zach whalen's blog

Well, it has certainly been a momentous semester from my point of view, both for the significant developments in my personal life (i.e. becoming a father) and for the professional significance of my first semester as an assistant professor. As such, it's hard to sum it all up into a closing comment that encapsulates it all. We covered a lot of material, and you all brought a lot in that I hadn't anticipated but that enriched our conversations.
 read more »

Fresh on the heels of our discussing game, game, game and again game, Jason Nelson has released another work in a similar style. i made this. you play this. we are enemies appears to have some similar things going on, but I'm intrigued by the sense in which we as players/readers/critics/students are the game designer's "enemies." The comment in direction number 4, "stop trying to 'get it'" seems particularly targeted toward or relevant to our discussion of the game, especially since I made sure to set the game up by asking you to try and "get it" instead of "just" playing it.

So what do you think we should do with this? On the one hand, its energy seems somewhat more focused on playing with / mashing up specific online spaces, but I don't want to be a "shark with bees for hair" for saying so. Do you?

If you're reading this, you can probably tell that something major has changed on the course website -- the design. I was fed up with the old theme, so I downloaded and installed a new one. Hopefully, you will find this one easier on the eyes and, more importantly, easier to navigate.

If you do encounter problems with the new theme, or if you find something not working as it used to, please let me know. I'll continue to tweak it, most likely, so don't be surprised if things continue to move around a bit.
 read more »

This is the course website and central hub of information for ENGL 251A, Forms of Narrative (section 1). Here you can find information about the schedule, assignments, and the complete, official syllabus.

More importantly, this is the website you will use to create your blog entries. If you haven't done so already, please register an account so you can start creating content.
 read more »