LTMO 64D
Fall 1996
Earl Jackson, Jr.
"'It would take more than a private dick to bother me,' he said.
'No it wouldn't. A private dick can bother anybody.'"
Raymond Chandler, The Lady in the Lake
Description:
A critical overview of detective fiction (and selected films) from Arthur Conan Doyle to contemporary and postmodern reappropriations. Lectures provide historical background and introductions to genre theory,psychoanalysis,semiotics, and cultural critique.
Requirements: Regular attendence at lecture.
Regular attendence and participation in section. Attendance at Wednesday evening film screenings, and Friday afternoon screenings of Twin Peaks. Each student must have a functioning email account, and provide the address to the section leader for the compilation of a section-member email list.
In addition to conventional written assignments, there will also be electronically mediated assignments, via email, and on the internet (the class will have a web site for Detective Fictions, and the will be research assignments requiring use of the WWW-sources; IRC use will be optional.) Familiarity with email, the Web, etc. is not a prerequisite for the course, but an elementary facility with these sources is a requirement for passing the course.
There will be weekly assignments in section, some of them common to all sections, others designed by the respective section leader in response to the particular needs of that section. Five short response papers; one dry-run take-home midquarter; one "real" midquarter; one take-home final. Essay questions. All written work to be typed, double-spaced, and thoroughly annotated (footnotes or endnotes, complete bibliography). Format must be internally consistent, but you are free to use either the MLA Style Sheet or the Chicago Manual of Style.
WEEK OF:
Friday, 9/27 INTRODUCTION
Monday 9/ 30 Poe, "The Murders In The Rue Morgue"; "Maelzel's Chess Player" ; "The Mystery Of Marie Roget"; The Gold Bug; A Note on Secret Writing;
Recommended: The Purloined Letter. Weds 10/2: Doyle, 
"The Adventure of the Cardboard Box"; The Adventure of the Dancing Men "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter"; A Case of Identity;
WED. 10/2 7PM: Screening - First, Two-Hour Episode of David Lynch's Twin Peaks, Fri. 10/4: Episode Two Twin Peaks.
10/7Colin Dexter, A Way Through the Woods. Dorothy L. Sayers. The Lost Tools of Learning Dorothy L. Sayers. Gaudy Night. Anne Perry, "Sayers on Dante"10/11: Episode Three Twin Peaks
10/14Dashiell Hammett.The Maltese Falcon. *Dry Run Midquarter distributed, in lecture. Weds 10/16 Film: Out of the Past. 10/18 Episode Four Twin Peaks
10/21Raymond Chandler., The Long Goodbye. "The Simple Art of Murder." "Twelve Notes on the Mystery Story" Recommended: The Lady in the Lake. Weds 10/23 Film: Laura 
10/25 Episode Five Twin Peaks. [Dry Run Midquarter Due in Section.] [Real Midquarter distributed 10/23.]
10/28. James Ellroy. The Black Dahlia."A Story Without an Ending.".10/30 Film: The Big SleepRecommended: Ellroy, Blood on the Moon. Weds. 10/30 11/1: Episode Six Twin Peaks
11.4: Patricia D. Cornwell. Post Mortem. Recommended:Cruel & Unusual. Weds. 11/6. Film: Blue Velvet. Recommended: Chandler, The Little Sister. 11/8 Episode Seven Twin Peaks [Midquarter Due 11/6].
11/11 Walter Mosely. Devil in a Blue Dress. 11/15 Episode Eight Twin Peaks
Weds. 11/13 Film: Devil in a Blue Dress.
549 4502
11/18 Hammett, The Glass Key; Patricia Highsmith. The Talented Mr. Ripley. Wednesday - 11/20 NO CLASS. 11/20. Film:Romeo is Bleeding. 11/22 Episode Eight Twin Peaks
11/23 Tony Hillerman, Thief of Time. 11/25 THURS AND FRIDAY - Ritual Slaughter of Seven Face Bird. No Class. No Twin Peaks. No Laura. No Alibi. [Final Questions Distributed 11/25].
12/02. Paul Auster. The New York Trilogy. [City of Glass and Ghosts; The Locked Room is optional]. Weds. 12/04. Film: Kiss Me, Deadly. Recommended: Alain Robbe-Grillet, The Erasers.
For a list of texts on Reserve at McHenry Library, Click HERE.
For the nature of language, as discovered by Madonna at an airport in Hungary, click HERE.
Use the metamenu for this course. Click HERE for access.
See also pages on: cryptography
forensics
Scott Davis on Semiotics
Fingerprints
Theory in the Making from my Graduate Proseminar protocols. Click HERE to begin that thread.
Or play chess with a SphynxConsult the meta-menus (or indices) on my HOMEPAGE by clicking there or for faster access clickHERE. For ultrafast access click HERE.
Visit me in my cybernetic loneliness by clicking on my name, and reciting the title of the most famous Minor Threat song ever recorded.
CLICk HERE to trace our first line of thinking, on Edgar Allen Poe and the detective tale tradition.
Click HERE for helpful dialogues with and between students writing papers (you may find yourself there)
Click here for students who took a class once
Or discover some Secrets
TAKE HOME FINAL DUE: Thursday, December 12, 12:00 PM. In Boxes Marked LTMO 64 at the Kresge Steno Pool.Guides to Writing Style and Grammar
General Mystery Sites/Sources
Edgar Allen Poe Links
Sherlock Holmes Links
Twin Peaks Links
Theory in the Making - Protocols and Contexts from a Seminar
Scott Davis on Semiotics
Wounds
BULLETIN: CLICK HERE FOR REAL MIDQUARTER.
Click HERE for the missives from you all.
CLICK HERE FOR FINAL
Native American Links
Check out Roy Zemlicka's wonderful virtual tours of Utah, including Anasazi petroglyph sites by Clicking HERE
OtherLinks
And be sure to check outEvan's Web Site
AND Huy's Web Site
If it's not AFT it'sFORE
escape now
HELP with Semiotics
HELP with theory.
Click HERE for a key off key.
Thank you to BRAD PEASE for the use of his self portrait in the upper-left hand corner of this syllabus
Other menu of texts, relevant and ir-
PREVIEW LTMO 115 SCIENCE FICTION