Literature meets Facebook

Follow the link to a re-telling of Hamlet through facebook. You could use this as inspiration for your latest blog writing if you like.

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2008/7/30schmelling.html

"I would prefer not to" blog assignment due Oct. 31

What could be more appropriate at this historical moment--perhaps long set of moments--than to read and discuss Herman Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street?"

Part of the story's mystique is the opacity of Bartleby as a character. Melville forces us to imagine the details he does not provide via the narration. For this writing assignment, I'd like you to imagine that this story is set in the present: 2008. Imagine that one of the main reasons Bartleby is so distant and aloof is that he lives his entire life online--as a virtual "second life." Specifically what you must do is explain in detail what Bartleby's facebook page looks like and why. What are his favorites? Does he have friends, and, if so, who are they? If you could look at a backlist of his status when logging in, what would they say? You're invited to have fun and be creative with this, but try to link the rationale for his page elements to moments in the text itself if you can--moments that divulge or lead us into his character.

250-300 words.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog

Maybe we'll look at this when we get to the drama unit, but for now it might provide some comic relief to midterm stress. Each of the 3 episodes is only 15 minutes long.

http://www.drhorrible.com/

http://www.hulu.com/videos/search?query=Dr.+Horrible's+Sing-Along+Blog

Some Fiction Literary Terms

Point of View Categories:
First Person
Second Person
Third Person Subjective (or Limited)--can be singular or plural
Third Person Objective
Third Person Omniscient

Unreliable Narrator

Characterization
Telling
Showing
Dialogue
Interiority
Names

Film Version: "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"

Faulkner Nobel Prize link for Oct. 23

Here's the link to William Faulkner's Nobel Prize Banquet Speech, 1949.
Please read this in addition to "A Rose for Emily" for Thursday's class.

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1949/faulkner-speech.html

Not an assignment, just a resource

Here's an interesting new short story written by Jay Lake for a new collection called Metatropolis and read by Michael Hogan (Saul Tigh in Battlestar Galactica) that is free to download in audio format. It's called "In the Forests of the Night" and is just for your information, NOT an assignment.


http://www.audible.com/adbl/entry/offers/productPromo2.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=Yes&productID=FR_ADBL_000570