In my classroom we've been studying Romeo and Juliet. Students created "found poems" (poems made of language found in another text, this one being Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet) from the lines of one particular character in order to examine what the language might reveal about that character. The result was a number of beautifully crafted, poignant, found poems about fate, love, death and revenge in the tragic play.
Here are some examples...
A Most Courteous Exposition
by Angelica Jaffe
Show me a mistress that is passing fair
And I'll still stay, to have thee still forget
Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast
Being but heavy, I will bear the light
Can I go forward when my heart is here?
With love's light wings did I o'erperch these walls
Nor that is not the lark whose notes do beat
To blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath
Then mightst thou speak, then mightst thou tear thy hair
And hire post horses I will hence tonight
Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love
Doth much excuse the appertaining rage
Did my heart love til now, forswear it sight
She will not say the siege of loving terms
But to rejoice in splendor of my own
A Vial For Romeo
by Alaina Bonilla
Is the day so young?
Shut up in prison, kept without food,
And these, who often drowned, could never die,
So stakes me to the ground, I cannot move,
Under love's heavy burden do I sink
This holy shrine the gentle sin is this
He jests at scars that never felt a wound
O, I am fortune's fool!
How well my comfort is revived by this
More light and light, more dark and dark our woes
I will omit no opportunity
For sweet discourses in our times to come
A grave? O, no, a lantern, slaughtered youth
To think it was so? O, give me thy hand
I'll bury thee in a triumphant grave.
Rise and Stand
by Chloe Briggs
My mistress is the sweetest lady.
And a good lady, and a wise, and virtuous,
Sitting in the sun under the dovehouse wall.
Not the flower of courtesy but as gentle as a lamb
These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me old
To catch my breath with jouncing up and down
I am drudge and toil with your delight,
You shall bear the burden soon at night.
Never was seen so black a day as this,
Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye,
So stand up, stand up! Stand and be a man!
For her sake rise and stand.
My Beloved Romeo
by Hagaar Abou Areda
My dreams presage some joyful news at hand.
Tybalt is dead, and Romeo banned?
Hath Romeo slain himself, is that what you said?
Is Romeo slaughtered, and is Tybalt dead?
Ah, por my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name.
My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain.
If he be slain, say "Ay," or if not No
That runaways' eyes may wink, on my Romeo
My only love sprung from my only hate
To early seen unknown and known too late
All slain, all dead.
He made you for a highway to my bed
All in gore blood. I swooned at the sight.
And therefore thou mayst think my 'havior light
O find him! Give this ring to my true knight.
Juliet's Terror
by Jonathan Oemus
O serpent heart, hid with a flow'ring face
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?
What storm is this that blows so contrary?
My dearest cousin, my dearest lord
Then dreadful trumpet, sound the general doom
Beautiful tyrant
Fiend angelical
Dove feathered raven
Despised substance of divine show
When thou didst power the spirit of a fiend
A damned saint, an honorable villain.
Was ever book containing such vile matter
Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?
Yea, noise, I'll be brief. O happy dagger
This is thy sheath; there rust and let me die.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
The Coldest Winter Ever*
* Quotations from this book may contain sexual language
This hip-hop novel by Sister Souljah is one of those books that gets passed from reader to reader. It is one of those books that you can't put down until you are finsihed with it. When I taught at Touro College, a New York City school, I always saw students devouring the book. I could recognize that pink and purple cover from across a subway platform. I am surprised it took me so long to finally get around to reading it. So, can a white girl like me who came up in Dallas, Texas get into this book? Absolutely.
NUTSHELL: Winter Santiaga is fifteen going on thirty, a sophisticated street-wise daughter of the local drug king of her Brooklyn projects. We enter her story as everything is starting to unravel for her Pops. Winter, used to a life of protection and privilege, is forced out of her comfort zone when her mother is shot and her father is jailed. She is scrappy, using all of her powers (including sexuality and predatory manipulation) to get back to a position of pampered princess-ness, but her thirst for status and luxury ends up sucking her into the same trap that snared her beloved father and eventually lands her in the slammer as well, having lost all of her friends and family along the way.
