LI 204:01 Slipstream Lit

2:00 pm 3:45 pm

T/TR

Ansin 605

When I awoke, the dinosaur was still there.

Augusto Monterosso
Peter Jay Shippy
Office: 180 Tremont
Cube 1215B
Office Hours: 12:45-1:45 T
peter_shippy@emerson.edu
617 824 8750

Course Description/ Learning Objectives

Slipstream is not just a category of literature, but suggests an
approach, an attitude toward living. It's not surrealism or magical
realism: it's a state-of-the-art concept that embraces a curiosity with
the visionary, unreliable, odd or metaphysical. Cyberpunk auteur
Bruce Sterling coined the phrase to describe writing which
unnerves; the way that living in the 21st century makes you feel, if you
are a person of a certain sensibility.
In the introduction to Feeling Very Strange, a slipstream anthology, the
editors note 3 precepts of slipstream:
1) Slipstream violates the tenets of realism.
2) Although slipstream pays homage to genrehorror, sci-fi, and
noirit is not pure genre literature.
3) Slipstream is playfully postmodern.
This semester we will read essays, stories, plays, novels, and poems
that test those precepts. Students will improve their critical writing,
thinking skills, how to identify and locate needed information and
incorporate it into their written work.
Our texts will cross and jump and leap over genre, library stacks,
borders, and even languageto ride the last best wave.

Attendance Policy
Attendance is required. More than 3 unexcused absences will result in
a failing grade in this course.

Disability Policy
Students with disabilities who are seeking consideration for services or
accommodations should contact the Associate Director for Disability
Services: (617) 824-8592, dso@emerson.edu, or Disability Services
Office, Emerson College, 120 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116.

Plagiarism Policy
It is the responsibility of all Emerson students to know and adhere to
the Colleges policy on plagiarism.
If you have any questions
concerning the Emerson plagiarism policy or about documentation of
sources in work you produce in this course, you should speak to your
instructor. The penalties for plagiarism vary up to expulsion from the
college.

Diversity Statement
Every student in this class will be honored and respected as an
individual with distinct experiences, talents, and backgrounds.
Students will be treated fairly regardless of race, religion, sexual
orientation, gender identification, disability, socio-economic status, or
national identity. Issues of diversity may be a part of class discussion,
assigned material, and projects. The instructor will make every effort to
ensure that an inclusive environment exists for all students. If you have
any concerns or suggestions for improving the classroom climate,
please do not hesitate to speak with the course instructor or to contact
the Office of Diversity and Inclusion @ 617-824-8528 or by email at
diversity_inclusion@emerson.edu

Required Texts
The Arrival by Shaun Tan
The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle*
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami*
The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God & Other Stories by Etgar Keret*
Far Away by Caryl Churchill*
Lamb by Matthea Harvey*
The Tunnel: Selected Poems of Russell Edson by Russell Edson
* Kindle editions available
All other texts are available online, for free. Links are provided.

Grading
3 short essays (3-5 pages, each)30% of grade, 10% each
Topics are listed on the last few pages. Late essays will be
penalized one grade.
Final project (10 pages)50% of grade
Parameters discussed on 9.30. Due on 12.15.
Late essays will be penalized one grade.
Class participation20% of grade.
You will be assessed on your comprehension, synthesis, and
critical evaluation of our assigned readings.

Schedule
TR9.8

Introduction to our class.

T9.13

Well discuss Shaun Tans The Arrivalall work should be read before
our class conversations, except where noted.
Please bring a copy of the texthard or electronicto class.
Well discuss the parameters for your short essays.

TR9.15

Well begin discussing Haruki Murakami. From Blind Willow, Sleeping

Woman well read The Birthday Girl in class. No need to read ahead.
Before class, read this profile:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/magazine/the-fierce-imaginationof-haruki-murakami.html

T9.20

Well read from Haruki Murakamis Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. For
today, please read: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (3), New York
Mining Disaster (33), and The Mirror (55).

TR9.22

From Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman: Dabchick (61) and Where Im

Likely to Find It (273).
Online, please read, The Second Bakery Attack:
http://ctina.com/bakeryattack.html

T9.27

Please read Jennifer Egans Black Box.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/06/04/black-box-2
Well discuss the parameters for your research essaydue on
12.15

TR9.29
Well begin discussing Kelly Link. No reading assignment, but bring
Some Zombie Contingency Plan to class.
http://www.johnjosephadams.com/the-living-dead/free-storiesexcerpts/some-zombie-contingency-plans-by-kelly-link/
Short Essay #1 is due

T10.4
Well discuss Links The Wrong Grave and The Fairy Handbag from
Links Pretty Monsters.
http://smallbeerpress.com/free-stuff-to-read/2005/07/01/the-faeryhandbag-by-kelly-link/
http://kellylink.net/books/pretty-monsters/the-wrong-grave

TR10.6
Well discuss the following poems by Tracy K. Smith: My God, Its Full
of Stars, Sci-Fi, The Universe: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack,
and Dont You Wonder, Sometimes? These are all available at the
website for The Poetry Foundation.

T10.11
No ClassMonday schedule.

TR10.13
Well begin discussing the poetry of Russell Edson. Please bring The
Tunnel to class.

