Please excuse this meta-blog post about blog posts, unless you’re a hairy comp. lit. grad student, in which case, enjoy: it’s the latest from McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern. For those of you not in the know, it’s a literary journal founded by the magnificently meta Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and a self-conscious self-referencing fiend. Robert Lanham is the brain behind The Hipster Handbook, and in case you doubt his street cred concerning the unwashed skinny-jeaned masses, Lanham is also the editor of arts and culture website FREEwilliamsburg. Here’s what he has to say about new media in the classroom, as forwarded to me by none other than my technologically incompetent mother. Be sure to check out the prerequisites for Lanham’s Internet Age Writing Syllabus and Course Overview:

Students must have completed at least two of the following.

ENG: 232WR—Advanced Tweeting: The Elements of Droll
LIT: 223—Early-21st-Century Literature: 140 Characters or Less
ENG: 102—Staring Blankly at Handheld Devices While Others Are Talking
ENG: 301—Advanced Blog and Book Skimming
ENG: 231WR—Facebook Wall Alliteration and Assonance
LIT: 202—The Literary Merits of Lolcats
LIT: 209—Internet-Age Surrealistic Narcissism and Self-Absorption

Now excuse me – my mandatory-for-precept-participation blog post for MUS 220: The Opera was due yesterday.

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