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PASSPORT
SUMMER
2018
Wherein you will find all
the basic rules that will allow you to bag a
delicious A+ for your work this term;
alternatively, this is also the place to read the
basic rules that may spell your doom if you elect
to be a total mindless slacker.
On
this humble page you will find the various laws of
our groovy literary/arts “nation”, circa Summer 2018—here
you will find listed all the little gates, cages,
locks, handcuffs, and statutes, ordinances, edicts,
and principles that will allow our exotic and
experimental collective to prosper! Let me
underscore that you have absolute
intellectual freedom in our class, 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
forays into post 1960s American sex, drugs, film,
lit, art, and rock’n’roll, to excel in our survey of
United States-born/borne Literature, film, graphic
narrative, etc.
Law 1.117
aka, Alpha-B-ninerREAD_READ_READ:
Every day you walk into this
class you will have COMPLETED the reading that
appears on the day-to-day class calendar! This
calendar is online and located at this location:
http://eyegiene.sdsu.edu/2018/summer/daytoday.html
Note
that this site will be constantly subject to updates
and that you are responsible for visiting it at
LEAST once each day during the summer session.
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.
Coming to a literature class without doing the
reading is like a gardener trying to raise roses
without s***, a surgeon trying to operate without a
scalpel, a fireman without a hose, a streetwalker
without, er, well, I better stop there. Do the readings. Do them twice if you can
MAKE the time!
Law 1.2389
aka Beta-Tango67PCkaput:
Your
laptop, ipad, netbook, etcetera etcetera 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,
facebook profile updates, tweets, and TMZ news
flashes.
Law
1.311893 aka Zed-BogieViperCell:
Your
magnificent cellphone, your cherished blackberry,
your fetishized iPhone, 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!), let me
know about your emergency before class, 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 set you up for 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.
Law
1.499556 aka 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. SDSU is SERIOUS
about this shit, so don't take any chances! Rely on your own mind and
your own precious imagination!
The
social media site for this class is located here: http://facebook.com/eyegiene. If
you are a member of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg’s mad
experiment, then you are expected to post
class-related links, images, videos, articles, etc
at least ONCE a week. If
you have not bought into Zuckerberg’s mad
experiment, then send your materials
to me via email. I don’t promise that I will post
ALL of your forwarded materials, but I will try to
see that some of them make their way to the fabulous
internets. The class also has a tumblr page here: http://sexdrugslit.tumblr.com I will be posting
course-related materials here from time to time—feel
free to follow the page and make suggestions for
additions/deletions.
WRITING AND EXAMINATIONS
You
will be asked to write ONE Analytical
Imagination Challenge—aka one 5 to 8 page
essay
(graduate students can expect to churn out an
8 to 12 page paper)
during our summer session. 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. 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
guest appearance with Dr. Phil.
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 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
morph into a B-; your "gentleman's C" will appear on
the webportal as a "D." Ditching this class too
often will be as fun as a case of flesh-eating
virus. Also note
from time to time we will NOT meet in the
classroom—I am cancelling some classroom time in
order to compensate for the 3 or so “cinetreks” you
will be making this semester: more on “cinetreks” or
“out of body” experiences to follow.
GRADING INFORMATION
*
33% Quizzes, In-class "Panic-Inducing
Challenges"(c), In-class participation, attendance,
cinetreks, etc.
*
33% "Analytical Imagination Challenge" aka The BIG
Essay
*
33% Final Examination Festival
*
1% Chutzpah, ganas, will, and
drive.
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 for an hour before and after class Mondays thru
Wednesdays in Arts and Letters 273. If these hours
are inconvenient, do not hesitate to call me at
619.594.1524 either to schedule an appointment or
discuss your questions via telephone. My E-mail
address is: memo@sdsu.edu or bnericci@mail.sdsu.edu. |
