Friday, November 16, 2007

From thread to blog




In my enchantingly enlightening and engaging english class, my teacher (who has already taught me the abnormal and addicting joy of alliteration) established a forum for my class. This disscusion is about "Young Goodman Brown", by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and "Where are You Going? Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates. The latter is a short story of a girl who gets herself into the troubles a pretty girl with out much sense can quite easily find. (yes, we happen to be learning about red ridding hood as well). The lack of resolution and action from the silly girl incensed many of my staunchly feminist friends. This caused them to et into a frenzy and lose sight of what else can be seen in Oate's story.
I have a feeling no one in my class will actualy read what I wrote and I feel as if I acctually started thinking for the first time yet this year, so I have posted it here.

"I do not feel like this is a matter of equality rights, or even gender dynamics. It very interesting that that Cap gave us two parallel stories one about a young man and the other about a young woman. I fondly remember an old idol of mine that kept the cutest bookshop you could ever hope to frequent. I once asked her if she had any American girl books, she replied "I do not carry books like that, for only girls, but I do have a similar collection." She then proceeded to show me the dear American books that would accompany my life for the next few years. Through her words and that series (and thinking about it right now too, not gonna lie) I learned that literature is best when not used to entertain like cheap television appealing to males or females. The best and most memorable works one will read are such because they are based on the deeper themes of life applicable to both genders. Either subtly or overtly using these themes the author makes an argument, enforces an ideal or establishes a point of view, that is foreign to the reader, thus making it novel(ironic, eh?) and memorable."

4 comments:

Luisa Perkins said...

Oh, nicely done, Richard. Beautifully put. I love both those stories.

And, um, should I be worried about your choice of email pseudonym? Because frankly, it stressed me out a bit.

Mary said...

See!?!? I comment on your page!

Elizabeth said...

Post again!
I want to hear more from you.

Sis. D

Torie Hamilton said...

um the richard cory thing was the lingering result of an avatar i created for english extra credit. it's complicated-i'm fine.