Schedule

“What does a scanner see? he asked himself. I mean, really see? Into the head? Down into the heart? Does a passive infrared scanner like they used to use or a cube-type holo-scanner like they use these days, the latest thing, see into me - into us - clearly or darkly? I hope it does, he thought, see clearly, because I can’t any longer these days see into myself. I see only murk. Murk outside; murk inside. I hope, for everyone’s sake, the scanners do better. Because, he thought, if the scanner sees only darkly, the way I myself do, then we are cursed, cursed again and like we have been continually, and we’ll wind up dead this way, knowing very little and getting that little fragment wrong too.” (Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly )

Doing the reading

We aim to read about 25-35 pages per day. That number is an average - which means some days we read more and other days we read less. There will be days of class for which we need to read closer to 50 pages, and days of class where the entire reading is half a page. It’s hard to have anything to say (or to write) if a person doesn’t read very much. Good ideas come from the way we process the ideas of others, same as good habits, good manners, good morals, good instincts - always from other people. This is a list of readings that will give you new ideas to make your own ideas and writing original and interesting to other people and to yourself.

It is not possible to do well in this class without doing the reading.

Our detailed schedule of readings is below. Any reading that is not hyperlinked is available in Blackboard or is a book you purchased for this course.

Supplementary readings are optional and you are not required to read them, though you are encouraged to!

Detailed Schedule