My favorite thing about this novel is the language. Some might say it is written in slang or ghetto english. Personally, i find this colorful community dialect beautiful, and satisfying in it's attention to rhythm and cadence. I like the way Sister Souljah spells things in a way that lets me hear the voices speaking. She uses "tryna" for "trying to," for example. The language is gritty, raw, visceral. Experiences are registered in the body. In an early scene, Winter describes herself in a club "tryna" get the attention of a man who dismisses her: "My body was shaking and sweating as anger and desire fought it out." Later that same man called her name "with a roughness that made me want to just hop on his dick and go buck." Winter's lack of shame combined with the intensity of feeling regarding her physical attitudes is at once bracing and unbelievable. I remember being fifteen and feeling unbearably conflicted about my sexual urges and feelings. But this character has grown up in a world that required her to be much older than her years. She has grown up in a world where mortality is an every day fact. I wonder if Sister Souljah's portrayal of this product of the street drug world is accurate. I would now like to read a memoir by someone like Winter, but real.
But back to that sentence above, that hot sentence ..."hop on his dick and go buck." Listen to those consonants. Those short, hard words that skip like a rock over a pond. this is what i love about this book.
I also really like using the word "bounce" for leave.
So, I gotta bounce. later.
This hip-hop novel by Sister Souljah is one of those books that gets passed from reader to reader. It is one of those books that you can't put down until you are finsihed with it. When I taught at Touro College, a New York City school, I always saw students devouring the book. I could recognize that pink and purple cover from across a subway platform. I am surprised it took me so long to finally get around to reading it. So, can a white girl like me who came up in Dallas, Texas get into this book? Absolutely.
NUTSHELL: Winter Santiaga is fifteen going on thirty, a sophisticated street-wise daughter of the local drug king of her Brooklyn projects. We enter her story as everything is starting to unravel for her Pops. Winter, used to a life of protection and privilege, is forced out of her comfort zone when her mother is shot and her father is jailed. She is scrappy, using all of her powers (including sexuality and predatory manipulation) to get back to a position of pampered princess-ness, but her thirst for status and luxury ends up sucking her into the same trap that snared her beloved father and eventually lands her in the slammer as well, having lost all of her friends and family along the way.
My favorite thing about this novel is the language. Some might say it is written in slang or ghetto english. Personally, i find this colorful community dialect beautiful, and satisfying in it's attention to rhythm and cadence. I like the way Sister Souljah spells things in a way that lets me hear the voices speaking. She uses "tryna" for "trying to," for example. The language is gritty, raw, visceral. Experiences are registered in the body. In an early scene, Winter describes herself in a club "tryna" get the attention of a man who dismisses her: "My body was shaking and sweating as anger and desire fought it out." Later that same man called her name "with a roughness that made me want to just hop on his dick and go buck." Winter's lack of shame combined with the intensity of feeling regarding her physical attitudes is at once bracing and unbelievable. I remember being fifteen and feeling unbearably conflicted about my sexual urges and feelings. But this character has grown up in a world that required her to be much older than her years. She has grown up in a world where mortality is an every day fact. I wonder if Sister Souljah's portrayal of this product of the street drug world is accurate. I would now like to read a memoir by someone like Winter, but real.
But back to that sentence above, that hot sentence ..."hop on his dick and go buck." Listen to those consonants. Those short, hard words that skip like a rock over a pond. this is what i love about this book.
I also really like using the word "bounce" for leave.
So, I gotta bounce. later.
Friday, March 2, 2007
What makes To Kill a Mockingbird a Classic?
I am posting this thoughtful essay by Abby.
Abigail February 21, 2007
L.A. – 8th grade
When you mention To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, people’s automatic response is “Oh, that’s a classic!” But what makes it a classic?
At first when the book came out, it got horrible reviews, and people frowned upon it. It showed a very deep, horrid truth that people didn’t want to recognize. The book exposed how infected and corrupt the world was, how unjust and racist things were. It examined how people were afraid to stand up for what was right; that in the end, only one person had the guts to deal with real problems.
“Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.” -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
So they rejected Harper Lee’s message and stayed quiet. But eventually as the reality sank in, Lee’s ideas got a steady grip on society; more and more people accepted what the story stands for.
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The book draws a fine example of a moment of “challenge and controversy,” when an innocent black man is accused by a white man, of a crime he clearly didn’t do. When the accused man is sent to jail, everyone knows it wasn’t right, but they refused to admit it. Instead, they turn down Atticus Finch’s protests of truth. The story exposes how corrupt things were and how, even though everyone knew it was wrong, no one wanted to discuss it much until To Kill a Mockingbird was published.
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Usually, when something is so deep and true, people get overwhelmed and they take a break and put the book down. But as they get accustomed to it, they pick it up again and read. After a long break, the nation picked it up again and read. They read so much that “more then 10,000,000 copies were sold since it first appeared in 1960 (Gina Bellafante).” and it is still selling.
