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Events Fri Oct 12 2012
Humanities Festival Weekend Literary Roundup
Sunday marks the beginning of this season's Chicago Humanities Festival programming with Northwestern Day to be held on the university's Evanston campus. We've already alerted you to the fact that hot deals are to be had courtesy of the Fest, but there's also quite a rich selection of literary programming to choose from beyond the neatly packaged Short List:
Charles C. Mann, of The Atlantic, Science, and Wired, will discuss his books 1491, which delivers a look at the pre-Columbian Americas, and 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, in a lecture titled, 1492: Before and After. Mann will examine the societal and ecological effects of that seminal year, a fitting introduction considering this season's theme is America. 
Writer on shows Alias, Lost, and Fringe , Jeff Pinker, will speak to the rise of multinarrative storytelling in his lecture Transforming American TV: Alias and the Serial Drama, sponsored by Northwestern's MFA program in Writing for Screen and Stage. Not quite literary, sure, but the discussion will explore the way writing has shifted America's expectations for the undeniably iconic small screen.
For those interested in the playwright's process, a discussion with writer Matthew Lopez about his show The Whipping Man , to debut in 2013, is not to be missed. The play deals with conflicts unique to Jewish slave owners in 19th-century America, and the infrequently examined mix of cultural and social clashes that come out of this dichotomy.
The Daily Show's "resident expert" John Hodgeman will discuss the final installment of his trilogy, aptly titled, Complete World Knowledge trilogy, That is All. The essential text includes directions for making wine while on the toilet, as well as a day-by-day account of life in America in 2012 under Commander and Chief Morgan Freeman.
Tickets are still available to these programs for as little as $5, and are free to teachers and students. Visit the Chicago Humanities Festival ticket page for more details.
