Students are unhappy with long readings and want everything that’s short. So I decided to give them so much short stuff that they will hate it for ever and ever. And I invented a course on the short form.
Then I started reading Jonathan Mayhew’s blog and discovered that he also invented such a course. His is better than mine because he thought of more short form genres than I have. For instance, he is including epitaphs, which is brilliant. Also, he’s doing mottos and slogans. I can teach brilliant lectures on mottos and slogans.
No that I know that an undisputed star of my field is teaching this kind of course, too, I feel very justified in offering it.
This will be fun.
Clarissa's Blog 
Great idea. Only talking points (preferably of Twitter length or shorter), sound bites (eight seconds or shorter after editing for political correctness) and bumper stickers should be used. They will prepare your students to participate fully in, and even to elevate, the national political process.
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Don’t worry, I’ll make them read very long pieces if criticism on the short genres. The short form is a trap to lure them in and make them SUFFER. đŸ™‚
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little do the students suspect that twenty pages of aphorisms is not exactly a breeze to say anything cogent about.
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J.: EXACTLY. They will beg for a novel after I’m done with them.
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// Students are unhappy with long readings and want everything that’s short.
I think you read very fast. If students take several courses, reading novels would demand to read 2-3 novels of 300+ pages a week in a foreign language, in addition to criticism and other responsibilities (work, home, relationship, sleep, etc.) I would read only summaries in this situation since can’t really read that fast. Let alone, enjoy.
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I will make them read 5 horas con Mario and parts of Don Quijote to see the context in which proverbs are used. It seems like an easy course but it can be very demanding.
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I’m going to do parts of el Quijote, too. đŸ™‚ 5 horas con Mario is my favorite novel, I’d use any excuse to teach it. đŸ™‚
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To really do this right you should insist that the only way they can demonstrate their mastery of the course content is through tweets and text messages.
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Martial. Preferably in an uncensored translation, the ruder, the better. He’s caesar of “rude”. Hey, he’s even Hispanic! Calatayud, in Zaragosa.
Here’s one for my own line of work:
“I felt a little ill and called Dr. Symmachus.
Well, you came, Symmachus, but you brought 100 medical students with you.
One hundred ice-cold hands poked and jabbed me.
I didn’t have a fever, Symmachus, when I called you –but now I do.”
Book V, No. 9
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Yes, I know you need readings in Spanish, but who can resist including at least one or two epigrams?
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Seguramente se pueden leer epigramas de Marcial en traducciĂ³n castellana.
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Epigrams are another great idea.
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Very funny. đŸ™‚
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Are any of your students aware of your blog?
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My students don’t know what a blog is and are not even familiar with the word. đŸ™‚
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