Terminology

I know that I let myself wide open with the last discussion board post about the worth of reading Walden, and I steel myself for the negative responses.

However, some clarification is needed.

Walden is not a 'story' with the usual elements of a short story:  characters, plot, conflict.  It is an essay, a reflection, a journal of a man's thoughts as he spent 2 years, 2 months, and 2 days in the woods in Massachusetts.   Journals are like blogs, in a way, that record one's thoughts, meanderings of the mind, random flashes of insight.  If you are expecting to read something action packed with a cast of characters, you will not find it in Walden.  It is not a 'story.'  It is an essay.

I have written in previous Pods of Thought blogs about how my tastes in reading have changed over the years.  I used to hit the Best Sellers or New Fiction on the shelves in the library and at Barnes and Noble.  While I still enjoy reading John Grisham (and a cousin recommended that I read his new novel, Gray Mountain), my tastes have turned more toward biography, historical accounts, and books from Proverbs 31 ministries and some of my favorite Christian writers.  The latter are not action-packed books, and they can't be read more than a chapter or two at a time. There are no characters, either, except for the first person accounts the author often shares.  However, I find these readings to be interesting and thought-provoking.  If I want action and good plot and character development, I will choose a book by Grisham or another popular author. Maybe reading sections of Walden at a time would have been more beneficial.

But I also want to comment on the irony of some of your responses.  Even though many of you felt that reading Walden (and that view leaked over into Emerson's works at times) was about as 'exciting as watching paint dry," most of you took something from reading the work of Emerson and Thoreau. Reading the discussion boards about the aphorisms was one of the most interesting reads I have had this semester.  It was fun to see which aphorism you selected, how it had affected you or how you interpreted it, and interesting to read how others responded.  Lessons learned for life?  Sayings to life by?  Thoughts to share and impress upon your children (get off the cell phone or video game and go outside and play!)?

Conclusion - know the difference between a short story and an essay.  Walden is NOT a story, never has been, never will be.  But it does rank up there as a pretty powerful essay with a lot of lessons to be learned.

Start 'em young!

I truly believe that many teen and adult readers become readers because they were read to at a young age, received books as gifts, enjoyed the ritual of bedtime stories, or were handed a library card when they left diapers behind.  There are exceptions to all of these, but those who have enjoyed reading or saw reading as a part of their lives tend to keep the reading habit going as they mature and move into adulthood.

I may have mentioned that my middle grandchild, my only granddaughter, is living with my youngest daughter and son-in-law as a foster child.  She first visited them exactly one year ago for two weeks; then she was returned to live with extended family. The day after Christmas she returned to their home again, and she has never left!  For a variety of reasons and in order to protect her safety and security, I refer to her as The Little Girl instead of by her name or any other type of identity.  No pictures of her can be shared even though we have many of her in our family collection.

Recently The Little Girl has taken to crawling up into my lap, with a book, and asking me to read to her.   She goes to the bookcase, selects one of her favorites, comes back to me, holds out the book and says "Book!  Read, Mamaw!"  She crawls up to the couch or beside me in the chair, snuggles in, and we read.

Sometimes her attention span is short than the time it takes to read each page, so I have to shift into my speed reading techniques or quick summary skills.  Other times she has to look at each picture, trace the shapes  of the animals, and name all of the colors.  It is fun to watch her sit with Papaw reading a book about zoo animals, making sounds with each page turned. 

The Little Girl will celebrate her 2nd birthday soon.  Since she wasn't with us and her family situation was rather unsettled last year at this time, this may be the first birthday party she has ever had.  I have already decided to give her two sheets for her bed, a pillow case for her pillow, and a new blanket that do NOT have John Deere tractors pictured on them.  She is using leftovers from my grandson right now.  She needs to have something a little more feminine to lay her little blond curls upon at night and to wrap around her to keep her warm.  But also on my shopping list of birthday presents for her is a few new books.  All her own.  Books that we can write HER name in.  Special books that will have special meaning for her in the years to come.

Reading habits start at a young age.  We are starting hers now.  And we will have some quality snuggling time as we look at the pictures and learn new words and sounds.

Raisin in the Sun

The students in the ENGL 112 class and I have been watching A Raisin in the Sun this week. While I enjoy reading a play in the written format, there is nothing like watching the words come alive on the stage or the screen, the way it was meant to be.

For a while today I followed along with the text in our Norton Anthology. It was interesting to see the changes that had occurred from the original text to the screenplay.  Some were subtle changes, such as a different form of a word or an additional phrase.  Others were more noticed, as in chunks of dialogue in my written text that were omitted when the characters spoke.

What impressed me more, however, was the impact made by the intonations and expressions added by the actors and actresses.  The power of the changes in volume of Sidney Poitier's voice.  The 'look' in the eyes of Claudia McNeil as she turned on her son as he tried to defy her authority and the spacing of her words as she put him in his place as his father's son.  The energy that Diana Sands added to each of Beneatha's conversations with her brother, with her sister-in-law and with the two men who were her suitors.  The apologetic tone at times in the voice of Ruby Dee as she struggled with being pregnant with a second child that her husband didn't want.  What a difference it was to hear the dialogue spoken, whispered, yelled rather than reading it quietly from the page of a textbook.

As the class time ended today, the movie didn't.  I toyed with the idea of stopping the film and asking the students to finish reading the final four pages of the play themselves before they came to class on Tuesday.  However, the scenes at the end of the play where Walter Lee tells Mr. Linder exactly what he can do with the check from the neighborhood association is too memorable to miss.  The impact of his final words, the reactions of the rest of the family members, and the end of the story, as we see it on the stage, are too moving to miss.

I always told my high school students that plays were fun to read from the text and we could do so much with the words and the actions of the characters.   A play is meant to be performed and the audience is meant to enjoy every word.

Discussion

Last night we held our third Blackboard IM session; this one was for Pod #4.

Granted...sometimes we talk about other things not class related.  Last night we were discussing board games, then card games.  How did those relate to Abraham Lincoln or the plights of African American women during the times of the Civil War?  They didn't.  But it was fun to share some ideas and get to know each other much as might if we were sitting in  a classroom with each other.

Most of the time we talk about an author, or a short story, or a poem, or an idea presented, or a particular discussion board forum.  Last night we talked about famous speakers, stemming from that forum in this Pod.  We drifted then to visiting Gettysburg, then trips to Washington D.C., and even discussed Historic Williamsburg and Jamestown.  Still good discussion.

Blogs were a topic of discussion last night too.  These are always fun and sometimes a post will trigger some good healthy discussion about a topic relating to the literature read...or sometimes not.

More people need to join us!  It is an hour of time.  It is worth 25 points to converse with the others in the group.  It is fun.  It is entertaining.  And last night, the time flew by!  We talked beyond our official end time, and we probably could have chatted longer if I hadn't stopped the discussion.

The next Blackboard IM session will be on Thursday October 23 from 8:30 -9:30 Eastern time.  Please consider joining us.  We would love to add more people to our group !  Mark your calendar today so you don't forget. 

Topics?  Emerson.  Thoreau. Longfellow.  Whittier.  Blogs.  Transcendentalism.