SPEAK, DOIN IT, EVIE

Since the last time we were assigned to write blogs, we have covered some really interesting books. I enjoyed reading the books that I had no idea existed. Since we are almost done with our reading list, it is safe for me to say that Briar rose, Speak, and Bud not Buddy, were some of my favorites. Speak was a book that made me think about my highschool experience. There were a lot of students who chose to be outsiders, and even though I wasnt the one terrorizing them, I could have been the one to make a diffrence in their life, with a few waves, words, or smiles. I thought of all the students i know who bit their nails down to the bleeding points. My mom said its a sign of nervousness. I think its a sign of sadness. I will definintly pay more attention to my children than Melinda's parents paid to her. I think they were neglegent, not just because she snuck out and they didnt know, but because she was being teased at school, acting different, dressing different, and not speaking and they didnt even try to peace it together.
I found doing it interesting because it gave off a since of what teenage boys are thinking in their head, or a sense of what goes on in their mind. Also, becuase im sure that it happens at least once at everyschool, I started trying to imagine which one of my highschool teachers would be most likely to flirt or persue a student teacher realtionship.
Our latest book Deliver us from Evie, although I am not finished, was hard for me to place. From the way some things are described I got a feeling that the story is set in the early eighties, and then the talk of cassette tapes and song titles makes me think early, while some other words seem 1998ish. WHatever time frame, there was no talk of cell phones so who knows, I found it interesting because i dont know much about farm life, and I have never heard homosexuality described in a manner for children or teenagers. The subject was definitly carefully discussed. While reading, I was upset with the mother for telling the father the way she did because I thought that She sort of promised Evie she would lie for her, but I was more upset with the father for giving up the great father daughter relationship they had, because of her sexual preference. I think it would be interesting to ask the author why she chose to structure the story the way she did, and if it reflects events from her life.

Coraline

At first I was not a fan of "Coraline". The first few chapters were difficult to get intio because they were kind of wierd and I think the fact of Spring Break did not help much. However, I did get through it and once Coraline passed into the other mother's house, I became much more interested. I loved how at first, she loved the new house even though it was very different from her real flat. I especially loved how Coraline reacted to her pink and green room, she felt such distain and disgust!
I feel for Coraline, because I also know what it is like to be ignored by parents, especially when you are a young child that cannot just find something fulfilling to do. I think that Coraline realized this because she explains this to the other mother's version of the crazy old man in the upstairs flat.
I think that this book is a perfect example of how people are never happy with what they have. You parents will always be your parents and they will always love you, even if they don't happen to show it. I don't know if I would like having a mother like Coraline's other mother. She is kind of crazy and I would be soooo annoyed with always having my mother around to make me happy. I will also never learn to make myself happy, so what would happen if/when my extremely attentitive mother was not around. "Coraline" is a perfect book for children because it has a message that is pretty blatant, but she has to go on this journey to realize that she already has what she wants. Many of the books we have read have this same moral.
I still have about 30 pages to read, but from what I can tell, and what I hope is that Coraline finds her parents and that the other mother lets her go back to the world she was always suppossed to be in.

LWW C.S. Lewis

This is one of my favorite books, ever and it was a joy to have to read for class. I have been reading and re-reading this series since I was 11 years old and it never gets old. Although I do understand those who may not appreciate this type of book because of its religious symbolism (most clearly in salvation through a substitutiary sacrifice of Aslan's death and resurrection), I do still feel that this book has a lot to offer to its readers. It's adventurous and imiginative and, for me at least, makes you wanting more. Lewis' writing style in these books is juvenile enough to be understandable, yet now as though he's talking down to his audience. I love how he interjects things throughout the story to relate to his readers, like when he'll write something like "have you ever..., well it's kind of like that." I think when he does that he's puting the text into terms and emotions that the audience has had experience with that and so can relate that feeling to the ones being felt by the characters which makes the characters more understandable and allows the readers to feel empathy towards them. This approach also makes the characters feel more approachable, more human and less like figments of another's imagination. I feel that Lewis' ability to create a world that is appealing to the readers is quite impressive. He made Narnia into a world that I could imagine and made me feel like I wanted to go there. I wouldn't say this book is overly descriptive (like say L.M. Montgomery), but what descriptions he does use, he uses them well and consequently has been able to construct Narnia in the hearts and minds of many, adult and children alike. This series of books was a turning point in my reading experiences. This was the first book I actually liked, wanted to read more of and got excited about reading. Lewis has since remained one of my favorite authors and I have gone on to read most of his literary works and although different than Narnia, most equally impressive. In fact, I've been so impressed by Lewis, that when I read somewhere that he was an associate of Tolkien's, I thought that maybe Tolkien might be worth reading. And even though I do like LOTR (but not nearly as much as LWW), I would never had read them if it weren't for Lewis.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...or is it???

