Summer 2004

Those who register for English 302 BN2 might want to have an idea of what we will read and see. So I provide the list of required books and probable films below.

Advanced Composition on the Natural Sciences and Technology

• English 302:BN2 (Tues/Thurs, 7:20-10:00 pm).

Required Books

• 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
• Atul Gawande. Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science. Picador USA, April 2003. ISBN: 0312421702.
• Edson, Margaret. Wit: A Play. New York: Faber and Faber, 1999. ISBN 0-571-19877-5

Probable 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.
• 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.
• Christopher Hale's In Search of the First Language. A A 1997 Horizon, WGBH, BBC-TV film. Produced by Christopher Hale, narrated Peter Thomas. Editors include Adam de Van, Jana Bennet. 60 minutes.
• David Attenborough's 1979 Life on Earth: A Natural History. A 1979 BBC film, in its original form 13 50 minute episodes. We may 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.
• Wit, 2001 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.