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| English 220"eyeLAWS"{or, An Introduction to Literature}Dr. William Nericcio |
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 EYE... er, sorry.... let's start that again.... Hello! "I" {eye}
would like to welcome you to our Fall 2011 introduction to literature,
film, photography, art, the internet, etcetera etcetera. On this humble
page you will find the various laws
of our 21st century literary/cultural studies estate--the little gates,
cages, locks, and handcuffs as well as the meager statutes, ordinances,
edicts, and principles that will allow our experimental optics-obsessed enclave to
prosper!  Let me underscore that you have absolute intellectual freedom
in our land of Eygiene, BUT to receive that delicious right you must also
succumb to the reasonable responsibilities outlined in this, your
passport, or collection of "eyeLAWS".  After all, we want to have a blast, evolve/grow/shapeshift into the best
literature/film studies class on the West Coast, even (Stanford and Berkeley be damned)! But to do that, we need some peace and quiet--a safe asylum within which to forge our imaginative eye-crazy imagination, to amp our mutating and permutating subjectivities. So, then, when you walk into our huge, ex-basketball course lecture hall, Peterson Gym 153, also known as the 'televisual hive', these are some of the ground rules: eyeLAW I When you come to class, your eyes will be tired! When you enter this room for class you will have finished the reading that appears on the day-to-day class calendar or eyediary! Coming to a university literature/film/cultural studies 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 voyeur without a telescope, a prostitute without a, er, well, I better stop there.... Do the readings. Do them twice if you can MAKE the time! I know, you are saying to yourself, "they don't make me read in my other classes" or some other sort of nonsense... well here, you must! 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. eyeLAW II When you come to class you will leave your digital otherself, your social media robot/mirror/proxy, aka YOUR COMPUTER, off! Your laptop, ipad, tablet, etc will be asleep IN YOUR BAGS during class--or, better yet, resting in your dorm room or apartment.  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. I was recently at a cool (ok, it was slightly boring,  I
confess) lecture by a noted writer--as I tried to listen to her,
in front of me, a diverted student, there, no doubt for extra-credit,
was perusing sites like this one (nsfw or school). So, laptops are GREAT
for entering your notes AFTER class, but they will not be allowed to be on in
our lecture hall. If you have an issue with this, schedule a
meeting with me during office hours the first week of class. Don't end
up like this former student from another Engl 220 I taught back in the
day (to your left)who was using their iPad under the table during seminar! eyeLAW IIITelevisuality, yes! Telephones, NO! Your beloved magnificent iphone, 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 after letting me know before class beguns that you are expecting an emergency phonecall. 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.  eyeLAW IVPlagiarism is the Kidnapping of Ideas! 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!) thief--not a GOOD thing. In the university, plagiarism refers to the art and crime of presenting other people's work under your own signature, or cutting and pasting copied crap from wikipedia--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 dead SERIOUS about this shit, so don't take any chances! Rely on your own mind and your own imagination! |
