Beautiful and Funny and Sad and True

The Final Tally

2011-12-31T05:50:00.000-08:00

Obviously, due to the drop-off in number of items added to the list and of postings posted over the last three months, life has been busy. Teaching is a job to love for the holidays and summers off, but it is a relentless beast during the actual working days. Even though it's break, I spent the last two days grading papers. I do, however, have a couple of books to add to the List, therefore completing it for 2011.

Books I've read this year

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
White Noise by Don DeLillo
Enormous Changes at the Last Minute by Grace Paley
American Tabloid by James Ellroy
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom by August Wilson
Babel-17 by Samuel Delaney
Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse
Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie
Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides
Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
The Story of Avis by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
Austenland by Shannon Hale
Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares
Daisy Miller by Henry James
Maggie, a Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Just After Sunset by Stephen King
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
Bossypants by Tina Fey
The Group by Mary McCarthy
Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It by Maile McCoy
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The House of Silk: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery by Anthony Horowitz

So, I guess the grand total has to be 29. I was hoping for 40, but maybe in 2012!

Just for fun, a few of the YA books I read (though I can't say I honestly remember if this was all of them)

Closed for the Season by Mary Downing Hahn
Peeled by Joan Bauer
One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies by Sonya Sones
Heist Society by Ally Carter

And, a preview of my to-read list for 2012:

The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (reading now)
His Last Bow by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Wildwood by Colin Meloy
Inheritance by Christopher Paolini
The Marriage Plot by Jeffery Eugenides

Happy New Year!

My thoughts on religion

2011-10-15T08:29:00.001-07:00

Keeping track, part three

2011-09-28T14:19:00.000-07:00

I'm well on my way to thirty-plus books this year; actually, if you count the re-reads, I'm already at 29. Maybe I can make 40 books this year! That's not even counting the textbook I've had to read for the Composition class I teach, nor the numerous YA novels that I end up snacking on throughout the school year.

Books I've read this year

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
White Noise by Don DeLillo
Enormous Changes at the Last Minute by Grace Paley
American Tabloid by James Ellroy
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom by August Wilson
Babel-17 by Samuel Delaney
Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse
Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie
Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides
Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
The Story of Avis by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
Austenland by Shannon Hale
Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares
Daisy Miller by Henry James
Maggie, a Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Just After Sunset by Stephen King
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
Bossypants by Tina Fey
The Group by Mary McCarthy

Books I've re-read:

The Awakening by Kate Chopin
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Marrow of Tradition by Charles Chestnutt

Updating the List

2011-09-28T14:15:00.000-07:00

I don't have time right now to write a complete book review of the last three books I've read, but I so want to share.

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

Amusing, wry, and sometimes bittersweet look at the lives of international journalists, editors, and others who work at a newspaper in Rome. Interconnected vignette-style novel. Smart, enjoyable, but not particularly memorable.

Bossypants by Tina Fey

Do not read this alone at Noodles and Co. if you don't want to laugh so hard that you spit Japanese Udon Noodles out through your nose onto your Kindle. That is all.

The Group by Mary McCarthy

Eight Vassar graduates in the early 1930's figure out life and love in New York. Unflinching, honest, daring portrayal of women's inner lives before we all over-shared on Facebook. Functions almost as a sociological text. First published in 1963. A fast read for how thick it is; also another interconnected-vignette style novel (that makes three within the last two months: Let the Great World Spin; The Imperfectionists; The Group. I guess this is my style!)

Three great quotes from The Group:

"In private, they often discussed her, like toys discussing their owner, and concluded that she was awfully inhuman."

"'Who was it said,' she added, twinkling, 'that his wife had a whim of iron? My father always quotes that when he has to give in to Mother.'"

"'I felt sure he'd been invited and was staying away on purpose and that everybody there knew that and was watching me out of the corner of their eye.'"

"'Your grammar, Dottie!' chided her mother, absently; her sky-blue eyes had clouded over."

