GENERAL INFO

Course: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: A Creative and Critical Journey Across the Literary Landscape
Instructor: Barry Graham
Contact Info: (734) 818-9573 / bgemich@yahoo.com
Day and Time: Spring 2015
Place: Toledo Free School

BOOKS and FILMS

Books / Readings:
Once Upon A River - Bonnie Jo Campbell
My Heart is an Idiot - Davy Rothbart
The Last Days of California - Mary Miller
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
The Sicily Papers - Michelle Orange
The Lorax - Dr. Seuss
My Totally Awesome Funeral - Curtis Smith
The Collectors - Matt Bell
On the Edge - Barry Graham
Tattooed People - Seth Harwood
Maggie Fever - Davy Rothbart
The Old Man and the Sea, A Farewell to Arms (excerpts) Ernest Hemingway
Falling Man (excerpt) - Don DeLillo
Huckleberry Finn (excerpt) - Mark Twain
On the Road (excerpt) - Jack Kerouac

Film:
As I Lay Dying - James Franco
Almost Famous- Cameron Crowe
Wild - Jean-Marc Vallee
Apocalypse Now - Francis Ford Coppola
On the Road - Walter Salles
Noah - Darren Oronofsky

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: A Creative and Critical Journey Across the Literary Landscape is a reading and writing intensive course for those of us interested in writing that takes place on the road, coast to coast, across crowded city blocks and long lonely highways, and on through the space time continuum. In this course, we will discuss using description as the building blocks of all good writing. We will obsess over using sensory details to inform the reader who, what, where, when, how, and why things are happening to us and around us. We will put every word on trial for its life. Our reading and film selections will reflect an interest in creating sensory rich settings and three-dimensional characters to inhabit them, in capturing the spirit of the American Zeitgesit and using our vast and diverse landscape and the various vehicles we use to explore it, as an essential component of our narratives, as important as character development and plot. With equal parts literary criticism and creative writing, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: A Creative and Critical Journey Across the Literary Landscape will take us places we hope to return to again and again. 

ATTENDANCE and PARTICIPATION

Our classroom will be a safe and secure environment where everyone is free to share their thoughts and ideas. All students must be courteous and respectful towards everyone in the classroom at all times. Additionally, no laptops or cell phones are permitted in class unless they are necessary for in-class assignments. Attendance and participation is expected of all students at all times. Reading and writing lots of words on a weekly basis is a requirement, not a suggestion. 

SCHEDULE

Week 1: Syllabus; Introduction
Week 1.5: Introduction to Literary Criticism; Tattooed People

Week 2: Introduction to Description; Sensory Details; Who, What, Where, When, How, Why; My Totally Awesome Funeral, A Farewell to Arms, Maggie Fever
Week 2.5: Once Upon A River, Critical Assignment 1, Creative Assignment 1

Week 3: Introduction to Place; Setting as Character; The Collectors, On the Road, The Lorax, Falling Man, Critical Assignment 1 DUE
Week 3.5: My Heart is an Idiot, Critical Assignment 2, Creative Assignment 2, Creative Assignment 1 DUE

Week 4: Huckleberry Finn, On the Edge; Critical Assignment 2 DUE
Week 4.5: The Last Days of California, Critical Assignment 3, Creative Assignment 3, Creative Assignment 2 DUE

Week 5: IN-CLASS WRITING EXERCISES, Critical Assignment 3 DUE
Week 5.5: The Road, Critical Assignment 4, Creative Assignment 4, Creative Assignment 3 DUE

Week 6: Noah, Critical Assignment 4 DUE
Week 6.5: The Sicily Papers, Critical Assignment 5, Creative Assignment 5, Creative Assignment 4 DUE

Week 7: Apocalypse Now; Critical Assignment 6, Critical Assignment 6
Week 7.5: Workshop; Creative Assignment 5 DUE

Week 8: As I Lay Dying; Critical Assignment 7
Week 8.5: Workshop; Critical Assignment 6 DUE

Week 9: Almost Famous; Critical Assignment 8
Week 9.5: Workshop; Critical Assignment 7 DUE

Week 10: On the Road; Critical Assignment 9
Week 10.5: Workshop; Critical Assignment 8 DUE

Week 11: Wild; Critical Assignment 10
Week 11.5: Workshop; Critical Assignment 9 DUE

Week 12: Workshop; Critical Assignment 10 DUE
Week 12.5: CLASS TRIP