Tuesday, March 28, 2006

I had to phone someone so I picked on you

I've been trying to hammer out the prelimanary details of this brand new course I'll be teaching at Booth College next year. I was told it could be whatever I wanted, so my imagination's racing (kind of working against the whole Slow Club thing, I know). I love the freedom that affords me. I need to come up with a pithy title by the end of the week in order to be included in the course listings for early enrollment. I find the whole process exciting.

Showed an episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" today in class. Partly it was meant as break, partly to illustrate postmodernism. A few people skipped, so maybe there'll be a pointed Buffy question on the final. Overall people seemed to like it, I think. Tough to say. In the post-screening discussion there wasn't much... well, discussion. Hmmmm.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow, that is pretty exciting. have you come up with any spectacular ideas yet?

Michael said...

Not "spectacular," no. I have a title that I believe has been approved: 'Reel Faith': Christian Themes in film, television and popular culture.

I have some ideas of "texts"- Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Six Feet Under, Pulp Fiction, Life of Brian, Simon Birch.

Any ideas?

Anonymous said...

ah, sounds like a good course. you should try to get that passed at the univ. sounds interesting.

you don't think buffy and angel are too closely related?

Michael said...

Thanks. The more I think about this course, the more excited I am.
Re: Angel and Buffy: they are quite closely related, but I think Angel (the character and the show) has a more works-based redemption thing going on. Angel feels he must atone for his past crimes (sins, whatever) but he never can. That element is largely absent from Buffy