Sue,
what a joy to find someone else teaching _Dawn_ in a class on what it
means to be human!! I tried it out for the first time last semester and
it was a rousing success. The bookstore bought up the last of the "old"
covers with the buxom white brunette featured prominently (of course with
jumpsuit open to reveal cleavage), and many of my (145) students also missed
the mention of race. Since race and sex are problematized throughout the
course (along with class), this object lesson made my claims more
striking to the students. A number of students who dreaded being
"forced" to read sf, which they expressed a hatred for without having
read before, had their minds changed and began to devour the rest of the
trilogy, and a number of African-American women students were
particularly pleased, delighted, and inspired to have been introduced to
Butler. Any other comments on *teaching* Butler?
edrie
***********************************
Edrie Sobstyl
School of Arts and Humanities JO 31
University of Texas at Dallas
P.O. Box 830688 Richardson Tx
75083-0688 USA
(972) 883-2365
On Wed, 9 Apr 1997, sue hagedorn wrote:
> --surprise> >surprise--they actually put obviously black characters on
the covers > >(which wasn't the case when the books first came out).
>
> Yes--It's very interesting, too, that when I had a class of freshmen read
> Dawn, they were at first oblivious to any mention of race (that book
> illustrator too obviously had not read the book itself)--when it was
> pointed out to them, they changed some of their perceptions about the story
> line. That helped me make a point (my "theme" was "What Does it Mean to be
> Human?")--but I was a bit surprised at the reaction. (I guess I've been
> reading SF too long--since my first Ace double back in the '50s!)
>
> Sue
>
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