ESSAY #2 Prompts NOW available--click the eye!

TASTY DAY TO DAY TREATS aka MENU updated and REVISED

GODARD INFO LINKS
http://www.salon.com/people/rewind/1999/08/07/godard/print.html
http://www.e.bell.ca/filmfest/cinematheque/films/numerodeux.htm
http://www.tvguide.com/movies/database/ShowMovie.asp?MI=9014
http://www.buyindies.com/listings/1/6/FCTS-16201.html

Lights Body Ink
An Experimental Introduction to Literature & Film
ENGL  220  Section 23 12541 Introduction to Literature 1530 1645 TTH FS-108
Dr. William A. Nericcio
Associate Professor of English & Comparative Literature
memo@sdsu.edu

Lights! Camera! Action! Let the play begin. With your dynamic, unique contributions, our experimental introduction to literature can be like no other in the history of the planet. Reading masterworks and trash, screening movies and paging through comic books on the way to art galleries, we will attempt to prove the impossible: when it comes to the life of the mind, there is no limit on the domain of literature. Where else but literature do we get the chance to stop being ourselves, to inhabit the minds and the lives of other people. "But reading is an ugly drag," some might say. Only for those who want to get pushed around the rest of their lives! The truth of it is that there is no escape from the world of writing and reading--what's great about literature is that it is relatively painless and totally exciting. Some of the books and films we will work on include:

Junichiro Tanizaki's The Key--where a nasty old man and a sex-loving adulteress wife scheme to out-cheat each other all while intruding on each other's diary.

Michael Powell's utterly mesmerizing and convincingly disturbing opus, Peeping Tom, wherein our innovtative British director exposes the dark soul of the camera in a masterful blend of the literary and the cinematic.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper where a demented male physician and his enslaved wife going bonkers in a hell of an attic bedroom.

Friz Freleng's odd and enchanting animated cartoons where a particular and familiar view of Mexico and its 'citizens' comes blasting out of the silver screen

In short, our special, experimental section of English 220 will attempt to simultaneously introduce students to the study of literature, film, photography and art. Of course said experiment is doomed to failure from the start, but failure is often responsible for magnificent discoveries. Our project will be to introduce ourselves to some radical, disturbing and seductive works of literature, art and cinema, and, of course, to some rather basic techniques of literary criticism and visual analysis. No expertise in anything is expected or assumed and so this experiment is open to curious undergraduates from all majors and of all species of humanity--the only caveat is that said student be curious and open to intellectual adventure.
 

  • TASTY DAY TO DAY TREATS aka MENU
  • http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/dept/english/engl.html
  • ONLINE CLASS RESOURCES
  • Lecture Notes, Tanizaki: the key / kagi / tanizaki
  • Sunset Boulevard Origins: http://www.rowfant.demon.co.uk/nazimova.htm
  • Sacher-Masoch and Masochism: http://homepage.newschool.edu/~schlemoj/imptopia/sacher-masoch.html
  • More on Masoch: http://www.vsearchmedia.com/books/wandprod.shtml
  • TAs OFFICE HOURS
  • 1st Writing Assignment Make-up Questions
  • Imagination Challenge 1 DUE THIS FRIDAY!!!
  • Tolstoy/Ivan Ilych Supplement 

    • WRITING AND EXAMINATIONS

    You will be asked to write two Analytical Imagination Challenges--aka 4 to 7 page essays. Please note that you will never be compelled to write about something you absolutely loathe. Please see me during office hours and we can always brainstorm a substitute essay assignment. There will be an Examination Festival (aka, the FINAL) on the last regularly scheduled day of class: Thursday, May 9, 2002. This "Examination Festival" is designed to be completed in one hour, but you get a full 75 minutes to wrestle with the "beast." Your final is comprehensive; it assumes you have read all the books and screened all the movies that are part of our required work. If you do the work, the final is a breeze--even "fun" if you can believe it. If you slack off, you will find the final as enjoyable as a surprise appearance on the Jerry Springer Show.

