Kudos Deb and Brandon

Brandon suggested I read Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello after reading the play in Deb's modern lit course, and all I can is...awesome! I really enjoyed this satirical, twisting look at theatre and the nature of reality. The characters each have competing views of the reality of their drama, just as people in real life have differing views of the same event. The play-within-a-play staging sets up a self-referentiality that I found at once thought-provoking and hilarious. Even as I encountered the truth that actors can never be the character, only a representation of the character, I found myself pondering the existence of people who are not flesh and bone but words on a page. Emma Thompson will never be Elinor Dashwood. Mel Gibson will never be Hamlet (neither will Kenneth Brannagh). Daniel Radcliffe will never be Harry Potter. And I really don't know where I'm going with this... Just putting thoughts to page...er, screen.

I find myself drawn to one passage from the Father:

But only in order to know if you, as you really are now, see yourself as you once were with all the illusions that were yours then, with all the things both inside and outside of you as they seemed to you - as they were then indeed for you. Well, sir, if you think of all those illusions that mean nothing to you now, of all those things which don't even seem to you to exist any more, while once they were for you, don't you feel that...the very earth under your feet is sinking away from you when you reflect that in the same way this you as you feel it today - all this present reality of yours - is fated to seem a mere illusion to you tomorrow?

And it makes me want to ask what past realities no longer seem real to you?

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World's Sexiest Couple

3rd place: Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal
(Strength of character, two really hot guys sexy)


2nd place: Humphry Bogart and Lauren Bacall
(upper class, snazzy, dramatic sexy)

1st place: Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter
(freaky weird sexy)

Obviously the couples do not have to be real life couples, and sexy is a relative term.... Who are your top three sexy couples?

Changing Students

When I was awarded tenure this year, the VP of the College gave me two books, one of which is titled Teaching Today's College Students. I just finished the book and I have two first-blush impressions: 1) the book had interesting information but it could have been said in one chapter rather than one book; and 2) this generation of students is being awarded more consideration than past generations. This book definitely made me think.

Most of what I read was redundant, not only within the text which had a tendency to repeat the same information, but also within my own experience both as a teacher and as an "almost member" of the generation. Apparently my generation runs from those born from 1965-1981 and Millenials were born after 1981; I was born in 80 and have had access to computer technology from a young age so I'm close to being a Millenial. The main differences between me and Millenials seem to be the following: Millenials achieved young adulthood in a time of financial success and as such were more easily provided what they wanted. They also were raised in a different fashion, specifically in a more buddy type approach where negotiation was more common than authoritative parenting. Finally, they are more socialized than their predecessors due to technology increasing the ease of communication. These differences mean my "traditional" students have a larger sense of entitlement than I did, they believe that almost everything, including class rules and grades, can be negotiated, and they are more comfortable with collaborative rather than individual learning.

The other characteristics of millenials, such as the ability to multi-task, comfort with technology, and non-linear thinking, feel rather familiar to me. The conundrum I see is that previous generations were expected to adapt to new situations and assimilate; whereas today, we are placing the pressure to adapt on the 'authorities'. New methods of instruction and new ways of interacting with students are almost requirements for today's teacher. Our students prefer to communicate through email, so instructors better adapt. Our students want to be praised and receive immediate feedback, so instructors better find a way to do so. Our students want choices about what they learn and how they learn it, so instructors need to modify their courses. Our students are visual learners uncomfortable or unpracticed with texts, so we need to incorporate more images.

I'm not saying that all of this is necessarily wrong, but where does student accountability come in? I can understand that today's student is more visual; afterall, we live in a culture inundated by images in almost every waking moment. And yes, the internet, television, instant messenging, these advances in technology have shortened the attention span of the average person by providing quick access to short snippets of information.

But the contemporary tendency for communicating tiny amounts of information visually does not preclude or diminish the importance of learning how to read a text that includes a large quantity of complex material. Isn't this abililty something we, as instructors, should be teaching our students how to do (especially since they don't seem to be able to do it)? Teaching our students something new is our job afterall, not just helping them become more proficient at what they already know.

I think we need to meet students where they are, but push them - and push them hard - to be able to do more. Learning can be fun, but it's not a requirement. Don't we all have to learn how to cope with and benefit from situations we don't consider fun?

Or has education really fallen into the fast-and-easy mode of consumer culture?

Books Numbers Two through Ten

I didn't do too bad on my New Year's Resolution to read 'better'. My first ten books of the year (the last two I'm not finished with) have included 3 non-fiction, 3 good reads, 3 romance, and 1 yal. I figure that's an intellectual score of 3:2. Now on to some comments...

