“Identity” Lies in the Eye of the Beholder
Monika Krishan, Rutgers University, Fall 2005
Assignment 1
Pollan’s use of the phrase “Playing God in the Garden” suggests that the author perceives the practice of bio-engineering as rather more than a threat to one’s physical well being.
How do Boyarin’s “sense of loss” and Pollans’ implied reservations regarding the impact of “bio-tech” foods reflect a shared concern with the issue of identity?
Things to think about:
What do we mean by “identity”?
How is one’s identity established?
Is one’s identity a reflection of a) one’s community or b) one’s profession or c) something entirely different?
What lies behind our instinctual resistance to genetically engineered foods?
How do we balance the need to “belong” with our desire for individual expression?
How do the two authors complicate each other’s definition of community.
What does the term “marginal” suggest about Boyarin’s perception of himself?
Assignment 2
Both Boyarin, in "Waiting for a Jew: Marginal Redemption at the Eighth Street Shul", and Sacks, in The Mind's Eye: What the Blind See, act as observers attempting to make sense of alien worlds. While Sacks watches, as it were, from the outside, Boyarin often alternates between the roles of actor and spectator.
How does the status of the observer, with respect to the system under observation, affect the nature of observations made and what implications does this have for an observer attempting to understand him/herself?
Assignment 3
Use Boyarin’s Waiting for a Jew: Marginal Redemption at the Eighth Street Shul by and Sacks’ The Mind's Eye: What the Blind See, to show how consistently excelling at a chosen endeavor, as opposed to being “average” at it, might prevent one from attaining the ideal of selflessness as described by Robert Thurman in Wisdom.
Things to think about:
How does being “average” make one feel?
What does being “average” at something prompt one to do?
What are the personal drawbacks of being skilled in one’s chosen profession or at any task, in general?
What are some of the positive outcomes of failure?
What does a novice have that an “expert” lacks?
What changes when one transforms into the other?
Can one choose to relinquish an ability?
Why is it hard for an “expert” to act otherwise?
What steps must you take to strengthen your less dominant hand?
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