For next week: due the 5th and 7th

Read up to chapter 11th in Crash - make notes, commenting on patterns, writing issues, voice, repeating motifs, relationships, the subtleties of Ballard's world, etc. Post on Ballard by Sunday night and again on Tuesday night.

Due Sunday (for Monday): read "Menippean Satire" - on Blackboard, under Resources. This is long, so you might focus on the key parts, and read the "literary history" sections more lightly. Comment on the idea of "negative theology" or "apophasis" in relation to Ballard, Nabokov, or any other satiric work you can think of. Important: write some questions on the key ideas in the criticism - ideas that need clarification. I will answer these in class.

Due Tuesday (for Wednesday): read up to ch. 17: comment on the sections of Crash discussing James Ballard's deepening involvement with Vaughn. Write a short imitation of Ballard's style. Instead of eroticism, technology, or auto-crashes, you could focus on some other object of obsession. It is an obsessive style. Try to catch the tone of the voice. (This can be short.)