Would you let DFW teach you?

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>I am pleased to help you, but I will not force you to let me help you, because this isn't junior high

At least he gave them a sense of responsibility. I think the ideas for his class were good.

Yes because I want some colorful quasi-literary personality spraying his rant and cant and neuroses all over my carefully thought out papers

>>9554158
haroldbloom.jpg

>cheap, mass market paperbacks were the only required reading

Immediately stopped there. DFW is on par with Harry Potter normies who use it to make mildly liberal analogies

you are now aware that his course syllabi are available online

>>9554168
http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/press/releases/2010/dfw/teaching/

full syllabus

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>>9554158
I took a creative nonfiction course with David Wallace at Ponoma back in '94. We weren't allowed to show anyone our essays outside of the class for some reason. He seemed naturally intelligent, didnt need to look at any notes or textbooks or prepare for any lectures, he just knew his stuff and was super casual.

I saw him talking to a girl on campus one day. He uncharacteristically wore a Fila sweatsuit, the kind that looks like it's made from the same material as parachutes, and trainer sneakers with a matching bandana. That was his pussy hunt outfit apparently. Several times a week, same outfit, I'd see him hitting on women in it. I once saw him wearing it while carrying an identical outfit from the dry cleaners, he had like 4 sets of same Fila sweatsuit.

I asked him about it in class and he said we aren't allowed to discuss anything unrelated to class while inside class, the same way we can't show anyone outside of class our essays. A student called out "but Dostoevsky isn't in this class and last week you talked about replicating his black tea obsession to test its affects on your own writing". Wallace stared blankly at the student with dead eyes for 30 seconds in dead silence then said "you just got knocked down a full letter grade. Any other smart asses? Didn't think so." and pushed up his glasses with his index finger.

I remember telling myself this guy will either be super successful or kill himself.

He can't think, he can't write, he can't teach

>>9554180
You should have kept reading to figure out that he believes it's harder to critically analyze garbage than a masterpiece. Whether or not that's true is up for debate.

>of the 387 students he'd had at that point, only 47 had ever been given A's
>12% got A's

How is this harsh?

>>9554226
>ever

>Hard grader.

I hate cunt teachers that do this. I guess it satisfied his insecurity. Those who can't do, teach.

>>9554230
Try engineering. Last month I had a software engineering test where the average was 30%. The average.

>>9554233
Wallace is like a butthurt high school English teacher who projects his failures as an artist on his students and gives everyone a b or below

Can we get more syllabi from famous writers, philosophers, and critics that taught uni?

>>9554246
Rumor has it Cornell has copies of all of Pynchon's work he wrote under Nabokov while he was a student there in the 50's

>>9554246
Uni buni bo buni banana fanna fo funi me my mo muni, UNI!

>>9554203
hearty chuckle

>>9554225
It's true. One of the things about literary works is that they kind of direct their own interpretation, there's more space devoted to emotional interpolation or whatever. mass market paperbacks aren't designed for analysis but for entertainment, which is a pretty much indecipherable goal

>>9554203
Is this one anon posting it or has this become a pasta?

>>9554233
I imagine that I would be a hard grader. Not because of any insecurity, but because I would want each student to genuinely understand what they're being taught.

>>9554253
Nabokov would have hated Pynchons work.

>>9554158
>Students were required to reach each assignment twice before class.
I don't know what that means.

>>9554549
Nabokov hated EVERYONE's work. He had a completely separate concept of literary value than pretty much any other Western literary scholar.

>>9554158

>teacher is known as a harsh grader
>if you want to stop by my office hours, I'm more than happy to give advice on your papers
>don't set up an appointment
>being surprised you got a C

>>9554536

We need more teachers like you

>>9554203
>>9554453
I don't think it's pasta

Pretty cool

>>9554561
How was it different?

>>9554237

I hate that shit so much. How do I measure my comprehension and know if I've studied adequately when I'm expected to have such low retention?

>>9554237
and then it was curved so that a 30% was a B-
fuck off sophomore.

>>9554561
>he hated everyone's work
simply untrue

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mmmhuehuehah
Us adults are all screaming inside.
Try to not be like us.
Dip your feet into the water
mmmhuehuehah

>>9554203

You're a good writer he taught you well.

>>9554158
>conferences
>10% getting an A is harsh
Stupid burgers

>>9554180
>>9554225
>>9554412
Not to mention almost every literary work has a shmoop/sparknotes page to aid lazy students. Its surprisingly easy to bluff yourself through tests like that. Theres honestly a lot of merit to DFW's method.

>>9554203
This is my favorite pasta

>>9554158
No, I wouldn't ever want him to be within arms reach.
I would not even touch him with a laser pointer.

>>9554598
It's old pasta, seen it several times, pay attention

>>9554602
Nabokov was obsessed with a theory of aesthetics that put him at ends with almost every major writing style, and lead to his publishing a lot of controversial work (he had an aesthetic translation of Eugene Onegin that was so completely off-base that its criticism ruined his friendship with Edmund Wilson).
>>9554608
Probably not hated, but he certainly considered himself outside of the sphere, an an almost Tolstoy way

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>>9554237
Full of neckbeard faggots chasing money that don't comprehend what they're learning do they can waste away in the future

>>9554158
http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=802340

http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=266836

here's what students thought of him

I wonder how many student read that last line and thought it made so much sense that they had a conference with him, only to leave molested and ashamed.