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| The Queen of Sheba visits Solomon, by Tintoretto (Wikipedia) |
Note: For a woman who is barely mentioned at all, the fabulously-wealthy Queen of Sheba has had an out-sized effect on culture. Just ask my sister!
Get Ready: What would you call a powerful, perhaps arrogant, woman?
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| A cemetery in Algiers (1899) (Wikimedia) |
Note: This story has also been published under the English title, The Outsider--perhaps a better description of the main character's relationship to the world.
Get Ready: How important are other people in your life? Too important? Not important enough? Or just right?
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| Sensationalized cover of a comic-book version (Wikipedia) |
Note: The works of H. Rider Haggard represent a 19th-century Englishman's idea of "adventure"--and the limited rights (or even humanity) of non-European peoples. This is among the most famous.
Get Ready: Do you know the meaning of the word "colonialism"? (If not, look it up.) What are the pluses and minuses for the colonizers? And for the colonized?
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| Poster for a 1918 film version of Tarzan of the Apes (Wikipedia) |
Note: Prolific American "pulp" author Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote almost 80 novels, 24 of them about "Tarzan." Let's see the first one!
Get Ready: Did you ever swing on a rope or chain and do a "Tarzan yell"? (It's fun!) If you don't know what I mean, watch an old Tarzan movie!
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| Belgian river station on the Congo River (Wikipedia) |
Note: Joseph Conrad's novella about a mad trader in Africa is the acknowledged inspiration for Francis Ford Coppola's landmark film Apocalypse Now. Let's read the original tale.
Get Ready: What, if anything, do you know about the film Apocalypse Now?
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| Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, Father of the Mexican Nation (Wikipedia) |
Note: Three very different birthday celebrants: Mexican Founding Father Miguel Hidalgo; longtime Malawian leader Hastings Banda; and the Irish monk-explorer Saint Brendan.
Get Ready: Do you accept the common idea that Columbus was the first European to come to what is now called North America? Why or why not?
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| Thomas Jefferson (Wikipedia) |
Note: April celebrants include the Buddha, Thomas Jefferson, a founder of modern Puerto Rico, numerous Scandinavian royals, and an African king.
Get Ready: Skim through the birthday celebrants (in bold) in this lesson. Which of them seem important to you? Which is/are the least important?
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