The future of Literature

This is something I wanted to discuss in class, but we always seemed too busy working on our assigned stuff and I never found a good time to bring it up. So, this is the perfect place!

I heard this story on Morning Edition shortly before our class began. They are talking about the impact that the internet, Twitter, Kindel and other forms of electronic writing will have on the way we read and write in the future. Will we give up paper books? Will we loose our appreciation for colorful language in exchange for quick information? I would love to hear your comments.

Here is the link.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122026529&ps=rs

Pre-school . . . a, b, c-ya!

My youngest graduated from pre-school today. Here's a picture that speaks volumes. One of his presents was a new watch, and he hasn't stopped checking the time for two days. In this picture he is busy reminding me that picture time is OVER.

Not related to our scholarly work, but just keeping all my peeps up to date on current events.

By the way, would anyone like to arrange another lunch-y kind of get together soon? I have a pool at my apartment complex.

Quesadillas, hotbox, and surprise interviews!

We threw down in Grant Park today --  AmLit style. In attendance we had Katie and her special person Garrett, Michael, Hillary, Tamara, Tori and her pal Natalie, me, my special person Coni, and my pal Caroline. The menu was southwestern-ish; the standouts were Hillary's brownies, Tamara's buffalo chicken dip,  Katie's quesadillas, and Michael's salsa. Also, thank nature for Tori's fruit.

After eating, we chilled on a hill and played a modified version of Ultimate Frisbee called Hotbox -- like half-court basketball. My team lost 12,000-2, but it was fun nonetheless. Michael played guitar, Tori's dog Lucy growled at dogs three times her size, and we talked about a bunch of things: Michael and Hillary's trip to England in the Fall, Tori's geology Maymester class, Tamara's jump to Shorter College, among other things.

At the end of the end of the night, we talked about getting together again towards the end of the summer or sooner, potentially for a movie. Coni did impromptu video interviews that I may put up on YouTube in the next couple of days  (with the comments about me edited out).

I enjoyed seeing all of you and missed everyone else. Please don't think if you could not attend that we did not think about you.

Please keep using the space for video clips, movie suggestions, literary criticism, research interests, or what's-ups to keep in touch.

I keep wondering where Pat's car is. I wonder if the nihilists took it.

Got 99 problems but a jedi ain't one.

Star Wars video!

Morrison-McCarthy Picnic Plans

According to the availability that everyone communicated, we will have our (first of others?) postsemester gathering this Tuesday, May 18.

When: 4.30-6 pm (with the possibility of extending to another location)
Where: Grant Park; we can meet in the parking lot on the Boulevard side of the park. Here's how you get there . . .

• From school, get on Courtland Ave. heading south (toward Turner Field). It will turn into Washington Ave.
• At Memorial Ave. (it's one block past the capital building and the last light before you feed onto the Interstate), take a left.
• At Boulevard (it's about a mile, and you will know you've hit Boulevard when the brick wall of Oakland Cemetery ends on your left), take a right.
• Follow over I-20, and the entry into the Grant Park parking lot should be your first or second light. Turn right into the parking lot. I will park as close to the bottom of the parking lot as I can, and post up in the grass to wait for whomever arrives.
• Also, if you are coming from outside the city, get on I-20 where it hits 75/85 and take it one exit east. Your exit will be Boulevard. Take a right and follow the directions from the bullet point above.

We won't be able to coordinate food all that well, but I will bring chips, salsa, soda, water, cups, and ice for everyone. Bring a dish that's enough for you (and any guests you bring) with some to share. If there's enough time to work out details in the comment space, let's do it. It looks like some tasty dishes (or at least one) were already suggested.

If you get lost or need to ask a question, feel free to call me. My number is six-seven-eight,  953, two-seven-nine-four (how's that for super cyber encryption?). Feel free to leave your numbers in the comment space, in case you want me to be able to get a hold of you. We can all start exchanging numbers via email at/after the gathering.

Via con dios.

Literary Theory by Terry Eagleton

For anyone interested in pursuing their affinity for literary analysis/criticism, I just finished reading a book that might be of some use to you, it was for me. Literary Theory, by Terry Eagleton, provides a comprehensible introduction of the major literary movements and some prominent figures from which they originated. It also references many seminal works from each period, in case you're overwhelming desire for literary criticism forces you to do even more research. Eagleton discusses hermeneutics, phenomenology, structuralism, psychoanalysis, and plenty more forms of critique that, I think, provides more insight for any future reading.