An important component in labeling something a classic is time. Has it only been in the stores for 5 to 10 months, or has it planted itself in society for over 100 years? Shakespeare’s work has maintained its popularity and importance throughout the centuries. The Harry Potter series has gone up and down on the popularity scale. Though it doesn’t send a distinct recognized message now; it’s only been out for a mere 10 years –over time we may find our piece of coal has turned into a diamond- , it is a potential classic. To Kill a Mockingbird has held on strong for around 40 years, and is a well established classic.
Abigail February 21, 2007
L.A. – 8th grade
When you mention To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, people’s automatic response is “Oh, that’s a classic!” But what makes it a classic?
At first when the book came out, it got horrible reviews, and people frowned upon it. It showed a very deep, horrid truth that people didn’t want to recognize. The book exposed how infected and corrupt the world was, how unjust and racist things were. It examined how people were afraid to stand up for what was right; that in the end, only one person had the guts to deal with real problems.
“Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.” -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
So they rejected Harper Lee’s message and stayed quiet. But eventually as the reality sank in, Lee’s ideas got a steady grip on society; more and more people accepted what the story stands for.
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The book draws a fine example of a moment of “challenge and controversy,” when an innocent black man is accused by a white man, of a crime he clearly didn’t do. When the accused man is sent to jail, everyone knows it wasn’t right, but they refused to admit it. Instead, they turn down Atticus Finch’s protests of truth. The story exposes how corrupt things were and how, even though everyone knew it was wrong, no one wanted to discuss it much until To Kill a Mockingbird was published.
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Usually, when something is so deep and true, people get overwhelmed and they take a break and put the book down. But as they get accustomed to it, they pick it up again and read. After a long break, the nation picked it up again and read. They read so much that “more then 10,000,000 copies were sold since it first appeared in 1960 (Gina Bellafante).” and it is still selling.
An important component in labeling something a classic is time. Has it only been in the stores for 5 to 10 months, or has it planted itself in society for over 100 years? Shakespeare’s work has maintained its popularity and importance throughout the centuries. The Harry Potter series has gone up and down on the popularity scale. Though it doesn’t send a distinct recognized message now; it’s only been out for a mere 10 years –over time we may find our piece of coal has turned into a diamond- , it is a potential classic. To Kill a Mockingbird has held on strong for around 40 years, and is a well established classic.
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Tentacles, Anchors and Shifts: Ned Vizzini's It's Kind of a Funny Story
It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini
When this book came out a few months ago, students in my eighth grade classrooms clamored for it. One student in particular, a girl whose opinion I hold in very high esteem, gushed endlessly about the book. Another student bragged to me about having gone to Barnes and Noble to get his book signed by the author. What eighth grader brags about getting a book signed? It is rare. Thus I said to myself, What is up with this book? Who is this Ned Vizzini? I asked around. My neighbor happens to be a YA fiction writer and also works for a publishing house. She had a bad personal experience* with Mr. Vizzini and didn't have much good to say about him, which was an interesting counterpoint to the heaps of ardor I'd been hearing. Now I was truly intrigued. I bought the hardback(!) which has a neat cover.
NUTSHELL: A fifteen year old boy who lives in Brooklyn and goes to a prestigious high school is depressed. He can't eat, he throws up his food, he can't sleep due to "Cycling," an everlasting whirlwind of punishing thoughts looping through his consciousness. He feels suicidal. He is self-destructive. He is hot for his best friend's girl. He thinks about killing himself by jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge. On one very bad night, he calls the Suicide Hotline and ends up checking himself into the local hospital's psychiatric unit.
The rest of the book is spent describing his five days in the psychiatric unit. Craig, the narrator, meets new friends, reconnects with his artwork, gets a girlfriend, and helps others. He leaves a changed boy, connected to himself in a new truer way, able to see the beauty of ordinary life.
It is kind of a fairy tale.
This book has a lot of important things to say to young people. I related strongly to the story, having experienced teenage depression myself. While I found his five day transformation rather magical--it's akin to a Zen satori, actually--I found the journey he describes--healing through imagination, art, relaxing into imperfection, extending oneself to others, emotional intimacy, etc--very important and true.
Okay so what are Tentacles and Anchors and Fake Shifts and Real Shifts?
These are buzz words that Craig has given some of his psychological phenomena. These are aspects of his mind, his depression, his healing. I appreciated his being able to lable these things.
