Announcements

11/19/2014 – Here is the reading schedule for China Mieville’s The City & the City. We will follow the natural divisions of the book:

Tuesday, 11/25: Part One (Beszel), pp. 1-125
Tuesday, 12/2: Part Two (Ul Qoma), pp. 126-238
Thursday, 12/4: Part Three (Breach), pp. 239-end

11/18/2014 – You have the option to turn in two responses per day on two days. The first will be Thursday, 11/20/2014, when there are two short stories assigned and the second will be any one day when we are reading/discussing China Mieville’s The City and the City. This will make up for the day that was cancelled before Veterans Day and will provide one opportunity for an extra credit response, if you need it.

10/28/2014 – Beginning this week, the Twitter portion of the class is no longer required. The points that would have gone to that requirement will go into Other, instead. (Other contains in-class work, primarily.)

10/20/2014 – Here is the reading schedule for Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, our second novel:

Thursday, 10/23: Parts 1-4 (pp. 1-92)
Tuesday, 10/28: Parts 5-8 (pp. 95-218)
Thursday, 10/30: Parts 9-11 (pp. 221-280)
Tuesday, 11/4: Parts 12-15 (pp. 283-374)

10/13/2014 – I’ve posted an updated course schedule. Make sure you refer to this new schedule from now on instead of the original version.

10/2/2014 – For next Tuesday (10/7), bring ideas for essay questions and short answer questions to use for the midterm exam. Essay questions should be answerable in 2-3 paragraphs; short answer questions should be answerable in 2-3 sentences. Bring questions about specific stories, comparing stories, or about the genre as a whole that could be answered using one or more of the stories we’ve read so far. Try to bring questions that cover a range of stories, not just the last few.

10/2/2014 – Hardboiled style was mentioned in class today and I wanted to share a story to illustrate the style and feel of a hardboiled detective story from the 1950s: Ross MacDonald’s “Gone Girl.”

9/29/2014 – This Thursday (10/2), the second reading (in addition to Gibson’s “Burning Chrome”) will be Pat Cadigan’s “Pretty Boy Crossover” (pp. 587-97 in our book).

9/23/2014 – The third assigned story for this Thursday is Robert Silverberg’s “Sundance.” It is not in the book, so here’s a pdf version of it: Sundance.

9/18/2014 – You can only skip four responses this semester without losing points when you don’t turn in a response. (There are 24 days this semester when you can turn in a response and the requirement is that you turn in 20 responses.) Starting today, therefore, anyone who hasn’t turned in a response is losing points for that portion of the course. If you’ve been turning in responses, just make sure you’re keeping track of how many eligible days you’ve skipped.

9/10/2014 – If you have a minute to spare, I’m trying to gauge student interest in some possible topics for future upper-level humanities courses I might teach and I’d appreciate you taking this survey to indicate which of the listed topics are most/least interesting to you:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SR6MQGJ. It’s very short – only 4 questions! – and will take almost no time. Feel free to share the link with other Mines students who might still need or want an upper-level humanities course, too. Important: there’s no obligation to actually take any of these courses if they’re offered and taking the survey is absolutely not required for this class.

9/2/2014 – In case you missed class today (or in case you misplace or just want an electronic copy of it), here is the literary style and narrative structure handout I provided. We will use these ideas throughout the semester, so keep this handy.

8/27/2014 – I am making one minor change to the grade distribution as listed on the syllabus. Originally, I listed both participation and the creative writing or fandom project as worth 75 points; I am changing this so that participation is worth 70 points and the creative writing / fandom project is worth 80 points. I will note this on the assignment page, too, as a reminder.

8/26/2014 – We will meet in MI 222 (where we met this morning) for the rest of the semester.