Currently reading:

Though I may have to pause and pick it back up later - it's through inter-library loan, it's been renewed twice and is now overdue, and I've only read one of the stories in it.

Axe Cop

2011-09-05T18:42:00.000-07:00

This is a brilliant idea. This 29-year-old started writing down and illustrating the crazy stories his 5-year-old brother told. Like most brilliant ideas, simple. The result is hilarious.

http://axecop.com/index.php/achome/index/

Keeping track, updated

2011-08-23T16:55:00.000-07:00

Books I've read this year

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
White Noise by Don DeLillo
Enormous Changes at the Last Minute by Grace Paley
American Tabloid by James Ellroy
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom by August Wilson
Babel-17 by Samuel Delaney
Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse
Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie
Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides
Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
The Story of Avis by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
Austenland by Shannon Hale
Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares
Daisy Miller by Henry James
Maggie, a Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Just After Sunset by Stephen King
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

Books I've re-read:

The Awakening by Kate Chopin
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Marrow of Tradition by Charles Chestnutt

Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin

2011-08-23T16:47:00.000-07:00

title: Let the Great World Spin
author: Colum McCann
genre: novel
published: 2010 (paperback)
source: Kankakee Public Library (interlibrary loan), at the long-ago suggestion of my friend Jo
first line: "Those who saw him hushed."
rating: 5/5 stars

This book is remarkable. It's hard to write an original review of a National Book Award-winning book that has been critically lauded by the New York Times Book Review, Dave Eggers, and Frank McCourt, among others. What can I bring to the table, two years after its original release? So this is just my attempt to collect my thoughts.

First of all, I've never read a novel by Colum McCann before. I think he's a genius. He wrote a post-9/11 novel that is set in 1974. Amazing. So many of the lines in the novel, especially descriptions of the Twin Towers, resonate in a haunting way, even without heavy-handed foreshadowing. Instead, McCann reminds us what New York is, was, and can be in the face of beauty and tragedy.

The organization of the novel is a mosaic of characters, moving through vignettes that eventually all connect. (Strangely, the novel I started immediately after this one, The Imperfectionists, functions in almost the same way.) Book 1, Book 2, and Book 3 are each composed of three stories each, set in 1974, punctuated between books by descriptions of the tightrope walker Phillippe Petit. Book 4 is the only one set after 9/11, and this is the book in which all the characters' stories intertwine. Though the characters range from an Irish monk to Bronx prostitutes to an upper-east side WASP, none of them ring false. McCann brings raw honesty and authenticity to all his characters, and even women narrators read true (something rare in men's writing, in my opinion).

I unhesitatingly recommend this book to anyone.

Some notable quotes:

"I gave them all of the truth and none of the honesty." (p. 303)

"Recklessness and freedom--how did they become a cocktail?" (p. 263)

"Even if people laughed at the notion of goodness, if they found it sentimental, or nostalgic, it didn't matter--it was none of those things, he said, and it had to be fought for." (p. 145)

The First Day of the Rest of My Life

2011-08-04T09:38:00.000-07:00

. . . will be tomorrow.

Today I am turning in my term paper for English 678, returning my NIU library books, and attending the last class session of my Master's degree.

Today is Jack's last day at Theresa's house, the babysitter who has watched him since he was four weeks old.

In a couple of weeks I will begin to teach 8th American History for the first time.

On that same day, I will begin to teach college Composition as an adjunct instructor for the first time.

In a couple of weeks, my three-year-old will start at a new babysitter's house.

At the end of this month, he will begin attending preschool, where he will have his first cubby, his first nametag, his first teacher.

I am leaving behind the known world. Here goes nothin'.

Stephen King's Just After Sunset

2011-07-27T12:21:00.000-07:00

title: Just After Sunset
author: Stephen King
genre: short fiction
published: December 2008 (hardcover)
source: Franklin Grove Library
first line: "You don't see what's right in front of your eyes, she'd said, but sometimes he did."
rating: 4/5 stars

I can't even remember how old I was when I first read Stephen King. I know that in 8th grade I was already reading Christine, Insomnia, and Salem's Lot, but I'm pretty sure I attempted Tommyknockers back in pre-pubescence, never completing it, though whether my reason was fear of the contents or intimidation of its size is now lost to the ages.

