Reading Response #4

This response will be due Thursday,  October 1, 2015.  It'll be the last one of the quarter.  Make it a good one...and since the quarter is ending, some of you might need some extra credit so check out the extra credit option. 

Prompt #4: Research the author of the book you are reading.  Here are some possible questions to ask (The blank space will be where you would insert the author of your book):

·         Type in Google: _____________ interview.  Read one. 

·         Type is YouTube: ______________ interview.  Sit back.  Relax.  Watch.  Think.

·         How much many has _______________ made last year? 

·         Something interesting about ______________?

·         Who is ______________ influenced by?

·         What was ____________ like as a young writer?

·         Is ______________ in the news ever?

·         If I read ______________’s Wikipedia page, can I find something that I can further research?

·         How many books has _____________ published?  What are the other books about?

·         Where is ________________ from?  Where do they live now? 

·         What does ____________ care about?  Why? 

·         What college did ______________ attend? 

·         Does _____________ hang out with any other “writer friends?”

·         Does _______________ have a social media page I can stalk follow?

·         Where does __________________ get his/her ideas from? 

·         Yeah, of course.  Find out something you’re wondering about.  Make it personal. Care about what you research. 

Once you have found something you’d like to write about that is hopefully interesting and not boring you to death and will not bore me to death, then write the answer to the question (or whatever) in paragraph form with the website cited after any quotes.  Yes, you must use at least one quote. 

The “Prompt” section should be three paragraphs long (use two questions from above if you want) plus the answer to this question: Would it be cool to hang out with the author?  Why or why not?  If so, what would you do. 

***An easy way to earn full credit (or extra credit): contact an author via social media and have them retweet (or whatever) something you say to them. If you can get the author to come to this class and teach some creative writing lessons than you will earn an A for the year if you do your work too.  

Corey Ryan

Reading Response #4: Conflict

Period 8

September 23, 2015

Background

I am currently on page 224 of Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom.  The book is about a married couple named Walter and Patty Berglund.  Most of the book so far has been dedicated to Patty’s life before she met Walter.  Patty was a college basketball “star” until she broke her ankle falling on some ice during a walk home one evening.  Patty is also a survivor of rape.  Patty is now the mother of two kids, one who moved out into her neighbor’s house (a neighbor she hates) and a daughter (who she really doesn’t connect with) attending college. Patty has also recently (in the book) began an affair with Walter’s best friend, Richard.  Richard Katz is an old punk rocker who never sold any records until recently.  He is old, but he went a new direction with his band Walnut Surprise and ended up selling millions of records.  Richard is not comfortable about this new found fame and has yet to record a follow up album.  Meanwhile, Walter, unaware of the affair, continues to be a great husband, a great worker, a great father and a great friend. 

  

The Standards/The Prompt

According to http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/sep/25/jonathan-franzen-interview, Jonathan Franzen sold “nearly 3m copies and established Franzen as one of the leading literary voices of his generation, but, thanks to his perceived snub to Winfrey, it also established his reputation as, variously, an "ego-blinded snob" (Boston Globe), a "pompous prick" (Newsweek) and a "spoiled, whiny little brat" (Chicago Tribune).”  I have heard about this before while I was working as a bookseller at Barnes & Noble (on 16^th Street Mall) during college.  Everyone (those who read about books and authors) was talking about how he rejected Oprah’s stamp of approval.  Having Oprah endorse your book would guarantee a best seller and I’m sure, but don’t quote me, a very nice income.  But any press is good press right?  He also eventually apologized to Oprah and even went on her show for an interview. 

One funny thing I learned about Jonathan Franzen lately from a Huffington Post article titled “Jonathan Franzen Demonstrates His Spirit Animal Is Lucille Bluth” is that Franzen “once considered adopting an Iraqi war orphan to help him understand young people better, but was persuaded against it by his editor.”  That is so funny!  Why?  Because it makes total sense as being a good idea and a horrible idea.  Franzen writes with a style that makes you completely, 100% know his characters, like he truly studied someone and wrote about them.  I’ve never read anyone who went so deep into the actions and psyche of a character as Franzen does.  Of course, adopting a child for the sake of art is a little ridiculous and completely wrong, like being a psychologist and having kids just to experiment with throughout their lives.  I just think he should take a job as a high school English teacher at Central High School and he will have plenty to write about, right? 

