CYCLE 1 - DAY 1 - SEMESTER 2: Bad Apples and Obasan

ADDITION: I notice that someone voted the book as an "A" and there are still two people who give it a "B." If you do like this lyrical, emotive style of writing that offers plenty of couched and not-so-couched social commentary, I recommend Toni Morrison, Isabel Allende, and Milan Kundera as authors to seek out. They're old school (Kundera hit his heyday in the late seventies through the nineties; Morrison started publishing in the seventies, gobbled up headlines in the eighties and nineties, and has won a nobel prize in the past decade; and Allende has been going strong since the eighties), but they are masters of their craft and do their particular style of writing exceptionally well. I am sure that Ms. Ihrke has plenty of suggestions as well.
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Since you took your exam in the morning (hope it went well for you), we did a fairly easy activity in class. We listened to the prologue segment of a recent episode of radio program "This American Life" (click here for a link to the program). In case you were absent, please click the link and listen to the program. Here's how:



Click on the link circled in the picture below (near the bottom, left of center).




The part of the program I want you to listen to takes place between 2:06 and 13:55 of the program. (There's a moment around 9:20 when it sounds like they might be done, but they're not, so keep listening!)

Anyway, the reason I had you listen to this is that in my informal poll about the book on this blog, 95% of respondents give it a grade of C or below (40% are at D). Yeesh. This suggests the potential for lots of "bad appl-ing" (to coin a phrase). We don't have to be crazy about the novel to learn from it, so I want us each to think about how we each can effectively do that over the next few days without being the bad apple that infects the room. And if one of us devolves into bad behavior by being a bully, a pessimist or a sloth, call us on it gently (myself included!).


Toward that end, here's your homework for tonight: I issue you a challenge! We will talk about this book through Thursday of this week. On Thursday night, you'll be writing a journal about it, topic to be determined based on what happens this week. So that we'll have positive discussions that generate interest and participation, I'd like you to develop a question that stems from the novel but which extends to the world outside of it. For example, "Is it ever right to impose distance between yourself and your family?" or "Is silence the best way to get over a troubling time?" In the novel, Obasan might say yes to the latter question, and Emily would sanctimoniously shout "No!" Based on your own experience, family culture, etc., you might have a different answer entirely. Whether or not we like the writing, the novel does raise questions that are important to ponder as we figure out our own time here on earth. Your job is to develop a question that invites discussion and contemplation, giving us the option of looking to the novel for answers, but enough of an out that we aren't stuck with a bad apple problem. Write your question as a comment to this blog post, or if you have issues with posting, send it to me as an email. Please make sure you sign your comment/question with your first name and last initial so I can be sure to give you credit for your work.

Welcome back, everyone!