By Monday noon (27 Sept), email me 2 paragraphs of at least a few sentences. You may write more as necessary, but not much more.

Your first paragraph should include some final insights on Song of Solomon. You could follow up on Brendan's questions from the last class on character development. Among the questions I handed out tonight was, "What does Milkman learn?" Or answer my proposed questions concerning The Dream or the Flying Africans. Refer to a course objective, or bring up something unique that you think worthy of everyone's attention. One or two textual references should be sufficient. Include page numbers if you like, but probably just brief reminders of episodes or language from the novel will be adequate.

For your second paragraph, please try out some answers to *both* my questions on Push:

You may vary by simply offering your personal and academic reaction to the shock value of Push and its worthiness or not for a class like ours.

These issues are so powerful that it's easy to overlook what, in style, is potentially the most interesting feature of Push: how the author crafts an intelligible and even compelling voice from a sub-literate narrator-character.

Email these paragraphs to me only at whitec@uhcl.edu. On Monday afternoon, I'll collect and arrange these comments, post them somewhere on the course webpage, and email a copy of the collection to everyone in the class. Everyone should read through the entire collection and be prepared to refer to it in class next Thursday the 30th.

The final step will be due by noon next Wednesday, 29 September. Each student is responsible for commenting on the contribution of at least one other student. A brief paragraph should be plenty. Again email this to me, and I'll add these commentaries to the posting.

Just to make sure everyone gets a reply of some kind, here's an alphabetical distribution of who must comment on what other student's original contribution. Of course any student may offer more than one commentary.

Jennie Branch: comment on Danny Corrigan.

Danny Corrigan: comment on Susan Cummings.

Susan Cummings: comment on Brendan Foley.

Brendan Foley: comment on James Hood.

James Hood: comment on Nicole Jackson.

Nicole Jackson: comment on Kristy Pawlak.

Kristy Pawlak: comment on Michael Russo.

Michael Russo: comment on Jennie Branch.

There will probably be some foul-ups and missed assignments, but just do what you can and we'll muddle through with a reasonably interesting on-line experiment and exchange of ideas. (Sorry I don't know how to do chat rooms, etc., which might simplify this process, but at least this way I can maintain some precious control.)

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask, but also feel free to improvise. The stakes aren't that high, and the opportunity is there for taking some respectful risks.