History
BookWorlds, the History
Written by Nicole Thomas (2006-2009)
BookWorlds is the most amazing college organization I have ever encountered. Not only does it allow undergraduates to teach legitimate college classes at the University of California, Berkeley, but it enables them to delve into the realms of fantasy and science fiction to teach meaningful courses about worlds found only in books. However, the types of classes offered and the ways in which they are taught has changed significantly in the few years that BookWorlds existed. BookWorlds has evolved from a more academic, authoritarian, Tolkien-based organization to one that is broader, more creative, and democratic.
However, before I can talk about how BookWorlds has changed, I must give some background on it. BookWorlds is a group within another organization called DeCal. DeCal was created in the 1980s to complete “…the important task of facilitating the offering of student-initiated courses.” In other words, they created a student-run, university-supported system in which students could teach courses for other students. In fall 2002, the first BookWorlds class became one of these student-taught courses. It began with Emma K. M. Ljung, Dmitriy “Deema” Afanasyev, and Andrey A. Tselikov when they decided to teach a class on The Silmarillion, a book that provides an extensive history of Middle Earth, the world J.R.R. Tolkien creates in The Lord of the Rings. As a premise for the class, the three facilitators came up with a completely original idea: they decided to teach the history of Middle Earth as if the world Tolkien created actually existed. This novel way of teaching classes created BookWorlds, and the founders called their first class BookWorlds: History of Middle Earth. According to the BookWorlds Charter, “A BookWorld is a book or book series that contains a world that is not like ours and nor is like ours has ever been in the past, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, fantasy, or horror.” The founders used this idea to create more BookWorlds classes. After History of Middle Earth, each founder recruited two of their students to teach more classes the following semester, BookWorlds: The Quest of Erebor and the War of the Ring, BookWorlds: The History of Earthsea, and BookWorlds: Hitchhike the Galaxy. From there, the organization continued to grow so that now in spring 2007, BookWorlds is teaching twelve courses on a much broader group of books than the founders originally intended.
In fact, the structure of BookWorlds and its classes has changed so much that one would hardly believe that the organization has only been around for four-and-a-half years. From what I can gather, the biggest change was broadening the definition of a BookWorld, which caused more types of books to be accepted and thus more diverse teachers and classes. According to Daniel Feldman, who became involved in BookWorlds in its second semester and has stayed involved since, the founders envisioned BookWorlds as teaching only about the history of fanciful worlds. In order to do that, BookWorlders needed to teach books that had fairly complete histories, whose worlds were extensive enough for the classes to spend two hours per week exploring them and how they functioned. The best example of a complete BookWorld is Middle Earth, for Tolkien is the only major fantasy writer who has written and published (though posthumously) a complete history of the world he created. The Silmarillion was the perfect basis for a BookWorld, thus the first class. Other early classes like Earthsea, Hitchhiker’s Guide, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Ender’s Game also fit the original definition of a BookWorld well. Though their worlds were not as complete as Tolkien’s, they were complete enough for the classes to talk about the books as worlds instead of as books. However, as BookWorlds grew, it recruited members who wanted to teach classes about books that did not have such complete histories. This was a major turning point for BookWorlds. It started to drift in a more inclusive direction, allowing classes to be taught with less of a BookWorlds attitude, like Cyberpunk, Intro to Fantasy, and Intro to Sci-Fi which dealt with many worlds briefly instead of one extensively. After the Charter established a set of rules regarding how one could decide what constituted a BookWorld, students could teach on whatever books they wanted as long as no one objected to their being BookWorlds. This caused some older BookWorlders to “…feel like (teaching books as complete worlds) has been lost from BookWorlds…now it’s been switched to more emphasis on the book and less emphasis on the world which has opened BookWorlds up to a lot more series and subjects…” Though the original idea of BookWorlds was altered, the change enabled BookWorlds to teach many more classes on different types of books within the genres of fantasy and sci-fi. Thus, BookWorlds was able to teach more diverse classes using teachers with broader interests, but it had to stray from the original intent for BookWorlds to do so.