I would definitely hang out with Jonathan Franzen.  I’d like to talk about his process of reading and just exactly how he goes about “learning” about his characters.  Plus, I read that it took him 9 years to write his latest book, Purity, so I’m wondering what that nine years was like.  I’d go nuts working on a book for nine years.  I would probably have him take me shopping to the book store and buy me his favorite books and then we’d sit there and drink a million espressos until our hearts exploded and we each had to go home and lay down.   Then I’d say, “Thank you” and “Goodbye.” 

My Thinking

Jonathan Franzen seems a bit eccentric, but wouldn’t you have to be to spend 9 years working on a single piece of “art?”  Just think of how much an athlete makes for playing for nine years!  I wonder if his family is annoyed with him because he is always spending time alone writing or if they just accept that he needs to be alone because he’s making a million dollars by being alone.  You get what I’m saying.  I also wonder if he could come into this school and teach some students about writing or would he flip out, throw a book at you and walk away. 

Anything To Add (not required)

Jonathan Franzen (famously) doesn’t have a Twitter or use any social media.  If he did, I’d follow him.  I feel stupid writing to people. I don’t know why that is.  Sorry. 

Reading Response 3: Due Tuesday 9/15

Prompt #3: Explain two conflicts that your main character has.  One has to be internal and one has to be external.  Be sure to label the conflicts and support your claim with evidence (Best being quotes; okay being a great paraphrase).  Finally, state which conflict you feel is the most important and why? Anything I underlined is for the purpose of you using it. 

Corey Ryan

Reading Response #3: Conflict

Period 8

September 8, 2015

Background

I am currently on page 148 of Daniel Jose Older’s Shadowshaper.  Sierra Santiago, a Puerto Rican, afro wearing artist is having some pretty weird stuff happen to her.  She begins seeing murals cry.  She begins to notice that even the faces on the murals are contorted.  She sees the murals fade.  Sierra also gets some cryptic messages from her grandfather Lazaro.  All in all…she is a shadowshaper.  There are past members of her family that are shadowshapers also, but they don’t talk about it.  Shadowshapers can draw a picture and bring it to life.  This power helps her fight Professor Wick, who is trying to kill all the shadowshapers.  Of course there is romance too.  Sierra met a boy, Robbie, that is also a great painter and a shadowshaper like Sierra.  No, they haven’t “fallen in love” yet, but I feel it’s coming, that is, if one of them doesn’t get killed.    

The Standards/The Prompt

Sierra’s internal conflict, her person vs. self conflict, is her accepting who she is.  Sierra seems uncomfortable with herself.  “But it was hard work making suggestions and not blatant declarations with her ever-changing Puerto Rican body.  Some days her butt was too big; on others she couldn’t even find it” (page 79).  Here Sierra is doubting her body before she goes on a “date” with Robbie.  Before the quote takes place, Sierra’s Tia Rosa says some racist remarks about her and who she dates.  This also causes her to doubt herself.  Her person vs. self conflict also affects how she feels about her powers.  She isn’t sure about them.  But I’m not far enough in the book to see how her doubt truly affects her in the aspect of shadowshaping.  She’s not sure that the limited “moves” she knows about shadowshaping are enough to defeat Wick and the throng haint. 

Sierra’s external conflict is person vs. supernatural.  This was an easy one because it’s so prominent.  The supernatural element exists on almost every page—even the title.  For example, “The shadow lunged forward and grabbed he wrist, and every cell in Sierra’s body caught fire at the same time.  It’s cool, horrible presence crawled under her skin along her left arm” (page 104). Obviously this is supernatural.  This quote is when the throng haint (a zombie-like figure (corpuscule) that is one body stuffed with many souls and each of these souls speaks) first come and attack Sierra.  She survives, but after this moment, she knows for sure that she is being attacked and she must fight back. 

Sierra’s inner conflict is more important than her supernatural conflict.  Sierra must be okay with who she is in order to defeat Wick and the throng haint and the corpuscules.  If she even doubts herself for a second, the evil ones will destroy her and her family and her friends.  The murals will certainly cry forever…or until the paint disappears. 

My Thinking

This book was written, according to the author, as a sort of “minority” Harry Potter.  I don’t like this book.  But his purpose, it makes me think.  Everyone wants to belong, right?  And everyone needs a hero, someone who looks like them.  So if you love Harry Potter, would you, if you weren’t a white male, love a brown skinned (Puerto Rican) female as your hero? 

