pabergin wrote:
"If you don't KNOW the literature you propose to TEACH, what
good are you?"
"If you have to ask us (how many of us do you know
personally? are we experts, dilettantes, or merely 12-year
olds with some time to kill?) to suggest course reading, how
equipped are you to teach ANY course?"
Gee, got a grudge against college professors? Isn't this a
bit harsh? You accuse Jeff of making assumptions about the
expertise of other members on this list, but aren't you
making a big one about his?
In the initial post, Jeff claimed he had taught a similar
course before, on hardboiled detectives, so he must know
something (even if he just learned it while teaching that
course). As a matter of fact, weren't we in on the discussion
over what books might be included in that earlier
course?
And why is there an assumption that just because he is asking
for input that he knows nothing? If he had worded the email
slightly differently
-- say, "I'm teaching a course on noir fiction and I've got
some ideas on what to include, but I'd like some input so I'm
sure I haven't forgotten someone important" -- would this
request be much different from what most of us ask -- I
really liked so and so and I was wondering if anyone could
suggest another author I might like. Or how different is it
from our periodic debates over which authors deserve to be in
the canon, or the cannon, for that matter?
Personally, I'd be more worried about an educator who didn't
allow outside input. You know that course Pelecanos always
talks about having changed his life, the one in hardboiled
fiction at the University of Maryland? Well, I also took that
course and I know for a fact that the professor, CC Misch,
knew the fiction AND that he asked others, students and other
professors, for input on some of the books to be included --
for instance, he had never read the particular McBain he
assigned, substituing it for another that was then out of
print, as was his MacDonald choice, One Monday We Killed Them
All.
On another note, I agree with Doug, why keep this discussion
offlist? I'd like to see some of the suggestions, it'd
probably start a good discussion along the lines of, "I can't
believe you're going to include so-and-so and not so-and-so,"
as we each promote our own faves.
I have a question about the course, though, since it is tying
the books to film, are you looking for books which were
adapted into film (Big Clock might suggest this) so you can
study the transition or are you just interested in the "great
works" (Red Harvest would suggest this, unless, maybe, you're
going with Yojimbo).
Mark
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