Homework

So, remember how I said I wanted you to do some reading in TSIS, but I had forgotten to write down the page numbers? (Blame my coffee maker. It wasn't working.)

Anyway, the page numbers are: 151-155, 92-100.

Also, check out the wrap-up below. We're going to talk about it at the beginning of class on Wednesday and whether or not we want it to be a regular feature.

Wrap-up

I wanted to do a wrap up of your blogs. We'll talk about it on Monday and see if you guys like this feature. I just want to hit a few interesting highlights and point you in some discussion points around our class blogosphere.

-First off, Lauren stated something that I'm sure most of you felt: " I probably missed a lot of important things to talk about because I am so close to the topic."
This is not wrong. In fact, it's something scholars wrestle with and discuss everyday. Don't shy away from that hardness. Investigate it and think about what it means (and why I assigned you to think about it.)
-Mike has the best titles. I'm curious to hear more about why he chose that particular artifact/lens pairing.
-Liam found out that looking at an artifact in one way necessarily implied another "At first, I was just simply going to take a look at how masculinity/feminism are represented. However, I soon realized this directly relates to how power and familial structure is represented and viewed in Donnie Darko. Because of this connection, I just decided to combine the two lenses - feminism and power" Did any of you have similar feelings? And what do you think it implies about those two ways of working?
-Yesenia and Morgan are both looking at Duck Dynasty! This should be fun to compare two readings on the same thing.

And if you are nervous, just remember: Your classmates and Lady Gaga got your back.

Presentation and process

Once again, I want to commend you on your work today in class and this week in general. I wouldn't give you readings I didn't think you could handle and I certainly understand how frustrating reading scholarly stuff can be, but you guys worked through it and got to some really interesting questions that (as I said) will be big discussion/debate points during Watchmen.

Yay!

Before that, however, let's focus on presentations. Next week, you will be presenting to the class. (If this sounds unfamiliar or you want a refresher about what you're doing, click here.)

For your Friday blog post, I want you to reflect on the process of pulling that presentation together. Specifically, think about:

1) Was it hard? Or easy?

2) How about when you compared the process of analyzing something you like to analyzing something in class?

3) I said you want to try to apply the lenses as objectively as possible. What was that process like?

4) Finally, did you revise? And if so, what? How did you choose images?

This is a pretty big list and it'd be boring for your classmates to read something like:

1) Hard

2) I liked analyzing things in class more

3) It was rough!

4) I just picked the photos that jumped out more.

So this is a chance for you to really craft a story, a narrative or a series of visuals that grabs your audience. 

Since Star Wars has come up a bit this week, consider it your goal to leave your audience feeling like this:

Not this:

Presentations

We've been working hard, so next week will be a chance to reflect on what we've done so far. You will be working on a presentation for next week. If you were absent today, you'll need to get signed up for a day/time.

The assignment sheet and lineup for presentations are below:

We’ve worked with several lenses that can be used to analyze a pop culture item, even though we just started calling them lenses last week. So far:

-Indie/mainstream (or defining by audience)

-Where are the non-white people? (race)

-Where’s the money/power (or what scholars call “Marxist”)

-Sci-fi/Western/primetime cable (or defining by genre)

-How are men/masculine/women/feminine represented (feminism)

Don’t you feel smart?

Before we move into our Watchmen/zine production unit, I want to spend some time strengthening these skills. As part of that, I want you to turn the lenses on yourself.

1) You will select one of the lenses above (or another discussion framework we’ve used) to apply it to one of the five media that you blogged about.

2) You will have a three-minute presentation to the class in which you introduce your media and what you like about it.

3) Then you will analyze the media based on the discussion framework, or lens, you selected. (Try to be objective.)

4) Finally, you will wrap up by explaining how this did and/or did not change how you view this object.

5) You will need to prepare slides or photos to show on the overhead.

6) Other props are also welcome, but keep in mind your three minute time limit.