    QUIZZES AND ATTENDANCE

    There will also be a couple of in-class Panic-Inducing Challenges otherwise known as "check that you did the reading carefully and on time quizzes." You can expect these miserable quizzes from time to time, the number of quizzes depending on how many of you are nostalgic for high school. In other words, if everyone acts like a talented university undergraduate, we will enjoy FEW if any quizzes during our lights, ink body-drenched semester. The whole point of this class is to work together, the idea being that we convert our boring, somewhat high-tech classroom into a chaotic, unpredictable and exciting intellectual laboratory. Missing class, you miss as well the whole point of the adventure. So please bypass no more than three classes. Miss MORE than three classes during the term and your grade will decay in an ugly way: examples: your hard-earned A- will metastasize into a B-; your "gentleman's C" will appear on gradeline as a "D." Ditching this class too often will be as fun as a nasty intestinal virus.

    GRADING INFORMATION

    40% Quizzes, In-class "Panic-Inducing Challenges"©, and class participation/attendance
    30% "Analytical Imagination Challenges" aka Essays
    29% Final Examination Festival
    1% Chutzpah, ganas, will, and drive.

    READINGS

    When you walk into class each day on time you will do so having completed your reading assignment for that day. Open your day to day course menu: there before you is a map for the entire semester. There are no excuses for missed preparation as reading assignments for a given day are clearly, if garishly, noted in your over-illustrated meñu. Please think twice about joining us if you have not finished the readings--the quality of our class depends upon your dedicated work and your relentless and independent curiosity. Without your periodic intellectual donations, the class is likely to evolve into a boring, even painful waste of time. With your help, we can avoid this.

    OFFICE HOURS

    Why 'office hours'? I expect you to visit me in office hours at least once during the semester. At SDSU, it's easy to fall through the cracks, to feel that you are nothing but a number or some warm pile of sentient flesh filling a seat. In order to underscore that the person teaching you is somewhat human, please make a point to take the time to introduce yourself in person. My office hours will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1pm to 1:50pm in Adams Humanities 4117. If these hours are inconvenient, do not hesitate to call me at 594.1524 either to schedule an appointment or discuss your questions via telephone. My E-mail address is: memo@sdsu.edu. Your Teaching Assistants this semester include Mr. Jonathan Holt, jonnyliterati@hotmail.com; Ms. Monika Hubel; Eddie Rosenberg, taryag613@hotmail.com; and Ms. Shelley Scott, shelleylscott@hotmail.com. Their office hours as follows:
     


    Jonny Holt AH 2118 Tuesday 930-1030am, Thursdays 2-3pm
    Monika Hubel AH 4148 Tuesdays 2-3pm
    Eddie Rosenberg AH 4148 Tuesdays and Thursdays 5-6pm
    Shelley Scott AH 4148 Wednesdays 530-630pm
    Dr. Bill Nericcio AH 4117 Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:50 to 1:55pm

    required texts available for outrageous FEES at aztec shops, kb & ftx bookstores

    Gilman
    The Yellow Wallpaper Feminist Pr.

    Tanizaki
    The Key Vintage

    Alcantara
    Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera Prestel

    De L'Ecotais
    Man Ray Taschen

    Faulkner
    As I Lay Dying Vintage

    Journal
    Camera Obscura Issue 37 Duke

    Tolstoy
    Kreutzer Sonata & Other Dover

    Ware
    Big Book of Jokes # 15 Fantagraphics

    required texts available exclusively in class at CRAZY DISCOUNTS

    The Taco Shop Poets
    Chorizo Tonguefire Chorizo $9.00

    Oliver Mayer
    Young Valiant Vanidad $6.00

    G. S. Kurtz et al
    pacific REVIEW 2002 SDSU Press $9.00

    Rigby
    War REVOLUTION Weimar SDSU Press $10.00

    required text screened for FREE in class

    Billy Wilder
    Sunset Boulevard

    Friz Freleng
    Assorted Warner Brothers Classic Animated Shorts

    Michael Powell
    Peeping Tom

    Jean-Luc Godard
    Numero Deux
     
     
     