Regardless, I'll admit it--long time fan. Most people with graduate degrees in literature would never say this aloud. It's tempting for me to be self-indulgent and say, "Well, that's because I'm not a book snob and never have been," but that's not quite right. I AM snobby about books. I can't stand to read drivel, sap, or sloppiness anymore. Almost twelve years of studying the world's great literature at universities has heightened my standards to the point that for me, there is no guilty pleasure when I'm reading. If it's pleasurable, I don't feel guilty. If it's something I'm apt to feel guilty for reading, it's not pleasurable. It's like someone who's been off dairy for years and tries to eat a vanilla ice cream. I'd have to choke it down, it'd be liable to make me puke, and I certainly wouldn't enjoy it.

The thing with Stephen King is that he's not just a horror-genre hack. He's really talented. He may not be the next Proust, Dickens, or James, but he's also no Dean Koontz or James Patterson. I really don't think I have to defend this position too vigorously. King has started to earn a toehold in literary circles, partly for his 2000 memoir On Writing. In 2007, he was named editor of the prestigious "Best American Short Stories" series, cementing his position as Respected American Writer (totally different, as King himself will tell you, from Commercially Successful American Writer). It is in the short story that King truly shines. Heidi Pitlor, series editor of the "Best American Short Stories" series, did well to choose King. His novels have always terrified and captivated me, but his short fiction is, in short, dazzling. I think I've read about every one of his collections, Skeleton Crew most notably (my volume is losing its cover and is highlighted into oblivion). King's short stories range from comic to wistful to grotesque to horrifying to downright beautiful. If you're looking for a starting place, pick up Skeleton Crew and read "Mrs. Todd's Shortcut" and you'll see what I mean.

King's new collection, Just After Sunset, is most of these things. Notably absent is the "horrifying" story. Nothing chilling here, except for a few brain-burning images from "Willa," the opening tale. There is more beauty and sadness than anything else. King, as a writer, is showing his age. Mostly, that phrase means starting to fail at which you once succeeded. I mean literally. The tales are mostly about older adults with grown children, losing spouses, moving to Florida, facing their own deaths, and coming to terms with the afterlife. Which isn't to say that these stories are staid, boring, or flaccid. King writes with a humanity and a fearlessness that's both touching and disconcerting.

"Willa," "Harvey's Dream," "The Things They Left Behind," "The New York Times at Special Bargain Rates," and "Ayana" are all tales that deal with what worlds lay beyond ours, and what happens when those worlds intersect.

"The Gingerbread Girl," "Stationary Bike," and "A Very Tight Place," as well as all the stories listed above, feature a protagonist dealing with the loss of a loved one.

"N.," one of the most characteristically "scary" King stories, is more disheartening than anything. (At the end of the story, it's clear that the story goes on, and no good can come of it.)

"Graduation Afternoon," one of the shorter stories, is more of a sketch, and is one of the two stories in the volume that King admits to "transcribing" from a dream or vision instead of intentionally creating (the other is "Harvey's Dream," also sketch-like).

The best story in this collection, hands-down, is "The Things They Left Behind." It's part of a growing canon of post-9/11 literature, and it made me weep. It's haunting and beautiful and sad and not a little bit scary.

All the stories in this volume held my imagination and attention. I became captive to each one in its turn. They stayed with me after I read them. If they didn't horrify me, that's all right--I'm past the stage where I'm looking for fear. Motherhood is full of fear every day. If you want more traditional, scare-you-in-the-dark King, grab an earlier volume. If you want captivating, beautiful, wistful, disconcerting tales, look no further.

