NH: Geez. I don't know that I could teach at all, not this stuff (used to
teach aerobics, but somehow that's different, y'know? :) ). I'm only
theorizing here, but I think I would hide a little, only teach work for
its fem or race or language or whatever content in courses that
specifically stated that as an objective. That way I'd have students who
were there because they're interested. For more general courses, I'd
probably still teach works about which I was passionate, but try to--and I
don't even know if one can do this--cull the discussion out of whatever
aspects of the work the students themselves found worthy of comment. I
think that if I knew there would be resistance, I might try teaching short
stories. A quick read so the students wouldn't be facing 300 pages of
something they think they're sure to hate. I might also try to use what
they're already reading to pull out the type of discussion that gets them
thinking. Imagine a feminist take on _Jurassic Park!_ I might try
different formats; for instance, I love the comic "Love and Rockets." I
think younger people (I'm 36) would relate to the underground,
teen-as-outsider feel of it, and while you're relating to that, you can't
help but also think about the issues of sexuality it raises (the main
characters are bi); you can't help but suck up something of the Latino
perspective from which it's written. I might try to haul a vcr or a film
projector into class and show some of the more underground, independent
stuff, or do a class on the 'Alien' movies. And if they hated the things
I loved, I think I would back off snail-like and go show them to someone
who did love them. My friends all tend to be extremely bookish, though
not necessarily about the same books that I am. And I think that
ultimately, my passion for the work would only catch fire with a tiny
group of students each year. But hell, maybe they'd remember the song and
dance act with the vcr and the comics fondly, and maybe its effects would
filter into their lives in unconscious ways.
-nalo
On Tue, 22 Apr 1997, lissa bloomer wrote:
> in response to nalo -- and also a bunch of other stuff:
>
> eye-yi-yi. i have so much reading to do. egads. i've never heard of -Bone
> Dance- so i'll give it a try. you know, this sounds really really really
> terrible, and i promised myself 7 years ago when i first started teaching
> that if i ever muttered the words i should quit immediately..........but...
> here are the words... i'm beginning to tire of trying fem works in a
> freshman comp class. i'm not complaining - i love my job and the students
> -- i think i'm obsessively worrying as constructive procrastination since i
> have papers to grade. however, it's just that it's first of all damaging to
> my own persona, since it's hard to teach books that are so close to home,
> so personal, and so religiously a part of my core beliefs. ya know? it's
> hard for me to distance. for example, i used marilyn robinson's
> _Housekeeping_ (which Marlene Barr would certainly call "feminist
> fabulation", since Ruth and Sylvie both leave ((transcend)) the patriarchal
> world for another) in 1105, and felt quite emotionally drained. i wanted
> them all to love it as much as me, and when some didn't, it hurt. i want to
> use _Momaday_ in a class, but i'm not sure i can well. there are, maybe,
> 20 books that i'm not sure i could ever use in a classroom because they are
> so close to me. (the kind of books that i want to match the paint of the
> covers to paint my bedroom... the kind of books that smell of the bottom of
> my sachel...) and, strangely enough, most, if not all, of these books are
> feminist and of the sf ilk. and the more i read, the more i find i cannot
> share in the freshman english classroom. too scared? yes. and it sucks.
> that i have to, as nalo says, "bait and switch" is terrible. that if i use
> Ursula Le Guin's "Carrier Bag of Fiction" in the classroom and then am
> assumed a male-hating-radical-feminist-who
> is-going-to-automatically-fail-all-men is too.
>
> how does one teach a feminist sci fi book????? how does one teach a book
> that one loves without going insane? (( i know the "one should only teach
> the books that one loves so that one will be motivated" answer... and i
> know the "jesus, get some distance" answer.... and i know the "you must
> share all the books, you selfish geek" answer....and the "you should be
> teaching an optional class in an arts program" answer...and the "you need
> to go pay for your voice and get your damn phd" answer...))
>
> could you share your "delaney shelf" with anyone? ((and did you write that
> you HEARD him SAY something? wow. did you meet him?))((Le Guin and Delany
> are gods.))
>
>
> -lissa bloomer
>
>
>
>
>
> if you're not wearing pants, it's time to go home.
>
> elisabeth bloomer
> instructor, english
> virginia tech
> ebloomer@vt.edu
> 540.231.2445
>
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