Q7

[geverett]

I would love to hear some explanation on #7. I can see how E would be right, but I can also see how C would be right. Here is what I was thinking with C:

In lines 21-25 we are told about how in early african american folk traditions there is not a strong dichotomy between good and evil, misery and joy. We are then told that blue and spirituals also share this dual aspect, where there is an experience of elation and exaltation that are born out of sorrow and longing.

I inferred from these statements that the feeling of longing and sorrow giving way to a feeling of exaltation and elation was the irony that was present inside these genre that both musical forms "may be linked to traditional African American culture in North America and to its ancestral cultures in West Africa . . ."

I can see how one would also land on E, but i also think it might be a bit of an assumption that just because someone is experiencing the feelings of ecstasy described in lines 36 - 41 that might be benefitting psychologically.

Thoughts?

[noah]

I also left (C) for the second wrong-to-right pass.

What I initially saw as wrong with it is was that we don't learn about other forms of African American folk art - we only learn about blues. However, I probably was mistakenly putting spirituals into a different non-art category.

Instead, what I now see as wrong with (C) is that we're not sure that spirituals rely heavily on irony. We do learn that the blues produces an irony, but we never learn that spirituals rely heavily upon it.

It's a tempting answer for sure.

As for (E) I agree that one should be wary of terms like "psychological benefit," but here it's broad enough to encompass what the passage speaks about. In the third paragraph, we learn that the blues "serve to transcend negative experiences."

In case someone else is looking for a discussion of the other answer choices:

(A) is unsupported - there's no discussion of blues become religion.

(B) is out of scope - there's no discussion of different forms of blues.

(C) is discussed above. But in short, we don't learn that irony is heavily used by any other art forms.

(D) is out of scope - there's no discussion of the musical structure of the blues.

[geverett]

I was working with this some more today, and I agree with your assessment. A couple more thoughts in relation to E real quick:

The use of "irony" is not used until the 3rd paragraph, and only in relation to the blues as Noah said. It is also worthy to note that the blues "works in the tradition (African American & West African traditions of creating psychological conditions that are conducive to religious experiences i.e. ecstasy) to transcend negative experiences . . ." This tradition is invoked to in turn "produce a double-edged irony(line 46)" that is evident in blues lyrics.

So in other words blues co-opts, if you will, the African-American and West African traditions of spiritual elation in order to produce the "double-edged irony" that is so evident in the lyrics of the blues. This irony, at least in terms of what we are presented with in this passage, is idiosyncratic to the blues and is not related at all, once again in this passage, to spirituals or any other kind of African American folk art.

This is probably just a convoluted way of saying what Noah already said, but I had to get it off my chest still. haha

[noah]

i think you did more than just say what I said. I think the co-opting point is great.

[mcrittell]

still unsure if I buy this "psychological benefit." I recognize that these "psychological conditions" for religious experience invoke a type of "ecstasy." Additionally, I understand taht it could be a "double-edged irony," but I don't know if the A would agree with all that to say there's a psych benefit from blues.

[noah]

Yeah, it's not the best answer I've seen on the LSAT either, but it's the best for this question!

[mcrittell]

Yeah, it's not the best answer I've seen on the LSAT either, but it's the best for this question!

Is there any other textual evidence to bolster this answer? Sorry, this one's making me go crazy because it was one that I quickly eliminated.

[noah]

I see support in a few places:

29-30
35-42
42-45
49-50

Some of these are more debatable than others, but as a whole, it's a lot of support for the idea that the blues can benefit its listeners psychologically.

I hope that helps.

[kky215]

I also left (C) for the second wrong-to-right pass.

What I initially saw as wrong with it is was that we don't learn about other forms of African American folk art - we only learn about blues. However, I probably was mistakenly putting spirituals into a different non-art category.

Instead, what I now see as wrong with (C) is that we're not sure that spirituals rely heavily on irony. We do learn that the blues produces an irony, but we never learn that spirituals rely heavily upon it.

It's a tempting answer for sure.

As for (E) I agree that one should be wary of terms like "psychological benefit," but here it's broad enough to encompass what the passage speaks about. In the third paragraph, we learn that the blues "serve to transcend negative experiences."

In case someone else is looking for a discussion of the other answer choices:

(A) is unsupported - there's no discussion of blues become religion.

(B) is out of scope - there's no discussion of different forms of blues.

(C) is discussed above. But in short, we don't learn that irony is heavily used by any other art forms.

(D) is out of scope - there's no discussion of the musical structure of the blues.

I chose D as the answer because I thought that lyrics (discussed in the last paragraph) could be counted as 'musical structure'.

Why is lyric not a part of a thing's musical structure?
I can't seem to justify that exclusion.

Help please...

[noah]

I chose D as the answer because I thought that lyrics (discussed in the last paragraph) could be counted as 'musical structure'.

Why is lyric not a part of a thing's musical structure?
I can't seem to justify that exclusion.

Help please...

Good question.

First off, I think it's a stretch to say that lyrics are part of musical structure. "Structure" refers to how something is built, the underlying pattern, not the bits that go on top. If we were to change the lyrics of a song, we would not say the structure has changed.

However, there are other problems with (D). Is the structure the primary way that the tension is produced? And, is this structure distinctive?

And, here's a blues song that transcends sadness quite well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYDNN34pHeY

[deedubbew]

I still don't see it. Even when trying to be as broad as possible, I can't bring myself to equate "transcending negative experiences" to psychological benefit. Provided I assumed that transcending negative experiences makes on happier, it still does not imply that one is benefiting psychologically.

Moreover, the last sentence mentions how blues keeps painful experiences alive in order to create both tragic and comic lyricism. Regardless of what reason people have for creating such lyricism, painful experiences are still invoked and elongated.

If, we take transcending negative experiences to mean that there is psychological benefit, then keeping painful negative experiences alive is going to be psychologically damaging.

Help!!!