Here's the reading list for Junot Diaz's course at MIT. What do you think...

And that was an ENTRANCE exam.

Now to check if im right

p. close

>a fucking college course on "world-building"

Absolute garbage. Why not just a general creative writing class? If you learn to excel at creative writing more generally you'll learn how to "build worlds" as a matter of course.

>people paid for this

Oh my, it's been several posts already and it looks like you haven't had a (You)! Let me help you out.

Whats really important is that dropping junot diaz to lefty elites will increase endowments

How far we've fucking fallen

This cannot be real!!!!!!!!!!!!

To be fair, a lot of the knowledge of these has just moved to more specialized areas

no Ready Player One? what a plebe

> No Robert E. Howard
What a turbopleb pseud.

>*rapes students*
>*teaches a comic book written for 8 year-olds*
>*whines about how hard it is to be a recipient of affirmative action*
fucking gringos will never understand me, holmes.

Capitalism was a mistake. We should never have gotten rid of feudalism.

>this is real

le fuk

Those city slickers must pay

It's for a 'world building' course

Jesus christ, you people are so fucking retarded. James Joyce? This guy?
He's obviously far above even Joyce in his prime

>To be fair, a lot of the knowledge of these has just moved to more specialized areas
That's precisely the problem. What was once common knowledge among academics is now special knowledge.
Besides the language requirement, none of that is remotely difficult. In fact, most of it should be taught in high schools.

More practical things have taken over because education is no longer the privilege of the elite. Look to private schools if you want classical upbringings

>Prerequisites: “You will need to have seen Star Wars (episode four: A New Hope) and read The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien.”

I wonder if Junot Diaz has ever had to deny someone entry into the class because they didn't meet the prerequisites.

Also somebody post the image of DFW's syllabus where he made people read Stephen King.

>More practical things have taken over because education is no longer the privilege of the elite.
Like what? With what practical knowledge is the Western student so overloaded that he cannot attain knowledge that was common even to many casual readers of the past few centuries?

>Prerequisites: “You will need to have seen Star Wars (episode four: A New Hope) and read The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien.”

Prerequisites?

If it was a truly prestigious institution, these would be fucking disqualifiers.

Far less race baiting on the list than I anticipated

>World-Building:
>Description: “This class concerns the design and analysis of imaginary (or constructed) worlds for narrative media such as roleplaying games, films, comics, videogames and literary texts. … The class’ primary goal is to help participants create better imaginary worlds – ultimately all our efforts should serve that higher purpose.”

openculture.com/2015/02/junot-diazs-syllabi-for-his-mit-writing-classes.html

Now you don't have to panic that the world is becoming flabby. Maybe you'd prefer to discuss this list:

Advanced Fiction
Description: “An advanced workshop on the writing and critiquing of prose.”

Reading List:
“Clara” by Roberto Bolaño
“Hitting Budapest” by NoViolet Bulawayo
“Whites” by Julie Otsuka
“Ghosts” by Edwidge Danticat
“My Good Man” by Eric Gansworth
“Gold Boy, Emerald Girl” by Yiyun Li
“Bounty” by George Saunders

My high school curriculum was dominated by science and social studies courses. In English class a we studied a combo of classics and more modern things

>ooga booga kill gringo

Octavia Butler is actually really worthwhile though

I really do agree sometimes.

Huh?

...

This isn't hard at all if you've given more than a cursory glance to ancient history

>What was once common knowledge among academics is now special knowledge.
That applies to all fields.
You can obviously still attend upper level literature classes and read nothing but classic novels and epic poems in various languages; it's not a requirement in academia because it's less relevant to real life.
Same with STEM. I have a degree in manufacturing and took almost no math classes, only one hand drafting class, no architecture, no specialized tool classes, etc. because we just don't need that anymore. Those classes exist, but not as a requirement. Fifty years ago that would have been unheard of.
Shit changes.

I've only read Diaz's nonfiction, and it was embarassing. it kinda makes me upset that people are educated by this guy.

Is this for an ancient geography and history course?
Because otherwise that knowledge is almost useless

As that other user said it's also really basic shit to anyone that takes a quick peak at basic reading
But what would be the point?
It's just junk to anyone studying maths or physics or chemistry or philosophy or etc.
We've realised, as time has gone on, that specialisation is the best tool for getting the most out of both an individual and a group of individuals

i don't know if harvard entrance exam requirements from 1899 are a good measure of what was common to many casual readers
there are many factors we're leaving out of the distinction

>*rapes students*

did he really do this? Where did you get this from?

