Howard Finster & Paradise Garden

Howard Finster is America’s most famous self-taught visionary artist, and unlike many other Southern “outsider artists” his life story became well known and his art appreciated by many. Finster’s art was displayed in his backyard in a place he called “Paradise Garden,” and this eccentric artist and his work is examined by Tim Beal and Norman Girardot (in ER#10). Each scholar describes their road trip to Paradise Gardens, but what they find there, and how they interpret the meaning and value of Finster’s art, varies. Norman Girardot knew Finster well as a compelling storyteller and performer, an eccentric visionary who visited Other Worlds, and a self-proclaimed Second Noah who translated God’s Word into art and signs. Based on both Beal’s and Girardot’s chapters, explain how Finster’s art and his Paradise Gardens illustrate a Bible-based story-shaped world, where nostalgia for the past and fear of the apocalypse are both present. Is Paradise Garden primarily a place of apocalyptic prophecy or a place of healing, according to Girardot and Beal? How does Girardot explain the religious and human significance of this strange art The Importance of Rewriting and the Criteria for Evaluation Your essay should read like a vigorous plunge into deep waters. Focus on the text, but do not spend time simply summarizing what Beal or Girardot say. I want you to address the funda- mental questions and present an interpretation in your own words. Identify issues in the book that “stick like a burr on your conscience,” then explore them using your intelligence and creativity. Attention to the authors’ use of language, metaphor, and mood is appropriate; so is prudent use of quotations. But don’t let quotes “speak for themselves”—analyze and interpret them! After you’ve finished a draft of your paper, take a good look at the result. Is it a thoughtful answer to the questions, or is it sloppy and facile? (Sloppy thinking and sloppy use of language often go together.) Probe and question what you have written. Critique it as though you were editing it for someone else. Have you reached some real depth or subtlety in your treat- ment? Can you rework the paper to make it more unified, more convincing, more powerful? Can you cut superfluous sentences or needless words? Rework your paper as though you were creating a gem. Three criteria will be used in grading these essays: 1) Does its content demonstrate a careful reading of these two chapters on Paradise Garden, an insightful analysis of the topic, and answer all the questions posed in the assignment? 2) Does it fit on 2 double-spaced pages, with 1” margins and size 12 font? 3) Is it clearly and concisely written in a formal scholarly style? Developing a Formal Academic Prose Style Scholarly writing is formal, precise, and allusive. It does not have to be wooden, finicking, and cabalistic. By its very nature, scholarly prose lacks the rhetorical virtues of reckless passion. Custom and propriety hem the scholar in on every side; an obligation to the material and to the sources restrain the scholar. But the built-in limitations of scholarly prose are no excuse for bad writing. Bad scholarly prose results, as all bad prose does, from laziness and hurry and muddle. Good scholarly prose is probably even harder to produce than other kinds of good prose. All that means is that you must work even harder at it. What to Avoid When Writing your Essay: Habits to Break • Avoid theological value judgments or theological confession in your essay: Take care not to allow personal beliefs predetermine your conclusions. A common problem in RELS courses is the tendency to evaluate material in light of your religious convictions. This particular mode of analysis is simply inappropriate in any scholarly, argumentative paper. Do your best then to set aside personal convictions as you re-read, analyze, and compose. • Empty sentences: If you find yourself writing something that contributes nothing to your argument delete it. Be especially wary of this tendency in your introductory paragraph and in the first sentence of every paragraph. E.g. “There are many uses of paradox in religious literature” tells me very little, so be more specific: “The frequent use of paradox in religious literature destabilizes the reader’s assumptions about reality.” That’s an interesting and insightful sentence. • A chatty, conversational style: You will find that some of the travelogues and short stories that we read are written in a style that is informal, colloquial, even chatty. You should not mimic this style in your own writing, except when you are quoting for color. Focus on the themes of the text, which are quite profound and deserve careful treatment. • Passivity: The passive voice (“Y is done by X,” as opposed to the active “X does Y”) is not the normal working voice of English discourse. Passive after passive, one on top of the other, can dull the most sparkling ideas and turn golden work into dross. E.g. “Passive after passive is often used by the writer in an attempt to wiggle out of responsibility.” Habits Worth Cultivating as a Writer: Read Religiously and Put This into Practice! • Consulting a Higher Authority: If you are uncertain about the meaning or spelling of a word, never hesitate to consult a higher authority—a dictionary, for instance. Prayer may not work. • Careful and Thoughtful Use of Citation: Never assume that the point you wish to make through quoting a passage is self-evident. “Unpack” the passage: interpret it’s meaning and clearly state what its significance is to your argument. When you quote from Roadside Religion simply put the author’s last name in parenthesis and the page number (Beal: 212). For ER#10 by Norman Girardot, use (Girardot: 21). • Caring for what you write: Discover what you find most intriguing and worth exploring in an assigned topic. Engaged writers who care about the clear articulation of their ideas are frequently better writers. Own your writing: make writing something that you do for yourself. Make the grades, the assignments, the fear of expectations secondary to your own engagement with the material that your studies generate for you.