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ladyslvr at 01:24am on 05/06/2004
ladyslvr at 01:24am on 05/06/2004*blows clouds of dust from the LJ*
*coughs*
Despite the fact that I haven't updated this thing in a very long time, it seems worth doing today merely because this marks the year-and-a-day anniversary of the LJ. I would have updated yesterday on the actual anniversary, but I forgot.
The Spring semester is over. It's been finished for almost three weeks now. Somehow I got all the grades turned in on time. Still trying to work that one out.
I've now settled into the summer lethargy. Without deadlines to ignore, it's hard to justify getting up in the morning. Or at all. I have a lot of planning to do for the Fall (I've even started on it), but it just doesn't feel real since there are three months ahead of me. My dreams lately have been so interesting that I keep going back to sleep (even as my body screams that it's not tired) just to find out what comes next.
I'm idlely working my way through various projects, as well as wasting scads of time on the computer playing Warlords IV: Heroes of Etheria. To quote Ilyria "it's pointless and annoys me, yet I'm compelled to play on."
Kinda started on a TPFICT archives update today. Kinda working on a long-overdue update to Show 'n Tell. Kinda pondering some stories. There're several I want to write. Kinda working on the Fall semester. Played in the garden in a little yesterday. It's all dabbling.
Made contact with a neighborhood pal from the olden days. This is one of the boys who used to live around the block from me until my family moved when I was nine. He and I really had nothing to do with each other after that, although we did attend the same high school for a year or so. On a whim I emailed him after seeing his name on Classmates. We exchanged email for a couple days, then lapsed back out of contact. On yet another whim, I gave him a call last week. We ended up talking for several hours, and he really, really wants to get together (He's married also, so it would be a couples' night out). What makes this so odd is that he kept talking about what good friends we'd been. I don't remember us being friends at all, just neighbors.
It's interesting how two people can remember the same relationship so differently.
Makes me wonder how many other relationships I totally misinterpreted.
Okay, back into obscurity I go.
*coughs*
Despite the fact that I haven't updated this thing in a very long time, it seems worth doing today merely because this marks the year-and-a-day anniversary of the LJ. I would have updated yesterday on the actual anniversary, but I forgot.
The Spring semester is over. It's been finished for almost three weeks now. Somehow I got all the grades turned in on time. Still trying to work that one out.
I've now settled into the summer lethargy. Without deadlines to ignore, it's hard to justify getting up in the morning. Or at all. I have a lot of planning to do for the Fall (I've even started on it), but it just doesn't feel real since there are three months ahead of me. My dreams lately have been so interesting that I keep going back to sleep (even as my body screams that it's not tired) just to find out what comes next.
I'm idlely working my way through various projects, as well as wasting scads of time on the computer playing Warlords IV: Heroes of Etheria. To quote Ilyria "it's pointless and annoys me, yet I'm compelled to play on."
Kinda started on a TPFICT archives update today. Kinda working on a long-overdue update to Show 'n Tell. Kinda pondering some stories. There're several I want to write. Kinda working on the Fall semester. Played in the garden in a little yesterday. It's all dabbling.
Made contact with a neighborhood pal from the olden days. This is one of the boys who used to live around the block from me until my family moved when I was nine. He and I really had nothing to do with each other after that, although we did attend the same high school for a year or so. On a whim I emailed him after seeing his name on Classmates. We exchanged email for a couple days, then lapsed back out of contact. On yet another whim, I gave him a call last week. We ended up talking for several hours, and he really, really wants to get together (He's married also, so it would be a couples' night out). What makes this so odd is that he kept talking about what good friends we'd been. I don't remember us being friends at all, just neighbors.
It's interesting how two people can remember the same relationship so differently.
Makes me wonder how many other relationships I totally misinterpreted.
Okay, back into obscurity I go.
(no subject)
Of course, it might not be you doing the misinterpreting.
How was the overload? Did you survive with your mind entact?
(no subject)
(no subject)
There's serious doubt about "intact." That could be the reason for all the sleeping. I feel like I'm just now starting to recover from the end-of-semester crunch.
BTW, I'm definitely teaching Intro to Lit in the Fall. I'm having a hard time picking out literature a) because my own Lit education is woefully inadequate and b) because the reason for (a) is that I don't like the vast majority of what is considered classic. With three months ahead of me, I have a lot of time to fix (a). But I need a place to start. Got any suggestions?