Another major shift BookWorlds has undergone is a change from authoritarian to democratic leadership. In this respect, BookWorlds formed much like a small country. It first began with no real ruling or hierarchy, just the teaching power of the founders. Then, once they began to recruit other teachers, Emma, Deema, and Andrey held supreme power. They chose who would teach and what they would teach, and though they did poll their classes to see what classes people wanted to take the next semester, they had the final say. After Emma and Andrey left BookWorlds, Deema took power. Most BookWorlders treated him with reverence, and he still could direct people to teach whatever he wanted and veto whether a class could be taught. In this way, Deema and the other founders acted as dictators. They were nice ones, and they took BookWorlders’ wishes into consideration, but they had ultimate power. After Deema left UC Berkeley, Daniel Feldman and Sarah DiZio “…would both sort of take charge during the meetings because we both had very take charge personalities…” Andrew Wallace later took over in the same way. The three of them seized control of BookWorlds because somebody had to run things, and no one had been appointed. Their reign marked a transition period between authoritarianism and democracy; because they had no legitimate claim to run BookWorlds, they lacked the control Deema had had. However, once the Charter was written, BookWorlds established that issues were to be decided and leaders chosen by voting. In this way, BookWorlds transitioned from authoritarian command to democratic leadership.
Thus far, I have spoken of BookWorlds the organization. However, the classes taught are far more important to BookWorlds than how the group is run. The classes themselves have changed less than BookWorlds’ definition and leadership. Courses were structured in similar ways in the beginning, including lectures, activities, discussion, readings, and short weekly assignments as key course components. The basic syllabus has also changed very little since the early days, and final projects have been used as a major portion of the grade since the second or third semester. However, the overall feel of the classes has changed significantly. Much of this has to do with the broader types of classes taught. Tolkien’s books have a very academic feel to them-they are complex, and it takes many readings to fully understand them. This along with the completeness of their world caused the Tolkien-related classes to be very academic in nature, for the teachers needed to explain and debate complexities within the books. Other early classes were structured similarly, but as BookWorlds branched out, its classes started to include books that were easier to understand with less complex worlds. These classes had to take on a different structure to stay academic, often analyzing the books as well as or more than the worlds. Many old BookWorlders seem to feel that the classes taught now have made BookWorlds less academic and special. However, the classes I have attended are still run academically but are structured more like literature classes. Nevertheless, most classes do still discuss the worlds; they just discuss the stories too. Though they are less focused on the worlds, they should still fall under the category of BookWorlds classes, so current members do not oppose their being taught.
Though BookWorlds has strayed from the original idea of a BookWorld and has a different class structure as a result, the changes have not been bad necessarily. Almost all BookWorlders agree that the switch to democratic leadership was for the best, and most current BookWorlders prefer the broader choices for classes. My main human sources, Daniel and Andrew, prefer the old way of BookWorlds because the founders infused a love of it as a concept in them. However, BookWorlds had to change to accommodate a wider audience, or it would have died once it had exhausted the Tolkien fans as a resource. It is different, but it is not worse. BookWorlds still maintains its most important goal: teaching classes about fantasy and sci-fi in the hope that one day they will be recognized as respectable genres of literature.
“DeCal Program,” DeCal, http://www.decal.org/aboutus/whatis.php (accessed Feb 10, 2007).
Daniel Feldman, personal interview with author, 2028 Dwight Way Apt. 2A, Berkeley, CA, Feb 3, 2007.
“The BookWorlds Charter,” document in possession of author, ratified Dec 2005, lasted amended May 16, 2006.
The more generic title for this would be BookWorlds: The Lord of the Rings
Referring to Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea series
Or Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
“Course Coordinators,” BookWorlds, http://www.bookworlds.org/modules.php?name=People (accessed Feb 10, 2007).
Andrew Wallace, personal interview with author, telephone conversation, Feb 7, 2007.
Syllabi, Mid-semester Evaluations, and Planning Papers, The BookWorlds Library, currently maintained by Charlene Stratton.
Syllabi from “BookWorlds: The History of Earthsea,” Spring 2003, “BookWorlds: Narnia and Beyond,” Fall 2003, “BookWorlds: Welsh Legend in the Prydain Chronicles,” Spring 2004, “BookWorlds: Topics in Harry Potter,” Spring 2006, “BookWorlds: The Lost Years of Merlin,” Fall 2006, “BookWorlds: Discworld,” Fall 2006, The BookWorlds Library, currently maintained by Charlene Stratton.
Daniel Feldman and Emma K. M. Ljung, email message to author, Feb 11, 2007.
BookWorlds History PDF (70.6 KiB, 31 hits)