Week Five: Genre Blending

Still of John Wayne from The Searchers

This week's featured work and required reading is the novel Girl in Landscape by Jonathan Lethem. In this novel Lethem blends some of the tropes of science fiction with the atmosphere of a John Wayne western and the angst of a coming of age story. Please read the book before coming to class.

As a required movie I have suggested Moonrise Kingdom a story of coming of age and first love by the director Wes Anderson. The book itself is influenced by The Searchers, a 1956 John Ford movie considered one of the greatest westerns of all time and a penetrating study of American racism. Another film that makes a interesting accompaniment to the novel is the recent remake of True Grit. The novel, True Grit, by Charles Portis is also an interesting precursor to this week's reading.

In class we will review the radio play assignment.

Writing Assignment: For this week's blog posting please write a 350-500 word review of the novel focusing not on whether you liked the book or not, or whether you thought it was good or bad, but rather on a description of the experience of reading the book and what you think are the most defining aspects of the novel.

Next week is faculty professional day, we will meet again on Oct. 1 when we will discuss Allen Ginsburg's Howl.

Week Four: Pulp Fiction

Pulp Art by H.J. Ward

This week we are considering the case of pulp fiction and the general sorting of stories into categories and cultural events into genre. There are a number of books available to read on the course resources page and another list of works on the course syllabus. We will discuss the idea of genre as defined by metadata. We will begin our discussion of the medium of radio and look at its history as a model against we can observe some of the patterns of media. Pick any book from the list you would like to read. 

The writing assignment for this week is to take any scene from the novel you have read for this week and turn it into a radio play using primarily dialogue and sound effects to represent the theme. Record the radio play and post it as an audio file. 

Instead of a required movie to watch this week I am asking you to listen to some Radio programs. They will be listed under the radio subhead on the course resource page. Try to listen to at least 3 hours of radio from the 1930s and 1940s.

Book cover expouses ostensibly anti-gay sentiment while attempting to appeal to gay market segment.

Cover art by Paul Rader

Week Three: Blurring the Lines Between High and Low

Gilbert Seldes was one of the first writers to celebrate a new range of arts and media that were energizing American culture in the 20th century. He called his essay Seven Lively Arts. This week we will look at several of them including Jazz, Slapstick and the Comics. 

The Reading Assignment for this week requires you to check-out and read a book of comic strip reprints from the library. I am requesting you try one of the comic artists listed on the this week's schedule on the course syllabus. 

In addition I am asking your to watch one of the silent movies available on the course resource page or one from the silent movies available on Netflix. 

For this week's writing assignment, please write a blog post of some 350 words that discusses the question of how the act reading changes when the text is comprised of both words and pictures. Please give specific examples to support your observations.

Week Two: Love. Wealth and the American Dream

Illustrations from Graphic Novel adaption of
The Great Gatsby by NIcki Greenberg

This week we are reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.  During the first week we looked at L. Frank Baum's attempt to reinvent the epic story for children. We considered the invocation of Oz and the Emerald City in the the post-apocalyptic tale of The Hunger Games. In his classic novel Fitzgerald takes on the fairy story of the American Dream and the myth of the self-made man. Against the background of 1920s wealth and excess we have a novel in which the plot and its invention take second place to the consciousness and sensitivity of the narrator and assumed author. One of the pleasures of this text is to assemble the perspective of the narrator on the events he recounts and, by extension, the narrator's take on the attitudes and values of his times.

Another aspect to consider is the role technology plays in the novel. What relatively new technologies and technology environments play important roles in the text?

What about the assumed relationships between men and women in the novel. What is the picture of romance that is presented in the novel?

In our turn, we have mythologized Fitzgerald's time and his circles, a nostalgia that is on display and critiqued in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris which is one of this week's recommended films.  I am asking you to watch Whit Stillman's The Last Days of Disco as this week's required film. How much changes, how much appears to stay the same between the eras as portrayed in The Great Gatsby and The Last Days of Discso.

The assignment for this week is to read the novel, then write a 350 - 500 wd. blog post on why one might consider The Great Gatsby a literary work.

Check out these web comic strips about The Great Gatsby by Kate Beaton:

http://www.harkavagrant.com/?id=259