to nalo's comment (which follows):
yes, they are literate! and bright! and witty! but so frightened of
anything that brushes next to feminism. i am sneaky, as you would be... the
first book that i slipped in there was Octavia Butler's _Kindred_. worked
amazingly well. do you have other titles that might be slipped in -- that
you think are a bit more subtle, than say, _Motherlines_ ??? keep in mind,
sf is so very new to me. (but my appetite is insatiable.)
-lissa bloomer
>NH: From my perspective as a non-academic, that doesn't sound too bad.
>They are literate, many of them are reading either for fun or some other
>goal, and much of that reading leads well into sf (King,
>Crichton...Eyre?). Me, I'd be tempted to be sneaky; slip 'em something
>that uses many of the same tropes as the writing to which they are
>accustomed, but which starts to be more sf, and to introduce issues to
>which you want to expose them.
>
>-nalo
>
>
>
>On Mon, 21 Apr 1997, lissa bloomer wrote:
>
>> >NH: Do you know what they do read?
>>
>> hi nalo et al,
>> in my questionnaire/contract i ask my students (freshpersons) what they
>> read... usually in a class of 25, 5 have never read a novel all the way
>> through, 15 of them (all young men) read Stephen King, Tom Clancy, and
>> Michael Crichton... and the young women (the 7-10 -- women are a minority
>> still here, though not by much) usually report texts that they read as
>> assignments (Hamlet, Macbeth, Jane Eyre, 1984, Scarlet Letter.... canon
>> stuff). of 25, about 5 seem to be avid readers. by the end of the semester,
>> i think i have changed that -- perhaps my proudest aspect of teaching.
>>
>> if i'm lucky, i'll get one student who has read sci-fi. and it's usually a
>> young male who reads Heinlein. (one of whom introduced me to the works of
>> Giger -- the artist for the movie "Alien")(perhaps the only visual artist
>> who could be labelled science fiction feminist???)(anyone know of
>> others???)
>>
>> i wish wish wish i had more students who came to the class as avid
>> readers-- and sci-fi readers. it's one of my goals to change this.
>>
>> -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
>>
if you're wearing pants, thank my great great great grandmother.
elisabeth bloomer
instructor, english
virginia tech
ebloomer@vt.edu
540.231.2445
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