My American Literature Course (Science Fiction = Well-Represented)
In case any of you were curious, the following is the final reading list for the Survey in American Literature course I begin teaching tomorrow. I think the list is fairly diverse and incorporates a great deal of the important figures of American literature while avoiding all the stuff that would bore the hell out of me. Feel free to provide any thoughts you might have in the comments. Books The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (1926) Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (1969) The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (1974) Writing About Literature: A Portable Guide by Janet Gardner Plays “War Brides” by Marion Craig Wentworth (1915) “Mine Eyes Have Seen” by Alice Dunbar-Nelson (1918) Short Stories “The Comet” by W.E.B. Du Bois (1920) “The Grave” by Katherine Anne Porter (1944) “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson (1948) “Lost in the Funhouse” by John Barth (1967) “The Artificial Nigger” by Flannery O’Connor (1955) “Going to Meet the Man” by James Baldwin (1965) “Advancing Luna–and Ida B. Wells” by Alice Walker (1977) “Speech Sounds” by Octavia Butler (1983) “The Lions Are Asleep This Night” by Howard Waldrop (1986) “Thi Bong Dzu” by Larry Rottmann (1973) “The First Clean Act” by Larry Heinemann (1979) “Faith of Our Fathers” by Philip K. Dick (1967) “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut (1961) Essays “‘The Sun Also Rise’: A Memory of War” by William Adair “’Slaughterhouse-Five’: Time Out of Joint” by Arnold Edelstein “The Vietnam War as American Science Fiction and Fantasy” by H. Bruce Franklin
WISB Podcast: My Grandma Will Be a Frog
One of the amusing things about my family is that it explains why I am so strange. I seem to contain much of my strangeness on this blog, but every once in a while, it gets out… For example, I recently wrote the following to my Grandma in response to a misunderstanding she had about the WISB podcast project (i.e., the donation tier): I’ll write a character *based* on you, which means you’ll likely be a talking frog named Bethel from Ferngarden-upon-Erethen. But that will be up to you. How interested are you in being a giant talking frog? To which she said this: Me a FROG what a novel idea. I know so little about them I know that they are toadly great Are hoppy most of the time Jump willing into new and different situations They love their pad They slurp their food Eat most of the meals on the fly … or is that the fly Go to great lengths …orally … for most of their meals … sometime without moving Can be environmentally friendly ….. they are green for the most part and are a super insect abaters. I will concider being a frog BUT only if I don’t turn into something fluffy and cute if a tall dark and handsome stranger kisses me Can you change the name to Bethellda it sound a little classier and you know me I’m all about couth and culture. Do you see now why I have become a very strange 27-year-old man? (Chapter Thirteen is on its way. My sister is currently staying here as part of her “get to know my brother so I can annoy him better” vacations. But the chapter is coming!)