Heinlein, Robert A – Expanded Universe

Professor of Astronomy

Sir Fred Hoyle. Or Professor of Physics John R. Pierce. Most Professors of English

get published, when they do, by university presses or in professional quarterlies.

But fight it out for cash against Playboy and Travis Magee? They can’t and they

don’t!

But if you are careful not to rub their noses in this embarrassing fact and

pay respectful attention to their opinions even about (ugh!) “creative writing,”

they will help you slide through to a painless baccalaureate.

You still have time for many electives and will need them for your required

hours-units-courses; here are some fun-filled ones that will teach you almost

nothing:

The Fortunes of Faust

Mysticism

The Search for a New Life Style

The American Dilemma-Are “all men equal”?

Enology-hi story, biology, and chemistry of winemaking and wine

appreciation. This one will teach you something but it’s too good to miss.

Western Occultism: Magic, Myth, and Heresy.

There is an entire college organized for fun and games (“aesthetic

enrichment”). It offers courses for credit but you’ll be able to afford noncredit

activity as well in your lazyman’s course-and anything can be turned into credit by

some sincere selling to your adviser and/or Academic Committee. I have already

listed nine of its courses but must add:

Popular Culture

-plus clubs or “guilds” for gardening, photography, filmmedia, printing, pottery,

silkscreening, orchestra, jazz, etc.

Related are Theater Arts. These courses give credit, including:

Films of Fantasy and Imagination-fantasy, horror, SF, etc. (!)

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Seminar on Films

Filmmaking

History and Aesthetics of Silent Cinema

History and Aesthetics of Cinema since Sound

Introduction to World Cinema

Sitting and looking at movies can surely be justified for an English major.

Movies and television use writers-as little as possible, it’s true. But somewhat;

the linkage is there.

Enjoy yourself while it lasts. These dinosaurs are on their way to

extinction.

The 2-year “warm body” campus is even more lavish than UCSC. It is a good

trade school for some things-e.g., dental assistant. But it offers a smörgásbord of

fun-Symbolism of the Tarot, Intermediate Contract Bridge, Folk Guitar, Quilting,

Horseshoeing, Chinese Cooking, Hearst Castle Tours, Modern Jazz, Taoism, Hatha Yoga

Asanas, Aikido, Polarity Therapy, Mime, Raku, Bicycling, Belly Dancing, Shiatsu

Massage, Armenian Cuisine, Revelation and Prophecy, Cake Art, Life Insurance Sales

Techniques, Sexuality and Spirituality, Home Bread Baking, Ecuadorian Backstrap

Weaving, The Tao of Physics, and lots, lots more! One of the newest courses is “The

Anthropology of Science Fiction” and I’m still trying to figure that out.

I have no objection to any of this.. . but why should this kindergarten be

paid for by taxes? “Bread and Circuses.”

I first started noticing the decline of education through mail from readers.

I have saved mail from readers for forty years. Shortly after World War Two I

noticed that letters from the youngest were not written but hand-printed. By the

middle fifties deterioration in handwriting and in spelling became very noticeable.

By today a letter from a youngster in grammar school or in high school is usually

difficult to read and sometimes illegible-penmanship atrocious

(pencilmanship-nine out often are in soft pencil, with well-smudged pages), spelling

uniqUe, grammar an arcane art.

Most youngsters have not been taught how to fold 81/2″ x 11″ paper for the

two standard sizes of envelopes intended for that standard sheet.

Then such defects began to show up among college students. Apparently

“Bonehead English” (taught everywhere today, so I hear) is not sufficient to repair

the failure of grammar and high school teachers who themselves in most cases were

not adequately taught.

I saw sharply this progressive deterioration because part of my mail comes

from abroad, especially Canada, the United Kingdom, the Scandinavian countries, and

Japan. A – letter from any part of the Commonwealth is invariably neat, legible,

grammatical, correct in spelling, and polite. The same applies to letters from

Scandinavian countries. (Teenagers of Copenhagen usually speak and write English

better than most teenagers of Santa Cruz.) Letters from Japan are invariably

neat-but the syntax is sometimes odd. I have one young correspondent in Tokyo who

has been writing steadily these past four years. The handwriting in the first letter

was almost stylebook perfect but I could hardly understand the phrasing; now, four