scattered T-storms and a digression on literature

[kjpepper]

The sky is dark and grumbly. Good. So'm I. Though more dark than grumbly. ;)

Came home at 2ish, crawled into bed with The Salt Roads, and got a good chunk of the way through it before falling asleep. It's good so far, but it's reading alarmingly like Toni Morrison and Jamaica Kincaid somehow figured out the secret of human same sex reproduction and then decided to write about it in graphic detail. :) Which isn't bad by any means, just sort of dooms this book to be one of those discussed to absolute death in high school and college literature classes. I mean think about it, it's written by a black woman, it approaches some sense of magical realism, and mentions slavery... Yep, doomed for black history month reading. *chuckle*

I often wonder if I'll ever write something like that, and then go guest lecture or something and have students ask me all sorts of batshit questions about what my motivation for throwing in Obscure Detail #17 on page 243 was, and having the answer be something along the lines of "I had 12 mudslides that night and I thought it would be a good idea." (g.g.: think "*toke* We could dress up like Mounties...") I mean really, you spend all of English class teasing out any possible obscure nuggets of meaning (beatgoddess, you'd best be rolling) out of the story or poem and writing all of these papers about what you or the teacher thinks the symbolism is, and you have to wonder in the back of your head if any of the writers being discussed really put that much thought into hiding those nuggets in the first place. I mean really. You write fiction to tell a story. You write poetry to express some feeling or truth and if you're really good at it, in the minimum number of syllables. (yes, I'm overgeneralizing, but there it is.) It's not like you write this shit for students to write 3-20 page scavenger hunts.

I digress, though. The overarching point of this entry is that there's a thunderstorm a-brewing, it kinda suits my mood... and I think I'm going back to bed with my book.

Comments

[gossamer-gull.livejournal.com]

(g.g.: think "*toke* We could dress up like Mounties...")

Like so many jokes, this one actually originates with the oh-so-quotable reverendtom



It's not like you write this shit for students to write 3-20 page scavenger hunts.

*cough, cough*T.S. Eliot *cough, cough*James Joyce

[smithie.livejournal.com]

"Which isn't bad by any means, just sort of dooms this book to be one of those discussed to absolute death in high school and college literature classes. I mean think about it, it's written by a black woman, it approaches some sense of magical realism, and mentions slavery... Yep, doomed for black history month reading. *chuckle*

I often wonder if I'll ever write something like that, and then go guest lecture or something and have students ask me all sorts of batshit questions about what my motivation for throwing in Obscure Detail #17 on page 243 was, and having the answer be something along the lines of "I had 12 mudslides that night and I thought it would be a good idea."


Y'know, I may have the officual book learnin' in this area, but you sure seem to understand the subtleties of the game :-)

[(Anonymous)]

"Which isn't bad by any means, just sort of dooms this book to be one of those discussed to absolute death in high school and college literature classes. I mean think about it, it's written by a black woman, it approaches some sense of magical realism, and mentions slavery... Yep, doomed for black history month reading. *chuckle*

I often wonder if I'll ever write something like that, and then go guest lecture or something and have students ask me all sorts of batshit questions about what my motivation for throwing in Obscure Detail #17 on page 243 was, and having the answer be something along the lines of "I had 12 mudslides that night and I thought it would be a good idea."


Y'know, I may have the officual book learnin' in this area, but you sure seem to understand the subtleties of the game :-)


-Smithie, who has forgotten her friggin' password

[kjpepper.livejournal.com]

:) Found yer password, I see.