My copy of MS Word is…

My copy of MS Word is refusing to print -- it won't even print to PDF. If you try, it prints page after page of blanks. This caused a fair bit of panic last night, but eventually Kevin figured out that I could open the files in TextEdit and print from there, losing only a bit of formatting. So the first day of classes is saved, but still, I would like to be able to print from Word. Any thoughts? Do I go try to dig up my copy of Word and re-install it? (I'm running Mac OS 10.6.8, and Word X for Mac release 1, if that helps). Do I need to buy a new copy of Word? Is my life inevitably corrupted and about to go down in flames? Help.

I have two pairs of pants I could wear to work today; one is a little too tight, one is a little too loose. Which would you wear?

I teach at 9:30 this semester, which is always a bit of a pain. It's just early enough that you're still running into rush hour. One of the great perks of the professor gig is avoiding rush hour. And I can't quite remember if I can leave at 9 and reliably be on campus and parked by 9:25, and so I have to play it safe today, first day, and leave at 8:30, which is probably going to double my driving time, and I still might not get there by 9:30. I mean, probably. But not positively. I sort of want to leave at 8; we'll see if Kev goes for that. He would probably rather sleep longer. (Starting in Sept., I'll be dropping the kids off at pre-school before class, which is its own set of difficulties -- "Kavya, wake up! Time to go!")

I promised that I would put up my new minority authors in SF/F syllabus when I got a chance, so here it is. It is sadly lacking in Native American authors; I just ran out of time to find easily accessible short stories. I'm going to keep looking and try to find some material during the semester. I'm sure I'll end up refining this a lot over the course of the semester, so if you're thinking of teaching this, you might want to wait to see what my final syllabus ends up looking like. And if you're thinking of taking my class this fall, a) it's very full, and b) you're going to be a guinea pig if you get in. Sorry -- that's just the way new courses go. I think we'll have fun, though.

So, anyway, syllabus below, with most of the class junk (deadlines, etc.) stripped out. If you want a Word .doc, let me know, and I can e-mail it to you. I just can't print it.

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Week 1, 8/23 & 8/25: Introduction; Our Frightening Future

Samuel R. Delany, "Racism and Science Fiction," Dark Matter
Charles Saunders, "Why Blacks Should Read (and Write) Science Fiction," Dark Matter
Walter Mosley, "Black to the Future," Dark Matter
Miguel de Unamuno, "Mechanopolis," Cosmos Latinos
Juan Jos Arreola, "Baby H.P.," Cosmos Latinos
Pablo Capanna, "Acronia," Cosmos Latinos
Alberto Vanasco, "Post-Boomboom," Cosmos Latinos
Recommended: "Introduction: Science Fiction in Latin America and Spain," Cosmos Latinos

Week 2, 8/30 & 9/1: The Shape of Our World
Nalo Hopkinson, "Introduction," So Long Been Dreaming
Tobias Buckell, "Toy Planes," (handout, from Nature online)
Los Bros. Hernandez, Mechanix (handout)
Han Song, "The Wheel of Samsara," The Apex Book of World SF
Yang Ping, "Wizard World," The Apex Book of World SF
Anil Menon, "Into the Night," The Apex Book of World SF
Tamai Kobayashi, "Panopte's Eye," So Long Been Dreaming
Recommended: Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life and Others

Week 3, 9/6 & 9/8: The Hero and the Quest
Dean Francis Alfar, "L'Aquilone du Estrellas ("The Kite of Stars")," The Apex Book of World SF
Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu, "When Scarabs Multiply," So Long Been Dreaming
Mary Anne Mohanraj, "Talking to Elephants," Abyss & Apex (handout)
Charles Saunders, "Gimmile's Songs," Dark Matter
Charles Saunders, Imaro (excerpt, handout)

Week 4, 9/13 & 9/15: The Hero and the Quest, continued.
Samuel R. Delany, Tales of Neveryon

Week 5, 9/20 & 9/22: Identity Issues / The Divided Self
Magdalena Moujn Otao, "Gu Ta Gutarrak (We and Our Own)," Cosmos Latinos
Richard de la Casa and Pedro Jorge Romero, "The Day We Went through the Transition," Cosmos Latinos
S.P. Somtow, "The Bird Catcher," The Apex Book of World SF
Tananarive Due, "Like Daughter," Dark Matter
Kristin Mandigma, "Excerpt From a Letter by a Social-Realist Aswang," The Apex Book of World SF
Mary Anne Mohanraj, "Esthely Blue," Wicked Words 3

Week 6, 9/27 & 9/29: The Alien / Other
Octavia E. Butler, "The Monophobic Response," Dark Matter
ngel Arango, "The Cosmonaut," Cosmos Latinos
Braulio Tavares, "Stuntmind," Cosmos Latinos
Jewelle Gomez, "Chicago 1927," Dark Matter
Larissa Lai, "Rachel," So Long Been Dreaming
Octavia E. Butler, "Bloodchild," Bloodchild and Other Stories

Week 7, 10/4 & 10/6: The Alien / Other, continued.
Octavia E. Butler, Dawn

Week 8, 10/11 & 10/13: Race / Ethnicity
W.E.B. du Bois, "The Comet," Dark Matter
Evie Shockley, "Separation Anxiety," Dark Matter
Steven Barnes, "The Woman in the Wall," Dark Matter
Derrick Bell, "The Space Traders," Dark Matter
Eden Robinson, "Terminal Avenue," So Long Been Dreaming
Recommended: Tobias Buckell, Crystal Rain

Week 9, 10/18: State and Class
Eduardo Goligorsky, "The Last Refuge," Cosmos Latinos
Guillermo Lavn, "Reaching the Shore," Cosmos Latinos
Elia Barcel, "First Time," Cosmos Latinos
Mauricio Jos Schwarz, "Glimmerings on Blue Glass," Cosmos Latinos
Vandana Singh, "Delhi," So Long Been Dreaming
Uppinder Mehan, "Final Thoughts," So Long Been Dreaming

Week 10, 10/25 & 10/27: The Uses of Language
Elgin, excerpts from The Language Imperative
Nalo Hopkinson, Midnight Robber

Week 11, 11/1 & 11/3: The Uses of Language, continued.
Nalo Hopkinson, Midnight Robber

Week 12, 11/8 & 11/10: Sexualities
Samuel R. Delany, "Aye, and Gomorrah," Dark Matter
Anglica Gorodischer, "The Violet's Embryos," Cosmos Latinos
Suzette Mayr, "Toot Sweet Matricia," So Long Been Dreaming
Mary Anne Mohanraj, "Jump Space," Thoughtcrime Experiments
Leone Ross, "Tasting Songs," Dark Matter

Week 13, 11/15 & 11/17: Religion / Spirituality
Honore Fanonne Jeffers, "Sister Lilith," Dark Matter
Jamil Nasir, "The Allah Stairs," The Apex Book of World SF
Mary Anne Mohanraj, "At the Gates of the City," Silence and the Word
Tunku Halim, "Biggest Baddest Bomoh," The Apex Book of World SF

Week 14, 11/22: Dreams and Nightmares
Hiromi Goto, Half-World

11/29: Hiromi Goto, Half-World; Thesis & Outline Due

12/1: Final Paper Draft Due