 PASSPORT
English 220: Naked Mirrors, Fractured Souls William A. Nericcio | memo@sdsu.edu
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 On
this humble page you will find the various and sundry laws of our splendid
literary estate--the little gates, cages, locks, and handcuffs as well as the meager statutes,
ordinances, edicts, and principles that allow our exotic and experimental
collective to prosper! Let me underscore that you have absolute
intellectual freedom in our province, but to receive that right
you must also succumb to the reasonable responsibilities outlined in this,
our passport. After all, we want to have a blast, be the best literature
class on the West Coast even! But to do that, we need some peace and quiet--to forge
our imaginative madness, to amp our lucid hallucinations. So, then,
when you walk into PS 130, also known as the NAKEDlounge, these are some of the
ground rules:
Statute 1.119 Alpha-B-ninerREAD_READ_READ:
Statute 1.2389 Beta-Tango67_MAC_PCkaputALPHA:
Statute 1.311893 Zed-BogieViperCell:
Law 1.499556 Charlie-Delta_Thief: PLAGIARISM is for cads, thieves, and idiots who desire an "F" for the class.Plagiarism comes from the Latin word, "plagiarius" which means kidnapper, plunderer, or (get this!) seducer--not a GOOD thing. In the university, plagiarism refers to the art and crime of presenting other people's work under your own signature--definitely a BAD thing. While your professor is forbidden by CSU/SDSU code from tattooing the word LOSER on the foreheads of guilty students, he can promise that felonious students will be remanded to the state-authorized SDSU executioners. Read THIS as well--SDSU is SERIOUS about this shit, so don't take any chances! Rely on your own mind and your own precious imagination! |
| Other Requirements!!!!
READINGS When you walk into class each day on time you will do so having completed your reading assignment for that day. 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 as well as scenes like those depicted here:
WRITING AND EXAMINATIONS
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 two classes--missing TWO classes of a once-a-week seminar is like missing two WHOLE WEEKS of a MWF or T/TH class. Miss MORE than two classes during the term and your grade will decay in an ugly way: examples: your hard-earned A- will morph 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 case of the flesh-eating virus. GRADING INFORMATION
Why 'office hours'? I expect you to visit me in office hours at least once during the semester. Additionally, you are encouraged and welcome to visit your GTA, Kevin Gossett as well (times and site to be determined). 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 Mondays from to 1 to around 4 or so in Arts and Letters 273. 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. |
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You will have finished the reading that appears on the
day to day class calendar! Coming
to a literature class without doing the reading is like a gardener trying
to raise roses without getting her/his hands filthy with shit, a surgeon trying to operate without a scalpel,
a fireman without an ax, a streetwalker without, er, well, I better stop
there. 
Your laptop will be asleep IN YOUR BAGS during class.
Have you noticed how anytime a student uses a laptop in an auditorium there
is a "cone of distraction" alongside and behind the student using a computer?
This is usually due to said student surfing the web via wi-fi perusing
erotic delights or god knows what.
Your
beloved magnificent cellphone, your cherished blackberry, your fetishized razr,
your primordial pager will be off, off, OFF; if for some reason you are
expecting an emergency call, set it on VIBRATE (for privacy, pleasure,
or both!) and sit in the back near an exit; cellphones KILL collective
spaces of learning with their ill-timed, annoying clattering rings, bongs,
squeaks, chirps, and themes. Yes, the trauma of that delayed text, Yes,
the horror of that missed hook-up call, will no doubt send you to years
and years on an analyst's couch, but we, the rest of us will gain some
silence, a kind of sanctuary without which ideas wither on the vine.
QUIZZES AND ATTENDANCE