How's you?
(no subject)
I still find the idea of you teaching lit, even intro to lit, hysterical. It's almost as funny as the idea of me teaching grammar.
Basically the thing to remember with lit is the concept of Canon. Or why we feel Jane Austen is more important than Amanda Quick. Most of the study of literature (falsely?) revolves around the distinction between common and uncommon literature due to the concept of Canon.
With this in mind I recommend you check out anthologies just to give you an idea of what you are going to be talking about. They tend to situate what you are reading within a historical and canonical context. They also typically provide a chapter or two on how to talk about literature. Which you might find helpful. I love the Norton Anthologies, but Bedford seems to be fairly solid, if a bit micromanaged in approach.
If you want to get a good survey of lit to get your mind going, I can loan you the Norton Anthologies I have from English/American and Short stories classes. Heck, if I have time I could even bookmark the stuff you should look at. I could either drop these bad boys off in Munster, or we could meet halfway sometime. I'd mail 'em but they are heavy.
Something fun that you might do is take literature that your students might have some familiarity, or can develop it, through films with your class.
Like you can read Stephen King's Different Seasons, a short story collection from which Stand by Me, The Shawshank Redemption, and Apt Pupil were made. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Henry V, Virginia Woolf's Orlando, Asimov's I, Robot, the Illiad, Conrad's Heart of Darkness, most anything by Mark Twain; and pepper it with good ole lit fav's like John Updike's A&P; poetry by Dickinson, Robert Frost etc.
In a perfect world, you'd have an epic poem (god I hate this form), a play or two, shorter poems, a few short stories, a non-fiction piece or two and a novel.
There, your perfect introduction to lit menu.
a) Illiad (Troy), or something by Byron or Yeats or any of those epic poem guys to fit your epic poem needs (definitely optional)
b) Shakespeare (Titus features canibalism, but isn't commonly taught) and/or Arther Miller or another modern playwright
c) Anything by Mark Twain, make it a short story or a non-fiction piece for novelty and quickness. This gets a humorist into your line-up and will tackle a short story or non-fiction piece.
d) a few poems by Dickenson, ee cummings, Frost, ect... for short poems
e) Pick a novel with "literary" merit. If you like Jane Austen, I personally hate her work, pick one of her novels. She's largely seen as the mother of the modern novel. Though I'd be partial to using something like Virginia Woolf's Orlando (warning, gender issues) or even Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to get some brit in there AND have a movie day to lighten the load (and you can talk about literary adaptations or how the screenwriter/director read the novel and re-imagined it as a film)
f) find some short stories
g) if you have time and availability read some non-fiction pieces. Non-fiction is the most neglected form of literature.
Discuss form, genre, poetics, diction etc...
(no subject)
I've checked out or come into possession of several anthologies and have been working my way through them. Again I learn why I've done everything in my power to avoid classic lit my entire life: the stories do *nothing* for me. I've read exactly one so far (James Thurber, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty") that I didn't finish and think, "Yeah? Your point?"
I have a copy of Norton around here somewhere, so I don't need to take you up on the much appreciated offer. Officially it's the text the class will be using, tho that may well change by the time the semester starts. If you could swing some titles by me, tho, that would be nice.
My rough plan is to do at least one short story, a novel, some poems, and a play. I'd forgotten about epic poems. I'm rather intent at this point on doing either "The Crucible" or "Inherit the Wind" for the play. I'm seriously contemplating "The Big Sleep" by Raymond Chandler for the novel. For poems, I was thinking of an excerpt from "Paradise Lost" (thank you, Forever Knight) and/or "The Hunting of the Snark," amongst others. Either could work for epic poem. And I wanted to do one short story (dunno which one yet) by HP Lovecraft. All else is extremely up in the air. I refuse to teach any fiction that bores me. And I refuse to teach Shakespeare.
I've got to be the only person in the world who would put Lovecraft, Milton, and Carroll into the same lesson plan, much less the same sentence. The librarian at our local lib certainly was amused.
My Frosh Comp classes are all very non-fic centric, so I may leave that out of this class.
Your suggestions so far have been very helpful.