It is hard to read the Wizard of Oz without comparing it to the movie that I grew up watching. There are a few things that are similar to the movie, but for the most part it has been quite a bit different. For example, in the movie, Dorothy's neighbor is always mean to her and Toto and when Dorothy is in Oz, the neighbor almost seems to represent the witches. There was also the three men that help Dorothy and her aunt and uncle on the farm. They seem to represent the tin man, the scarecrow, and the cowardly lion. However, in the book, there is no mention of these farm workers. That is one of the characteristics of the movie that I liked and wished was in the book. Dorothy's shoes that she gets after killing the Wicked Witch of the East were silver instead of red and the good witch seemed to be more like the munchkins than like a beauitful witch. When I was little, I was afraid of the movie because of the flying monkeys. However, if the movie was made based on the book, I think it would have been a much more frightening book. The book seems to have a lot more violence with the death of the Kalidhas and the killings of the wolves, crows, and bees. As a child, I do not think I would have liked to watch a movie like that.
I think that it is a shame that I did not know how the original story went. I grew up thinking that the movie was the only version that was out there and now I am finding out that I grew up with the contaminated version. I am excited to read the rest of the book and I hope that someday I will be able to share the original with my children.

Fantasy

After reading Yolens Briar Rose, I was indeed excited to see how the other books would turn out. Now that I have started Alice and Wonderland, I find myself disappointed. Briar Rose might just turn out to be one of the few books I get to read this semester and actually like. Two semesters ago, Chico States theatre department did Alice and wonderland the play, and I found it very dark and scary. Now that I have began this book, I realize that it must have been based on Lewis' version. I had never before heard of a rat telling alice stories in a puddle of water. I find that this book makes Alice out to be one of the dumbest characters I have ever read about, with a touch of schizophrenia. Just the few begining conversations she has had with herself has driven me crazy. The play that I saw, made it so that the catepillar was absolutely on drugs, and from the description of the catepillar in this book, I dont think there was much embellishment. If I could ask Lewis, Carrol a question I think I would have to ask why? Why everything. Im still stuck on the cartoon version where everything is nice. Here the rabbits fear of the queen and the way he demands the lizard to get Alice out of his house makes him appear to have an anger problem. This book is just a bit unique, and i hope it turns out better in the end

Briar Rose

First of all I am glad to say that the Zipes reading is overwith, at least for now. Secondly, I would like to express that I LOVE the Jane Yolen book, Briar Rose. Seeing as the story of a sleeping princess has and will always be my favorite fairy tale, and that I am not a beacon for change I was a little skeptical of this book. But, I could not put down this book, even though I was reading way far ahead and I had other school work to be doing. Yolen did an amazing job with intertwining Gemma's story of Briar Rose with Becca's everyday life. Yolen also did a good job of making us want more, with the finiding of the clues, one by one.
Two semesters ago, I took a class on the Holocaust and the tradgeties that came from those dark years. Therefore, I had heard of Chelmno, and the minute it came up in the book I was frightened that Becca would never be able to hear her grandmother's whole story. I believe that the climax of the reading, so far, was when she met Josef. I so wanted Josef to be her grandfather, because that would be amazing for Becca.
As you can tell, I have loved this book! What do you think about it?

Well the reading out of Zipes wasn't too terrible this week. In every other reading it's like his words are saturated with his feelings of superiority over his audience that it was going from one page to the next. However, this chapter wasn't too painful. My only complaint is know your audience. He's writing this book for an educated audience (those in the children's or adult literary circle, college students) but I still feel like he talks down to us, especially when he's explaining a concept. He mirrors the concept of literary contaminiation to that of the body's immune system by stating that foreign invading substances (be it a virus or a slightly different version of a story) make the host stronger. This is not a hard concept to grasp yet I felt like he was writing to me as though I were a child when he took forever to finish his point. I understand this, but am not sure I agree as to the idea of making the host stronger. This is probably due in large part to the Disneyfying of certain aspects of our culture. I was talking to a college grad friend of mine about the Beauty and the Beast story and although she is educated and very well read, she had no idea that Gaston was not in the original story and I'm afraid that's how my child is going to grow up. And she's already like that, she refuses to listen to various versions of the same song because she thinks they mess up the original (even if the original version is not her frame of reference). This is all due to the contamination (or insemination) of the stories that may be necessary for the audience to to welcomely receive it, but I don't like how these artificial versions are the ones remembered. I read the Grimm stories when I was younger and even though at the time I had no idea that they were gruesome by today's standards, I'm so glad I got the opportunity to get a different perspective on the stories and the history they represent- more importantly, these are the versions that I remember and I prefer it that way.
Regarding the historical contect these stories carry, I would really like to know what was going on with step-mothers and cannibalism. How did stepmothers (Cinderella, Hansel & Gretel) get such a bad reputation? Why are the men in these stories inept (Cinderalla, Hansel & Gretel)? And why do these stories lead to cannibalism (Red Riding Hood, Hansel & Gretel)? Was this common practice at the time? Were step-parents in general looked down upon in society and therefore could be an easy villian in these stories? I thought I had read some of these stories before, but if I had, I completely blocked out the part where the parents are the ones sending Hansel & Gretel out to be eaten by wolves or to starve... was this also something that was happening at the at time the stories were written or told? I don't understand why all the Hansel & Gretel stories were linked together. The tree stories didn't seem to fit with the exception that the child was killed by a step-mother (and maybe this is the common thread). Only these kids were killed out of jealousy... And the Molly story, this was way more greusome than I would have guessed. I still don't understand why she made the giant's wife get killed, she was nice to her and warned her about the giant. But to me, it was pretty sick to make the giant kill his own daughters and wife, and maybe dog and cat. I'd also like to know why the king wanted the giant's ring and sword. Anyway... I digress... the readings were interesting to say the least. My husband kept asking what as I sat next to him reading the fairy tales silently but expressing my disgust aloud. He likes gore and all that but even he, after I read him what was going on in the story thought they were a little sick and twisted.