MONDAY:

1 Yvette

2 Morgan

3 Rick

4 Liam

5 Sarah

6 Nicole

7 Lauren

8 Quintonn

9 Madison

10 Isabel

11 OPEN

12 OPEN

WEDNESDAY

1 Jocelyn

2 Trevor

3 Yesenia

4 Tiffany H

5 OPEN

6 Amber

7 Michael

8 Desirey

9 Daniel

10 Cedric

11 OPEN

12 OPEN

And, as a parting shot, here are Alyson Hanigan and Carrie Underwood at the Emmys. We've discussed both of them in class and look how similarly they're dressed! They must have known that somewhere, somehow, an English class was linking them together...

Friday reminders

Since we're experimenting with discussions this week, write your post as a response to the prompt below on your own blog, then we'll have a discussion by posting comments on this post.

Don't panic if things go awry. Like I said, this is an experiment. :)

Additionally, your task is to take this super quick survey about the course so far. I like to solicit feedback, so I can adjust things to make sure you're getting the most out of the class. It's totally anonymous so feel free to be honest.

Click here to take survey

Don't forget your homework: Struggle through During and watch season 1, episode 1 of How I Met Your Mother.

Have a good weekend and contact me if you have trouble watching the homework or anything else.

Browncoats unite

Hi guys!

This was originally your post for last Friday (Sept. 13), but I've moved it to this week (Friday Sept. 20) to give you some more reading under your belt to help you get at it.

Try not to get hung up on the phrase “feminist lens” and instead, focus on these readings and on your experience of the show.

READINGS

First: These articles from humor site Cracked.com about Joss Whedon’s female characters

1) Read this whole thing

2) ONLY READ NUMBER FOUR OF THIS! (reading other numbers will cause MASSIVE SPOILERS for Firefly.)

Second: This speech from Whedon about the writing of female characters (you can watch the video or read the transcript below).

           

We’ve been reading They Say, I Say and, as your blog expectations showed, you guys are interested in opinionated, controversial posts, so this is a great opportunity for you to put both of those backgrounds into a post.

What I’d like you to do is look at what Whedon and Cracked (They say), figure out whose opinion you most agree with (and it can be a little bit of both) and make an argument for your point of view (I say). In other words, weigh in on the debate about Whedon and his female characters. I think it will be hard to take a hard line agreeing with either, so take some time to develop your own point of view about the debate. I've seen just about everything Whedon's done, read a ton of hoity-toity scholarship and still think there's validity in both Cracked and Whedon's speech. 

Some other ideas that might help you, but are not required:

-Can you give specific examples from Firefly?

-Can you make comparisons to other shows or texts?

-Are there reasons for you to trust either Cracked or Whedon more? What are their motives for writing? 

-Can you find other sources around the blogosphere or Internet to help you out?

-Can you draw on the reading/class discussions from Wednesday?

Also, remember to keep the PRIORS guidelines in mind.

YOUR HOMEWORK FOR MONDAY:
Please watch episode 1, season 1 of How I Met Your Mother. We've been talking a lot about how we define "underground," but we haven't much talked about the mainstream. 

Firefly Watching Party

Hi guys,

If anyone doesn't have access to Netflix or would just like to join your classmates to watch the homework on a big projector screen, I'll be screening Firefly tomorrow from 2-5 in room 107 in the Clara Belle Williams English building (it's at the end of the hall where we normally meet.)

Bring snacks or whatever else you'd like, as long as you pay attention and take notes. If no one objects, we'll keep this as a screening time for any other watchings that come up this semester.

(Should you choose to attend, I'd also recommend dragging comfy chairs from the hallway to watch in. Otherwise you're stuck in hard orange ones.)

Let's try this again

You may have noticed (or you were paying attention in class) that the assignment for Friday changed. I decided that I wanted to give you more time to explore sci-fi and Firefly before diving into some deeper issues about representation.

