Ovid’s Metamorphoses marks a gathering of transformations into, prepositional, something else, other stories. One myth becomes the next, changing as seasons change, somewhat gradually over time, sometimes all at once. A cold-blast in late-fall to mark the first winter storm, or that first muggy day of summer, the blooms of flowers hot and heavy – our metaphors are mini-myths, telling stories of transformation, how we might see ourselves as something we are not. So. In Italo Calvino’s Baron in the Trees, the story of a boy who takes to the branches, becomes a man in the canopy of wide oaks and elms, bounding in a world part-Peter Pan, part-Huckleberry Finn. Or, in Gould’s Book of Fish, by Richard Flanagan, what becomes of us when we are locked away in our own myth-spinning, working away like some mad weaver at the loom, most of the time completely unawares of what we are doing!

This is a course designed for summer reading of fiction. The books are not always light, as Ovid can be earth-shattering, actually, and both of the other books, also bound by oath to the first rule of fiction: MAKE IT ALIVE. This is not say “real” or “true”, but ALIVE, as in active and invigorating, inventive and abundant. It is Mary Shelley’s Monster as much as it is Harry Potter’s wand, much as I hate to admit it. Because the writing might be trash, but transformation – that’s what moves you.

If this course is designated “W”, that will require 10 pages of writing (MLA) with sincere revision.

Required Texts:

1. Ovid. Metamorpheses.
2. Italo Calvino. The Baron in the Trees.
3. Richard Flanagan. Gould’s Book of Fish