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Feb. 8th, 2012 08:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
floorpigeonThings:
- I suck at time management, to the point where my biggest fantasy right this second isn't that I wake up in faerie, but that I wake up being good at time-management. Is that how you know you've grown up? Um, I hope not.
- Washington State legalized same-sex marriage! YEAH! I am suddenly proud of 'my' state. In fact I've never thought of it as 'mine' before, but NYS sure as hell ain't mine. I disown it, anyway. More importantly, we rock.
- I'm getting used to going to HS to intern/practice sitting quietly/etc, wtf. I'm so not cut out for hardcore urban schools, though. Even my nice, tiny, alternative HS makes me nervous till I relax. Seriously. Hardcore urban? Not my bag.
- We're reading a fantasy YA novel about historical African-American gods/characters/folklore in my class, and some of my group are like, 'fantasy is what turned me off literature in middle school'. O___o for realz! They are having flash-backs, and are like, really struggling to relate to black people's mythology, etc. Even the ones who've got fantasy-reading experience. People comfortable with this book make up a huge minority in our 10-or-so person group. Meh.
...I dunno. I feel let down but unsurprised. I just feel sad, maybe? I dunno. I just have to repeat to myself 'I am different, I am weird, I am different', 'cause like, I forget sometimes. Ok, so all the dialogue being in Ebonics kind of annoyed me (but I got used to it), and the plot was a little boring (but it got better), but they just had this huge resistance, and it was all because of this social/racial gap, and it's just depressing, man. I mean, really? REALLY???
And I can't blame them 'cause it's a visceral response, not an incorrect belief or misguided feeling. Fundamentally, the way I use literature and the way most people (probably) use literature are not the same, and the way I relate to new worlds and cultures is also fundamentally not the same. I mean, like I said, I wasn't thrilled about the Ebonics, but neither was I alienated. I was annoyed, a little bored, but not alienated. Black? Chinese? Rich? Poor? American? Japanese? Realistic? Fantastical? Gay? Straight? God? Human? Other? I don't care. Most people do, apparently. Is that okay? I guess it's neither ok nor 'not ok'...??
Depressing. These are supposed to be future teachers, interested in YA lit. I dunno, I don't blame them. I don't. The need to connect viscerally with literature is a real thing, and it's why these super-personal 'niche' books get written-- because black teenagers don't see themselves reflected in the literature. But I like to think that's not a majority feeling, across the board. I like to think literature can reach you regardless of your culture, and that universal meaning isn't a stupid pipe-dream, but maybe I just have to believe this book isn't good enough, and that's it.
- I suck at time management, to the point where my biggest fantasy right this second isn't that I wake up in faerie, but that I wake up being good at time-management. Is that how you know you've grown up? Um, I hope not.
- Washington State legalized same-sex marriage! YEAH! I am suddenly proud of 'my' state. In fact I've never thought of it as 'mine' before, but NYS sure as hell ain't mine. I disown it, anyway. More importantly, we rock.
- I'm getting used to going to HS to intern/practice sitting quietly/etc, wtf. I'm so not cut out for hardcore urban schools, though. Even my nice, tiny, alternative HS makes me nervous till I relax. Seriously. Hardcore urban? Not my bag.
- We're reading a fantasy YA novel about historical African-American gods/characters/folklore in my class, and some of my group are like, 'fantasy is what turned me off literature in middle school'. O___o for realz! They are having flash-backs, and are like, really struggling to relate to black people's mythology, etc. Even the ones who've got fantasy-reading experience. People comfortable with this book make up a huge minority in our 10-or-so person group. Meh.
...I dunno. I feel let down but unsurprised. I just feel sad, maybe? I dunno. I just have to repeat to myself 'I am different, I am weird, I am different', 'cause like, I forget sometimes. Ok, so all the dialogue being in Ebonics kind of annoyed me (but I got used to it), and the plot was a little boring (but it got better), but they just had this huge resistance, and it was all because of this social/racial gap, and it's just depressing, man. I mean, really? REALLY???