     
     


    English 220.23 STUDENT SUGGESTED LINKS
     

    MORE
    Mark Osborne's mixed-media, stop animation short MORE tells the story of an old, tired inventor as he struggles through joyless life in a drab and passionless society, leading the same cold and colorless existence accepted by the identical drones around him. 
    forwarded to the class by Jason Fudge

    CSODA POK (Wonder Spider)
    PanOptic's look into Eastern Bloc research of practical methodologies of brainwashing and thought control through the use of alternating light frequencies and remote devices. PanOptic Collective speaks: "Japan was the initial starting point and inspiration for this absurd work of fiction. When we heard about the children who had gotten seizures from watching stroboscopic imagery on TV, we starting thinking about the potential for moving images as weapons. We began experimenting with analog and digital processes for creating the most disturbing imagery possible (keeping a bottle of aspirin nearby). Once we had created these "visual weapons" we wrote the story around them, creating an aesthetic we call "eastern European futurism" along with a pseudo history of Hungary during WW2 and present."
    forwarded to the class by Guillermo García

    O Brother, Where Art Thou?

    *warning if you haven't seen the movie mentioned in the title you might not want to read the e-mail, since it might contain a few spoilers*
    I watched O Brother, Where Art Thou? by the Coen brothers (Fargo, Raising Arizona) last night and I noticed all these connections to Faulkner's novels.  This movie was a down-right homage to Faulkner.  We have all the elements here: the South during the Depression, poor folks, racism, religious meeting, and the main characters who reminds me of the Bundren brothers.  George Clooney plays Everett who to me seems like a mix of both Darl and Jewel. He's very eloquent, sneaky, and seems to be on top of the situation most of the time. Everett and his two buddies Pete and Delmar break out of a prison camp in search of a treasure.  The story is loosely based on Homer's Odyssey and is a great adventure; e.g. the sirens are three extremely beautiful women washing clothes and singing by the river, and lures the men to them. There's one scene in the movie that especially reminds me of As I Lay Dying, it is when Delmar and Everett believes that Pete turned into a frog during the night which is analogous to Vardaman thinking that his mother is a fish.  More INFO
    submitted to the class by Lauri Johnsen

    NEWS STORY
    World's first photograph brings $443,000
    REUTERS and ASSOCIATED PRESS

    March 22, 2002

    PARIS ? The world's first photograph emerged after some 50 years in a private home and brought $443,000 at an auction in Paris yesterday.

     A Parisian bookseller and his wife unearthed Joseph Nicephore Niepce's photograph of a faded pen-and-ink drawing of a boy and a horse along with a set of letters to Niepce's son, detailing the techniques the pioneering photographer used.

     Unbeknown to experts, they kept the print, which dates from 1825, for years in their Paris home before putting it up for auction with other landmark photographs at Sotheby's headquarters in the French capital.

     Experts knew Niepce invented photography, but had thought images dating from 1826 and 1827 were the world's first.

     "This image and its accompanying correspondence oblige us to rewrite those crucial first stages of the history of photography," the French arm of Sotheby's said in a statement.

     The print was bought by the French National Library after the government ruled it must stay in France, a Sotheby's spokeswoman said.

     Andre Jammes, in his 70s, runs an antique bookshop on Paris' Left Bank and has been collecting old photographs in his spare time since the 1950s.

     He shot to fame in the art world after selling the first batch of his collection in 1999 in London for $10.6 million.

     The second half went on sale this week in Paris in two parts. The first charts the development of photography in France from Niepce's work through an 1889 picture of the Eiffel Tower and a 1935 photo of two nude women dancing.

     The rest of the collection, to be sold today, focuses on Charles Negre, one of France's best early photographers, whose work includes a famed photo of a top-hatted man leaning against a gargoyle fixed to the spires of Notre Dame Cathedral.

     It was the first photograph auction since the French government abolished ancient auction laws and opened the market to international houses such as Sotheby's and its archrival, Christie's.

    submitted by Phil de Marco
     


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