You two carried me through that war. Now I need you to carry me just a little bit further. If you can.

Tracy ,'The Message'


Natter 58: Let's call Venezuela!  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


Ginger - Apr 24, 2008 7:44:04 pm PDT #3484 of 10001
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda

The Master and Margarita? The Island of Dr. Moreau? The Confidence Man? (I think The Confidence Man should be taught more often, and certainly dealing a man who may or may not be the devil puts it into the realm of magical realism.

You could do the grotesque/there are things man was not meant to know section with short stories. Welty plus Poe, Bradbury, Bierce, and the jittery extreme of Lovecraft. MFK Fisher's The Lost, the Strayed, the Stolen. You could even throw in some classic SF movies, in which science is evil and the good guy gets the girl.

Would one of August Wilson's plays work? They're often about love, in various guises.


Atropa - Apr 24, 2008 8:17:23 pm PDT #3485 of 10001
The artist formerly associated with cupcakes.

Kat, the Angela Carter stories I was thinking of were "The Lady in the House of Love" and "Wolf-Alice".


Burrell - Apr 24, 2008 8:17:57 pm PDT #3486 of 10001
Why did Darth Vader cross the road? To get to the Dark Side!

Kristin, if my student's account of the subways in Tokyo is any indication, that's no hoax.

He HATED taking the trains.

Ooh, for grotesque you could teach Anne Sexton's Transformations. I read that volume over and over again when I was a girl.


DavidS - Apr 24, 2008 8:23:14 pm PDT #3487 of 10001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

Geek Love would be great for grotesque.

Angela Carter: I'd say Magic Toyshop or Nights at the Circus. (Though personally I love The Passion of New Eve, but I don't think that'll fly in your class.)

I'd like a contemporary US playwright who wrote a comedy, juliana.

Beth Henley! C'mon, "Miss Firecracker"

Magic Realism: "Shoeless Joe" by W.P. Kinsella is really one of the few American runs at Magic Realism that's any good. Michael Chabon kind of trends that way though.


Cashmere - Apr 24, 2008 8:26:50 pm PDT #3488 of 10001
Now tagless for your comfort.

Colin Firth and Jon Stewart's conversation on The Daily Show: Comedy Gold.


juliana - Apr 24, 2008 8:29:55 pm PDT #3489 of 10001
I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I miss them all tonight…

Simon, Henley, and Durang are all good contemporary choices. George F. Walker is an awesome current Canadian playwright, chock-full of dark humor.


juliana - Apr 24, 2008 8:33:12 pm PDT #3490 of 10001
I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I miss them all tonight…

However, I'd rec Terrence McNally, Paula Vogel, or Wendy Wasserstein. Those and the previous three listed are fairly canonical and have humorous plays.


Sophia Brooks - Apr 25, 2008 2:03:04 am PDT #3491 of 10001
Cats to become a rabbit should gather immediately now here

The thing about Durang which could be a good or a bad thing, is that I find the funniest of his plays requires you to have a fairly wide knowledge of other theatre pieces. If they have already read Glass Menagerie, it would be fun to read For whom the southern belle tolls, but it doesn' really make much sense if you haven't. The same with Actor's Nightmare, and A Stye in the Eye (which sends up Sam Shepard).


hippocampus - Apr 25, 2008 2:52:29 am PDT #3492 of 10001
not your mom's socks.

hopping the awesome reading list discussion (man how I want to be one of kat's students) to say

Hey scola - just crossing into staten island if you get off work early today. Profile addy is good.


Sue - Apr 25, 2008 3:04:26 am PDT #3493 of 10001
hip deep in pie

It's like farmers cheese

You're description of farmer's cheese is totally different than what I know as farmer's cheese. To me it's a hard, dry, very much like cheddar, but usually white.

Colin Firth and Jon Stewart's conversation on The Daily Show: Comedy Gold.

By the end, when they were both giggling about Colin Firth's penis, I was in hysterics.

There was snow on the ground when I woke up this morning. It just sets the tone for the day.