School update - after the first class

Day 1, Class 1, complete.

Well, the introductory class is done...complete with your general "scan the syllabus, explain the class objectives, take roll", etc.

I'm still a little unsure about all the scientific essays we'll be reading...There's a reason I signed on as an English major rather than a Science major (in spite of my AP science classes in High School). Fortunately, the prof is paring down the scientific readings such that we'll only be reading ~5 page sections of longer essays (with the exception of On the Origin of Species which we'll be reading most of). So even though the reading assignment for Wednesday is about 25 pages of scientific essays, it includes 6 different essays, so hopefully that will break up some of the monotony.

Going over the approach to the course, I was relived to find that we'll be focusing on the various texts as literary works first and as reaction to scientific impetus lower down on the influence level.

So even though Water Babies talks about a kid evolving his way from a small tadpole like creature back up to human child, we'll be looking at the language, narrative style, etc. rather than just looking at a scientific discussion of evolution.

Once we hit Tess, we'll be looking at her as a sort of "social" or "character" evolution and see how that plays out in the novel.

It should be an interesting course. Hopefully I can get into it...especially since the only real grading is based on 3 papers throughout the course.

Wish me luck. :)