On Homestuck: A Syllabus

Homestuck is a big deal. Written by Andrew Hussie on mspaintadventures.com between April 2009 and October 2016, it was basically the bible of the internet for American high school and college students, a multimedia introduction to webcomics and long-form science fantasy and a crash course on thirty years of popular culture that challenged gender roles, redefined the relationship between author and fandom, and ended by deconstructing its own narrative structure.

I keep coming up with clever tag lines for this blog post,
but none of them really fit. So here's some music to listen
to while you read.

It's easy enough to argue that it didn't do anything particularly new or revolutionary--fans becoming creators of ongoing series is not unusual (that's how Doctor Who keeps going, after all), and even the interactive segments, as the Geek loves to remind me, were preempted by Portal, an interactive novel from the 80s. But every generation needs its own reason to care about the world and the past, and for the people we call Young Millennials and Old Generation Z, Homestuck has often been a key conversation starter about important topics. Like "hey, Dave's brother is kind of a terrible father," or "is Vriska a good person or a bad person," or "having a moirail sounds nice; how do I find one?"

And for all the impact Homestuck has had on people my age and a little younger, there's been remarkably little scholarly writing about it and how it and its readers interact with the culture that produced it. There's a few discourse analyses on Google Scholar, not to mention the I Like Homestuck Project, the Tumblr blog my sister and I wrote from 2014 to 2016 (which is still somehow gaining followers, and if that doesn't speak to the cultural importance of Homestuck I don't know what does), but nothing that really situates it in the world it was written for. So at some point around the end of the comic, I started developing a syllabus for a hypothetical upper-level undergraduate course on the narrative construction and social themes of Homestuck. Here's a draft of that, with assignment descriptions inserted as they come up. Feedback is welcome.

Homestuck In Context

[contact information for professor and TAs]

[office hours, maybe some notes about email etiquette]
[URL of course website]

[boilerplate about homework/attendance/participation policies and the standard punishments for plagiarism]
[Disability and accessibility policies] 

Section on the potential triggers of Homestuck: low-key sexism and homophobla,
high-key physically and emotionally abusive relationships, and people like this guy
who remind you of the bullies in your high school. PS to anyone reading this on my
blog: Here's some more music.

[Policy on spoilers: don't share information your classmates haven't read yet.]

Standing assignments

• Research one cultural reference from each week's assigned reading and be prepared to explain it for participation points during the following session. Include an explanation of why the author might have thought it was important to include in the story. If you are uncomfortable speaking in front of the class, email me during the first two weeks of class and I will make accommodations for you to make presentations during office hours or over Skype.
• Homestuck has a lot of characters with a variety of distinguishing features. I recommend that you create a spreadsheet to keep track of them all. Some assignments will require the kind of information that you might add to that spreadsheet.

Assignment schedule

Week 1: Syllabus review and What Is Homestuck?

For next week: Read Act I

Week 2: Act 1 discussion--data types, webcomics, and text adventures

For next week: Read Act 2

Week 3: Act 2 discussion--The Hero's Journey and the Structure of SBURB

For next week. Read Act 3 and Intermission 1.

Week 4: Act 3 discussion--what's up with the chess people?

For next week: Read Act 4

Week 5: Act 4 discussion--time paradoxes, Being A Kid, and announcing the midterm

For next week: Read Act 5 Act 1

The midterm for this course is as follows:

Design an Alternian troll character that represents yourself. You must include the following features:

• A name that fits Alternian naming conventions
• A blood color
• A lusus
• A Strife Specibus
• A fetch modus for your sylladex
• A hobby

You are not required to design your troll's horns or emblem; however, you may use the Hiveswap Extended Zodiac personality test and Troll Call for ideas. (Directly copying a Troll Call character, or copying one with only minor changes, counts as plagiarism.) Your troll's blood color does not need to correspond to your zodiac sign; you should instead choose the hemocaste with which you identify most strongly.

Write a paragraph describing your troll in the style of Homestuck's character introductions, and an essay explaining your design choices with reference to your own personality and interests. This essay can be as long as you need it to be.

You may also include a drawing of your troll in their respiteblock. If you do, please let me know whether or not you would like me to share your drawing and description on the course website.

Week 6: Act 5 Discussion 1 (dystopia, quadrant romance) and midterm Q&A

I will divide the class into groups for next week's discussion.

For next week: Read Act 5 Act 2 and Intermission 2 and finish midterm

Week 7: Turn in midterm! Act 5 Discussion 2: WTF just happened?

Each discussion group will prepare a summary of one of the following topics to present to the class:

• Murderstuck and horror tropes
• Control of the narrative and unreliable narrators
• Dave and Rose's quest progression
• Frog breeding
• Terezi and Vriska's rivalry

Be prepared to answer questions from both me and your classmates.

For next week: Read through Act 6 Intermission 2

Week 8: Act 6 Discussion 1: The Alpha Kids

For next week: Read Act 6 Act 3 and Act 6 Intermission 3

Week 9: Act 6 Discussion 2: Bubblr, the Alpha Trolls, and the Cherubs' Gendering of Fandom

For next week: Read through Act 6 Intermission 5

Week 10: Act 6 Discussion 3: Is This Memes? and Terrible Communication

For next week: Read through Act 6 Act 6 Act 4 and prepare to answer the following question in discussion: What is the turning point at which everything started to go wrong?

Week 11: Act 6 Discussion 4 Discussion 1: Why did all of this happen?

For next week: Read Act 6 Act 6 Intermission 4 and Act 6 Act 6 Act 5

Week 12: Act 6 Discussion 4 Discussion 2: What did John actually fix?, the password mechanic, and Vine

For next week: Read Act 6 Act 6 Intermission 5

Week 13: Act 6 Discussion 4 Discussion 3: Who is your true self?, What happened to the narrative?, and Announcing the Final

For next week: Read Act 6 Act 6 Act 6 and Act 7

The final for this course is as follows:

Write a letter to a friend or relative persuading them to read Homestuck, using in-class discussion topics and your personal observations about the story and its social context. Don't worry about spoilers.

Note: You may send this letter to its intended recipient. But you must also give me a copy so I can grade it.

Week 14: Homestuck Finale Discussion--Does the Ending Work? and Final Q&A

For next week: Watch the Credits and a Let's Play of Hiveswap

Optional: Explore mspfanventures, the I Like Homestuck Project, and the Homestuck category on Archive of Our Own

Week 15: Turn in final! Post-canon and Fan Content Discussion