Planning, Part II

Above is the crazy diagram that I made in class yesterday, cleaned-up ever so slightly.  I tried to find examples of books and films that fit with more than one of the genres we had talked about exploring.  For the last genre on the list, I went with the name speculative/science fiction; some of the works I mentioned are not science fiction but fantasy, which fits under "speculative fiction" as an umbrella term.  I can, if anyone so wishes, give a break down of all ten books (plus films) that I mentioned. For now, however, I'm just going to list my three favorites.  Each story has been told in different formats, shifting in tone, plot, and genre, to some extent, as this happened.

The Princess Bride is a 1973 novel by William Goldman.  It utilizes a frame narrative, as a fictional version of Goldman struggles to abridge the book The Princess Bridge by S. Morgenstern.  Goldman's father used to read this book to a young Goldman but, as an adult himself, Goldman realizes that his father read aloud only the "good parts" of a dry Renaissance satire.  As he works on his version of the tale, Goldman undergoes a divorce and becomes increasingly cynical -- and yet, we are also treated to The Princess Bride.  And only the "good parts."  This story is a deliberatly anachronistic historical adventure epic with true love, dastardly villains, and a dash of fantasy.  The Princess Bride became a film in 1987.  The screenplay was also written by Goldman, and it is markedly different from the book, though also incredibly enjoyable.  The film has different frame story -- that of a grandfather reading to his sick grandson.  The story he reads is, of course, The Princes Bride.  This incarnation is a lot lighter and campier.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a 1978 novel by Douglas Adams.  Before that, it was a BBC radio show, in 1978, and it became both a BBC TV show, in 1981, and a Hollywood movie, in 2005.  Adams co-wrote the screenplay for the film, before his death.  Of all the books I mention, this one is the most science fictional of all.  And it's the funniest.  The story follows Arthur Dent, a perfectly ordinary Englishman who is lucky enough to escape the destruction of the Earth (demolished to make way for a brand new intergalactic highway).  Arthur reluctantly adventures away with his alien friend Ford Prefect, although the exact canon varies by format.  There are also four sequels.

The Orchid Thief is a 1998 work of nonfiction by Susan Orlean.  It deal with orchid hunting, particularly the effors of a man named John Laroche to steal a rare orchid from the Florida Everglades.  It inspired the 2002 film Adaptation.  Rather than a straight adaptation, Adaptation focuses on the attempts of its screenwriter Charlie Kaufman to turn the book into a movie.  Kaufman and his fictional twin brother, Donald, appear, both played by Nicolas Cage.  Susan Orlean, played by Meryl Streep, and John Laroche, played by Chris Cooper, also star, but in wholly fictional contexts within the metafictional world of the movie.

Changes to the course itself:

What really struck me from our discussions last class was how the quieter students weren't being given opportunitites to speak. As a student that likes to talk, I realized that perhaps I could tone that down a bit to help create an environment that is perhaps a little less "intimidating" or difficult to speak up in. (That's my personal goal.)

I really like our rich discussions and I think that it would be a great idea to have a larger timeframe to discuss the texts that we've read. I agree with kobieta that it is difficult to follow the conversations that happen on Serendip so perhaps we can incorporate them a little bit more?

I really like the Serendip postings as a way to get new ideas across. Additionally, I do like that our prompts are somewhat open-ended as this drives us to push our queries further.

I also really love the fact that Anne posts notes prior to the class so I can come in with a sense of what we will discuss. This definitely allows me to put my thoughts together and figure out what points I really want to bring up.

Moving Forward

I'm not too particular about the order in which we do the texts and quite frankly, I'm very open to reading (or watching!) anything. However, I have read through some of the descriptions of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and it seems as though there will be at least something in that book that everybody will enjoy.

Additionally, I really like froggies315's suggestion of approaching the text from whatever medium you decide to. I think that this would open up discussion about how we get the "story" and why we chose a certain method over another. This would really be interesting when considering genre and when looking at Henrietta Lacks, this might be an interesting approach to the text.

