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!