It's not something that would be taught in any high school today.

The whole point of teaching the classics is to provide a common cultural foundation. It's about inculcating values. If we actually gave students an education instead of technical training then maybe the West wouldn't be in such rough shape.

V for Vendetta seems pretty good

What values?
You're values?
Fuck off with that bullshit

not him, but my main issue with specilization of education is that private schools are expensive, and most people either can't or don't afford the education because it's a waste of time in terms of joining the work force, which is all anybody here in america gives a shit about. going to college now is about getting a degree, not about getting educated or even properly qualified.

on the other hand, i think in the age of the internet where any information you could possibly want is available on demand it's irresponsible to not be educated no matter how well-off you are. the problem is using it if you don't have the degree, it's much harder.

The values that let you create things like the classics rather than like the things in Diaz's reading list.

I can only wonder what kind of dumbass goes to MIT for the Humanities department.

>The Hunger Games

>it's not something that would be taught in any high school
There are private schools that still do specialized classical educations. The people who go to public school would never have known these things anyway

This list isn't supposed to supplant the classics, retard.

>De Quincey’s The Flight of a Tartar Tribe
There needs to be more legit publications of De Quincey's writing. Most of it is garbage versions from publishers who just automate listings for public domain texts or things they find pirated. I once got a book that was a print-out of a shitty PDF scan with underlines and shit. So much good writing with no non-obnoxious way to read.

The average IQ of somebody admitted to MIT is about 127. That "dumbass" studying under a critically acclaimed author is smarter than you

Reminds me of the reading list for DFW's class which was full of Stephen King and Jackie Collins

Shit literature, but at least DFW acknowledges that, and he was teaching at podunk Illinois State anyways.

Also, looks like he still was willing to give out bad grades, which is better than the 'everyone gets a B, even if their work is awful' trend among Ivies today.

I wish I could read what he gave an 11

>>>Prerequisites: “You will need to have seen Star Wars (episode four: A New Hope) and read The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien.”
>“The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that this course are shit.

>Tfw you will never read The Chronicles of Narnia with Davey Fostah Wally

>Women preparing for a career at Starbucks spent the government's money on this

Ftfy also explains why the Hunger Games is there

I took four Latin classes in highschool, and a decent part of the class was on ancient history. I got out of highschool five years ago. Also, we had a dedicated ancient history class freshman year. So you're pretty wrong.

that really is not too difficult
Surely they didnt require precalculus or physics or chemistry or something similar, and if you replace our societies blind focus on math and economic value, it would truly not be difficult to read those and become familiar with them by age 18

who is to decide what is relevant to "real life"?
Some college charging entirely too much money for a paltry excuse of an education telling you what is not needed for "real life"?

"Shit changes", wow, deep....

>You're values
really....
if you get so angry from such a simple comment you lack the ability for simple grammar, you may have a defect somewhere...

This whole list is shit-tier writing. It's not literature.

Say hi to Jucuck Diaz for me, you dumbo.

At least it doesn't say
>"you must have seen Star Wars (episode seven: Fifty Shades of Oy Vey)"

>The average IQ of somebody admitted to MIT is about 127.

Yeah the chinks, poos, and slavs in the stem department are 140 and the affirmative action types in the liberal arts are 95

It effectively has.

>MIT grads working at Starbucks, female or otherwise
Nah, after you graduate from a school like that you're pretty much set for life, even if you took some idiotic classes.

>anecdote so you're wrong

I feel dumb now.

>bound basin of the Po. . .

What does that mean? Circle it?

say hi to you're mom for me

I think?

u have that in better quality?

Laughed

>this is considered an imposing list
We read 2/3 of those at my shitty public high school.

That's nothing, I've read all of that except de Coverley.

Well aren't you amazing

Same

127? That low? Are these schools not as elite as I thought or did affirmative action really ruin universities?

bump

>affirmative action admittees
>actually graduating

Choose one, the whole thing is a scam by "respectable" universities with name recognition (Harvard, Yale, mit) to get brownie points for looking diverse by letting in unqualified women and minorities, soaking up their scholarships, then bringing in a new crop after they flunk out

You can see why the WASPs complained about the schools becoming Semitic in the early 20th century with what I'd left over today.

That's patently false
At no point in history were the classics ever known to more than the top sliver of the population, and the same remains true today

i like junot diaz

I'd really prefer if you'd be quiet Mr. I like that jumpnot diaz!