One of the downsides of the book itself is its use of extremely dense language and some esoteric terms. I found my mind, quite a few times, wandering from the text unto other subjects. It's probably easier to focus, rigorously, on a chapter a day or so in order to retain full comprehension of the content. Despite its density, and sometimes unbearable tangents, the book is extremely unpretentious (which is awesome, because a lot of the literary criticism I've read, I felt, was condescending).

The introduction, entitled What is Literarture?, was my favorite part of the book. It pertains directly to what we discussed during our first day of class: the issue of what exactly constitutes literature. Eagleton acknowledges the definition's elusiveness and discusses its subjective and objective qualities, concluding with a rather irresolute explanation. But that's okay, it seems literature's definition is constantly changing due to ever-fluctuating social contexts and I don't think anyone will ever be able to provide us with a concrete definition.

Lost-Fail

I know that Tori will not enjoy this one, but then again, maybe she will because it falls under the category of Lost-bashing.

Last night's episode was horrible in several ways. Here are some problems, for anyone in class who is a Lost-y.

1. Jacob and his brother are not believable enough as emotional characters to care when they get upset or triumphant. The beauty of Lost has been that character development builds slowly, with lots of data to back up decisions, arguments, etc. This episode was like trying to get to know someone well enough to marry them while speed-dating. As a counter example, we can look at the episode several weeks ago on Richard Alpert's background. Everything that happened in that flashback was emotionally wrenching because it made sense. The Jacob/AntiJacob background does not make sense.
2. Too many unanswered questions. Where did False Mom come from? How does she have power to make her surreptitiously adopted sons immortal? How can she build metaphysical laws all on her own ("I've made it so that you cannot kill each other.")? 
3. Remember in the movie The Abyss, when a great story was ruined in the end by a giant psychedelic-looking bathtub that came up out of the ocean because of aliens. Ugh. That's what the glowing light in the waterfall-cave reminded me of. Who in the world knows what that thing does or why it's important? Why does AntiJacob think it can help him get off the island?

The Lost franchise took a serious misstep this week, and I hope it can regain its momentum. If it doesn't, at least we can say we always had fun with Sawyer's nicknames and the LockeMonster.

New tentative postsemester gathering - May 18

How about next Tuesday for our post-semester gathering? I won't be free until 4pm, but we could make that work. Who else is free that day?

Tentative where: Grant Park (I can provide directions)
Tentative when: 4pm-5.30pm
Tentative how: everyone brings a food item from "Beloved" or "The Crossing"

Who is game? Maybe we would have enough people to play ultimate frisbee.

Yes, I am still grading. It always takes longer than is fun.

Open invite to editing rights

This space will be better for rapid communication if all of us can write original posts, not just me. If you hit the "Follow" button that allows you to follow this blog, I will give you editing rights so that you can originate posts in addition to attaching comments to posts. Plus, joining as a follower of the blog will notify by email whenever new posts are added, so you don't have to keep checking back.

I look forward to reading everyone's final exams tonight. Did anyone try question 6?

Welcome to American Literature Horizon!

As a result of the strong academic work and community demonstrated by our American Literature class at Georgia State this semester (Spring 2010), this blog will attempt to extend the reach of the community beyond semester's end.

This blog is intended to serve four purposes:

1. To encourage the attempts of students in the class in completing B.A.'s in English;
2. To assist and promote the future academic work of students in the class, regardless of the discipline;
3. To explain and support entry into graduate school for any students in the class; and
4. To continue to build on the class's diverse, enthusiastic, and insightful community into the future.

End-of-Semester Gathering
Some of us have suggested a picnic in Grant Park which will include torillas, open pit fires, impromptu sermons, and untamed wolves. I am suggesting May 28 or 29. If you want to come, please post a comment including your availability and a creative dish or game you can provide. Feel free to suggest other dates, locations, and/or themes. Given the competency we have all developed over the semester (a la CompClass) with discussion forums, we should be able to build this outing pretty well using the blog. Be sure to read the comments of others before posting your own so that you can extend or amend the discussion.

Finally . . .
This class has been an exciting and enriching experience for me to teach. Thank you, each one of you, for every day that you came to class prepared, critical, and ready to contribute something spoken or written to how we can view American Literature.