Jo Ann wrote:
It may be hard to take in when a student says "I thought
>this was supposed to be fun," there could be a gazillion reasons why they do
>not understand yet the importance of applying critical analysis to a work of
>science fiction, but it wastes a lot of energy to even try to figure out. My
>job I hope will be to guide a classroom of students toward an understanding
>of a particular genre, not to argue the fun out of a course text.
yes, thank you. i see what you mean. i think that teaching SF (or should i
say, motivating SF)(because i think that on the college level, there's no
such thing as teaching per se, since the students need to be the one's that
teach themselves... i can only motivate)(hopefully by entertaining means
that are also quite critical) is really new. reading sf has only been for
fun. and certainly, reading fem sf is quite quite new.
in my last writing (which offended so many, unfortunately), i was trying to
show my absolute dispair for those students who complain about losing the
fun of a book. because i know what they are saying --- i, too, was
distraught when i went from books with pictures to books sans. i remember
being upset that, after a cultural critique class, that all tv commercials
lost their joy, because i was able to "read" deeper meanings... which, we
know, are not for entertainment, eye-joy. i remember reading _Momaday_ for
fun, and loving and crying over it. and then i remember reading _Momaday_
in a critical setting...and loving it more deeply, as i found so many more
subtle and intricate aspects about it to love.
but while i have despaired and grieved (for the oncoming loss of some
innocence in reading) i know that i can use this classroom occurrence for
the best. reading and critical analysis IS fun.
alas.
-lissa bloomer
if you're wearing pants, thank my great great great grandmother.
elisabeth bloomer
instructor, english
virginia tech
ebloomer@vt.edu
540.231.2445
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:06:03 PDT