And I can't blame them 'cause it's a visceral response, not an incorrect belief or misguided feeling. Fundamentally, the way I use literature and the way most people (probably) use literature are not the same, and the way I relate to new worlds and cultures is also fundamentally not the same. I mean, like I said, I wasn't thrilled about the Ebonics, but neither was I alienated. I was annoyed, a little bored, but not alienated. Black? Chinese? Rich? Poor? American? Japanese? Realistic? Fantastical? Gay? Straight? God? Human? Other? I don't care. Most people do, apparently. Is that okay? I guess it's neither ok nor 'not ok'...??
Depressing. These are supposed to be future teachers, interested in YA lit. I dunno, I don't blame them. I don't. The need to connect viscerally with literature is a real thing, and it's why these super-personal 'niche' books get written-- because black teenagers don't see themselves reflected in the literature. But I like to think that's not a majority feeling, across the board. I like to think literature can reach you regardless of your culture, and that universal meaning isn't a stupid pipe-dream, but maybe I just have to believe this book isn't good enough, and that's it.
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Date: 2012-02-10 05:36 am (UTC)Anyway, I'm curious as to your opinion (even of just a few paragraphs) now, so here (http://www.amazon.com/Magical-Adventures-Pretty-Harper-Trophy/dp/0064401782). I agree with you that being a teacher implies a responsibility to push past discomfort, and some did try (well, at least most of them kept reading, anyway-- I just threw Harry Potter across the room and stopped reading at my first try). It was funny, 'cause one girl said she *didn't* look things up to empathize better with the common experience of disadvantaged readers. I think she's well-intentioned but confused about how best to help. Like you said, trying to educate yourself is always the #1 best idea.
I dunno if they all wanna teach YA per se, maybe they just liked this project option better than the others for the class. Certainly, I wonder about the teaching chops of people who just can't use their imagination very well (I mean, err, well, you can *not like* it as a genre, but when you just don't get it, it seems that's the issue). I do think being familiar with background & context helps, and one girl (interestingly, the one minority in our group) said she'd have benefited from an intro session on the ideas before she read it. That said, as a college student, doing research on what you read by yourself should be second nature. :/ Well, it was second nature to me when I was 12, but still.
There definitely was some rejection going on, and that did concern me. There was some entitlement, too-- like, 'why should I have to read this stuff?' or 'why should I have to push myself when I don't choose to?'. It's funny, 'cause these are some of the same girls who feel good about themselves reading stories set in Afghanistan or going to teach abroad 'cause it's such an 'experience'. I really think that fetishizing alienness and avoiding it are flip-sides of the same coin.
And yeah, it's hard to imagine being great with the reality of a book's subject if you can't identify with the fictional aspect. I guess this is where 'tolerance' and bullshit stuff like 'color-blindness' and 'we're all just people' comes in. Not that we're not just people, but all the privilege on display definitely made me uncomfortable. But what made me more uncomfortable is how they didn't realize it at all. And it's not like it's a great book, but I mean, I'm pretty sure if the characters were white, they wouldn't feel this intensely negative. It still sort of boggles my mind that reading about a different world can be that traumatic-- there was actually a white student last quarter who declared she had to stop reading Stendhal's 'Charterhouse of Parma' 'cause she didn't know anything about 19th century France or Italy. I mean, I didn't finish that book either ('cause I get distracted easily), but it's just so amazing to me that not feeling one can relate *personally* to a culture has this traumatic effect on people.
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Date: 2012-02-10 09:41 am (UTC)lol isn't there a cliche of the brilliant male asshole writer? And I guess it's a human mental divide where an author can sympathize wonderfully with fictional characters, but be a dick irl. Though, hm, I also think prejudices will almost always shine through. If only because authors usually are blind to them and don't realize what they're letting slip.
