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fandomhigh2009-09-02 12:59 am
cuff-me-once.livejournal.com) wrote in fandomhigh2009-09-02 12:59 am
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Classical Genre [Tuesday, 1st Period]
In deference to the early hour, the first thing the class would have seen on entering was a side table set up with coffee, tea, and a selection of pastries from J,GoBs.
"Morning kids," Rick chirped around his own mug. "Now I'm seeing a bunch of familiar faces, but also some unfamiliar ones, so the first thing we're going to be doing is introductions. When I point to you, I want your name, your age, your favourite genre, and why you like it. For example, I'm Rick, I'm thirty-eight, my favourite genre is mystery, because a good mystery will sucker-punch you the first time, but leave enough clues that you can see it coming the second. I'm also in need of a TA, so if anyone's interested, come up and see me after class."
After the introductions were finished, Rick continued. "No, this class is focused on books and movies of genre," he said. "By which I mean works which are generally not considered to fall under the genre of literary fiction. This might be because they're popular, or they're modern, or because they're speculative, or any number of other reasons. They're stories that are classed in groups because follow or subvert tropes, or they have similar plot elements, settings, themes. They can be thought of as trashy, or hackneyed even when they're not. They often tell actual stories in an enjoyable and fast paced manner. In short we're going to be looking at the kind of books I wanted to study in school."
"This is not to put literary fiction down," Rick said. "For example, James Joyce's Odysseus is a brilliant work, a masterpiece of the English language. For most people, however, it does not make for a lazy afternoon read, and I'm pretty sure most teenagers would want to raise Joyce from the dead just to kill him again if they were assigned this in school. So we're not going to study him."
"This is also going to be a pretty informal class. Mostly focused on reading and discussion, with a little bit of lecturing from me." Because Rick loved the sound of his own voice, yes he did. "No essays and no overanalysis. Nothing kills the love faster than making something that's supposed to be enjoyed a chore. I want you to enjoy the texts we look at. Stories are fun. Reading books, and watching television is fun, and understanding what we're watching and reading should be fun too."
"Now, the first genre we'll be covering is science fiction, and I'll be giving you guys a reading list of some selected books, films, and shows in the genre," Rick said. "One thing I want to emphasise that this is a just suggested reading list, not a set one, so it's long, but I don't expect you to read everything on it, just finish one book by next week's class and one movie or a couple of episodes from a show by the week after's, and there'll be notes provided for anything that get discussed in class. It's also just some of the works that I personally have enjoyed. There are dozens, hundreds, of other stories that are just as great, but we'd be spending an entire year on just sci-fi if I tried to list them all."
Oh, the angst of a bibliophile.
"Also, may sound counter to the aim of the class, but by the time finals roll around, I'd like you to have found and read one of the more traditional classics of your choice, preferably something in the public domain. You'll get more details of why I want you to do this closer to finals, but this way you'll have plenty of time to do it."
[OOC:Wait for OCD up.]
[Class Roster|Syllabus|Class Rules]
"Morning kids," Rick chirped around his own mug. "Now I'm seeing a bunch of familiar faces, but also some unfamiliar ones, so the first thing we're going to be doing is introductions. When I point to you, I want your name, your age, your favourite genre, and why you like it. For example, I'm Rick, I'm thirty-eight, my favourite genre is mystery, because a good mystery will sucker-punch you the first time, but leave enough clues that you can see it coming the second. I'm also in need of a TA, so if anyone's interested, come up and see me after class."
After the introductions were finished, Rick continued. "No, this class is focused on books and movies of genre," he said. "By which I mean works which are generally not considered to fall under the genre of literary fiction. This might be because they're popular, or they're modern, or because they're speculative, or any number of other reasons. They're stories that are classed in groups because follow or subvert tropes, or they have similar plot elements, settings, themes. They can be thought of as trashy, or hackneyed even when they're not. They often tell actual stories in an enjoyable and fast paced manner. In short we're going to be looking at the kind of books I wanted to study in school."
"This is not to put literary fiction down," Rick said. "For example, James Joyce's Odysseus is a brilliant work, a masterpiece of the English language. For most people, however, it does not make for a lazy afternoon read, and I'm pretty sure most teenagers would want to raise Joyce from the dead just to kill him again if they were assigned this in school. So we're not going to study him."
"This is also going to be a pretty informal class. Mostly focused on reading and discussion, with a little bit of lecturing from me." Because Rick loved the sound of his own voice, yes he did. "No essays and no overanalysis. Nothing kills the love faster than making something that's supposed to be enjoyed a chore. I want you to enjoy the texts we look at. Stories are fun. Reading books, and watching television is fun, and understanding what we're watching and reading should be fun too."
"Now, the first genre we'll be covering is science fiction, and I'll be giving you guys a reading list of some selected books, films, and shows in the genre," Rick said. "One thing I want to emphasise that this is a just suggested reading list, not a set one, so it's long, but I don't expect you to read everything on it, just finish one book by next week's class and one movie or a couple of episodes from a show by the week after's, and there'll be notes provided for anything that get discussed in class. It's also just some of the works that I personally have enjoyed. There are dozens, hundreds, of other stories that are just as great, but we'd be spending an entire year on just sci-fi if I tried to list them all."
Oh, the angst of a bibliophile.
"Also, may sound counter to the aim of the class, but by the time finals roll around, I'd like you to have found and read one of the more traditional classics of your choice, preferably something in the public domain. You'll get more details of why I want you to do this closer to finals, but this way you'll have plenty of time to do it."
[OOC:
[Class Roster|Syllabus|Class Rules]
Re: Introductions - CG [Week 1]
And a hell of a card-shark that one time.
Re: Introductions - CG [Week 1]
Re: Introductions - CG [Week 1]
Re: Introductions - CG [Week 1]