Oddball 101: The 11 Wackiest College Courses of Fall 2009

College Life
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<p>At least Harry Potter has a plot. And themes. And character development. All those fun things that make a book a worthy piece to be read.</p>

<p>Twilight is poorly written and sexist. What is there to talk about in a class discussion? How Stephanie Meyer’s masturbatory fantasies are inadvertently teaching teenagers that abusive relationships are desirable and their top priority should be to find a hot boyfriend to have twu luv with? </p>

<p>Actually, that would be an interesting class. I stopped reading Harry Potter after the fifth book, but I stopped reading Twilight after I dozed off on page twenty after downloading the PDF.</p>

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<p>^ Haha, you made it further than I did. I think I got to page three in Twilight. I’ve used it as a drink coaster ever since. </p>

<p>Target won’t let me return it. Even they know it’s trash.</p>

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<p>Lethal, you yourself have already pointed out more things to analyze in Meyer’s book than the whole Potter series. The Potter series really doesn’t have much weight on “themes” but certain reads like a fun movie to watch. The Twilight series is utter crap, but does have this very interesting sexist approach that could be worth deconstructed in a first-year seminar style class.</p>

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<p>I SO WANT TO TAKE THAT TWILIGHT CLASS.</p>

<p>don’t judge me.</p>

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<p>I don’t even watch Star Trek, but I want to take the Philosophy of Star Trek course. It’d be great having a serious discussion of time travel paradoxes, for instance, even though it’s probably never get anywhere.</p>

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<p>Has anyone seen the Twilight movie? Worse movie I’ve ever seen. They should do a class about all the things wrong with that movie. They’d have enough material for an entire major.</p>

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<p>The Twilight movie (I haven’t read and don’t want to read the books) has a good premise, but that movie was just… terrible. Pattinson and that girl are not good actors at all, and how many shades of concealer did they put on the “Native American” kid?</p>

<p>While I don’t agree that HP is lacking themes and messages, I think it would be difficult to argue that’s it’s not a generational phenomenon. That’s worth studying in and of itself.</p>

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<p>i would love to take tree climbing</p>

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<p>“No, it’s wacky because W isn’t capable of thought. Certainly not serious, original thought.”</p>

<p>Originally, I had a much more caustic response to this piece of ignorance. But I realize I’m not going to change anyone’s mind, as no one is going to change mine. Peace.</p>

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<p>Haha why would you take Tree Climbing at Cornell when you can take Swedish Massage?</p>

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<p>Does anyone else find it funny how people who haven’t even read the entire first chapter of Twilight bash it the hardest? : )</p>

<p>I don’t really care about Twilight. Just curious as to why this is.</p>

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<p>A course in “Learning from Fox News” would be really wacky.</p>

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<p>wasn’t there a course in STARCRAFT at berkeley or MIT?</p>

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<p>i dont understand why tree climbing is on the list when its a PE class, not an academic class.</p>

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<p>A course in Learning from Fox News would be really short.</p>

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<p>FYI, this is very probably what that MIT video game course is about:</p>

<p><i> Game theory is a branch of applied mathematics that is used in the social sciences, most notably in economics, as well as in biology, engineering, political science, international relations, computer science, and philosophy. Game theory attempts to mathematically capture behavior in strategic situations, in which an individual’s success in making choices depends on the choices of others. While initially developed to analyze competitions in which one individual does better at another’s expense (zero sum games), it has been expanded to treat a wide class of interactions, which are classified according to several criteria. Today, “game theory is a sort of umbrella or ‘unified field’ theory for the rational side of social science, where ‘social’ is interpreted broadly, to include human as well as non-human players (computers, animals, plants)”</i> </p>

<p><a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>“FYI, this is very probably what that MIT video game course is about:”</p>

<p>No, it’s probably not about game theory. It’s probably about video games. That’s like saying that MIT’s physical education courses are probably about the biological processes involved in muscular contractions.</p>

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<p>Here is a course description:</p>

<p>CMs.300 introduction to videogame studies
(Subject meets with CMS.841)
Prereq: None
U (Fall)
3-3-6 HASS
Introduction to the interdisciplinary study of
commercial videogames as texts through an
examination of their cultural, educational,
and social functions in contemporary settings.
Students play and analyze videogames while
reading current research and theory from a va-
riety of sources in the sciences, social sciences,
humanities, and industry. The expectation is
that students will play through to completion a
contemporary commercial videogame chosen
in consultation with the instructor. Regular
reading, writing, and presentation exercises;
open to students from all disciplines and levels
of experience. Students taking the graduate ver-
sion complete additional assignments.
D. Rusch </p>

<p>Here is a reading list:</p>

<p>Assigned Readings</p>

<p>Amazon logo Salen, K., and E. Zimmerman. The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology. Cambridge, MA: MIT University Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780262195362.</p>

<p>Amazon logo Frasca, G. “Simulation Versus Narrative: Introduction to Ludology.” Video Game Theory Reader. Edited by M. Wolf and B. Perron. New York, NY: Routledge, 2003. ISBN: 9780415965781.</p>

<p>Juul, J. “The Game, The Player, The World: Looking for a Heart of Gameness.” Level Up: Digital Games Research Conference Proceedings. Edited by M. Copier and J. Raessens. Utrecht, the Netherlands: Utrecht University Press, 2003.</p>

<p>Yee, N. “Motivations of Play in Online Games.” CyberPsychology and Behavior 9 (2007): 772-775.</p>

<p>DeVane, B., and K. D. Squire. “The Meanings of Race and Violence in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.” Games and Culture. (Forthcoming)</p>

<p>Amazon logo Consalvo, M., ed. “The Cheaters.” In Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames. Cambridge, MA: MIT University Press, 2007. ISBN: 9780262033657.</p>

<p>Make of that what you will.</p>

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<p>At my UC state school we have a class called Sociology 69. The 69 just happened to be assigned to this class by chance. Its being added back for the coming fall quarter. The class’ highlights include a panel of porn stars, an adult store owner coming in to talk, and 40 min (albeit, optional) footage of uncensored porn.</p>

<p>When I first read it in the school paper, I was like WHOA! Too bad it doesn’t cover any GE requirements. ;D</p>

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<p>Because it it’s written so poorly, they can’t stomach it to make it through the first chapter. Not really that funny.</p>