Literature Class

[agorman]

As i'm going through the process of registering for classes next semester, and this description caught my eye.

In a 1965 white paper entitled "Cramming More Components onto Integrated Circuits," Intel founder George Moore predicted that computer processing power would double every eighteen to twenty-four months. Technological advances in the half-century since ´Moore´s Law´ was expounded have proven its accuracy, such that information is now practically ubiquitous and instantly accessible. This course explores how contemporary writers have approached the problems and opportunities associated with ´data overload.´ We will encounter Faustian characters who seek comprehensive knowledge, obsessive narrators who wish to approximate experience as closely as possible, stories that take infinity as their theme, and encyclopedic narratives that gather together massive amounts of information from multiple fields of inquiry. Concentrating on late 20th / early 21st century America, we will study texts by Kenneth Goldsmith (Fidget), Cormac McCarthy (Blood Meridian), and David Foster Wallace (Infinite Jest) as well as films by Charlie Kaufman (Synecdoche, New York) and Ross McElwee (Sherman´s March). Texts from other periods and national literatures - including Jorge Luis Borges´ Ficciones and David Mitchell´s Cloud Atlas - will help us contextualize our contemporary moment´s approach to ´total fictions.´ Supplemental readings from narrative theory and philosophy will be included. Satisfies the American (old major) or Twentieth Century (new major) requirement.

I want Boost Remo as my professor.

[miffy495]

That sounds like a goddamned amazing class. Where are you studying, if you don't mind my asking?

[agorman]

I'm actually studying computer science, but the school I'm at makes it really easy to take classes outside your major. While my strengths lie in the Math and Science courses, I have always held a passion for reading and literature, and, since I plan on going somewhere into the tech world, college is really my only opportunity to take a class like this, and have discussions about the works in an intellectual setting.

[gregbrown]

Surprised that the class isn't reading Pynchon, who's a centerpiece of the "information overload -> apophenia" trend. Umberto Eco is another good one too, with at least two books that deal with serially misreading the information available.

Still, sounds like a thoroughly kickass class to read.