For Monday, please bring Trainspotting to class. I have a few more comments. Bring in a plan for your final. Also, remember that your rewrites of the midterm are due on the last day. I'm leaving town soon after the last day of class and will be out of internet range, so you've got to get it to me by the 14th. Some more notes about the final (see the lists to the left for ideas):

• this is question-based; you are using materials to answer a question; again, a real question, one to which we don't know the answer and which you must try to think through; one, hopefully, that is worth asking
• what kind of question? the subject is - what does this trend in literature and its popularity and growing prominence say about our culture? what purpose does it serve or what need does it fulfill? (the task, then, is not to analyze what the books "mean," as in the midterm, but to explain them as a cultural phenomenon. It is similar to asking: what do people get from horror movies?)
• you will actually focus on a sub-topic, some aspect of provocative media (literature, film, music, etc.). For instance, the treatment of the body etc. 
• although the style is informal, your argument should be coherent. Avoid free-floating speculation. Instead, use the materials as evidence and dig into them for clues. It's more important that you genuinely think about a question than that you come up with a killer theory. 
• so, for Monday: bring all your materials and your question. Let's say you'll write about male friendship... Are these books mistrustful of the influence of male friendship? Is it a catalyst that leads people to eccentric, self-destructive behavior? (That would be a question. And you could use 2 UK books, one American, and other materials...)
• God knows I've posted enough about this paper, so I'll stop!

For WEDNESDAY (named for Odin or Wodin): watch Trainspotting, the motion picture, on Netflix. Also watch Fellini's "Satyricon" on Netflix. Make notes about adaptations of edgy, satiric stuff in the film format. The focus here is the difference between the two media. The audiences are different. James will lead the discussion on Wednesday on this subject. Other links: trainspotting, $1.99 rental; satyricon.