First off, before Monday, you need to watch more Firefly. Consider this a reading assignment: think critically, take notes, and expect a quiz in class. You will need to:
-Finish the first episode, called "Serenity"
-Watch the second episode, called "The Train Job"
-Watch the sixth episode, called "Our Mrs Reynolds"

This is another two-parter for the blog.

For Friday, I'd like you to think about your Wednesday reading, the episode in class and (if you've gotten ahead), the other episodes assigned to you. I'd like you to make an argument for what kind of genre Firefly belongs in. As you can tell from what we talked about in class, the episode itself and the reading, this is going to be nigh impossible. So focus on what the role of genre is and how Firefly does (or doesn't) fit into that. What I mean is: What does "sci-fi" do and mean? The "western"? European and American based ideas of "Asian" or "Chinese" culture? (I'm putting those in air quotes because the representation in Firefly--and elsewhere--gets conflated and un-authenticated quite a bit.) You could even ask yourself about mainstream cable television as a genre, since this did originally air on Fox. By answering those questions, you might then ask yourself, what does Firefly do and is that is more or less similar to one of these genres?

Next, I'd like you to take a look at these Firefly memes, which I've collected in the last few weeks or so. Why do you think Firefly created--and still holds sway over--such a large, dedicated fan base?

Remember your PRIORS guidelines and to keep your blog post around 500 words.

OK. Technically, a Lego replica of Serenity is not a meme, but...damn! That is fandom!

Wednesday reading link

Don't forget TSIS. Here's your link for the PDF: http://slayageonline.com/PDF/Battis3.pdf

She-Hulk and Academic Writing

So far, now we’ve talked about genres in terms of how they play out in music or popular media and how they play out when we call them “disciplines” and embed them in our universities.

What I’d like you to do for Friday is think about ways in which blogging, pop culture and academics might overlap.

First off, I’d like you all to watch this video. This comes to us via Australia and a fashion/comic book blogger named Cazz. Every month, Cazz takes a break from a picture-and-text heavy post to film a Comic Book Roundup, in which she reviews a trio of recent comic books. The July video is Friday’s reading assignment and for Friday’s blog, you’ll write a response detailed below.

(In case my embedding doesn't work or you'd like to check out more [I highly recommend it, both for personal fun and for writing your response] here's a link.)

Then, pick one of these prompts to write about. I know it’s hard to pick just one, but narrowing your focus is an important way to begin a larger writing project. It will also allow you to go more in depth with each topic. Since this week, you’ll also be commenting on your classmates’ posts, I would recommend picking a post to comment on that’s a different post than the one you wrote about.

1)   How is Nerdburger an effective communicator in this video? Be specific about her appeals to the audience, topics and strategies. In what easy is this specific to the genre of blogging and in what ways is it good writing in general?

2)   How is Nerdburger an effective writer in her video? What are the similarities between this, as a (good or bad) representative of the blogging genre and the genre of academic writing, as you understand it? What is the same and what is different? How could one imporove the other?

3)   How is Nerdburger an effective blogger in this video? You may want to poke around at her blog or others in order to write about how she wins and maintains an audience, keeps a discourse going on her site, creates a sense of presence and so on. How can what you see in Nerdburger’s blogging be applied to our own class blog in posts? In discussions?

Finally, I’d like you to end your post (remember, about 500 words, or one whole page, single-spaced) with at least three expectations you have for class blogs. For example, here are mine:

1)   Blog posts will look at one topic or view in depth, providing multiple views, forwarding arguments and asking open-ended questions for commenters.

2)   Discussion posts will be thoughtful, critical, polite and longer than one sentence. They will raise questions and answer questions posed by the blogger.

3)   Blog authors will respond to comments by other classmates.

Yours don’t have to be like mine. Consider your experience reading online, posting discussions in class via Canvas, face to face discussions and more as you think about what you’d like these blogs to become over the semester (remember: you’ll be spending a LOT of time with them.)

Have a good week/weekend, guys! As always, contact me with questions (Twitter’s good for short ones.)