Zen Inspiration

2011-07-20T17:34:00.000-07:00

Being a very distractible person, I fail to make the best of situations. I get angry and frustrated with my kid. I sometimes feel overwhelmed by small tasks. I stress and worry and wonder why I can't get on top of things.

Since my freshman year of college, I have found peacefulness and calm in Zen practices. Buddhism, though widely considered a "religion," is more about habits than beliefs. It's about the way you train yourself to think and to act. I don't claim to be Buddhist, but I do turn to Buddhism when I am feeling crazy.

Some sources for peace and calm:

Sylvia Boorstein
I heard her on the American Public Media program "Being" on Mother's Day morning, and the timing was perfect. Her outlook on being a mother and being a Buddhist (or in her case, a Jewish Buddhist) made me reflect on my own parenting. One of the most notable things that she said on the program was that everyone has time to cultivate their spiritual side. Even if you're a busy, working mother, it's about doing things lovingly. Even folding the laundry lovingly can be a spiritual practice. She's written tons of books: I downloaded the first chapter of Pay Attention, for Goodness' Sake on my Kindle and plan to download the rest when my class is over. I would love to attend one of her retreats. http://www.sylviaboorstein.com/

The Dalai Lama
I read My Land and My People in college, and now I follow him on Twitter. Seriously. There's something wonderful about receiving a little glimpse of the sublime in between all the goofy stuff.

Yoga
I did yoga when I was pregnant with Jack. Getting ready to start it up again. "Strong mind, strong body." Jack likes to watch my yoga DVD with me and stretch with "the girls on t.v."

"Lessons from a Zen Mommy."
I just read this in the August 2011 issue of Parents' Magazine. I wish I could link to it, but they don't digitize their entire issue. It's written by Bethany Saltman, a Zen Buddhist and mother of a three-year-old, and she's the real deal: before becoming parents, she and her husband lived in a monastery. She translates traditional Buddhist teachings into "mom" lessons, such as: stop multitasking; take responsibility for yourself and your mess, and teach your child to do the same; limit acquiring too much stuff; don't beat yourself up over things; develop rituals; count your blessings; remember to breathe.

Stephen Batchelor
A Religion Panel in my Honors Program at Clarke College brought me into contact with a woman who was Zen Buddhist. She described Buddhism to me for the first time, in a way that calmed me and made me feel hopeful and joyful in a very depressing year of my life. After listening to her speak, I bought Buddhism Without Beliefs and Verses from the Center by Stephen Batchelor, and these volumes became my crash-course in Buddhism. Admittedly, it has been a long time since I've read them, but I think they are ready to be dusted off.

Keeping track

2011-07-15T12:37:00.000-07:00

In the very first class I took for my grad program, my professor recommended that we all keep a notebook where we record the titles and details about books we've read. I started to do that the following summer, which is now four years ago. Then came baby. And more grad classes. And four years' worth of papers to grade. And moving. And all that stuff.

That notebook, in which I took careful notes about the seventh Harry Potter book as well as C. S. Lewis' Mere Christianity and Screwtape Letters, Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone, and Anne LaMott's Grace (Eventually), gradually faded into obscurity only to be resurrected last summer as a grad-school notebook for my Dickens class. (Interestingly, it started life as an ill-fated workout notebook, where I kept track of how much I lifted and what settings I put the machines on and number of reps at Powerhouse Gym in Morris, IL the summer before I got married.) It's now, sadly, tattered and full of boring notes about Pickwick Papers.

But who am I kidding? I don't have time anymore to write full-page summaries of every book that I read, including my evaluations, number of stars, and important quotes. It's impressive enough, these days, to read a non-school book beginning to end, though I've done a better job of that this summer than I have in recent years.