Ok my opinion on this book... Is that a Dillon cover? :DD 1. I love their art. Some of it is v famous so you'd prob recognize it. 2. The Dillons are interesting because they are husband and wife team (like they do the art *together*, which I'm trying to imagine the trust that takes and how it works), and *also* they met in art school in like the 1950s and she's white and he's black.
Ok that had not much to do with anything, but does show that maybe some care went into the design. Also the Dillons are talented and I encourage you to google them for more cool art. :D
The colloquial speech/language is really distracting and distancing to me, I admit. Some things work fine in speech but read oddly. And I'm always distracted by accents written out so much ("de" for "the"). I wonder if this would be easier for me as a book on tape? I can probably get into the groove, but yeah, tough for me to get into, and the sample pages skip around, so there's not enough plot to grab me. And then I'm wondering why the non-American god-child speaks this way. Maybe this is my prejudice? Associating more flowery speech and standard grammar w power? Maybe that's the point--that you can talk like this and it's normal and you can be a god? idk Or maybe I should imagine this story being told by someone who talks this way? lol many thoughts on "correct" language and class and race and my assumptions and I've only read like 3 pages. So it accomplished something. Then again, in the end, I'm not the target audience, so maybe this speaks really well to the people it's trying to reach.
It was funny, 'cause one girl said she *didn't* look things up to empathize better with the common experience of disadvantaged readers.
Um. But I assume, if this book was written with the idea it would reach certain people, it would speak to their experiences. So if you don't have those experiences, don't know the stories they have, and you want to get all the refs, you'd need to do research... I feel like this girl not looking things up basically had the idea that the target audience wouldn't know anything or have any stories. It feels like she didn't even think that they'd know things and have experiences she might not know. idk. I don't really know what the target audience would know or what the author assumed, but it seems dismissive to assume that I already know more than them. I mean, if nothing else, I don't know what it's like to be black in America. I mean, I read and talk to friends, but there are certain things I still don't know, or just miss because it's not my lived experience.
If nothing else, I feel women should be able to get this, since men often have the same problems writing and reading about women.
Plus we have google now! Research takes like 3 secs. I mean, I think a good book doesn't usually need outside research, but this isn't reading for pure fun, but for cultural broadening as a teacher.
Eh, you know that was prob just bs and she was making an excuse to not look things up though.
Certainly, I wonder about the teaching chops of people who just can't use their imagination very well (I mean, err, well, you can *not like* it as a genre, but when you just don't get it, it seems that's the issue).
ia ia Plus imagination will help deal with kids who learn in different ways, which many ppl do even from similar backgrounds, so they can present the same info in different ways.
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Date: 2012-02-10 09:41 am (UTC)I really think that fetishizing alienness and avoiding it are flip-sides of the same coin.
Totes agree. Though fetishizing does present the possibility of leading to actual knowledge. (*looks uncomfortably at a childhood obsession with anime/manga*)
Oh and the entitlement. Man, I'm a little nerd, but college students (espec ones who want to be teachers) should have passed the "will this be on the test" stage by that age. Because learning makes you a better person and since you want to devote your life to teaching you better hope that learning for learning itself is important... because I hope they didn't pick that career for the money or respect or cushy hours (aw, the teacher situation in the US).
there was actually a white student last quarter who declared she had to stop reading Stendhal's 'Charterhouse of Parma' 'cause she didn't know anything about 19th century France or Italy.
wait. what. I mean, the logical thing to do there is to learn about ~exotic 19th century France or Italy, not declare anything having to do with it off limits forever. How does one ever get new knowledge under this model? (Though tbh, I would probably keep reading and just wonder if I was getting real or made-up history, and just hope I wouldn't confuse fiction with history the next time I needed to know something about 19th century France/Italy.)
I've been reading more political and news blogs and basically, in the final analysis, I think most people are happily anti-intellectual. It often boils down to stupid, but in kind of a really sad way.
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Date: 2012-02-10 09:50 am (UTC)