first the law seems part of the scenery, halfway through they get more active making sketchy, scary nighttime stops and throwing the teens up against hurricane fences to search them. The kid with the girlfriend gets arrested, and after that experience, a severe haircut, and a bad house party, he ends up beating his other friend senseless inside a fast-food restaurant. The suburbs, they've got a dark side."

(http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/11/spize_jonze_directs_the_aracad.html)

A Time of Hope

After listening to this podcast, I found myself in shock at the level of oppression that exists in different places in the world. Only moments into Solomon's story, I began feeling a great appreciation for the amount of freedom that we have as citizens of the United States. Many of the people that occupy the war-torn Middle East are very insecure of the conflicts that have occurred in the recent past to the point at which they can no longer focus on solutions in the future. Living in the United States, we are always thinking forward; thinking of ways to progress and solve the seemingly insignificant problems that we face in comparison with those of the Middle East. Having a safe and stable history is what makes us as citizens of a first-world country progressive and fortunate, and this is something that is not nearly appreciated as much as it should be, as stated by Andrew Solomon.

A Time of Hope

This podcast was the first I have ever listened to, and it was actually a lot more inspiring and motivational than I had thought. When Andrew Solomon talked to the man about why he wasn't trying anything innovative in his art, it really taught me to respect my own past, and the past of my family and where we come from. A lot of times we take for granted what was, and solely focus on how to make things bigger, better, and more advanced. While these are good things, it is essential that we must acknowledge and respect the past, what was. This was a great message for me to hear, especially in a country where it's easy to forget how good we have it in a place where we can express ourselves with no one to hold us back.

A Time of Hope

After I listened this story, I felt that tears in my eyes. I was really touched by this story. The people who live in the worst environment, poorest condition and strict restrictions, still have a deep hope to life. It really encourages me but makes me sad about their conditions. Such a difference of life in the world they are facing. Such a pain they are still suffering. It reminds me a famous movie, called The Shawshank Redemption. One of the classical actor's lines is 'Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies'. This sentence has already became my motto for years. Always believe, always hope.

A Time of Hope

I thought that the story was well told. It was not had to pay attention. I stayed interested through out the whole story and was intrigued by Soloman research and dedication to exploring. Soloman had a great challenge going into a country that just started a war. Soloman never believed the people even after they told him that there were no musicians in Afghanistan. One day he found a group of musicians and proved the people wrong.

Analyzing Andrew Solomon's Search for Song

I found the podcast to be rather interesting and lively. Andrew Solomon did a great job of speaking. One thing that stuck out to me in this podcast was when he was discussing the lack of easy communication and when they were discussing how the past must be preserved before they could think about the future. It really struck me because we in a Western society take a lot of our technology and instant communications for granted and don't realize that it's not like that everywhere else. Here in the U.S. we can download music and have local artist record music and instantly e-mail it to everyone we know etc. While in Afghanistan, it would be much harder to locate the artists and musicians without the technology that we have. Then when the miniature painter was talking about preserving the past before the future could even be dreamed of made me think really hard about how I always think about who I will be and never think that who I was could be lost and no one would remember it. I never think about how the past might not be there and never thought about actively trying to preserve it because it seems to preserve itself here. Anyway, those are the major things that I thought about while listening to the podcast. Sort of a different take on things.

A Time of Hope

I've never listened to a podcast before so I wasn't sure what to expect. My initial impressions of the podcast was that it was long, but once you start getting into the story time went by quite fast. Solomon is telling a story of passion and hope in a sad and hostile time of war. Laws can't stop people from doing things they are passionate about because without passion you have nothing. You don't need to be a musician from Afghanistan to grasp the concept of the story all you need to do is think of something you're personally passionate about and put it in the place of music. The fact that he adds humor in the story really lightens the mood and shows that you can still find humor out of a bad situation.