Tentacles: "evil tasks that invade my life"--these are perceived obligations that weigh Craig down, make him feel guilty and pressured. The tentacles are tangled up, all leading to one another, all stuck together. Tentacles are school assignments that feel unmanageable, emails piling up, and spiraling thoughts of failure.
Anchors: "The opposite of the Tentacles...things that occupy my mind and make me feel good temporarily." Anchors don't lead to rumination; they lead to action.
A Shift is what he's looking for in his mind. Fake Shifts are times when his mind appears to have changed, but then hasn't after all. A false front. False hope.
Craig says "I want there to be a shift so bad. I want my brain to slide into the slot it was meant to be in, rest there the way it did last fall of last year, back when i was young and witty, and my teachers said i had incredible promise..."
I know this feeling...the heartache of transitioning out of potential into manifestation. It is sink or swim time. But what I especially appreciate about this novel is the character's coming back to a childhood practice of making maps. This practice, this hands-on doing of something physical and symbolic, is a key to healing depression. Using the image of maps drives the idea home, in that making art whilst in the deep dark of a depression can be a map, a path to the light. Talking with a caring therapist is important, but nothing helps like diving into a drawing obsession for a while. It occupies the whole of oneself, and shows the self a way out of rumination, one the deadly symptoms of depression, which is, after all, a mental illness. In other words, the mind is ill in some way, so thinking is diseased and must be healed. Making art unites body, mind and spirit in a unique way, circumventing language and logic. Aaahhh.
In the hospital Craig meets all kinds of kooky characters which the author treats with great dignity and sympathy. They are fun to meet. They are supportive of one another and real and sweet. In the back of the book we read that Mr. Vizzini spent five days in the psych unit and wrote this book directly afterward, so one assumes that it is memoir-esque. So i have to wonder, has he kept in touch with Fiend One and Fiend Two, the two ex-baddest crack smokers in NYC? Were the patients really so fun to be around?
Craig, a teenage boy, is wrestling with his lustful urges, and his physical sexuality. He also feels tremendous pressure in his high school environment. I was so relieved when at the end of the novel he allows himelf to change high schools, opt for a school where he could focus on art and be himself. I witness the pressure that eighth grade students feel as they apply for high schools in New York City. It feels as if there are so few acceptable options, and the competition for them is fierce, when in truth so many options exist. There are so many various paths to success--in fact, so many definitions of success, that it is a lack of imagination more than anything else that leads to this arbitrary narrowing. Students must be encouraged to find their best way, the path that offers each person his or her most satisfying journey on the way to self-realization and life work. Not everyone needs to live highest on the hog. Not everyone is cut out to be a risk-taking artist. Not everyone is meant to broker stocks. Not everyone needs to have a family. There are millions of possibilites for a rich life.
It's Kind of a Funny Story is ultimately the story of personal acceptance, self-awareness, and a broadening of perspective.
What do you think defines success?
Do you make art? If so, how do you feel while making it? After a piece is finished?
*He sought her out after having read her blog which mentioned him...hello!
When this book came out a few months ago, students in my eighth grade classrooms clamored for it. One student in particular, a girl whose opinion I hold in very high esteem, gushed endlessly about the book. Another student bragged to me about having gone to Barnes and Noble to get his book signed by the author. What eighth grader brags about getting a book signed? It is rare. Thus I said to myself, What is up with this book? Who is this Ned Vizzini? I asked around. My neighbor happens to be a YA fiction writer and also works for a publishing house. She had a bad personal experience* with Mr. Vizzini and didn't have much good to say about him, which was an interesting counterpoint to the heaps of ardor I'd been hearing. Now I was truly intrigued. I bought the hardback(!) which has a neat cover.
NUTSHELL: A fifteen year old boy who lives in Brooklyn and goes to a prestigious high school is depressed. He can't eat, he throws up his food, he can't sleep due to "Cycling," an everlasting whirlwind of punishing thoughts looping through his consciousness. He feels suicidal. He is self-destructive. He is hot for his best friend's girl. He thinks about killing himself by jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge. On one very bad night, he calls the Suicide Hotline and ends up checking himself into the local hospital's psychiatric unit.
The rest of the book is spent describing his five days in the psychiatric unit. Craig, the narrator, meets new friends, reconnects with his artwork, gets a girlfriend, and helps others. He leaves a changed boy, connected to himself in a new truer way, able to see the beauty of ordinary life.
It is kind of a fairy tale.
This book has a lot of important things to say to young people. I related strongly to the story, having experienced teenage depression myself. While I found his five day transformation rather magical--it's akin to a Zen satori, actually--I found the journey he describes--healing through imagination, art, relaxing into imperfection, extending oneself to others, emotional intimacy, etc--very important and true.
