The English 1B Book Club

For the curious, these are the books I'll be using in my English 1B class @ Foothill College this winter. The class, as you can see from the list, will examine artistic representations of erotic love.

The Symposium, by Plato, translated by Alexander Nehamas & Paul Woodruff

The Satyricon, by Petronius, translated by William Arrowsmith

Romeo and Juliet, the Arden edition

Love Poems: Everyman's Library Pocket Poets

Giovanni's Room, by James Baldwin

A Sport and a Pastime, by James Salter

Fool for Love, by Sam Shepard

The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera

Break It Down: Stories, by Lydia Davis

Those are the assigned texts. I'll also ask the students to listen to Blood on the Tracks. I guess we'll watch a movie, too—perhaps the old Zeffirelli Romeo and Juliet, if only to gaze for a while upon the luminous beauty of Olivia Hussey.

Also, we'll read excerpts from The Double Flame: Love and Eroticism, by Octavio Paz, at least one essay by Cynthia Ozick ("The Din in the Head"), and passages from Literature and the Gods, by Roberto Calasso.