TED-Ed
TED-ED: Everything you need to know to read Homer's "Odyssey" - Jill Dash
An encounter with a man-eating giant. A sorceress who turns men into pigs. A long-lost king taking back his throne. On their own, any of these make great stories. But each is just one episode in the "Odyssey," a 12,000-line poem spanning...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The chaotic brilliance of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat - Jordana Moore Saggese
Like Beat writers who composed their work by shredding and reassembling scraps of writing, artist Jean-Michel Basquiat used similar techniques to remix his materials. Pulling in splintered anatomy, reimagined historical scenes and...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Who IS Sherlock Holmes? - Neil McCaw
More than a century after first emerging into the fogbound, gaslit streets of Victorian London, Sherlock Holmes is universally recognizable. And yet many of his most recognizable features don't appear in Arthur Conan Doyle's original...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why should you read Edgar Allan Poe? - Scott Peeples
The prisoner strapped under a descending pendulum blade. A raven who refuses to leave the narrator's chamber. A beating heart buried under the floorboards. Poe's macabre and innovative stories of gothic horror have left a timeless mark...
TED Talks
TED: Can a computer write poetry? | Oscar Schwartz
If you read a poem and feel moved by it, but then find out it was actually written by a computer, would you feel differently about the experience? Would you think that the computer had expressed itself and been creative, or would you...
Crash Course
A Long and Difficult Journey, or The Odyssey: Crash Course Literature 201
In which John Green teaches you about Homer's Odyssey. If it was Homer's If Homer was even real. Anyway, that stuff doesn't really matter. John teaches you the classic, by which I mean classical, epic poem, the Odyssey. The Journey of...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why should you read "Hamlet"? - Iseult Gillespie
Explore William Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, “Hamlet,” a play about conspiracy, deception and the tragic consequences of indecision. -- “Who’s there?” Whispered in the dark, this question begins a tale of conspiracy, deception and...
Curated Video
Pride and Prejudice Part 1: Crash Course Literature
In which a series about literature, which is wanting of an episode on Jane Austen, gets the first of two episodes. It's Pride and Prejudice, everybody! John Green talks about Pride and Prejudice as a product of Regency England, gives you...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How to write descriptively - Nalo Hopkinson
The point of fiction is to cast a spell, a momentary illusion that you are living in the world of the story. But as a writer, how do you suck your readers into your stories in this way? Nalo Hopkinson shares some tips for how to use...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: A host of heroes - April Gudenrath
What can some of literature's most famous heroes teach us? From the epic hero (like Beowulf) to the tragic hero (like Oedipus), each has something distinctive to share. April Gudenrath describes the many faces of the fictional hero --...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Who am I? A philosophical inquiry - Amy Adkins
Throughout the history of mankind, the subject of identity has sent poets to the blank page, philosophers to the agora and seekers to the oracles. These murky waters of abstract thinking are tricky to navigate, so it's probably fitting...
Crash Course
To Kill a Mockingbird, Part I - Crash Course Literature 210
In which John Green teaches you about Harper Lee's famous (and only) novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. John will cover a bit about Harper Lee's personal life, (seeing as this novel has some autobiographical elements) and her long association...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
An animated interpretation of Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken"
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What is verbal irony? - Christopher Warner
At face value, the lines between verbal irony, sarcasm, and compliments can be blurry. After all, the phrase 'That looks nice' could be all three depending on the circumstances. In the final of a three part series on irony, Christopher...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: In on a secret? That's dramatic irony - Christopher Warner
You're in a movie theater, watching the new horror flick. The audience knows something that the main character does not. The audience sees the character's actions are not in his best interest. What's that feeling -- the one that makes...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Situational irony: The opposite of what you think - Christopher Warner
Leaps and bounds separate that which is ironic and that which many people simply say is ironic. Christopher Warner wants to set the record straight: Something is ironic if and only if it is the exact opposite of what you would expect.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What makes a hero? - Matthew Winkler
What trials unite not only Harry Potter or Frodo Baggins but many of literature's most interesting heroes? And what do ordinary people have in common with these literary heroes? Matthew Winkler takes us step-by-step through the crucial...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Plato's best (and worst) ideas - Wisecrack
Few individuals have influenced the world and many of today's thinkers like Plato. He created the first Western university and was teacher to Ancient Greece's greatest minds, including Aristotle. But even he wasn't perfect. Along with...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Why should you read “The Joy Luck Club” by Amy Tan? - Sheila Marie Orfano
In her Auntie An-mei’s home, Jing-Mei reluctantly takes her seat at the eastern corner of the mahjong table. At the north, south and west corners are her aunties, long-time members of the Joy Luck Club. This gathering is the point of...
TED Talks
Jacqueline Woodson: What reading slowly taught me about writing
Reading slowly -- with her finger running beneath the words, even when she was taught not to -- has led Jacqueline Woodson to a life of writing books to be savored. In a lyrical talk, she invites us to slow down and appreciate stories...
TED Talks
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story
Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Insults by Shakespeare - April Gudenrath
"You're a fishmonger!" By taking a closer look at Shakespeare's words--specifically his insults--we see why he is known as a master playwright whose works transcend time and appeal to audiences all over the world.
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How to make your writing suspenseful - Victoria Smith
What makes a good horror story? Hideous monsters and fountains of blood might seem like a good place to start, but as horror author H.P. Lovecraft wrote, _The oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." Writers harness...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why should you read "Waiting for Godot"? - Iseult Gillespie
Two men, Estragon and Vladimir, meet by a tree at dusk to wait for someone named "Godot." So begins a vexing cycle where the two debate when Godot will come, why they're waiting and whether they're even at the right tree. The play offers...