Okay so what are Tentacles and Anchors and Fake Shifts and Real Shifts?
These are buzz words that Craig has given some of his psychological phenomena. These are aspects of his mind, his depression, his healing. I appreciated his being able to lable these things.
Tentacles: "evil tasks that invade my life"--these are perceived obligations that weigh Craig down, make him feel guilty and pressured. The tentacles are tangled up, all leading to one another, all stuck together. Tentacles are school assignments that feel unmanageable, emails piling up, and spiraling thoughts of failure.
Anchors: "The opposite of the Tentacles...things that occupy my mind and make me feel good temporarily." Anchors don't lead to rumination; they lead to action.
A Shift is what he's looking for in his mind. Fake Shifts are times when his mind appears to have changed, but then hasn't after all. A false front. False hope.
Craig says "I want there to be a shift so bad. I want my brain to slide into the slot it was meant to be in, rest there the way it did last fall of last year, back when i was young and witty, and my teachers said i had incredible promise..."
I know this feeling...the heartache of transitioning out of potential into manifestation. It is sink or swim time. But what I especially appreciate about this novel is the character's coming back to a childhood practice of making maps. This practice, this hands-on doing of something physical and symbolic, is a key to healing depression. Using the image of maps drives the idea home, in that making art whilst in the deep dark of a depression can be a map, a path to the light. Talking with a caring therapist is important, but nothing helps like diving into a drawing obsession for a while. It occupies the whole of oneself, and shows the self a way out of rumination, one the deadly symptoms of depression, which is, after all, a mental illness. In other words, the mind is ill in some way, so thinking is diseased and must be healed. Making art unites body, mind and spirit in a unique way, circumventing language and logic. Aaahhh.
In the hospital Craig meets all kinds of kooky characters which the author treats with great dignity and sympathy. They are fun to meet. They are supportive of one another and real and sweet. In the back of the book we read that Mr. Vizzini spent five days in the psych unit and wrote this book directly afterward, so one assumes that it is memoir-esque. So i have to wonder, has he kept in touch with Fiend One and Fiend Two, the two ex-baddest crack smokers in NYC? Were the patients really so fun to be around?
Craig, a teenage boy, is wrestling with his lustful urges, and his physical sexuality. He also feels tremendous pressure in his high school environment. I was so relieved when at the end of the novel he allows himelf to change high schools, opt for a school where he could focus on art and be himself. I witness the pressure that eighth grade students feel as they apply for high schools in New York City. It feels as if there are so few acceptable options, and the competition for them is fierce, when in truth so many options exist. There are so many various paths to success--in fact, so many definitions of success, that it is a lack of imagination more than anything else that leads to this arbitrary narrowing. Students must be encouraged to find their best way, the path that offers each person his or her most satisfying journey on the way to self-realization and life work. Not everyone needs to live highest on the hog. Not everyone is cut out to be a risk-taking artist. Not everyone is meant to broker stocks. Not everyone needs to have a family. There are millions of possibilites for a rich life.
It's Kind of a Funny Story is ultimately the story of personal acceptance, self-awareness, and a broadening of perspective.
What do you think defines success?
Do you make art? If so, how do you feel while making it? After a piece is finished?
*He sought her out after having read her blog which mentioned him...hello!
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
Push by Sapphire
“Push,” the titular touchstone of this novel, strikes at definitive moments like the low, penetrating tone of a hammered gong. Push. Push. Puuuuusssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
This heartbreaking novel is told from the point of view of Precious Jones, a sixteen year old girl living on her own after having her second child by her own father. She tells her story in graphic, raw, honest detail, and it is the story of a life you can’t believe a person could survive through. Yet Precious, illiterate and hanging on to sanity by a thread, survives with dignity and sensitivity. She survives by pushing. Pushing her self up a steep hill, pushing through the static and interference of her infected memories, to find a life of her own.
This book is difficult to read. It is, as one reviewer describes it, merciless. It will not spare you. I became depressed while reading it, deeply sad at the brutality humans can inflict upon one another, horrified at what some parents can do to their own children. At the same time, I was deeply moved by this positively regal young woman. Precious? Regal? Well, something about her is regal. She carries herself through a tortured existence with the innate conviction that she has a life worth living, worth developing. She never loses sight of her desire to be educated. She does not give up. Push. This insistence on living feels regal to me. Strange. What do you think? How would you describe Precious?
