Reading Groups 4, 5, 6 Panel Presentations

Reading groups 4, 5, and 6 presented their theses to the class on Tuesday and Thursday, researching the three books Joshua Ferris' And Then we Came to the End, Christopher Bohjalian's Trans-Sister Radio and Deavid Sedaris' Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, respectively.

Each of these three books were vastly different in content, unlike last week's presentations in which the books' conflicts and characters somewhat overlapped. Here, we were dealing with the indifference of corporate America and the economic recession, transgender roles and the detrimental societal effects of heteronormativity, and familial tensions and gay humor.

Group 4 is researching the book And Then we Came to the End, which deals with a very interesting first-person plural narrative perspective. Seldom used in literature, it is effective in evoking camaraderie, ironically lacking in the advertising company which this story is set in. Some other theses included discussing the office workers' mood disorders, job-related issues, and Lynn Mason's struggle with breast cancer as a metaphor for the overall themes of the book. I'm particularly interested in the narrative structure and how an author can truly delve into the individual lives of characters using a recurrent "we" if at all.

Group 5 presented their research panel on the book Trans-Sister Radio, delving into the topics of Dana's journey from a man on the outside and a woman on the inside to a woman in and out, how he learns gender normative stereotypes from his girlfriend Allison and societal concepts of sexual orientation and gender identification.

Group 6 did their panel presentation on one of David Sedaris' latest installments: Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. As most of the book deals with familial ties and embarrassing stories, most of the theses delved into Sedaris' relationships with his father, siblings, and mother. I'm really interested in him as a gay humorist and how his sexuality plays a role of placing him as a perpetual outsider, as someone discusses in their thesis.

Everyone did a really great job, and I'm sure their papers will come out well-developed.

So this is my last post on this blog, pretty sad, but I've learned a lot. What I've liked about this class is that the literature we've read pertains to the times that I've grown up in: when I watched the twin towers fall on 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina sweep through New Orleans, gay rights issues, and the Abu Ghraib scandal.

So good luck to everyone in your future literary endeavors! I'm sure I'll be seeing some of you again!

..but not until Tuesday, I shall not be resurfacing til this paper is done! ;)

Reading Groups 2 & 3 Panel Presentations

Reading groups 2 and 3 presented their theses to the class on Tuesday and Thursday, researching the two books James Patterson's The Postcard Killers and Jodi Picoult's Nineteen Minutes, respectively.

Both bestsellers revolve around a major conflict of murder, which got me thinking more about what we discussed on Tuesday/Thursday: the glamourization of murderers and murdering. Although The Postcard Killers and Nineteen Minutes deal with two very different instances of death: a European couple who view their murders as art and a life-long victim of bullying driven over the edge to commit a high school shooting and sees it much like a video game, they both provide a brief glimpse into the murderer's delusional mind. Someone who commits such atrocities has to be delusional to some extent, whether they think its a video game or its art. The fact that so many authors in contemporary American literature delve into death and murder as a routine happening shows a lot about the interconnectedness of the media (shows like CSI, Dexter, etc.) and our everyday lives.

In The Postcard Killers, some theses included death as an art form, the ethics of journalism, the bestseller formula, and nationality as a cultural barrier. They all seem very original, which makes for a harder base for sources, but also provides an opportunity for original thought. One thing that I think Joanne should keep in mind with her "bestseller formula" thesis is the aforementioned ideas about how the media hypes up murdering, since it is very telling of our gore-obsessed culture.

As for Nineteen Minutes, I had no idea that that novel was based on a real-life situation in a small New Hampshire town. It really brings it home to think of such atrocities happening so close to home (too close for comfort!), even if it is an unfortunate reality of today. Some thesis ideas circulated on the panel included high school characters using "masks," how teenagers view death, and the conditions that set the stage for tragedies like in Nineteen Minutes. I think that definitely the coined "high school hierarchy" is the motivating conditional factor that causes these tragedies and should be researched.

