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Book advice: if you were a college instructor...
Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 12:22 pm
by B_M_L_Archive
Get them to read Walter Paters "The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Literature." (or at least the conclusion...).
Then tell them not to read so much, and that they can have the rest of term off.
Book advice: if you were a college instructor...
Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 12:23 pm
by Brett Eugene Ralph_Archive
Angus Jung wrote:My own picks would be Melville's Pierre for the 19th century and William Gaddis's The Recognitions for the 20th. But both of these books would be a bitch to teach, I think.
That's why something like Lolita is a good choice. It's a great book, it is extremely perceptive about (mid) 20th-century America, and you have a pretty good shot at holding your students' attention with it.
I've been wanting to read
Pierre ever since someone told me its a precursor to the "hallucinatory" prose I enjoy so much in Denis Johnson's work. Do you think this is accurate?
Book advice: if you were a college instructor...
Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 12:23 pm
by Peripatetic_Archive
Superchunk or Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing for 20th Century.
Book advice: if you were a college instructor...
Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 12:31 pm
by Angus Jung
Brett Eugene Ralph wrote:I've been wanting to read Pierre ever since someone told me its a precursor to the "hallucinatory" prose I enjoy so much in Denis Johnson's work. Do you think this is accurate?
"Hallucinatory" is a good way to describe
Pierre's prose. There could be a connection to Denis Johnson there. It hadn't ocurred to me.
Read
Fat City by Leonard Gardner if you haven't already. You can really see the roots of Denis Johnson in that book.
Book advice: if you were a college instructor...
Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 12:35 pm
by connor_Archive
sunlore wrote:I couldn't imagine it being anything else. The bathroom, I mean. Being classy. I see black marble, lush, shiny chrome and towels so thick you could loose a nickel in them.
Yeah! And unlike my proletarian, little-butted toilet seat, his was more than enough for my full-figured man-ass. A writerly throne!
And the toilet paper! It was like a brilliant white cloud making deep, smothering love to my rectum!
He lives near Prospect Park, am I right?
I think it was Park Slope, but basically yeah. A brownstone near the park.
Book advice: if you were a college instructor...
Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 12:37 pm
by mrdfnle_Archive
The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break
by Steven Sherrill
First printing, March 2000
All his other works are scholarly by nature. The college professor at the coffee shop suggested this one. I think I read it in two weeks.
Serious and a good updating of the myth.
Book advice: if you were a college instructor...
Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 12:37 pm
by Barbo_Archive
Peripatetic wrote:Supercunk
I think you mean
Superfudge. A classic. I was much more of a fan of the Ralph S. Mouse trilogy though. It is a bit of a tough read, but I got through it.
Jon
Book advice: if you were a college instructor...
Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 12:41 pm
by Angus Jung
Barbo wrote:I was much more of a fan of the Ralph S. Mouse trilogy though.
This was a trilogy?
Does he jump over the Snake River in the last book?
Book advice: if you were a college instructor...
Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 1:01 pm
by Brett Eugene Ralph_Archive
Angus Jung wrote:Brett Eugene Ralph wrote:I've been wanting to read Pierre ever since someone told me its a precursor to the "hallucinatory" prose I enjoy so much in Denis Johnson's work. Do you think this is accurate?
"Hallucinatory" is a good way to describe
Pierre's prose. There could be a connection to Denis Johnson there. It hadn't ocurred to me.
Read
Fat City by Leonard Gardner if you haven't already. You can really see the roots of Denis Johnson in that book.
Fuckin' A, Derek! Love that book. Not a bad little film, either, if you can stomach Stacy Keach.
Book advice: if you were a college instructor...
Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 1:06 pm
by Evil Wizard_Archive
Madness! The proper curriculum was penned in the 14th and 15th centuries! Perchance the works of Sendivogius will suffice, but lo, even the 17th century is too old for your query!
Students who don't read Latin? Folly!
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