The Pagan Stone, Left to Die, and Beautiful Lies: The Pagan Stone wrapped up a Nora Roberts trilogy, and as with all Nora Roberts books, I loved it. The supernatural, friendship, love, and sex...excellent. Left to Die didn't leave a lasting impression on me, but it was a good little vacation book. Beautiful Lies was my least favorite of the three, and I really just read it because I ran out of books on vacation.

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The Host: I read this because I, for better or worse, enjoyed the Twilight series, so I figured I would try another Meyer novel. And I wasn't disappointed. The Host reveals a fascinating image of a post-apocalyptic world ala Body Snatchers instead of Terminator. Actually, it is quite literally a body snatchers narrative. The importance of the eyes to determining the humanity of the individual was at once common and moving. The treatment of the other as actually being more humane than humans, but still the 'badguys,' gave the novel less of a good versus evil feel which I appreciated as I tend to believe that in reality usually good-in-a-way is fighting good-in-another-way.

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The Reader: I figure I don't have to give any summary since the movie version has become so widely known. I thought the plotline was very interesting, but I did not necessarily enjoy the way the story was told. It was a very quick read, a story told simply and concisely. I don't necessarily have a problem with simple, but in this case, something about this style of writing bothered me. The actual events, the characters, the themes, these I found intriguing. Even with the simple language, Schlink manages to convey the awesome complexity of Hanna, a character who I simultaneously pitied, hated, and admired. The more I think about the story, the more I like it. In that way, I guess this book is like the film No Country for Old Men, the first run through leaves you feeling relatively ambivalent, but the more time passes, the more it can seep into your conscious, the more appealing it gets. Maybe a re-read is necessary.

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Escape: The story of a woman who managed to leave a plural marriage within the FLDS, Escape frustrated me in that I can not possibly understand a faith which allows for spousal and child abuse, a faith which elevates the man/husband to a position of such power that even those who disagree with the way he "runs" his family will not step in and help because they still believe it is his right. I also found myself annoyed that as a country, we allow a community to violate our laws and commit oppressive and abusive acts. People say this country was founded on the concept of religious freedom, but I would like to think that personal freedom is the real foundation. And when religion calls for the subjugation of the individual, personal freedom must trump religion. We will use the civil rights violations occurring in the Middle East to encite support for a war, but we won't deal with those same civil rights violations within our own boundaries. Seems...illogical and self-destructive.

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Nocturnes: Short stories are typically not my preferred genre, but I loved this book. Each story was unique, a horror tale which drew on commonalities of the genre but didn't just repeat the same old, same old. Avid readers will see an homage here and there to other authors - Sheridan LeFanu, Stephen King, and Ray Bradbury stick out to me - but the stories, at least to me, seem uniquely Connolly's own, new but familiar. The very first story, The Cancer Cowboy Rides, offers a beautifully portrayed original villain. Miss Froom, Vampire twists without twisting . And Some Children Wander by Mistake gives us a new reason to fear clowns, who are apparently "chosen in the mudderwomb".

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Strangers in the Land of Egypt: I'm not quite half-way through this yet, but so far it's wonderful. The lead character is rather stock in nature - a teenager, who is basically good but runs with a much-less-good crowd, is assigned community service at a nursing home. It's relatively easy to see where the story is going as far as theme. Yet, I have enjoyed the interesting quirks of the characters and the twists in the plot so far. More later....

I have now finished and I truly enjoyed this book. I assumed the story was going to focus more on the Holocaust due to the fact that the main character was a boy (Jesse) arrested for breaking into a synagogue and sentenced to spend time in a nursing home with a Holocaust survivor (Mendel). I expected a coming of age story focused on Jesse's realization of lives more fraught with horror and loss than his own. Instead, I found a book focused on the details of Jesse's life, more so than Mendel's. Mendel is an influence but a quiet one, affecting change through an intense presence rather than a series of sermons. I am pained by the story, but in way which causes remembrance and reflection rather than frustration and sadness.

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The Power of Reading: This one I just started, but so far it appeals to my bookworm self in that it elevates reading to its proper place as an almost godly activity. :) More later...

Three points stick out to me from this book: 1) Reading is the key to better comprehension, grammar, spelling, writing style, and vocab; 2) Reading is more important to learning how to write well than writing practice is; and 3) light reading is intellectually, academically, and socially viable. While I'm in full agreement and excited about points 1 and 3, point 2 scares me. As a writing instructor, part of my philosophy is that to write well, one should practice writing. I've always believed reading is integral to writing, but I worry that we may swing back to old school English which placed a seriously heavy emphasis on "literature" specifically classic/canon fiction texts and poetry. What saves me from a breakdown though is that this text quite specifically states that to write academic essays, one must read academic essays; newspaper writing, newspapers; and so on.

I will definitely be reading this book again, or at least those pages I earmarked for repeat investigation. And I have written down three new ideas for my classes.

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