This the the first podcast that I have listened to, and it is also the first blog that I have ever posted. After being raised on music and art, I do not think I could live in a world without it. When Soloman began explaining the punishments for practicing music, I wanted to believe he was joking, but as he went on I knew he was serious. A world where a joy as simple as music is outlawed cannot be right. Listening to the story gave me a perspective on how bad life really is over in the middle east. I think my favorite part of the story was when he talked about all the people who held onto their instruments and dreams. I thought it was really awesome when the man explained that he could have been executed for possessing his instrument, but instead of giving into fear he chose to hold on to what he believed to be more important, hoping for the day to come where he could finally play again.

Moths Really Don't Commit Suicide

This podcast was not the first that I have ever listened to however, I enjoyed this one much more than what I have been listening to lately. I have been enveloped in a particular talk show lately that is very doom and gloom oriented so this short little story of hope was a good teeter for my totter. It gave me a new perspective on the war effort in Afghanistan. The podcasts that I have been listening to would have either told me that the war is just another power grab or that it is part of an ongoing effort to protect our freedoms. After listening to this story I think that another reason that the United States is involved is to restore some dignity to people that have been oppressed for generations by allowing them to have an opportunity to act independently. I am a musician and therefore it is easy for me to imagine that I can relate to the restoration of art to a place where it has not been allowed for so long but I don't believe that someone needs to be an artist to appreciate the message of hope in this story.

A Time of Hope

A podcast story is a little unfamiliar to me, but this A Time of Hope did shock me a lot. I hardly think about those regions in the world where there is no any kind of art (although Soloman eventually found many arts in Afghanistan). I suppose that this story is not only about music or painting or art; Afghanistan people keep their arts in the circumstance where no art is allowed because it is a sustainment of their own culture. This podcast story is also understandable for non-artists because music and painting, any kind of art, can often exceed the limit of cultures, languages or nations.

For me, this was my first time listening to a podcast and my first time actually posting on a blog site. As far as the story goes, I thought it was a very well told story and one that was very easy to listen to for the storyteller read it so well. Soloman had a great challenge going into a country that just started a war with the world's premier super power. After many civilians told him that there were no musicians or poets in Afghanistan anymore, Soloman persevered and never once believed them. One day his perseverance payed off and eventually found a group of musicians. The theme of perseverance is what I am going to take away the most from this story.

I thought the story was very well told! While the story itself was very good, I really enjoyed the way it was presented to the listener. However, I do question the storytellers intent. Was he just telling the story to make the reader feel good, or was he trying to show how the United States invading Afghanistan was the right choice?

Blog on a log with a frog

I have never posted on an official blog before so this post is just a test.

So I had never listened to a pod-cast before and was a bit apprehensive coming into listening to this story. I was however pleasantly surprised by it. The way Solomon wove together the touching serious parts with bits of humor made the story actually very good and easy to listen to. The story itself speaks of hope. Even in times of oppression and situations that appear to be hopeless, people were able to hold onto what was important. I do not believe that you would have to be from Afghanistan or a musician to understand the story though it would be instantly obvious as to what Solomon was saying if you were. I think that all that you need to understand this is to imagine what have now; material possessions, freedom and all forms of artistic expression, and imagine if that were not a part of your life.

A Time Of Hope

My Initial reaction to the story was that I was a little confused in what direction the story could venture into. After listening to the whole story I liked the message that it sent about passion. The story provided that any passion strong enough can work through struggles such as the people in Afghanistan faced. You do not need to be a musician from Afghanistan to understand the story, I think the story was more focused on how strong the people were and how much they loved the arts that they risked their lives to be able to do what they enjoy most.

Andrew Solomon: A Time of Hope

A few questions to start out:

What were you inital impressions of the podcast? Have you listened to a podcast before?

What do you think Solomon's story is about? (Not just the facts, but is there an underlying message he's trying to share?)

Do you need to be a musician or from Afghanistan to wholly understand the story? Why or why not?

What choices does Solomon make when selling his story? (Think about humor, about details, etc.) How do these choices affect the listening experience?

The Moth

Hey everyone,

Just as a reminder: before class on Thursday, you need to have listened to "Andrew Soloman: a Time of Hope." This is a podcast presented by The Moth (http://themoth.org/).

Our first blog entries will be centered around Soloman's story, so download it from our Carmen page and listen while you walk across campus, drive to the grocery, do the dishes -- anything, really.

Enjoy!