So, if only to remind myself (and my "mom-brain") what I've read lately and why, here's a breakdown (roughly in the order I read them) for 2011 (not including YA novels, because those take like 2 seconds to read and I totally don't digest them):

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
White Noise by Don DeLillo
Enormous Changes at the Last Minute by Grace Paley
American Tabloid by James Ellroy
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom by August Wilson
Babel-17 by Samuel Delaney
Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse
Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie
Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides
Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
The Story of Avis by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
Austenland by Shannon Hale
Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares
Daisy Miller by Henry James
Maggie, a Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells

Books I've re-read:

The Awakening by Kate Chopin
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Marrow of Tradition by Charles Chestnutt

Rap and Poetry

2011-03-06T18:11:00.001-08:00

This is one of my students. Pretty amazing talent. I can't wait to see what he does for our poetry slam in April.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQRWWMZ6hbU

Requiem for Borders

2011-03-02T19:45:00.000-08:00

I did not intend to make one last trek to Borders, though I've been following the news the last several weeks and was saddened but not surprised that many of its stores would be closing. What need have I for Borders? I am always up to my ears in reading for grad school; I have a million books at home I haven't read yet; I have a local, independent bookstore that I love; I have Amazon for deals; I have a Kindle. Why visit Borders yet again, even for 10-40% off every item in the store? Borders is redundant.

As I drove to Target tonight for a two-year-old's birthday gift, though, I passed the Borders sign and wondered. Bargain-priced gifts, not just another Mattel toy from a big box store, danced in my head. I turned in at the next entrance and selected a Melissa and Doug wooden dress-up doll for 20% off.

That should have been it. I could have cruised to the checkout and left. But instead, as I too-carefully selected a 40%-off birthday card, I was entranced by any number of lovely, tempting items. A box the shape of the Eiffel tower. Bookends that look like globes and suspension bridges. Elaborate, felt-and-sequin bedecked cards that retail for $10 apiece. A hardcover copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance with a fetching green dust jacket. Chocolates. Board games. Word games. A "Hop on Pop" floor puzzle.

It's no coincidence that very few of these items are books. That was the error in my logic. Borders isn't my favorite brick-and-mortar chain bookstore over Barnes and Noble for no reason. If it were completely redundant, I would have no reason to prefer it or have an opinion at all. But it's the tremendous amount of slightly nerdy, overpriced crap that draws me in. I have no need for anything I listed above, or anything else in the store, quite honestly. But I very nearly went right back in after I'd paid (for the Melissa and Doug doll, three cards, and a tube of Burt's Bees hand lotion) because on the way out the door, I was momentarily shanghaied. There's something heady about the idea that only $19.99 stands between you and The Complete Yoga Kit, or between you and copy of The Complete History of the World with a cover 18 inches high.

I think it's the completeness of the crap that beckons me. As my professor said tonight at grad class, "Everything contains its opposite." If I am drawn to The Complete Whatever, it's because it suggests to me that I am incomplete. I am not a yoga master. I do not know everything about the history of the world. That these things, and more, become possible as you wander every overpopulated nook and cranny of a Borders store, I think, is the draw. Books are beside the point.

Spain

2011-02-12T17:08:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe I will be here in about a month. Can't wait to hug my brother, drink Spanish wine, stay in a villa, and tour the Alhambra. Also can't wait to escape the bitter cold of the American midwest in favor of the Mediterranean coast. Feeling like I should be studying Spanish (in what spare time?), but suppose I will rely on my brother for translation as needed. Starting to count down the days. (35 as of today!)

Grace Paley

2011-02-11T13:07:00.000-08:00

At the first meeting of my new class, "American Literature since 1960," we read "A Conversation with my Father" by Grace Paley. Oh my goodness! Her prose is so spare, so compact, so forthright, so clear, yet so dense that a group of graduate students continued uncovering meaning for a solid hour. From a four-page story. I went the following week and used my birthday money to buy her short-story collection "Enormous Changes at the Last Minute." Hello, new friend.

How should we train teachers?

2010-11-20T07:40:00.000-08:00

One of the most interesting questions. This hearkens back to my favorite Malcolm Gladwell piece (see "Tenure" post from August). There's a whole series on Marketplace, including interactive features. But I'm old-school. Here's the transcript of what I heard on the radio Thursday night.

