English 220: Hallucinating Mirrors | Assignments Calendar


	TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2015 First day of Fall 2015--a key class as all the major premises for our adventures in hallucinations and mirrors are the focus. Many surprises today including, maybe, a surprise first film screening. How to prepare for today? Before entering the room, you will have purchased, read, and prepared for discussion, THE YELLOW WALLPAPER by Charlotte Perkins Gilman; bring the book to class (always bring your book to class) as there MAY be an in-class writing assignment that pertains to Gilman's classic. Also likely? Our first in-class cinema screening: a Black Mirror episode entitled BE RIGHT BACK, written by Charlie Brooker and directed by Owen Harris. If you wish to rescreen it, it is available on Netflix here.	THURSDAY, AUGUST 27, 2015 In class today we will focus on Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper"--an oustanding psychologically complex short story, Gilman's mini-epic introduces us to an unnamed protagonist pursued by complex hallucinations. As you read (and re-read) the story, look for key motifs and themes woven into the fabric of the text. Additionally, we will then move to a consideration of the relationship between Gilman's short story and Brooker and Harris's "Be Right Back." Lastly, and this is additional reading for today's class, Thursday, August 27, 2015, walk into GMCS 333 having read the first 50 or so pages of W. Terrance Gordon's EVERYMAN'S McLUHAN--this text works like a #hallucinatingmirrors Toolkit word in that it augments your critical skills with regard to both word-dominant and image-dominant texts.
	TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2015 It is a gorgeous morning in San Diego, and you walk into the room having read 154 pages into John Green's THE FAULT IN OUR STARS. As you read, keep in mind the the main themes of the class--look for images, words, and ideas that resonate with hallucinations, mirrors, etc. For instance, Green plants a fictional book inside his own novel, mirroring as it were, his own project! What is he up to doing this? Will we have an in-class quiz today? Not if the majority of you come into our chamber of hallucinations ready to rock!	THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2015 Continue reading deep into John Green's novel--reading is an exercise in empathy; you should NOT be reading in order to understand what Green, the author, the puppeteer, is up to; rather, you should read in order to get caught up in, lost, in the story. Think of the novel as a kind of hallucinating mirror--an object that somehow gives you a reflection of the characters (of course), but of YOU as well (I know, a little creepy). But there is someone else in the mirror at the same time--John Green. In class, I introduced the Toolkit Word overdetermination, stolen from my good friend Siggy Freud, an utterly famous and salacious caricature of Freud appears below. And, in the sense that you, Green, Augustus, and Hazel, among others, all reside in the hallucinating mirror called a novel, you have a perfect, working definition/example of overdetermination, as your reading of the novel will be impacted by the mix of all these characters. In addition to reading up to page 238 in Green's THE FAULT IN OUR STARS for today's class, pick up and open that gorgeous volume on Freud's work, Sheppard's EXPLORER OF THE MIND: THE BIOGRAPHY OF SIGMUND FREUD. Read any five pages in the book that catches your eye. Though it is a pain, and it weighs a ton, do please bring it with you to class.
	TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2015 Many wonderful things happen to you over the weekend and these include the following: 1. You will finish reading John Green's THE FAULT IN OUR STARS; 2. You will read the first 29 pages of Ruth Sheppard's EXPLORER OF THE MIND: THE BIOGRAPHY OF SIGMUND FREUD; 3. And, in class, of course, we will begin a discussion of these texts. But there also might come a surprise--a hint! It has something to do with The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance. 4. The fourth piece of homework is to printout and fillout this info-sheet--it will help ensure we do not subject you to months of suffering!!!! A pdf version is HERE in case you have trouble printing it out! BE SURE TO BRING THIS FILLED OUT PRINTOUT WITH YOU TODAY TO CLASS!!!!	THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2015 Continue your reading in Ruth Sheppard's Freud opus, EXPLORER OF THE MIND--try to get to page 80 or so but don't beat yourself up if you don't finish. In the meantime, we are trying to grapple with the gremlin hallucinations that interrupted our screening of Alejandro González Iñárritu's inimitable and provocative BIRDMAN. Valiant technicians are working overtime to solve the mysterious greenscreen conundrum that convinces me our class is under surveillance by nefarious Hollywood or CIA operatives (or both). Hang in there--updates to follow soon!
	TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2015 Over the weekend you take home and finish reading Sheppard's EXPLORER OF THE MIND book on Freud--you don't have to bring it to class today, though! Take a break. In addition to finishing your exploration of all things Siggy, you crack open Robert Louis Stevenson's classic THE STRANGE CASE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. Read pages 33 to 90 and feel the burn (and the thrill of knocking off yet another book)!!! In the classroom, we will be finishing our screening of Alejandro González Iñárritu's BIRDMAN, and beginning our discussions of Freud, González Iñárritu, and Stevenson.	THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015 Alejandro González Iñárritu and Robert Louis Stevenson--what do they have in common other than having three names? Obviously both artists are obsessed with exploring the ideas of identity, split personality, and more. But what else do they share--and can our dynamic Siggy Freud's ideas/theories help us as we probe the inner recesses of their minds (and the minds of their memorable characters). This would not be a day to be without your copies of JEKYLL and EXPLORER--consider that a hint!
	TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2015 Today we plunge into the paradoxical, cunning, amazing mind of Robert Louis Stevenson and THE STRANGE CASE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. Stevenson's heady meditation on subjectivity and identity is the perfect analogue for Sigmund Freud's INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS and his theories of the ID, EGO, and SUPER-EGO. Class will focus on close readings of the novel, overviews of Freud's ideas (from the Sheppard's EXPLORER OF THE MIND volume and other places). Here are four pages from my copy of JEKYLL & HYDE showing the notes I have taken whilst devouring Stevenson's bizarre tome: {click to enlarge} I put them here as an example as, SURPRISE, I have a writing assignment for you to turn in today!!! 1. Xerox/photocopy what YOU view to be the most important page in the novel. 2. Clearly write your name and section group on the top, right corner of your paper! 3. On the back of that page, I want you type or write or print a 250 word close-reading of passages from that page that justify your selection! When you walk into the Hallucinatorium, place your carefully executed assignment into one of the five receptacles at the front of the room according to which team you are on (determined alphabetically)-- actually SIX, as my box will be there too, if you dare to allow me to grade your writing!!!!	THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2015 Are you ready to enter the hallucinating mirror--a strange one made of ink, paper, blood, soul, and more!? Walk into class having read the first 51 pages of Salvador Plascencia's THE PEOPLE OF PAPER. For those of you who don't read much, brace for some of the most curious prose you've seen since your days of Dr. Seuss. Experienced readers will be equally challenged by Plascencia's fictional spaces--one thing to keep in mind: when you see a heading of a section inside a chapter, that tells you whose head you are inside of, whose POV, point of view, you are assuming. This shifts throughout the novel, so be atuned to whose eyeballs you are looking through as you move from page to page. Note also, the visual dimension of this text, its innovative design, its risk-taking. Half our class will be spent walking alongside Plascencia, the other half will involve us diving down the rabbit hole with Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufmann, the director and writer responsible for BEING JOHN MALKOVICH. It is gift day in the Hallucinatorium, GMCS 333--today you receive your list of prompts for Imagination Challenge Numero Uno!

	Imagination Challenge Numero Uno	Imagination Challenge Numero Uno


	TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2015 Over the weekend read from page 52 to page 219 in THE PEOPLE OF PAPER. In class we will continue our discussion of Plascencia's hallucinatory fiction even as we also worm our way way though the warped imaginations of Jonze and Kaufmann. As you read, reflect on your screening of BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, as you screen, reflect on your reading of THE PEOPLE OF PAPER. Can this trio of literary/cinematic mad hatters be seen to have things in common? How do they contrast?	THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2015 This is it! It's an amazing day in the Hallucinatorium, GMCS 333, as we welcome SALVADOR PLASCENCIA, author of THE PEOPLE OF PAPER to class. In preparation for him hanging with us, we've completed reading his novel. In addition, I want you to type out two questions, detailed, carefully-crafted questions, that you would like to ask the writer while he is with us. You will be turning in these typed questions in class, so don't forget to bring them with you.
	TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2015 Over the weekend, your eyes have devoured Flaminio Gualdoni's SURREALISM book--a late add to our list of required books; don't freak however, it will only set you back 4 bucks or so. But you have not rested content with Gualdoni's little collection. Inspired by the outrageous imagination of the surrealists, you have gone out and found, on the internets, an image created by one of the artists in Gualdoni's book but that is NOT INCLUDED in Gualdoni's book. You have printed this image and, on the back, written a paragraph redefining what YOU UNDERSTAND surrealism to mean, focused on the image you have selected and, if you wish, connecting it to something we have discussed in class! In class, we will conclude our screening of BEING JOHN MALKOVICH and complete our discussion of Plascencia's PEOPLE OF PAPER.	THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2015 We will begin class with a discussion BEING JOHN MALKOVICH--be prepared to share your interpretation of the film. After that part of the class, all is easy as you walk into class exhausted as hell having stayed up all night finishing your imagination challenge. So, as a treat for your hard work, you have NO ADDITIONAL READING for today; instead you will be treated to a cinematic/televisual surprise: another episode from Charlie Brooker's BLACK MIRROR series! THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF YOU!!! Note: This episode was directed by Brian Welsh and written by Jesse Armstrong. Charlie Brooker is the "showrunner"/executive producer for the Black Mirror television series. Imagination Challenge Numero Uno is due TODAY, in class, be sure to place your priceless work inside the proper bag FOR YOUR SPECIFIC GROUP!!!
	TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2015 Walk into our hallucinatory auditorium having completed Dan Clowes' GHOST WORLD. Clowes graphic novel unfolds as a meditation on contemporary youth culture--a world of indecision, choices, paranoia, desire, snark and more. In seminar, we will discuss the first half of the novel focusing on key themes like nostalgia, satire, and relationships (in this instance, between intelligent young women). As you read, consider all the different media we have consumed this term: prose short story, cinema, graphic narrative, novellas, novels, paintings, photography. What makes graphic narrative different than say, the novel? What differentiates the experience of film from a comic book? Be sure to come to class with key panels marked that you want us to discuss during our time together.	THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2015 You walk into the Hallucinatorium and you are carrying a sheet of paper--on one side of that sheet of paper are printed or taped two panels selected by your incredible imagination from the pages of Clowes's graphic novel GHOST WORLD. On the other side of this paper, typed, double-spaced, and with a clever title are two or three paragraphs of your best writing. Your assignment (which will used for attendance today so be sure to turn it in when asked) is to select two panels from different parts of the story and to establish a connection between them. This connection can be thematic, visual, conscious, unconscious, or motivated etc, but you must try to argue in 250 words or so for the validity of your assertion, for the value of this connection (for the reader, for Clowes's project, or for both). In class, we will complete our discussion of GHOST WORLD and begin our screening of Shainberg's SECRETARY-- Shainberg's evocative cinematic meditation on love and psychological damage is challenging--so be ready!
	TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2015 Sorry for the delay in updating your assignment--and thanks to the students who sent me email enquiries; your assignment is to finish your McLuhan book. If you cannot finish it for Tuesday, finish it for Thursday. In class, we will screen another chunk of Shainberg's adaptation of Mary Gaitskill's short story, SECRETARY. You can either read the short story now, or wait for us to finish the movie on Thursday, but you will be expected to have read it at some point. Consider the role of the lawyer, James Spader enacting the inimitable (and damaged) E. Edward Grey, and the secretary, Maggie Gyllenhaal as the inquisitive, and somewhat broken, as well, Lee Holloway. How does their relationship evolve--do they, in fact, mirror each other in curious ways?	THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2015 In class we will finish our screening of SECRETARY and conclude our discussion of Steven Shainberg/Erin Wilson/Mary Gaitskill crafted project--in class we will work to adapt/apply McLuhan's work to this project and other works we have read/experienced this term.
	TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015 It's Halloween week in the Hallucinatorium--our favorite week of the semester. You walk into class today having read the first half of Carlos Fuentes's AURA. Fuentes plunges us into a timeless, haunting world of mannequins, mirrors, witchcraft, and duplicity--a world where the difference between reality and the written word, between life and representation is in flux. I have placed here a detail from a painting called "The Lovers"/"Los Amantes" by the great Spanish expatriate to Mexico, Remedios Varo--when you finish the reading, the rationale for its 'random' appearance here will come clear! and, just for 'fun', here's MADONNA's take on the same theme from 1996--hit the image for the music video:	THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2015 You walk into the Hallucinatorium dizzy and perplexed having finished your reading of Aura for our seminar session today. As it is Halloween weekend, you walk into class wearing your costume, delighted in the knowledge that any student wearing a costume will receive 20 points on any quiz you might have blown! Imagination Challenge Numero Dos prompts are released to you today--feel the excitement!
	Imagination Challenge Numero Dos	Imagination Challenge Numero Dos
	TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2015 Before you begin reading Lidia Yuknavitch's outrageous and provocative DORA: A HEADCASE, head on over to your good friend Wikipedia and catch yourself up on one of Freud's most famous patients, Ida Bauer, who Freud rechristened as "Dora"-- an early attempt to protect patient anonymity (Freud was an innovator in many ways). Then, if you are even more curious, head on over to Yale's MODERNISM LAB, for more of the background story. Now, you are ready! Open the pink book, take the blue pill, and brace yourself for one of the more challenging books of the semester. As we only have two days for this crazy novel, walk into the room having read to page 169. They make trailers for novels now, believe it or not--the cinemafication of prose fiction; see the DORA trailer below.	THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2015 You walk into the hallicinatorium having finished the DORA book--you are shaken, but have survived. As you read, consider the conversation taking place between Siggy and Lidia, Freud and Yuknavitch, a conversation taking place between/amidst centuries, genders, and more. Yuknavitch's DORA: A HEADCASE challenges readers with an in-your-face, over the top explosion of post adolescent rage and inventions--check out the Mother Jones review/profile here--but is there more going on here. Surely this is a modern American novel, but is it also an expiation? an exorcism?
	TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2015 VENUS IN FUR by Roman Polanski is piece of cinema imitating a stage play (the movie features Polanski's screenplay adaptation of David Ives's play) imitating an autobiographically-laced novel by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. In class, we will begin our screening and discussion of this modern meditation on the war between the sexes. Or is it a war between literature and 'reality'?	THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2015 In class, we will complete our screening and discussion of VENUS IN FUR--be attentive to the familiar themes (control, passion, domination, submission), but also the familiar play with conventions--note how Polanski's setting allows him to tell a story about theatre using cinema/film. With regard to mirrors and mirroring, VENUS IN FUR is dizzying! Note that the film's director, Roman Polanski, is married to the film's female lead Emmanuelle Seigner, and that the male lead, Mathieu Amalric is the splitting image of Polanski in his youth. Imagination Challenge Numero Dos is turned into to us today in class for grading--me and the GTAs rejoice with the excitement of grading/editing/marking/evaluating 1500 pages of delicious prose!
	TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015 What have you done over the weekend? You have curled up and read THINGS WE DO NOT TALK ABOUT by Daniel Olivas. In class we will explore the genre of the ESSAY--and then consider as well the value of INTERVIEW as a form of communication. As you read, look for repeated ideas, images, themes, and obsessions. Read especially carefully as you will be able to meet and query the author regarding his book-length project next class on Thursday.	THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2015 It is the day before your Thanksgiving break from Hallucinating Mirrors--and, as a holiday treat, we welcome Daniel Olivas, author of THINGS WE DO NOT TALK ABOUT into our gorgeous Hallucinatorium, GMCS 333. Olivas will do readings from his book and then join in an open discussion with us on all things literary. Attendance today will be accomplished using the epistolary form--as you have finished reading Olivas's book, it should be easy. Write a letter to Daniel Olivas (a page is fine, either handwritten or typed) about your favorite essay or interview he wrote in the book--take the time to weave in direct quotes from his writing that stood out to your in your letter. The return address on the envelope should be your name written HUGE along with your group name. Try to decorate the exterior of the envelope with images (either drawn or taped/pasted on that embody the themes found in Olivas's book). The best decorated envelope (chosen by Olivas and your Professor) will win a $10 cash prize along with a free book from SDSU Press! Drop your envelope in the proper group box at the front of the class at the beginning of class. NOTE: All students in attendance will also receive word on an actual question to appear on the Final In-Class Imagination Challenge!
	TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2015 NO CLASSES THIS WEEK--HAVE A GREAT HOLIDAY WITH YOUR FAMILY & FRIENDS	THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2015 NO CLASSES THIS WEEK--HAVE A GREAT HOLIDAY WITH YOUR FAMILY & FRIENDS
	TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015 Murakami's AFTER DARK is a trippy, noir classic--a book of the night and the city, Murakami's meandering novel introduces us to a world that emerges after dark, a world haunted by televisual apparitions, sadness, and more. Your real smart as you have read this little box before you take off for the Thanksgiving Break and you take your book with you so that the 182 pages you are expected to have read by today are nothing! Nada! Rien! The novel is ambitious--one of the things it hopes to accomplish is to be an homage, an evocation of Jean-Luc Godard's classic dystopia ALPHAVILLE. Read up about ALPHAVILLE here if you care to--not required. A clip appears below.	THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2015 Murakami's AFTER DARK is over. That is, you have finished reading it before galloping into the Hallucinatorium today. Use this opportunity, only 60 or so pages of reading, to reflect on your odyssey this semester--attempt to connect the ideas, themes, symbols, and obsessions of Murakami's universe to other writers, directors, and artists we have surveilled this term.

	TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2015 REVIEW and Surprises!!!	THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2015 IT IS THE LAST DAY OF REGULAR CLASSES AT SDSU AND THE DAY FOR YOUR FINAL! The Final IN-CLASS IMAGINATION CHALLENGE takes place TODAY in GMCS 333 AT 11:00AM SHARP!


	TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015 Today from 10:30AM to 12:30AM is the official SDSU-listed time for our final exam; as our final in-class imagination challenge takes place Thursday, December 10, 2015 at 11am in GMCS 333, we will use today as a conferencing day so you can pick up your final work, share your final grade, and address any final questions.