Teaching some PKD
Well, the prof. I'm working with this semester went for my idea of inserting PKD's "The Electric Ant" into the syllabus . . . now he wants me to teach it, which is pretty cool. He also wants me to teach "A Hunger Artist" and "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings." I'm actually quite happy about the whole thing. One of my favorite stories by Dick is "The Electric Ant," and I'm interested to see how a class of Business Majors will take it; being that it is an attack on reality constructed by and for corporations - it should be interesting. One thing that I've been delighted about since I started school in the Fall is the amount of leeway given to explore and present literature that might be considered, by some, off the beaten path of acceptable. Maybe it's the last few years of teaching at the high school level where it was very textbook oriented and everything had to be approved by whatever governing body was around - department head or principal. I have to admit, I'm enjoying the experience. Maybe I'll write an entry about the horrors of teaching high school - mind you I'm not talking about the students, I'm talking about the other group of children you deal with at the public school level - administrators.