T10.18
From The Tunnel, please read: How a Cow Comes to Live (17),
Dinner Time (24), A Man Who Writes (29), What a Man Can See
(43), There Was (45), The Fall (60, The Ancestral Mousetrap(74),
Ape and Coffee (76), The Changeling (79), The Floor (87), Killing
the Ape (88), The Automobile (101), The Exile (104), The Pattern
(108), The Death of an Angel (109), Ape (118), A Performance at
the Hog Theater (123), Toward the Writing (124), Antimatter
(125), The Toy-Maker (129), Counting Sheep (135), The
Neighborhood Dog (139), The Howling (141), The Hemorrhoid

Epidemic (145), The Autopsy (172), The Large Thing (184), The
Love Affair (203), My Head (208), On the Eating of Mice (217),
The Rats Legs (219), and The Wheelbarrow (229).
Read Sarah Mangusos essay: Why the Reader of Good Prose Poems is
Never Sad @ www.believermag.com/issues/200403/?
read=article_manguso
Watch this video poem: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/ journal/
article.html?id=179642

TR10.20
Well watch and discuss Chris Markers short film, La Jete.
The script is here: http://www.markertext.com/la_jetee.htm

T10.25
Well begin discussing Victor LaValles Black Tom.
Listen to or read this interview w/ LaValle
http://www.npr.org/2016/02/29/468558238/the-ballad-of-black-tomoffers-a-tribute-and-critique-of-lovecraft

TR10.27
Well finish LaValles novella.
Read this piece on Stranger Things and the old American horror:
http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-infinite-nostalgia-ofstranger-things

T11.1
Well discuss a few stories by Julio Cortzar. Read The Axolotl and
The Continuity of Parks.
http://southerncrossreview.org/73/axolotl.html
https://collegelit2014.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/the-continuity-ofparks.pdf
Short Essay #2 is due

TR11.3
Well continue with Cortzar, this time his poems. I will deliver them
directly to your brain.

T11.8
Read Junot Diazs Monstro.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/06/04/monstro
Also, read this interview: http://www.wired.com/2012/10/geeks-guidejunot-diaz/

TR11.10
Well discuss Aimee Benders short stories. Please read: The
Rememberer, Hymn, and The Neighborhood.
http://www.missourireview.com/anthology/wpcontent/uploads/2011/10/
theremembererwithmaterials.pdf
https://shangfrancisco.wordpress.com/2012/10/27/read-hymn/
https://tarpaulinsky.com/Spring03/ABTheNeighborhood.htm

T11.15
Some more Bendering. Please read: Marzipan, The Girl in the
Flammable Skirt, and Loser.
https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/b/bender-skirt.html
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#spam
http://s-k-5-6.blogspot.com/2014/10/magic-realism-loser-by-aimeebender.html

TR11.17
Well discuss an assortment of poems by Matthea Harvey. Ill provide
the poems.

T11.22
Well discuss Lamb by Matthea Harvey and Amy Jean Porter.
Short Essay #3 is due

Thanksgiving Break
T11.29
Well perform & discuss plays by Caryl Churchill, Anne Carson, and
Suzan-Lori Parks. Churchills play is Far Away. Ill provide the plays by
Carson & Parks.

TR12.1
Please read Octavia Butlers Bloodchild.
http://boblyman.net/englt392/texts/bloodchild.pdf
T12.6
Well discuss Etgar Kerets novella Knellers Happy Campers (page 93
in The Bus Driver Who Wanted to Be God).

TR12.8
Well watch Wristcutters: A Love Story.

T12.13
Well discuss these pieces from David Eaglemans Sum.
http://growingupinthecloud.weebly.com/uploads/1/2/8/8/12888976/eagl
eman_david_-_sum_selections.pdf
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/books/excerpt-sum.html

TR12.15
Well watch Hirokazu Koreedas film, After Life.

Your final project is due. Late papers will lose one grade.

Short Essays

You have 2 options for each short essay. One option will prompt you to
write a critical essay. The 2nd will give you a chance to write something
lyric and weird. You may always choose the critical option. You may
only choose the lyric option twice.
These will be graded pass/failA or F. You may rewrite a failing piece.
Late essays will lose one grade. 750-1000 words.
Short Essay #1 (due on 9.29)
Option One
Write an analysis of one of the following: The Arrival, any Murakami story, or
Black Box.
Single out an element of literature, such as the authors voice (tone, style, irony),
point of view, plot, characterization, theme, setting, language, or any other part.
Try to relate this to the work as a whole.
Option Two
Like the protagonist in Tans book, most of you have, perhaps many times,
arrived as the stranger in a strange land, or city, or classroom. Which of the
panels, images, or sequences in his book spoke to your own experience?
Perhaps if you begin by comparing and contrasting, you can draw your
appearance in that new world. Your analysis of Tans images should leap into
your lyric essaywhere you are the protagonist.
Short Essay #2 (due on 11.1)
Option One
Write an analysis of one of the following: any Link story, Smith poem, or Edson
poem.

Single out an element of literature, such as the authors voice (tone, style, irony),
point of view, plot, characterization, theme, setting, language, or any other part.
Try to relate this to the work as a whole.
Option Two
Link, Smith, and Edson are fabulists. Their work alludes to classic tales while
remaining, uneasily, in our universe.
Folk and fairy tales are HOThaving inspired many recent films and TV shows,
including Grimm, Sleepy Hollow, and Once Upon a Time.
Write about a TV show that uses/abuses fairy tale conventions, but in a subtle
wayno witches or princesses, no dragons or spells. Breaking Bad? Orange is
the New Black? Girls? Bojack Horseman? Empire? Mr. Robot? Stranger
Things?

Short Essay #3 (due on 11.22)

Option One
Write an analysis of one of the following: Black Tom, any poem or story by
Cortzar, Monstro, any Harvey poem or Lamb.
Single out an element of literature, such as the authors voice (tone, style, irony),
point of view, plot, characterization, theme, setting, language, or any other part.
Try to relate this to the work as a whole.
Option Two
Junot Diazs Monstro is an excerpt from his long awaited slipstream
novel. Based on his storycreate the rest of the bookwhat will
happen?
Use examples from Diazs text to support your suppositions.
If you want to go nuts, pretend youre his agent or partner and pitch it
to meMEthe big-shot entertainment executive. Why should I buy it?

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