I've got two fantastic advanced literature classes planned for Fall 2009: ENGL 459 (Disaster Fiction) This class explores what the influential critic and novelist Susan Sontag called "the imagination of disaster." Sontag was speaking of Hollywood cinema of the fifties and sixties, arguing that end-of-the-world films of this era simultaneously aestheticize destruction and address a… Continue reading Fall 2009 Course Descriptions
Tag: Literature
Writing is a Concentrated Form of Thinking
One of my friends from grad school, Tim Carmody, blogged a nice response to my recent posts on critical thinking and writing, and it got me thinking that I need to clarify one thing: I am not anti-writing. As I wrote in my comment on Tim's blog (and am copying here), I want to emphasize… Continue reading Writing is a Concentrated Form of Thinking
What’s Wrong With Writing Essays
A few days ago I mentioned that as a professor invested in critical thinking -- that is, in difficult thinking -- I have become increasingly disillusioned with the traditional student paper. Just as the only thing a standardized test measures is how well you can take a standardized test, the only thing a student essay… Continue reading What’s Wrong With Writing Essays
What is Critical Thinking?
I've been a teacher of one sort or another for nearly 15 years, first as a high school teacher and now, after the grueling experience of graduate school, a university professor. Should I admit that most of this time I had no philosophy guiding my teaching? It’s not that I thought that I didn’t need… Continue reading What is Critical Thinking?
CFP: Don DeLillo and Play
Here's a CFP for conference panel on Don DeLillo and Play that I'm organizing: CFP: Don DeLillo and Play Sponsored by the Don DeLillo Society 2009 American Literature Association Conference Boston, Massachusetts, May 21-24, 2009 The groundbreaking work of Johan Huizinga and Roger Caillois suggests that play and games are a fundamental part of life,… Continue reading CFP: Don DeLillo and Play
Kunzru’s Transmission and Gaiman’s Coraline
I'm not sure why I started reading for pleasure two separate novels on the eve of the new semester, but I did. Maybe I'm trying to squeeze a few more drops of summer out of the first week of classes, before my reading for work grows too heavy. First up is Hari Kunzru's Transmission. The… Continue reading Kunzru’s Transmission and Gaiman’s Coraline
Torrents and Explosions We Now Take for Granted
Looking for something the wonderful German critic Walter Benjamin says in Illuminations about the cheapening of experience in a mass mediated world, I came across this haunting reflection that describes the world as my great-grandparents must have seen it, in the years after the horrific brutality of the Great War: A generation that had gone… Continue reading Torrents and Explosions We Now Take for Granted
So Many Universes in My Head
I've been wondering, how many universes can I hold in my head at once? I'm talking about fictional universes, of course. And by universe, I mean a world set apart by its own physics and cosmology. So, realist narratives all occupy the same universe (Sherlock Holmes and Tony Soprano exist in the same universe). But… Continue reading So Many Universes in My Head
Reading Lists for Fall 2008
My course descriptions for Fall 2008 have been up for a while, but here are the specific reading lists for both classes (cross-posted from my official university site): Reading List for ENGL 343 - Textual Media Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the Literary by N. Katherine Hayles Afternoon: A Story by Michael Joyce Understanding Comics:… Continue reading Reading Lists for Fall 2008
Summer Reading
That is, Dream Jungle, House of Leaves, The People of Paper, Tropic of Orange, Little Brother, Cloud Atlas: A Novel
Fantastic writing in reviews of milk on amazon
Via Dennis Jerz via Boing Boing, word of hundreds of fake reviews for a real product on Amazon, a gallon of Tuscan whole milk. Jerz imagines quite rightly that the novelty of ordering milk from an online bookstore is the impetus for these entertaining reviews, which range in style from poetic to surreal. Many of… Continue reading Fantastic writing in reviews of milk on amazon
Making Wikipedia a Class Assignment
Slashdot has a post today about a professor who requires students to edit Wikipedia for a class assignment. Come on, Slashdot, this is old, old news! My colleague Mills Kelly has had many Wikipedia assignment in the past several years, while over a year ago I had my 21st Century Literature Class do extensive edits… Continue reading Making Wikipedia a Class Assignment
The Futility of Rowing
I've never seen a more fitting description of a rowing machine than in Don DeLillo's Falling Man: There was no fitness center in his hotel. He found a gym not far away and worked out when there was time. No one used the rowing machine. He half hated the thing, it made him angry, but… Continue reading The Futility of Rowing
Art and Terror in the Arctic
It's a good thing that August had record temperatures---seemingly endless days over 100 degrees---because I spent a better part of the month reading Dan Simmons' leviathan of a novel The Terror, a semi-historical account of a failed bid in the 1840s to chart the legendary "northwest passage" through the frozen arctic. Simmons accomplishes much in… Continue reading Art and Terror in the Arctic
Oprah on The Road / The Road on Oprah
I'm a voracious reader and my personal and professional lives both revolve around books: I'm always either reading a book, teaching a book, or writing about a book. Sometimes all at the same time for three different books. In short order this spring I've read a string of novels, nonstop, usually starting the newest one… Continue reading Oprah on The Road / The Road on Oprah