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A college professor has build a English course around "Good Kid M.A.A.D. City"

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C

Cheddahz

Banned
EDIT: Can a mod please change build to built in the title?

Stereogum Article

good-kid-maad-city-608x608.jpg


Several reviewers compared Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d. city to James Joyce’s modernist novel Ulysses, in that both of them chronicled the twists and turns of a day in the life of a young urbanite. The comparison wasn’t lost on Adam Diehl, a professor at Georgia Regents University, who built an entire English course using Lamar’s album as a prism to explore other similar stories in film and literature. As USA Today reports, “Good Kids, Mad Cities” will touch on works by Joyce, James Baldwin, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Spike Lee among others. Here’s how the course is described at the university’s website:

"Taking its name from Kendrick Lamar’s 2012 album, this course will examine the role of urban living on the development of young people. In Kendrick’s case, “the streets sure to release the worst side of my best” (Lamar 58). By studying and analyzing various literature, films, and K. Dot’s album, we will consider what effects our characters’ surroundings have on who they become as adults. The cities we will be visiting, in our imaginations, are Dublin, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Assignments will include a substantial research paper, stemming from the topics inherent in our texts; students should also expect other writing assignments, such as short papers and online discussion posts.​"

Sounds like fun. Good idea, Adam Diehl!
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Jackben

Jackben

bitch I'm taking calls.
Macklemore and the Birth of Modern Hip-Hop: The first artist with something to say
 
M

Majestad

Banned
I pray my dick get big like eiffel tower so I
can fuck the world for 72 hours

I would start my paper like that.
 
V

Veritigo_X

Member
ohlawd said:
shiet.

didn't he edit his post after getting the tag? lame lol
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Eh, enough people quoted him in the thread so it'll live on forever.

On topic: I totally would've taken this class if it were offered during my undergrad. The closest thing I took was History of Hip Hop during my last semester to get my credits up to the required 12 to be considered full time. Really made me appreciate some of the old school stuff I overlooked as a kid.
 
N

NightmareTrigger

Banned
Pens down, test is done, my student.
Fuck what you know, read the book, my student.
How long you study last night my student?
This classroom I run, my student.
 
P

Poudini

Banned
I was listening to M.A.A.D. City when I saw this thread, interesting.

I'd definitely take this course over any other English course I've attended before.
 
C

Cagey

Banned
Well, I've certainly taken some interesting yet worthless electives in my time, so I can't hate.

A 300s level seminar where we watched Mafia movies every week and discussed the romanticization of Italian organized crime wasn't exactly Political Philosophy 317.
 
B

big ander

Member
speculawyer said:
What a great investment of that college loan you are taking out.
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agreed, no one should ever take courses in the arts, especially not electives. broadening the mind in diverse fields is not what you're going to college for. Everybody get your STEM degrees and peace! let's all make bank!!!!!!
 
T

tanooki27

Member
big ander said:
agreed, no one should ever take courses in the arts, especially not electives. broadening the mind in diverse fields is not what you're going to college for. Everybody get your STEM degrees and peace! let's all make bank!!!!!!
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we need engineers. we need engineers. we need engineers. I'll make a pipe. you'll make a chip. we need engineers
 
I

Ivan 3414

Member
Jackben said:
This is a cool link to learning, but some of the literature proposed is extremely dry.
Just like fulfilling your child's dying wish at their funeral huh?
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My tag doesn't discredit what I said and is completely irrelevant in this conversation.

But sure, that's fine if mudslinging is your only response to my position.
 
B

big ander

Member
In all seriousness I don't see how this is even as frivolous as most pop culture-related college courses that make headlines. Courses in specific forms of literature can be hard enough, I imagine a course that requires close analysis of music, poetry, novels and films could be plenty difficult. At the same time it seems it has a guided structure and focuses on an interesting area, the intersection of urban environment and art and coming-of-age. And it needs a real-ass research paper? I can tell you from experience, a lot of STEM people flop when it comes to research papers in the arts. They take a film studies or poetry course thinking "man I'm gonna watch movies all the time" or "I read some shel silverwhatever once, this'll be nothing compared to thermo !" and then they're baffled by readings and unable to analyze texts in any meaningful way and completely up against a wall when they have to write a 7 page paper on some fuggin Coleridge
tanooki27 said:
we need engineers. we need engineers. we need engineers. I'll make a pipe. you'll make a chip. we need engineers
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Haha
 
Y

YoungHav

Banned
A course on Kendrick and The Wire will have more knowledge than the typical 1-12th grade education combined.