This is the story of one woman’s determination to become educated. At its core it is a story of survival through learning, through community, through sharing experiences, through telling your story, your heroic journey. The book ends with a series of stories, a “book” that Precious’ class creates. These stories are the stories of young women with none of life’s advantages, girls who are beaten down in every way, yet find ways back to themselves, and to independence. I would like to tell everyone to read this book, but I fear that some might not be able to quite take it. The language and scenes can be rough, but sometimes life is rough, and though we want to avoid pain, we cannot always do so. In fact, it is often valuable to face pain, another’s pain; this is the way to develop real compassion and peace. Likewise, when we are in deep personal pain of our own, it is often a relief to find a simpatico story of some kind, a story that can show one way out of desperation and traps. When we feel like a fellow traveler on the hard road of life, rather than a lonely ghost, it can give us strength to continue on. Push.
This heartbreaking novel is told from the point of view of Precious Jones, a sixteen year old girl living on her own after having her second child by her own father. She tells her story in graphic, raw, honest detail, and it is the story of a life you can’t believe a person could survive through. Yet Precious, illiterate and hanging on to sanity by a thread, survives with dignity and sensitivity. She survives by pushing. Pushing her self up a steep hill, pushing through the static and interference of her infected memories, to find a life of her own.
This book is difficult to read. It is, as one reviewer describes it, merciless. It will not spare you. I became depressed while reading it, deeply sad at the brutality humans can inflict upon one another, horrified at what some parents can do to their own children. At the same time, I was deeply moved by this positively regal young woman. Precious? Regal? Well, something about her is regal. She carries herself through a tortured existence with the innate conviction that she has a life worth living, worth developing. She never loses sight of her desire to be educated. She does not give up. Push. This insistence on living feels regal to me. Strange. What do you think? How would you describe Precious?
This is the story of one woman’s determination to become educated. At its core it is a story of survival through learning, through community, through sharing experiences, through telling your story, your heroic journey. The book ends with a series of stories, a “book” that Precious’ class creates. These stories are the stories of young women with none of life’s advantages, girls who are beaten down in every way, yet find ways back to themselves, and to independence. I would like to tell everyone to read this book, but I fear that some might not be able to quite take it. The language and scenes can be rough, but sometimes life is rough, and though we want to avoid pain, we cannot always do so. In fact, it is often valuable to face pain, another’s pain; this is the way to develop real compassion and peace. Likewise, when we are in deep personal pain of our own, it is often a relief to find a simpatico story of some kind, a story that can show one way out of desperation and traps. When we feel like a fellow traveler on the hard road of life, rather than a lonely ghost, it can give us strength to continue on. Push.
Friday, December 22, 2006
The Burn Journals by Brent Runyon
This is a memoir of a fourteen-year-old boy's failed suicide attempt and the subsequent recovery and healing process of both body and spirit. As you can probably gather from the title of the book, the young man is burned terribly. He discusses the long, painful experience of burn care in graphic detail. He also describes his reticence or inability to speak insightfully about the inner despair that led this terrible act of self-destruction.
As I read this book, I found myself wincing in vicarious pain. I squirmed in my subway seat while reading about the involved skin-grafting procedures the narrator endured. As I read on, I became a bit frustrated and impatient with the narrator's "flat" attitude. I wanted him to come to a revelation about the root of his depression. But this book is honest, and doesn't include the happy Hollywood ending we get used to with this kind of story. And this honesty, while sometimes maddening, is also the beauty of this book.
I would be interested to hear from others who have read this book. Does this story appeal to young readers? Although it is told from the point of view of a teenage boy, I wonder if teenage boys can relate to the ambivalent narrator. I wonder if anyone else sometimes became almost angry about the narrator's insistence on superficiality to avoid deeper sorrows.
Write in....
As I read this book, I found myself wincing in vicarious pain. I squirmed in my subway seat while reading about the involved skin-grafting procedures the narrator endured. As I read on, I became a bit frustrated and impatient with the narrator's "flat" attitude. I wanted him to come to a revelation about the root of his depression. But this book is honest, and doesn't include the happy Hollywood ending we get used to with this kind of story. And this honesty, while sometimes maddening, is also the beauty of this book.
I would be interested to hear from others who have read this book. Does this story appeal to young readers? Although it is told from the point of view of a teenage boy, I wonder if teenage boys can relate to the ambivalent narrator. I wonder if anyone else sometimes became almost angry about the narrator's insistence on superficiality to avoid deeper sorrows.
Write in....
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