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/11/18/pm-improving-lousianas-schools-starting-with-teachers/

Classroom Design

2010-11-14T18:49:00.000-08:00

The winner of Slate's classroom design contest has been announced. Brain too tired to comment.

Currently reading volume one of the new Mark Twain autobiography. It's taking a long time just to get through the front material. But it's interesting front material, at least.

Pros and Cons, Kindle Edition

2010-10-23T14:51:00.000-07:00

Things I like about my Kindle:

Always have a book with me
Can always get a book if I read them all
One word: Minesweeper
Don't need a pen and post-it to annotate a book
If I want to look up a word, I don't even have to leave the page
Public domain books are free
Google is only a click away
No backlighting
The geek factor

Things I don't care for about my Kindle:

Can't read it in the bath. Or at any rate, I don't want to try.
All the books are in the same font. I feel like the typeset occasionally adds to the reading experience.
New books are still kinda expensive
Can't borrower nor lender be
No backlighting (I know, it's also a pro. Therefore, it should negate itself. But sometimes it's one, sometimes the other.)

Anecdotal evidence for liking Kindle:

Every day in 8th grade, for the last 20 minutes before lunch, we all "drop everything and read." One boy hardly ever has anything to read. Sometimes he sits there with his head in his hands, sometimes he's a library creeper, sometimes I catch him listlessly flicking through the pages of something I know he already read. On Thursday, I went up to him with my Kindle and asked if he'd like to check it out. I showed him the basic navigation buttons, then went back to my desk to read. When the kids were dismissed for lunch, he brought my Kindle back over. I noticed he was reading The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and I excitedly told him about its real-life mystery factor (that Charles Dickens died before it was finished).

The next day, I brought him a paperback copy of Drood so he could take it home with him if he wanted, but I also gave him the Kindle again. He took it to his seat and quietly told his neighbors, "Don't be jealous." I think the cool tech factor sucked him in, and before he knew it, he was reading Dickens and actually making progress (as of yesterday, he has read 2% of the novel.)

Mark Twain's Unexpurgated Autobiography

2010-10-17T09:35:00.000-07:00

Despite his hyper-canonized status and over-filled field of researchers, there is no one I would rather spend a lifetime in academia with than Mark Twain. Can't wait for the new book to drop. Here's the story from CBS Sunday Morning.

"Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company."

The shape of learning

2010-10-08T16:31:00.000-07:00

Slate dares its readers to redesign the American classroom. How does the changing landscape of American education inform our choices about how we use our physical space?

Prose vs. Poetry

2010-10-03T12:01:00.000-07:00

Can't remember where I read this, but it was just this weekend (New Canon website? NYT Book Review?) -

"A really good line in prose should be as unchangeable as a line in poetry" - in other words, economy, beauty, truth, etc. Like Mill says (and Stephen Daedelus echoes) - some novels are poetry, some poetry is just verse.

Philip Roth on CBS

2010-10-03T09:15:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to an interview with Philip Roth from CBS Sunday Morning: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/10/03/sunday/main6923076.shtml

I wrote my undergrad thesis on "Goodbye, Columbus," which still ranks up there as one of my ten favorite books. I admire Roth's economy of language and his frankness.

The New Canon

2010-10-02T12:54:00.000-07:00

I'm not a huge proponent of the traditional "canon," though I can see the reasons why traditionally canonical books are so celebrated. I suppose it depends on what you want to use canonical texts for.

Should we . . .

Put on them on a pedestal, above reproach?

   No.

Use them to understand literary heritage and see progression of ideas through time?

   Sure.

Require 8th grade students and/or struggling readers to read them?

   No.

Use them to build a strong foundation for those who study literature and/or teach english?

   Yes.

I am, despite my tolerance for the "canon," keenly aware of the "dead white guy" syndrome when I select texts for my classroom, and though I tend to side with the NYT in the recent "Franzen debacle," I sympathize with and think about the question of women's place in the literary tradition.