I commend both groups for developing original, well-thought theses. Good luck!

(Im)Perfect Peace

"Momma! Why didn’t you love me? That’s all I ever wanted. Somebody to tuck me in at night and read me bedtime stories. Like white folks do with their kids. But you never did. I tried to clean up so good that you’d have to love me, but I guess I never did it good enough.  And you know what’s funny? I woulda done anything, I mean anything, to get your attention...” (146).

This is the scene depicted in Perfect Peace, after Perfect's true gender identity has been revealed and Emma Jean has retreated from her family's shunning to her mother's grave site. Up until this point in the text, Emma Jean has refused to speak with her mother, carrying a long-held resentment against her for being mistreated and disfavored over her other sisters in her childhood.

Her damaged relationship with her mother makes her question her relationship with her own children. I think this particular passage defines community as a body of power. While we think of community and familial ties as a means of bonding and togetherness, conversely, it has the power to divide and disenfranchise.

We have seen other instances of this in our reading: from Fun Home and Alison Bechdel's strained relationship with her homosexual father to I'm the One I Want and Margaret Cho's relationship with her mother. Children disassociating from their parents and parents shunning their children. Eventually, Emma Jean is hated by her family for what she has done and, in doing so, perpetuates the relationship she hated and hoped to change with her mother.

Daniel Black's Perfect Peace is a story of familial bonds and the shunning and togetherness of community. I hope everyone enjoys their families and has a great Thanksgiving break! Hope to recover from a turkey coma before classes start up!

Research Thesis and Annotated Bibliography

Research Thesis

Teenage sexuality and specifically, unplanned pregnancy is a timeless taboo subject and by no means an untold story. Throughout literature, teenage mother characters have struggled against judgment, social ostracizing, and shunning by their community, and yet, this sub-genre dealing with these concepts is still largely overlooked.

In Meredith Hall’s memoir Without a Map, tells her untold story as a pregnant teenager growing up in 1960s Hampton, New Hampshire. She describes being exiled by her parents, teachers, classmates, and members of the larger community in Hampton, New Hampshire. Even when she escapes her hometown, the shadows of her past sins haunt her and she lives in perpetual self-exile.

As of right now, I’d really like to do a close reading of the memoir to build my argument that the story uses the larger subject of teenage pregnancy as a timeless taboo to frame the context for Hall’s self-exile. The stigma attached to teenage pregnancy is timeless, hence, why Hall is in a state of perpetual self-exile through the 1960s to the contemporary 21^st century.

As this is a close reading of the novel, Without A Map, supplemented with the literary subgenre of teenage pregnancy, I will be sampling numerous novels across time from as early as the mid-19^th century and as late as the 2000s to keep it as literature-based as possible.

Annotated Bibliography

Gregson, Joanna. The Culture of Teenage Mothers. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2009.

     This book, Culture of Teenage Mothers written by Joanna Gregson is a scholarly study into the culture of teenage pregnancy from the female perspective. Gregson traces the process from typical influential factors to conception to how the dynamics of familial relationships change over the course of the pregnancy. In this book, girls give voice to their experiences, providing several first-hand nonfictional accounts of teenage pregnancy.

I will use this scholarly source to provide the historical and sociological context to considering teenage pregnancy for my research paper.

Letts, Billie. Where the Heart Is. New York : Warner Books, 1998.

     This fictitious novel, written in 1998 by Billie Letts, follows the travels of Novalee, a down-on-her-luck Southern teenage girl. She is seventeen years old and seven months pregnant, driving with her boyfriend and father of her baby, Willy Jack, from Tennessee to California. Novalee and Willy Jack make a pit stop at a Wal-Mart in Sequoyah, Oklahoma where she is abandoned by her boyfriend in the parkinglot, left with nothing more than her beach bag and $7.77 in change.

