Schedule of Readings and Assignments
“Reading Book Study Student,” by ThoroughlyReviewed
Note: this will be an unusually busy travel semester for me. I’ve tried to indicate on the schedule when I will be traveling. Not all of these trips will affect class itself. I’ve tried to minimize cancellations and develop alternative activities for those days I cannot avoid missing. However, traveling might affect my responsiveness to email and so forth. I will strive to answer emails in a timely fashion, but if you do write while I am away from town please allow an extra half day or so before worrying about a lack of response.
Most of the texts we will use in this class are freely available online, or in the course packet (I will give you the password for this zip file in class). See the the policies page for the few texts that must be purchased.
Wednesday, September 6: Introductions
Introduction to the class and to each other
Keyword 1: Reading
Thursday, September 7: Novelties
Read:
- Leah Price, “You Are What You Read”
- 19th-Century Commentaries on Novel Reading:
- “On Novel Reading”, The Guardian; or Youth’s Religious Instructor (1820)
- “The Reading of Young Ladies”, American Magazine of Useful Knowledge (1836)
- “Devouring Books”, The American Annals of Education (1835)
Monday, September 11: Paper or Plastic?
Read:
- Ferris Jabr, “The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens”
- Maria Sachiko Cecire, “Massively Open”
Wednesday, September 13: Past Futures
Read:
- Octave Uzanne, “The End of Books” (1894)
Prof. Cordell traveling September 14-16; regular classes
Thursday, September 14: Reading Machines
- Craig Mod, “Future Reading”
- Paul La Farge, “The Deep Space of Digital Reading”
Friday, September 15: First Blog Post on Your Domains DUE!
Wednesday, September 20: Essay Workshop
Prof. Cordell traveling September 21-24; regular classes
Thursday, September 21: The Library that is the Universe
- Jorge Louis Borges, “The Library of Babel”
Friday, September 22: Essay DUE
Interlude: Ready Player One
Monday, September 25: RPO I
Read:
Ernest Cline, Ready Player One, 0000 and Level One
Keyword 2: Writing
Wednesday, September 27: Writing as Technology
Read:
- Ted Chiang, “The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling”
Thursday, September 28: Writing as Programming as Writing
Read:
- Stephen Ramsay and Geoffrey Rockwell, “Untitled Number 4: A Brechto-Socratic Dialogue”
Monday, October 2: Programmatic Writing I
Watch:
- Jetson et al, Sunspring
Browse (choose at least 1 you’d like to discuss in class and get to know it):
- Helen J. Burgess, “Love Notes and Intimate Circuits”
- Electronic Literature Collection: Bots
- Any of the bots mentioned in this New Yorker article (there’s some overlap from above)
- Amaranth Borsuk, Jesper Juul, and Nick Montfort, “The Deletionist”
- Computational Poems by Nick Montfort:
- “The Purpling”
- “Shivers”
- “Modern Perverbs”
Wednesday, October 4: Programmatic Writing II
Read:
- Samuel Woolley, Danah Boyd, Meredith Broussard, Made, “How to Think About Bots”
Browse:
Thursday, October 5: Internet Famous
Read:
- Abby Rabinowitz, “The Meme as Meme”
- Jim Ridolfo and Dànielle Nicole DeVoss, “Composing for Recomposition: Rhetorical Velocity and Delivery” (make sure to read each of the sections in the table of contents at the top)
Monday, October 9: Holiday—No Class
Wednesday, October 11: It’s Pronounced ‘Gif’
Read:
- Kate M. Miltner and Tim Highfield, “Never Gonna GIF You Up: Analyzing the Cultural Significance of the Animated GIF”
- Lauren M. Jackson, “We Need to Talk About Digital Blackface in GIFs”
Prof. Cordell traveling October 12-14; early dismissal on Oct. 12
Thursday, October 12: Wikiworld
Read:
Monday, October 16: Fake News
Listen:
- 99% Invisible, “The Age of the Algorithm”
Read:
- Robert Darnton, “The True History of Fake News”
- Tom Standage, “The True History of Fake News”
Prof. Cordell traveling Oct. 17-21; classes led by Amanda Rust on Oct. 18 & 19
Wednesday, October 18: Wiki assignment workshop
Thursday, October 19: Wiki assignment workshop
Keyword 3: Data
Monday, October 23: That’s So Meta
Read:
- Alexis C. Madrigal, “How Netflix Reverse Engineered Hollywood”
Wednesday, October 25: Don’t Be Evil
Read:
- Naomi Kritzer, “Cat Pictures Please”
Prof. Cordell traveling Oct. 26-29; regular classes
Thursday, October 26: Quantified Selves
Read:
- Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec, from Dear Data (find 3 posts you find compelling and bring them with you to class prepared to talk about why)
- Gary Wolf, “The Data-Driven Life”
Friday, October 27: Wiki assignment DUE
Monday, October 30: Data Afterlives
Watch:
- Owen Harris, “Be Right Back” episode of Black Mirror
Interlude: Ready Player One
Thursday, November 2: RPO II
Read:
Ernest Cline, Ready Player One, Level Two
Monday, November 6: Dear (My) Data planning workshop
Prof. Cordell traveling Nov. 8-11; no class Nov. 9
Keyword 4: Attention
Wednesday, November 8: What Gorilla?
Read:
- Cathy Davidson, from Now You See It
Thursday, November 9: No class
Monday, November 13: #Unplug
Read:
Wednesday, November 15: That’s Uncanny!
Read:
- Virginia Heffernan, “The Internet Is the Uncanniest Valley. Don’t Get Trapped in It”
Thursday, November 16: OPEN DAY
Friday, November 17: Dear (My) Data Draft Due
Interlude: Ready Player One
Monday, November 20: RPO III
Read:
Ernest Cline, Ready Player One, Level Three
Thanksgiving Holiday
Keyword 5: Play
Monday, November 27: This Cake is Great
Play:
- Valve, Portal
Read:
- Michael Burden and Sean Gouglas, “The Algorithmic Experience: Portal As Art”
Wednesday, November 29: Arcade
Read:
- Janine Fron, Tracy Fullerton, Jacquelyn Ford Morie, and Celia Pearce, “The Hegemony of Play”
- Elizabeth Losh, “#GamerGate 101”
We’ll play (some of) these in class:
- merritt k, Lim
- Molleindustria, Unmanned
- GOP Arcade, Thoughts and Prayers
- Jordan Magnuson and Kevin MacLeod, Loneliness
- Anna Anthropy, Queers in Love at the End of the World
- Porpentine, Howling Dogs
- ——, With Those We Love Alive
- McKinney, Spent
- Financial Times, The Uber Game
- Zoe Quinn, Patrick Lindsey, and Isaac Schankler, Depression Quest
- Star C. Foster and Daniel Ravipinto, Slouching toward Bedlam
- Jason Nelson, i made this. you play this. we are enemies
Thursday, November 30: Choose Your Own Adventure
Choose one of the following to play. You need to get far enough into the game that you can talk about it in detail during class, so start well in advance of this session:
- Braid
- A Dark Room (the app provides a fuller narrative)
- Gone Home
- Papers, Please
- Passage
- Save the Date
- The Stanley Parable
- The Walking Dead
- Thomas Was Alone
- To the Moon