Beloved, clearly, blows this entire debate out of the water. The much-maligned NYT chose it in 2006 as the best book of the last quarter century. Every time I read it, I'm inclined to agree. There's too much to talk about or even think about with this novel. (My brain is in the process of digesting and note-taking now, so more on my thoughts about the book later.)

But to get back to the point of canon: while doing some web-surfing about Beloved today, I discovered a website with a provocative idea: The New Can on. The idea is to take books written in the past 25 years and "canonize" them - books by crotchety guys like Franzen, but also multi-cultural authors, women authors, etc. I'm not quite sure what the criteria is (Harry Potter is included, along with Special Topics in Calamity Physics), but it seems clear that the website creators celebrate these books for canonical reasons, calling them "the new classics" and "widely recognized as fine literature" - though the write-up for Beloved acknowledges the irony of its being traditionally anti-canonical, being post-Colonial, post-patriarchal, and post-Eurocentric. At any rate, this site will be a rich source for finding new reads, and a decent place to begin the sticky process of unraveling what determines a canon, anyway. (Fun fact: I've read nine of the books they list on the sidebar and already have at least five of the others on my "to-read" list.)

Books from the "New Canon" I've read:
Beloved
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
The Handmaid's Tale
The Corrections
American Pastoral
The Secret History
Special Topics in Calamity Physics
Empire Falls
Old School

Additional authors from the "New Canon" I've read (but not the book listed):
Haruki Murakami
Ann Patchett
Cormac McCarthy
Michael Chabon (not only read him, but met him!)
Zadie Smith

Books I Will Read from the "New Canon" hopefully sooner than later:
Infinite Jest (my brother just read it)
Bel Canto (on my amazon.com wish list)
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (already on my bookshelf)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Books I Think They Should Add:
The Life of Pi
The Historian
Straight Man
Kissing in Manhattan
The Kitchen God's Wife and/or The Joy Luck Club (How can there be no Amy Tan in a "new" canon?)

Thoughts on the official first week of book-writing

2010-09-25T07:43:00.000-07:00

Monday night, I had that breakthrough moment (driving home from DeKalb at 9 p.m., headlights, brain churning, radio off, insulated in the Hyundai) where you go from two years of best buds saying to each other "We should write a book together!" to deciding to do it and narrowing your focus enough to make a plan. I left myself voicemails (safer than trying to write in the car). I went home and took notes, made two pages of outlines, and emailed my friend my ideas.

Throughout the week, we kept it going. She opened a google account; we began sharing documents through Google Docs. She asked me who my dream publisher would be, then went to their homepage and found all the submission guidelines for authors. I feel like we're on our way.

Since it's going to be a book for English teachers, we're keeping careful track of everything we do in the classroom this year, making lists of copyrighted stuff we'll need permissions for, noting what works and what doesn't, and hopefully finally trying all the stuff that might really work even better.

Surprising to me is that this is the way a book starts - voicemails and emails - not by opening a laptop and typing. And I'm surprised that I'm surprised. Maybe it's just surprising to me that after all this time I'm actually doing it. And I really think we have something here.

On Truth

2010-09-25T07:27:00.000-07:00

"The truth of poetry is to paint the human soul truly: the truth of fiction is to give a true picture of life." -John Stuart Mill

"Gonzo journalism . . . is a style of 'reporting' based on William Faulkner's idea that the best fiction is far more true than any kind of journalism--and the best journalists have always known this . . ." -Hunter S. Thompson

It takes awhile to come to the idea that literature is "truth" - my husband once reported to me that when he was in grade school, he remembered the difference between fiction and non-fiction as being "fake" and "not-fake." How do we bridge that distinction in a child's mind and the place of literature in the adult mind? Maybe is this what sets apart "literary" fiction from other types of fiction? (I'm thinking of the great Franzen debacle of the past few weeks.)