     I will use this novel to draw literary similarities between Where the Heart Is and Without a Map as narratives in the stigma of teenage pregnancy. Like Meredith Hall, the character Novalee is exiled from her community. She is literally “exiled” to a Wal-Mart where for the majority of the story, she is left abandoned in the store. A close reading of both stories will endorse my argument that teenage pregnancy is portrayed as a timeless taboo subject in literature.

Inclan, Jessica Barksdale. Her Daughter’s Eyes. New York: NAL Trade, 2001.

    This fictional novel, written in 2001 by Jessica Barksdale Inclan, follows multiple narratives involved in a teenage pregnancy, mostly between the adult father and the teenage mother. The main character, Kate Phillips is a seventeen-year-old girl growing up in a quiet suburban neighborhood with her younger sister Tyler and emotionally distant father who is absent from the house often since their mother’s unexpected death. Alone in the house, Tyler and Kate deliver her baby girl alone in the upstairs closet of their home. Kate insists that her baby's existence must remain hidden, but inevitably, the the secret is discovered, involving the police and children's protective services. 

    I will use this novel to draw literary similarities between Her Daughter’s Eyes and Without a Map as narratives in the stigma of teenage pregnancy. Similar to Meredith Hall, Kate is secreted in her home and then sent to a foster house for teenagers, having been exiled by her family and community. A close reading of both stories will endorse my argument that teenage pregnancy is portrayed as a timeless taboo subject in literature.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Dodd, 1850.

     This work of classic literature, written in 1850 by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is perhaps the most archaic novel that deals directly and unabashedly with the stigma of pregnancy. The main character, Hester Prynne is a young woman who finds herself unmarried and pregnant. Set in austere, Puritan New England, she struggles between the moral authority of her faith, the shunning of her community, and her own love for her daughter, Pearl.

      I will use this novel to draw literary similarities between Her Daughter’s Eyes and Without a Map as narratives in the stigma of pregnancy. There are several similarities between the two narratives from a New England setting to the effects of communal shunning and self-exile. Hester Prynne exiles herself from the village to raise her daughter and Meredith Hall too, leaves her roots in Hampton for a free life in Boston. A close reading of both stories will endorse my argument that teenage pregnancy is portrayed as a timeless taboo subject in literature.

Sherburne, Zoa. Too Bad About the Haines Girl. New York: W.Morrow, 1967.

      This fictional novel, written in 1967 by Zoa Sherburne provides a unique perspective on this unspoken topic of teenage pregnancy as it is from the same time period in which Without a Map is set in. Like Hall’s memoir, the story is told from the perspective of a high school senior, Melinda Haines in a small town. With a great family, popularity at school, and bright future prospects, she seems able to have everything until she becomes pregnant after a night at a dance by her boyfriend Jeff.

      I haven’t finished reading this book yet, but given that it is such an anomaly for pregnancy to be discussed so blatantly even in literature during this time, I think it is worth it to study a narrative from a pregnant teenager in this timely perspective. Again, both stories endorse my argument that teenage pregnancy is portrayed as a timeless taboo subject in literature.

Girl, you're such a Slut!

We've already beaten this poem to death in class, but I really love it so I'd like to return to it with a few added ideas of my own...

So for anyone who is a horror-movie buff or anyone who's watched  even one of these big name blockbusters: Scream, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, you should know the Rules for Surviving Horror Films. One of these rules is (listen up girls, this is for you) don't be a slut.

See if you're anything like the sexually active teenage girls in these movies, you're destined to die. In fact, if you're liberal, free-thinking, sexually empowered, and wearing anything but a turtleneck and a string of pearls, you're pretty much toast. Yep, Paris Hilton, see yah!

"Slut" by Daphne Gottleib from the Spoken Word Revolution Redux book, addresses the stereotypes and dehumanizing connotations of the slang term "slut" with humanizing imagery. She talks about the "slut" as human being with a past, as a baby, with childhood toys and coming-of-age troubles.

