A course on self identity through alternative lenses. We will explore the creation and expression of self from Walt Whitman through people like Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles before ending with contemporary perspectives like the Joker and Zoomer Aesthetics. The class will consist of conversation, visual/audio aids, and gaffes.

Day 1, The Antihero: The first day of this Paideia will be a multimedia crash course in the Antihero as it has developed from Byronic Heroes to the protagonists of Existentialist literature to TV Antiheroes like Tony Soprano and Walter White. Alongside this exploration will come a look at antiheroes as depicted in music, and their presence in popular culture. Each of these sessions can serve as a standalone, but certain motifs (and leitmotifs) will be built from this day on and are probably quite rewarding to pursue to the end.

Day 2, The Flaneur: The second day of this Paideia will be an investigation of a type of guy. I want to attempt to create a sort of living artistic genealogy for an archetype we see in media today by looking across time, space, and format. Hopefully, my postulations will be useful as a form, and get to the sense of lineages and investigations of self mentioned above. This section will look at everything from Walt Whitman to Guy Debord, from Walter Benjamin to Sherlock Holmes.

Day 3, The Dirtbag: The final day of this Paideia will be an exploration of the Dirtbag as an archetype and focus mostly on music as a sort of prose. I do not mean to say we will heavily investigate lyric as poetry, nor do I mean to say we will delve into parasocial relationships with famous figures, but we will not not do those. This will use lots of listening and musical examples as well as investigating pieces from everything from Dr. Who to George Jones and the 1975. The goal will be an encapsulation of a type of aesthetic, how it is used by Zoomers, and what I perceive to be possible futures for it. If it works, I expect we will all be well satisfied. If not, expect a comedy performance worth an hour or two of your life.

Instructor: Lennox Reeder