If books like Beloved are so disturbing to me, is that party because I'm uncomfortable with the truths therein? Is there one truth or many truths? What can I teach students about truth? (It's party an argument for canonical teaching, if in fact the "best" fiction is "more true" than journalism - put down the Jodi Picault and pick up Bleak House.)

Radioworks Documentary and The Turn of the Screw

2010-09-07T17:06:00.000-07:00

This is becoming a linkdump, but this is the afore-mentioned "Testing Teachers" radio documentary:

http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/testing_teachers/index.html

Diane Rehm is discussing this topic tomorrow. It's suddenly getting so much attention that my blog is in danger of becoming entirely devoted to rounding up stories on the topic of teacher effectiveness. Is it because of Malcolm Gladwell? NCLB? I'm glad for the scrutiny and certainly the pitch can only become higher as the wave catches on in non-urban areas.

Also, many questions re: The Turn of the Screw (via today's entry at 750words.com) -

Is it a ghost story?
Why did Miles die?
Will Flora die too?
Did Miles ever really see Quint?
Did he see Miss Jessup all along?
Did Flora ever see any ghosts?
If no, did she get feverish and have to leave because of her governess saying that she saw the ghost?
If there were no ghosts, why did the governess have Quint and Miss Jessup's descriptions so precisely?
If the kids were playing a trick on her, how did they do it?

Looking forward to having someone to discuss this with. Still mulling it all over in my head: not ready to spout opinions yet.

Even more on teacher effectiveness

2010-09-05T06:57:00.000-07:00

I may be a bit obsessed with this theme, but it touches upon such bedrock issues as "Should I be in the career I'm in?", "How do we improve public education?", and "What is best for the students?" that I find it hard to ignore.

There will be a public radio documentary on this theme airing tomorrow night at 6 p.m. I don't know if I'll catch it, because I plan to be soaking up the last warm rays of the waning summer with my family, a beer, and nature around me. But I love that NPR makes it easy to find transcripts and/or recordings of almost anything you miss, so I will definitely be looking it up.

More on teacher effectiveness

2010-08-28T06:14:00.000-07:00

"An L.A. Times analysis, using data largely ignored by LAUSD, looks at which educators help students learn, and which hold them back."

I haven't read the whole series yet, but the premise strikes me as so level-headed it's almost crazy. If we know that the quality of the teacher in the front of the room is the single greatest factor affecting student progress,* and we have the data to see how students progress from year-to-year,** and we don't look at it,*** what does that say about how much we care about student progress?

*and we do.
**ditto.
***ditto again.

Tenure

2010-08-13T06:55:00.000-07:00

Some thoughts:

Christopher Beam at Slate, on tenure in higher education

Malcolm Gladwell at the New Yorker, on teachers and classroom success

Pip's progress

2010-08-06T10:49:00.000-07:00

"We changed again, and yet again, and it was now too late and too far to go back, and I went on. And the mists had all solemnly risen now, and the world lay spread before me." -Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Dickens captures the fundamental themes with passages that are simultaneously sad and funny. It's a bizarre experience to be reading and suddenly find yourself laughing with a sob catching in your throat. He takes what makes us human and captures it with language. It's what made me choose the title for this blog (which is borrowed from a Melissa Bank novel, but aptly describes so many passages in Dickens). I'm not sure if pulling one of the B, F, S & T passages and posting it would do it justice. Dickens builds to his moments. Losing the context would present you with a pretty, eloquent pair of lines, like above, but you wouldn't have the emotional commitment to the moment like you would if you were reading the novel.

I'll try to find more examples of what I'm talking about. But again, this might not be the medium for it.

Great minds on education

2010-08-05T07:58:00.000-07:00

"The greatest success of education occurs when the student learns to reject claims that are unsupported by reliable evidence - including his own." - My old French teacher, James Higby

Meta-textual silliness

2010-08-03T19:35:00.000-07:00

Great minds on literature, part 1

2010-08-02T08:58:00.000-07:00

"I am more interested in the high ideas of a feeble executant than in the high execution of a feeble thinker." - Thomas Hardy