She describes the movie scenes we're all familiar with,

"sometimes I enter a dark
room and unbutton
my shirt, rock my hips
side to side
until the killer's music comes on.
Then I button up
quick, laughing or
shaking, sometimes
both."

The movie scene strikes a chord with the reader/listener because it is something everyone is familiar with, something everyone can visualize.

The poem makes us reassess our views of the word "slut," the imagery it conjures, and the power of the word as a weapon against women or a vehicle for taking back power for women. It is the difference between a guy calling his girlfriend a "slut" and girlfriends calling each other "sluts" jokingly. Or is there a difference?

Something I realized the other day is that in horror movies, while the rules for surviving a horror movie still apply, there are in fact some mainstream slasher flicks that are diverting from this long-tread path. In the SAW series, no one is safe. Parents, teenagers, children, virgins, sluts, drug-dealers, little old Grannies. It doesn't seem to make a difference. In the SAW films, everyone has a dirty little secret.

Similarly, the movie Jennifer's Body depicts a sort of role reversal. While Amanda Seyfried is the innocent, guileless one, Megan Fox is depicted as the "slutty friend." Its interesting to see that in this movie (Ok, if you care, SPOILER ALERT), Megan Fox is turned into a succubus after she is kidnapped and offered as a (failed) virgin sacrifice to Satan by an up-and-coming emo band in exchange for fame and fortune. Meanwhile, Seyfried loses her virginity and survives. Fox dies by the end of the film.

Maybe (and I think Gottleib would agree) we're getting closer to a point where "being a slut" isn't such a bad thing.

Without a Map: A Story in Self-Exile

Meredith Hall's memoir Without a Map  tells her untold story as a pregnant teenager growing up in 1960s Hampton, New Hampshire. She was shunned by her classmates, family, church, and school and for the rest of her life lived in perpetual exile.

What struck me the most in reading this heart-wrenching, despairing story, is the idea of shunning and self-exile. Even after the pregnancy, after she gave up her child and everyone else had given up on her, even when she moved to the city in Cambridge to start a new life, she was lonely. She put herself in the odd position of self-exile as she isolated herself from boyfriend Erik, from girls at her boarding school, and even those that reach out to her like a male classmate that writes to her.

I would like to do a close reading of self-exile in Meredith Hall's Without a Map and how her own chaotic life reflects the chaotic time in terms of world events (referred to in the text), especially pertaining to the 60s and 70s.

Midterm Reflections on Literature, the Self and Life in this 21st Century

I've always been a self-reflective writer.

I like to inject my own personal experiences and reflections into my literary observances. For my "1 Dead in Attic" Hurricane Katrina post, I realized that the day I started reading was the five-year anniversary mark. For my "Falling Man" 9/11 post, I reflected on that infamous "where were you on 9/11" question and where I was on that day and how I've grown up and moved on from that point in time. For my Abu Ghraib post, the torturous images of POWs got me thinking a lot about my own military history. I have friends, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers who served or are currently enlisted. My father is a retired commander in the Navy and my mother was a Sargent in the Marine Corps. I'm very proud of my family's service and it upsets me to think that people could now have such misguided views about the military at large because of what a couple of idiots did on a night shift with a camera.

I like to pose questions that concern me and evoke memories of my own experiences to use myself as a vehicle for provoking thought.

That is a strength of my posts I think. I don't know if my fellow classmates can always relate to me as they are my experiences and mine alone, but I think that everyone has a 9/11 story, everyone has an impression of the Abu Ghraib photographs. I think it is a great downfall and a great disadvantage in this generation of ours that everyone is so self-involved. Facebook statuses aren't going to change the world. But your self-reflections can change the world as it seems for you. We make sense of this crazy, fast-paced, sometimes disorienting, sometimes liberating new millennium we live in today through ourselves. Fact and frame, right? Everyone has an opinion and a story to tell.

And this blog tells mine.