[Englecturers] Results of yesterday's meeting

[englecturers at lists.ucr.edu]

Howdy y'all,

Since I cannot figure out a way to respond to Gray's comments directly, here 
is my two cents for the 
entire listserv to see.

I think that there is still power in Twilight for 1B (I and at least three 
other instructors I know who are 
not inclined to partake in this discussion) still use it with great success. 
Personally, I use the play to 
create a dialogue (written) that encourages students to establish criteria for 
evaluating 
different forms of civil protest. They also read Thoreau, King, and more 
militant writings (Turner Diaries 
excerpt, Ruby Ridge info, McVeigh) and eventually end up using the voices of 
Twilight to support or 
contrast their opinions. Definitely a keeper for me.


I think TextBook should go (although it has a wonderful section on Figurative 
Language) mostly 
because it uses wordplay that is too theoretical for most 1C students (and as 
I see it, a huge waste of 
time trying to explain to the students). The title is a tip-off to what I 
mean. Perhaps it is useful for 
students 
interested in communication or literature or languages, but for the majority 
of 1C students, the book 
has little value. They know it, I know it, and we don't pretend differently.

With this said, I still dislike the entire idea of teaching semiotics as a 
focus for 1C. Our students are 
very well versed in interpreting icons and symbols of our culture: they have 
been doing it most,if not 
all, of their lives. We can only expand the awareness so far.

I agree with the choice of Rereading America as an option. The power of this 
reader is in its multiple 
perspectives of American cultural myths that, to our students (at least in the 
years I have used the text 
elsewhere), assume to be rational statements of the obvious. Tearing down and 
reconstructing those 
myths serves our students by encouraging critical reading and thinking skills, 
considering ideas from 
another person's perspective and allowing for a deeper understanding of the 
value and moral system 
that binds (or bonds, take your pick) us together. I would pair this book with 
Wicked to help eliminate 
any vestiges of binary, either/or, right/wrong, yes/no thinking that is 
perpetuated by media, 
governments, religions, and institutions. I tried doing this with Textbook and 
it didn't work too well.

Other than that, I think the other book lists are acceptable.


Devon Hackelton


.>===== Original Message From englecturers at lists.ucr.edu =====
>Hello all,
>
>Time to update everyone on the 1A/B/C book list following yesterday's 
afternoon meeting. We have, 
out of a desire to solicit more feedback, put off making any firm decisions on 
delisting or new listings 
until we give folks another chance to speak up in defense of the texts they 
are using.
>
>Here's the list of works still in doubt, by class:
>
>1A: Zami
>1C: Paradise
>1C: Native Speaker
>1C: Text Book
>
>Of the books above, two in particular (Zami and Paradise) seem to have little 
interest. I'd be interested 
in hearing what people are doing with them -- if anything. Barring a defense 
of the above from some 
quarter not hitherto heard from, the above works might well be bumped from the 
list. We don't want to 
remove a book that's seeing use, but neither do we want unsightly cobwebs on 
our bookshelf.
>
>I will briefly make a comment on Text Book myself, one that seems fairly 
consistent with what I'm 
hearing from others: It seems that those of us who are inclined to use Text 
Book at all only ever use a 
few pages from it, and so usually we just distribute a handout or assign a 
reading or two on Reserve 
from the book. Is that a fair assessment?
>
>You'll also recall that I distributed some descriptions of texts that might 
be considered for inclusion 
on future lists; we have trimmed down the list only slightly. It now includes 
the following works:
>
>1A: Having our Say
>1B: Reefer Madness (this is another book by Schlosser of Fast Food Nation 
fame)
>1B: The Hungry Woman
>1C: Rereading America (a reader)
>1C: Farewell my Lovely (for use in combination with Devil in a Blue Dress)
>1C: In the Belly of the Beast
>1C: Cruddy
>
>Two texts seemed like possibly interested additions, but have been put off 
until an experiment can be 
made of them:
>1C: Reading Lolita in Tehran (I screwed up and left this one out of the last 
list; its description appears 
below)
>1C: The Diamond Age
>If others are willing to give either of the above a test drive, keep us 
posted.
>
>The remaining texts, listed below, were on our "endangered list" earlier, but 
appear to have been 
rescued:
>
>Always Running (1A)
>Twilight (1B)
>Medea (1B)
>Tortilla Curtain (1B)
>Heroes and Saints (1B)
>Confessions of a Justified Sinner... (1C)
>Dreaming in Cuban (1C) (Someone at our meeting pointed out that this 
particular text's author is a 
professor on campus. Given this fact, and the possibility that interested 
instructors might be able to 
nab the author as a guest speaker or visitor to their classes, we thought that 
we should keep it around 
a little while longer, in the hopes that it might be able to get better use 
than it has been getting so far.)
>The Dispossessed (1B)
>
>Lastly, here is a description and recommendation of the aforementioned 
Reading Lolita, a text that I 
sloppily left out of the last batch of descriptions. At the moment, it does 
not look as though we will be 
adopting it, but we'd be interested in input from those who experiment with 
the work. The paragraph 
below is in the recommender's own words (not mine).
>
>  Reading Lolita in Tehran, A Memoir in Books
>  I highly recommend Nafisi's book Reading Lolita in Tehran, A Memoir in 
Books (2003, IBSN 
081297106X, 384 pages). I found it last spring when I was searching for just 
the right book to give as a 
gift to a young relative of mine preparing to go away to college. I thought 
this suited her, and for the 
same reasons our students, because it approaches literary analysis from a 
perspective of examining 
how books impact the lives of readers. In addition, the topical nature of the 
setting is relevant and 
informative as an aid for our students, and all of us, as we seek to better 
understand a part of the world 
that has become so integral to our own politics and culture. Even though it 
belongs most naturally in a 
1C class, I hope that we will include this text in our program somewhere, even 
if the 1C portion of the 
program is eliminated, because it is so powerful. Given the memoir bent of the 
book, I think that it 
could function quite well as a 1A text too. Below, I've pasted a review of the 
book from the Barnes & 
Noble web site (where, by the way, the text is ranked at 95 for B & N sales). 
It provides a brief summary 
of the text and a positive assessment of the writing.
>
>  Library Journal
>
>  Nafisi taught English literature at the University of Tehran from 1979 to 
1981, when she was 
expelled for refusing to wear the veil, and later at the Free Islamic 
University and Allameh Tabatabai in 
Tehran. In 1997, she and her family left Iran for the United States. This 
riveting memoir details Nafisi's 
clandestine meetings with seven hand-picked young women, who met in her home 
during the two-year 
period before she left Iran to read and discuss classic Western novels like 
Lolita, The Great Gatsby, and 
Pride and Prejudice. The women, who at first were suspicious of one another 
and afraid to speak their 
minds, soon opened up and began to express their dreams and disappointments as 
they responded to 
the books they were reading. Their stories reflect the oppression of the 
Iranian regime but also the 
determination not to be crushed by it. Nafisi's lucid style keeps the reader 
glued to the page from start 
to finish and serves both as a testament to the human spirit that refuses to 
be imprisoned and to the 
liberating power of literature. Highly recommended for all libraries. [For an 
interview with Nafisi, see p. 
100.]-Ron Ratliff, Kansas State Univ., Manhattan Copyright 2003 Reed Business 
Information.
>
>Okay, that's all I have for you in this report. Please let me know if you 
have any strong feelings about 
the first list of texts above.
>
>- Gray Scott
>
>
>
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