Blog on Pattern Recognition: Due October 28th

Please consider this blog an initial step toward your essay on the novel.
Since we are reading Pattern Recognition, let us do some pattern recognition(s).

Please select two themes/motifs from the list of recommendations at the end of the Essay #2 Assignment. Write approximately 150-200 words on each. This is a brainstorming exercise, so your writing should combine reflections with bits of evidence from the text but with the freedom to make associative leaps. Don't worry about organization. This writing may be informal in style as well. The point is to start thinking about topics that you might pursue for your essay and to begin thinking through writing about them NOW, so your essay will already be under construction.

Please post your writing before Thursday's class.

Making Science Fiction just a little bit geekier!

Check out this study that organizes science fiction authors according to their approaches to social constructs, crises, and resolutions. Be sure to scroll down to the graphic presentations at the bottom.

Blog Writing for Thursday, October 21

William Faulkner's famous short story "A Rose for Emily" is written in first person plural pov. As a thought experiment, I want you to re-imagine the story as if it was narrated in first person singular by Homer or Tobe. In 200-300 words, describe how this shift in point-of-view would change the story. What would be some drastic changes? What changes might be more subtle? What would become more visible and what would become more hidden with this different narrative mode? Would this shift change the basic theme(s) that you took away from the story as it is written by Faulkner? This blog writing is a thought experiment, so there is a lot of open space for you to speculate.

Please post the blog before class on Thursday.

Transition to Fiction

And, as we transition from poetry to fiction, here's a video of William S. Burroughs, a famous, controversial, influential American fiction writer lending his image and voice to a Nike ad. As with the Langston Hughes machinima, it can seem difficult to discern his sincerity--his tone--in this ad.

Poetry + Digital Media Continued

This video is a combination of the television ads for Levis that combines recordings of Walt Whitman reading his "Pioneers! Oh Pioneers!" with hipsters in Levis.

Langston Hughes Machinima

And here's the machinima poetry theatre version of Langston Hughes's poem "Suicide's Note"

The Rapping Squirrel: "Respect Wordsworth"

Just in case one time wasn't enough.

Howl: Literary Criticism as Film

Here's a nice piece on the current film Howl and how it cinematically enacts literary criticism.

This movie about Allen Ginsberg and his poetry will be showing from this Friday, October 8th, at Davis Varsity.

Blog Writing Due October 7th

Once you've read Richard Brautigan's poem "All Watched over by Machines of Loving Grace" multiple times and really attentively, please write a 350-400 word blog on it.

First, write 1-2 paragraphs assembling evidence to argue that this poem has an anti-technology tone and message.

Second, write 1-2 paragraphs assembling evidence to argue that this poem has a pro-technology tone and message.

Finally, write 1-2 paragraphs explaining which reading you think is more convincing and explain WHY.

Please post the blog before class.

Litter-a-terre: an ecological experiment in story-telling

Noted American author Michael Swanwick recently wrote a short story called "October Leaves" on actual autumn leaves that have fallen to the ground. You can read the story here via a set of photos he took and posted at Flickr.
Talk about litter-a-terre in practice!!

Mapping Book Censorship

Check out this map of book censorship, 2007-2010.

MORE Harry Potter????

J.K. Rowling in a recent interview with Oprah said there could be more Harry Potter novels to come.
What do you think? Does the world simply need more HP? Did the last novel not bring a sufficient sense of completion? Is this a money grab?