Spring 2004

Those who register for either of the two sections of English 302 cited below might want to have an idea of what we will read and see. So I provide a list of required books and films below.

Advanced Composition on the Natural Sciences and Technology

• English 302:N12 & 13 (Monday, 4:30 - 7:10, Robinson B204; 7:20-10:00 pm, Enterprise Hall 275):

Required Books (in the order I plan to assign them)

• Trimble, John. Writing with Style: Conversations on the art of writing. NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1999. Second edition. ISBN 0-13-025713-3.
• Feynman, Richard and Ralph Leighton. Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman! NY: Norton, 1997. ISBN 0-393-31604-1.
• Feynman, Richard and Ralph Leighton. "What Do YOU Care What Other People Think?" NY: Norton, 2001. ISBN 0-393-32092-8
• Olson, Steven. Mapping Human History: Genes, Race and Our Common Origins. New York: Hougton Mifflin, 2002. ISBN: 0-618-35210-4
• Ondaatje, Michael. The English Patient. New York: Vintage, 1993. ISBN 0-679-74520-3.
• Atul Gawande. Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science. Picador USA, April 2003. ISBN: 0312421702.

Optional Book

• Minghella, Anthony. The English Patient: A Screenplay. London: Methuen Film, 1997. ISBN 0-413-71500-0.

Possible Films

• Ralph Leighton's The Last Journey of a Genius. A BBC/NOVA film, January 1989. 54 minutes. This is a film portrait biography of Richard Feynman.
• Christopher Sykes's The Pleasure of Finding Things Out. A BBC/WGBH MCPS 1999 film, 45 minutes. This is a film of a long interview with Feynman on science.
• David Attenborough's 1979 Life on Earth: A Natural History. A 1979 BBC film, in its original form 13 50 minute episodes. We'll see excerpts from a 2 and 3/4 hour abridgement. This takes the viewer on a pictorial journey which dramatises and explains Darwin's theory of natural selection.
• Peter Jones and David R. Axelrod's Lost at Sea: The Search for Longitude. A 1998 NOVA film, 60 minutes. Narrated by Richard Dreyfuss, with Patrick Malahide as John Harrison.
• The English Patient. A 1996 Miramax film, directed by Anthony Minghella, screenplay by Minghella and Michael Ondaatje, starring Ralph Fiennes as Count Laszlo Almásy, Juliette Binoche as Hana, Willem Dafoe as David Caravaggio, Kristin Scott Thomas as Katherine Clifton, Naveen Andrews as Lt Kip Singh, Colin Firth as Geoffrey Clifton. 160 minutes. As the text is a Community text of the English department, I hope this film will be screened by the department at the Johnson Center.
• Wit, HBO film, made for TV, from a screenplay by Emma Thompson and Mike Nichols, adapted from the Pulitzer Prize winning play by Margaret Edson. Produced by Simon Bosanquet. Directed by Mike Nichols, starring Emma Thompson as Vivan Bearing, Christopher Lloyd as Dr. Kelekian, Eileen Atkins as E.M. Ashford, Audra McDonald as Susie Monahan, Jonathan M. Woodward as Jason Posner, Harold Pinter as Vivian's Father, and Rebecca Laurie as Vivian aged 5. A professor is diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. 98 minutes.