The Valpo Core

The Valpo Core Program Presents:

“Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and The Matrix”

Prof. Mark Farmer (Department of Foreign Languages and
Literatures/Classics)

Thursday, October 9, 8 pm, in Neils Science Center, room 234

The popular film The Matrix (1999, dir. Wachowski Brothers) has some striking similarities to the cave allegory that Plato presents in The Republic, book VII. Professor Farmer will look at the correspondences between these two, and in the process show how Plato’s allegory still resonates in contemporary film and thought. Come see how these two works fit together!

Flyer: Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and The Matrix

The Valpo Core Program Presents:

“How to Read Comic Books: A Brief Introduction to the Comic Form”

Prof. Elizabeth Maynard (Department of Art)

Wednesday, October 8, 7 pm, in the Mueller Hall Refectory

As we begin reading and discussing Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, it’s useful to consider some of the important ways in which comics are distinguished from other sorts of texts. This talk will go over some preconceptions about comics, the history of the comic form (in the briefest way possible), what images mean to us and can do for and to a text, and an explanation of formal analysis and how to use it as a toolbox for reading comics and graphic literature. It’s our hope that this talk will help you come to read comics in brand new ways.