Or does it matter?  If the character is great, such as a Harry Potter, does race/gender matter?  This is what I think about. 

I would really like to know what you think. 

And, wait, one more thing.  Every character says, “Imma.”  That’s annoying me.  Does “everyone” really speak like that?  

Anything To Add (not required)

I follow this author on Twitter.  He writes a lot about race.  This book is written for young adults.   The genre would be fantasy. 

I am a white male.  I am 40.  I hate fantasy. 

I am definitely not the audience this author wrote for, so…

I need you, class, to read this after me and tell me what you think about it.  Better yet, follow Daniel Jose Older on Twitter and tweet him your thoughts. 

Vocab Words from the First Three Tests

Three Sets of Vocab Words For ALL STUDENTS:

From the test on 9/2

Abandoned

Vengeance

Descends

Accustomed

Gloat

Veteran

Lament

Instill

Humble

Arrogance

From the test on 9/9

Naïve(ly)

Significant(ly)

Anticipate

Speculate

Authentic

Alter(ed)

Modify

Synthetic

Skeptics

Assert

From the test on 9/16

Imposing

Diminutive

Attire

Provoke

Literally

Intimidation

Inflicted

Humiliated

Mute

Conform

Honors Class Only

From the test on 9/2

Soars

Clenches

Unique

Whine

Dreary

From the test on 9/9

Public

Chronic

Mass

Myth

Conceptions

From the test on 9/16

Tyrant

Acknowledge

Vile

Exert

Insurgent

Reading Response #2

The Prompt: Explain the title.  Explain one character trait.  Connect those two things two a theme idea (only one word).  Make it like a math problem (1+1=2; T+CT=THM)

Corey Ryan

Reading Response Number #2

Period 0

August 25, 2015

Background

I am currently on page 110 of Mat Johnson’s Loving Day. Loving Day is mostly about Warren Duffy’s struggles with his current situation.  Warren is recently divorced.  He moved back to Philadelphia, PA from Wales, Scotland because his father died and left him this huge mansion, a mansion that is falling apart and surrounded by crackheads in the ghetto.  He hates this house.  He also finds out that he has a child, a girl, Tal.  Tal’s mother is dead and her grandfather, Irv, is too old to take Tal’s attitude anymore, hence Duffy and his newly found fatherhood.  The situations all have to do with race: Duffy and his daughter are bi-racial.  Duffy identifies as black while Tal identifies as white.  This creates hilarious dialogue and scenes that parody just how far our society goes to help everyone fit in--whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.  

The Prompt

The title of my book is Loving Day.  I don’t know if that is an actual day (Okay it is, I just Googled it-it’s June 12).  The title has not been referred to in the book yet.  From my background knowledge I know that the Lovings were an interracial couple from Virginia who took their love all the way to the supreme court to overturn a prohibition on interracial marriage in 1967.  There’s movies and kids’ books about them.  Everyone should know about them.

+

The strongest character trait I can attribute to Warren Duffy would be pride.  He is proud to be black, proud to be mixed, but not exactly proud to be white.  “Well, I don’t consider myself as a ‘biracial’ artist...I’m black and I’m an artist” (26).  Duffy is saying this because someone asked him the question of what it’s like to be a biracial artist.  He is proud to be an artist and proud to be black. He is almost too proud.  This question leads to a mess for Duffy involving him being rude and obnoxious to someone he will later fall in love with.  

=

As you can see, Loving Day and pride both involve race which leads me to the real heart of the matter: identity.  Race is theme idea.  Identity can not be chosen.  (just an FYI, I don’t know if I like that.  I probably don’t, but I’m keeping it anyways).  

My Thinking

This book has caused me to think deeply about race, specifically, I guess, biracial people and even more specifically, my daughter, Zuri.  I’m white.  You probably guessed that.  My wife is black.  Zuri is mixed.  How will she identify?  Can it ever be 50/50.  How can I teach someone to be proud of being white?  That sounds racist as I don’t know what, but do you get what I’m saying.  Tal is a crazy character but she is only crazy because of how she was raised.  maybe she’s ignorant, but I don’t think so. I think she’s going to be proud of her mixed heritage and actually find some peace within it.  Someday I hope my daughter reads this book and laughs out loud.  This book is a classic for anyone biracial.