Cover Letter

English 381 Literature and Cinema

Spring '10

Dear Reader,
There is an interesting story behind my enrolling into this class because I had to go through the head of advising to get this class approved for the LA general requirement.  Without this class it was a possibility of not having my requirements to graduate.

My intentions coming in this class was like most students who need to fulfill a Literary Arts General Education requirement along with the attitude of a Senior with one semester left.  The phrase "JUST PASS!" filled my head.  Being that I needed this class to graduate, I had to pass.

Once I signed up for the class I envisioned a class where we just discuss books and their film adaptation.  Little did I know, that we would be doing that but to the farthest extreme possible.

My cover letter and reflections will expound upon parts of this posting in more detail, but I just wanted to reflect on this class as a whole.

As a "pseudo-senior" and business/economics double major, the only "pleasure" reading that I've done over the last four or 5 years is flying through books and articles about financial management, investments, or recent economic information. This class has reminded me that there are works of fiction out there that I can sit down, read, and really enjoy.

Cormac McCarthy's style was incredibly difficult to get used to at first because of its stream of consciousness nature. I’m used to dialogue (if there is any in what I’m reading) breaking up the prose, and instead, McCarthy just lets everything flow together in a big alphabet soup. While I struggled to read through All the Pretty Horses, I finished No Country and really enjoyed a lot of what I read.

The Smashing Pumpkins - We Only Come Out at Night

The opening scene in the 2005 film adaptation of the graphic novel V for Vendetta shows the hero V and his soon to be counterpart Evey preparing for their evening. V arms himself with knives, ready for a fight. Evey gets dressed up to sneak out past the government imposed curfew. On her way, she is assaulted and V rescues her. "We Only Come Out at Night" by the Smashing Pumpkins is a great companion to this scene. Its simplicity and almost lullaby quality provide a stark contrast to the attempted assault on Evey's and her rescue by V. It also tells us immediately that this is not a safe world we are entering.