The Wire >>> The Bible.
 
E

equippedwithtowel

Member
Slate Soda said:
My tag doesn't discredit what I said and is completely irrelevant in this conversation.

But sure, that's fine if mudslinging is your only response to my position.
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How about the idea that focused literature courses are common in the upper years. How is this less relevant then any course exploring literature through another thematic lense? If you have an issue with English degrees in general that's a whole different thing.
 
B

big ander

Member
backslashbunny said:
One of his brilliant songs, imo. You could write a pretty good research paper on the alcoholism.



Well, duh.



Different skill set cultivated.

*As an English major, I think it's great that English lit is finally moving away from all about Shakespeare and other great dead writers (who were great, no doubt), and moving onto more contemporary stuff. It's important to stay relevant and updated with the times.

A lot of the stuff studied in literature is studied on hype- it was good, but it is over-valued. Shakespeare is now like a brand name Ivy. It's still good, no doubt, and probably better than most, but it relies heavily on its name for authority, when in fact there is just as valuable and worthwhile education to be found elsewhere in lesser-known, more contemporary places.
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The problem is that STEM fanaticism has many chemistry experts thinking they can leap over to arts and literature courses and their superior brain will guide them through. There's frequently a refusal to acknowledge that no skill set is superior to another by default. They're simply different. Most of my STEM friends understood that, but there were always nuts too. I feel like I got to see both sides of it, double-majoring in math and film studies. Arts students will acknowledge that biochem is beyond them. Plenty of engineers-to-be act like they could ace a final on contemporary french film with a few days of preparation

I didn't get to take many English courses but I felt like what you're saying is true. Definitely holds for film courses. in each of those the professor would try to include one or two obscure personal favorites or relevant modern works, just outside the critical canon.
 
C

Cagey

Banned
big ander said:
The problem is that STEM fanaticism has many chemistry experts thinking they can leap over to arts and literature courses and their superior brain will guide them through. There's frequently a refusal to acknowledge that no skill set is superior to another by default. They're simply different. Most of my STEM friends understood that, but there were always nuts too. I feel like I got to see both sides of it, double-majoring in math and film studies. Arts students will acknowledge that biochem is beyond them. Plenty of engineers-to-be act like they could ace a final on contemporary french film with a few days of preparation

I didn't get to take many English courses but I felt like what you're saying is true. Definitely holds for film courses. in each of those the professor would try to include one or two obscure personal favorites or relevant modern works, just outside the critical canon.
Click to expand...

I firsthand observed plenty of friends in STEM fields take courses in my Political Science and History majors, do very well with very little work by comparison to their STEM courses, and give me the "lol so this is what you do at school huh?" treatment after farting out a term paper. And they were right: the level of academic rigor in the liberal arts fields was comical at our school.
 
F

FantasticMrFoxdie

Mumber
I would take this class

"For todays lesson we analyze Backseat Freestyle."

I've got twenty-five lighters on my dresser, yes sir
Put fire to that ass, body cast on a stretcher
And her body got that ass that a ruler couldn't measure
And it make me cum fast but I never get embarrassed
And I recognize you have what I've been wanting since that record
That Adina Howard had pop it fast to impress her
She rolling, I'm holding my scrotum and posing
This voice here is golden, so fuck y'all, I goes in and
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"Shakespearean."
 
B

big ander

Member
Cagey said:
I firsthand observed plenty of friends in STEM fields take courses in my Political Science and History majors, do very well with very little work by comparison to their STEM courses, and give me the "lol so this is what you do at school huh?" treatment after farting out a term paper. And they were right: the level of academic rigor in the liberal arts fields was comical at our school.
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Well if it had to do with lackluster programs at your school that's understandable
 
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