Funny thing about black and white. You mix it together and you get gray. And it doesn't matter how much white you try and put back in, you're never gonna get anything but gray.

Lilah ,'Destiny'


Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.

There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."


sumi - Jan 31, 2011 10:35:38 am PST #13729 of 28288
Art Crawl!!!

No!

(Did you see how many sections of that course there were? Do they all have the same reading list?)


Laga - Jan 31, 2011 10:49:09 am PST #13730 of 28288
You should know I'm a big deal in the Resistance.

I did not, I only followed the link from The Daily What (where they said this is an HONORS course!)


Strega - Jan 31, 2011 11:06:58 am PST #13731 of 28288

The section is just the specific course #.

We will read stories about the monstrous, the supernatural, and the horrible -- that is, stories that center their plots on some of the main issues that concern students of fiction, for instance, the differences between the real and the unreal, between life-affirming love and unhealthy seduction, and between artistic craftsmanship and mass appeal.

[link]

I think Twilight could be quite instructive about that last distinction.


Amy - Jan 31, 2011 11:09:03 am PST #13732 of 28288
Because books.

The last two, actually.


Gris - Jan 31, 2011 11:13:39 am PST #13733 of 28288
Hey. New board.

An honors course that's focused on supernatural tales (reading Frankenstein, Dracula, Turning of the Screw)

I think it might be kind of interesting to read Twilight immediately after reading Dracula in a college literature course. I rather hate Twilight, but it's actually ridiculously fun to talk/argue about. My wife and I do it all the time. She's a fan, and also an English teacher who defends it on two fronts - first, as good storytelling, if not good story (which, since I read the first three book in about three days is hard for me to argue - bad writing, but hopelessly addictive) and second as, essentially, bodice-rippers with teen appeal. Only without the actual bodice ripping, which actually, I think, increases the teen girl appeal. She recently convinced me to read Outlander, which I also didn't like much, which I think appeals to her in the same place.


Strix - Jan 31, 2011 12:17:05 pm PST #13734 of 28288
A dress should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to flee from zombies. — Ginger

Now, see, I like the Outlander series. There is no comparing that heroine to Bella, or Jamie to Edward. The Outlander couple is mature, competent, self-realized and it way passes the Bedchel test.

Twilight...does not.

Gris, does your wife follow Smart Bitches, Trashy Books? Because a bodice-ripper, if by which she means historical romance, really does not necessarily equal badly written tripe.


Amy - Jan 31, 2011 12:19:56 pm PST #13735 of 28288
Because books.

Oh god, Outlander is one of my favorite books ever. Claire and Jamie rock. And Diana Gabaldon actually knows how to write.


Barb - Jan 31, 2011 12:25:51 pm PST #13736 of 28288
“Not dead yet!”

I'm with Amy on this one.

And also object to the term bodice-ripper as hopelessly outdated.


meara - Jan 31, 2011 12:53:03 pm PST #13737 of 28288

Love Outlander also, though now that I've read them all repeatedly, last time I tried to re-read I kept expecting things to happen that happen in another book in the series. But I'll buy the next one in hardback (or kindleback!)


Amy - Jan 31, 2011 12:56:14 pm PST #13738 of 28288
Because books.

I will say I never even finished the fourth book. Once they got to the colonies, she lost me a little. But those first three books still kill me, and I have the first Lord John mystery to read at some point.