Spring 2010 | Engl 563 | DRUGSsexROCKnRoll Imagination Challenge Numero Dos

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Pop Surrealism Vanguardist Mark Ryden via BoingBoing.net

Click the image to your left for an extraordinary video documenting Mark Ryden's art via timelapse photography. Ryden's work, along with Tara McPherson, form part of our required works for English 563, Spring 2010 at SDSU. McPherson's work will loom large in one of the chapters of my new book, Eyegiene: Permutations of Subjectivity in the Televisual Age of Sex and Race, coming out next year (hopefully) with The University of Texas Press.

Spring 2010, SDSU English 563 and English 549 UPDATE Bulleting

Just a quick note to let you know that I inadvertantly left off the dates for your 2nd imagination challenge off of both of your day to day syllabi, Engl 549 here, and Engl 563 here.

You will receive your list of Imagination Challenge 2 prompts on Thursday, April 8, 2010; your second essay will be due Friday, April 23, 2010 at noon under the door of my office, Arts and Letters 273. Please make a note of this on your printed syllabi!

Cheers,

Bill Nericcio

memo@sdsu.edu

Nelson Algren and Studs Terkel

I am teaching Nelson Algren's THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM in my Drugs, Sex, and Rock & Roll class at SDSU right now, Spring 2010--I am in debt to regular correspondent here, Michael Wyatt Harper, for bringing this noir jewel of a novel onto my radar; in any event, Matthew Swanson, one of my Engl 563 students tipped me to this cool conversation between Studs Terkel and Nelson Algren I thought I would share with my class:

English 563 Imagination Challenge Number One | Prompts

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english 563 | drugs, sex, and rock & roll

professor william nericcio

spring 2010 sdsu

Imagination Challenge Essay Extravaganza Number ONE

This is your first formal writing assignment

for our English 563 class--don't stress too

much over it! Stress kills provocative

and compelling writing.

DON'T try to guess what I like and spoon-feed

it to me; that's the worst thing you can do.

Read the prompts. Adapt them so that they

fuse with your brilliant imagination and write

about things you love.

That's the only way to become a great writer--

love what you study so much that your prose

carries the influenza of your passion into the

eyes and soul of your reader.

So, here we go.

Your first Imagination Challenge Essay

Extravaganza! Papers, 4-7 pages, due Friday,

February 26, 2009 at 12noon in the box or into my hands

at professor's office, Arts and Letters 273.

You will know you are in the right place if you see

hundreds of things stuck to the door of my office.

NO LATE PAPERS WILL BE ACCEPTED; EARLY

PAPERS ARE ADORED AND WORSHIPED (if they

are damn good!).

Any student who wishes to receive a mark of "A+" or

"A" will incorporate research drawn from at least

two (2) scholarly journals (use Love Library's online

links to peruse what's shaking on Project Muse or

JSTOR); additionally, they will type their work,

double-spaced, and NOT use a cartoony, silly font.

They will carefully proofread their essay and they

will ensure that they are not merely regurgitating

inanities that have spilled out the mouth of their

professor. An essay is an independent project born

of curiosity and filled with ideas that are carefully

substantiated by the writer--sort of like a lawyer

building a killer case.

Here are your prompts:

1. Narcotics are the Finest Lovers Department

Compare or contrast the tactics of Thomas de Quincey, Greil Marcus, and Darren Aronofsky when it comes to the depiction of narcotic addiction. Is it possible that such divergent intellects also reveal great similarities when juxtaposed in a critical exercise?

2. Sex is My Drug Department

While Thomas de Quincey, Greil Marcus, and Darren Aronofsky spend a fair amount of time documenting the consequences of narcotic use and abuse, they do not turn a blind eye when it comes to sexuality. Write about the role of sex in the work of at least two of these writers.

3. Freud is in the House

Go to the library and find and read ONE of Freud's famous case histories--some suggestions: the Wolf-Man, Little Hans, Dora, or others. Having filled your head with Freud's irregular, erratic, delicious methodology, do a Freudian analysis of key passages from any of the works we have read/screened thus far this term.

4. Film Theory: Aronofsky and His Ilk

Contrast the representation of addiction found in Requiem for a Dream with that of any other film of your choosing; some suggestions: The Days of Wine and Roses, Trainspotting, or Leaving Las Vegas.

5. Addicts Sans Stereotypes

Write a brief meditation that evaluates the representation of drug use in the work Thomas de Quincey and Nelson Algren. Do they undermine or reinforce stereotypical views of addiction.

6. The Erotics of Pleasure

Find and read essays/chapters on pleasure and pain from the writings of Michel Foucault (Discipline and Punish; The History of Sexuality; Power/Knowledge); instead of focusing on drugs as pathological, consider pursuing an essay, a Foucauldian exercise, wherein you explore the complicated dynamics of substance use with an emphasis on pleasure.

7. You are the Professor!

Design your own thesis based on your readings/screenings the first few weeks of our class--you must submit your proposal for this paper topic to me in class, printed, by Tuesday, Februraryy 23, 2010 for greenlighting/editing.