I quite like the idea of science fiction. Admittedly, that genre is not one that I would originally turn to but I do want to explore Farenheit 451 as a book and a film. I'm curious as to our discussion about the relationship between the two mediums and how the movement between book and film may affect genre. I'm also really (and I mean really, I've had an unhealthy relationship slash obsession with this text) interested in looking at War Of The Worlds. I want to go through the original text by H.G. Wells, the radio broadcast by Orson Welles and perhaps the film? (The one with Tom Cruise in it) Rather than take it apart like a literary text, I think that it might be fruitful to explore how the narrative migrates through these different forms in relation to the form (or "genre") that it is projected through.

Yesterday’s class discussion on the form of the course provided constructive feedback and I do think we should try to implement as many of the proposed changes to the remainder of the course.

The course FORM:

-Slow down the pace of the course:  

We should maybe provide at least 3 days for one particular book, that way we can dig deeper in the deconstructing of the genre form. Emphasis on the analysis of the genre form instead of content from various texts.

-Limit blackboard exercises:

Release the pressure from “permanently” displaying thoughts/ideas on the board and rather contribute to an entire class discussion.

-Have quieter members in class speak up more often:

Not to allow for unnecessary. forced, vocalized thoughts, I do agree that the quieter students (me included) should try to speak out their thoughts whenever possible.

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Narrowing down our genre topic to creative nonfiction and speculative fiction together has been a successful group effort. I unfortunately have not read much in the creative nonfiction and speculative fiction genres but I did that find the books mentioned in class would capture the sought design of the class.

Proposed SYLLABUS:

Books

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot

This book was repeatedly mentioned in class yesterday and I think that it would be a good start to the creative nonfiction genre.

Emperor of All Maladies, Siddhartha Mukherjee (excerpt TBD)

This book subtitled “A Biography of Cancer” narrates the history of cancer as well as its patients life stories. It could be incorporated in class discussion as we discuss The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Kindred, Octavia Butler

A time-travel of an Afircan-American woman back in antebellum Maryland from 1976 California. It will allow to explore "time-travel" as a science fiction genre theme and the formation of the speculative genre.

The Orchid Thief, Susan Orlean

A story based on the investigation of a 1994 arrest of orchid thieves. It would be engaging to explore the reconstruction of an event in the past and the hazy line between the real/credible and unreal.

Film

Law & Order: “Immortal” episode

A fictionalized version of Henrietta Lack’s story. It will be interesting to examine how Lacks’ story is transformed from her “real” life story to Skloot’s book to film.

Adaptation, film by Spike Jonze

The adaptation of Susan Orlean’s The Orchid Thief in film.

T, March 27: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Th March 29: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Excerpt of Emperor of All Maladies to be included in class discussion.

T, April 3: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Watch Law & Order episode “Immortal”.

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Th, April 5: Kindred.

T, April 10: Kindred.

Th, April 12: Kindred.

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T, April 17: The Orchid Thief

Th, April 19: The Orchid Thief. Film Adaptation.

T, April 24: The Orchid Thief. 

I was thinking about how a lot of reading might be too much for me to take on in the second part of the semester.  But, it also feels important to me to do one book a week because I use the long stretch of time between thurs-tues to process the week and prepare for the next week.  I wouldn’t like having to switch books between Tuesday and Thursday.  Also, two weeks for one book seems like a lot of time discussing the same thing.  

So I spent some time thinking and a decided that there are lots of ways to get a story.  Here’s a list I made, it isn’t complete:

1. you can read the book
2. you can read sparknotes
3. you can listen to an interview with the author
4. you can read a review of the book
5. you can remember the story from the last time you read the book
6. you can have a conversation with someone who knows the story
7. ….

So what if, instead of assigning a book to read, we assign a story to get for each week?  Then we can each figure out for ourselves how we want to get that story.  This might be cool because:

1. Nobody needs to feel the stress of having to read x amount of pages by the next class
2. Stories change when they’re told in different mediums, maybe the same story switches genres as it switches mediums?  That seems like it could be an interesting conversation.