Radical Blogging- bookhenge

I understand the idea of Radical Change. I know that the shifting world will constantly shift how literature is being produced, published, and distributed. A lot of our classes at NC State manage to challenge us to teach in light of these changes. I think that is a good thing. However, when it comes to literature, to poetry and prose, I am not particularly open to "Radical Change". This was only further confirmed by my reading of "Skeleton Sky". My reaction was honestly, "who cares?". I know this isn't the most open perspective to have, but I can't really help how I read something. I'm so used to artistic productions of literature. To reading Seamus Heaney's poetry and watching how he artistically breaks the rules involved, that this particular poem was just noise to me. I clicked, and clicked, and clicked. It seemed to lead me no where.
What does this mean for me?

1) I personally won't make too much poetry or prose that is under the radical category. Do I want to write a multigenre book one day? Yes, I have it planned out. But this poetry accessing digital tools so that it can be viewed in that format was just odd to me.
2) Would I use this as a tool in a classroom? Absolutely. I'd probably have to read a lot more literature and figure out what that poetry is supposed to look like/express/be. I thought about Skeleton Sky from two perspectives... As a creator, I didn't really find it that appealing. As a teacher, I would have no idea how to grade a work like that. I suppose I need to know the person, and knowing them would help, but I just had no reference for hw good/bad or acceptable it is.
     

I actually read a lot of the books on Dresang's list. I remember liking a lot of the books listed because of the reasons described for making them an agent for "radical change" at a given point in history. I thought of Will Grayson, Will Grayson as a representative of radical change. The way the two authors incorporate facebook posts, IM, etc. It brings the true high school experience further into the picture by accessing something that is digital. I also thought of Persepolis. Graphica continues to enhance literature by adding a second sense (that of sight) and appealing to a new way to read something. I really enjoyed the read because it was no longer just on me to imagine what the author had to go through. It enhanced the comedy AND sincerity of the work in my opinion. I thought Angela's surveys were very telling... For whatever reason, I assumed that most students would have read a graphic novel. I figured they were a popular feature of that generation and thus were very common amongst students. It seems clear that a lot of students have heard about and want to read graphic novels, but some don't even understand the concept. Still others have attempted to read them, but found them confusing and unenjoyable. For the most part, however, students wanted them to be incorporated in curriculum.

The key to me in Angela's article is the general belief that graphic novels bring out desires to read in "reluctant readers, especially males." Say no more. If getting guys to read is a particularly challenging part of English classes across the nation, why aren't we implementing the things they respond best to? Also, I love the thought taht most graphic novels are redos of classic stories. We don't have to jump to something completely new and foreign that way. It acts as a way to ease into adding these to the curriculum. I just think we should constantly strive to include things that make reading more attractive to our students. If that means incorporating graphic novels into our classroom, then it needs to happen.

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The Non-Fiction Thing bookhenge

 Aronson's ideas on the subject of non-fiction were compelling certainly. I must admit that I come from a love of fiction. I have always desired to write fiction, and excelled at things that involve my creativity with other worlds; as opposed to the creativity that non-fiction requires of people and how they present us with facts about our world/life/experience. The result? I read a lot of fiction, I wrote a lot of fiction, but non-fiction got ignored.

Enter college. I became an English major and ended up reading an incredible amount of both fiction and non-fiction writing. One of my favorite classes was taught by Professor Susan Irons, and it was our The History of American Literature. Wonderful class that really did a great job of searching for literature that covered the full spectrum of American history. Our teacher did a great job of acknowledging the fact that our view of history has a lot to do with who was the victor. We have, therefore, very little record of Indian literature and historical research that speaks to their side of the issue. She did a wonderful job of being a historian and a teacher of literature. She remains one of the shining examples against all of the atrocities that Aronson spoke of today in our historical/literature approach. Aronson talked about covering history from a variety of angles and that we can really figure out something by looking at all of the historical perspectives involved. My teacher emphasizes this when she suggested I read the book Killer Angels by Michael Sahara. It covers the battle of Gettysburgh from a multitude of angles. Another book she suggested was The March, about Sherman's march. The first does a great job of allowing us to see a battle from many different military perspectives. The March does a great job of fictionalizing the perspective of slaves as well as soldiers and southern ladies of leisure.
         The majority of the English classes I had emphasized and successfully incorporated non-fiction writing. My favorite was food writing class. You can find topics that students love learning about through non-fiction because it covers real things that they deal with and see in their everyday life. What student wouldn't love a non-fiction writing assignment on food? What if you brought in a certain food at the end of the week? Kids respond to the way we plan and prepare for them. I think history and other non-fiction topics are an easy way to remind/teach them things we can't accomplish through simple fiction.

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Multicultural Book Awards- bookhenge

I have to be honest. Book awards? I understand them, appreciate them, but nothing could be further from my mind. I rarely notice stickers of achievement on books or put much store in anything other than the opinions of well-read friends. Now, would I appreciate an award for a piece of my writing? Yes, the more the merrier. For right now, though, as my writing career falls behind for a more dramatic victory, I feel very distanced from the world of book awards. I feel like there are certain circles and audiences that will view the novels that win certain prestigious awards in a new light and base their reading schedules on those same awards, but that is not that case for this guy.

                Thus, Aronson’s initial essay struck me as more of a social commentary than a commentary on the state of book awards within the ALA. However, I chose to put myself in the shoes of someone who had worked incredibly hard on an African American character. Maybe I poured over library books about the deep south and did my best to extract quotes and voice and tension from old articles, pictures, and newspapers. I really did my homework and the character I created really jumps off the page. I love the way he moves through the plot, the way he grows as a person, and how authentic he feels. Let’s go crazy and say I capture this perspective better than any other writer in a given time frame (a year, a decade, whatever). I’d be very upset that my character, who reflects a certain people from a certain time in a particularly genuine way, cannot be up for an award like the Coretta Scott King. Aronson’s point about their being multiple awards that require someone to be a specific race for eligibility being similar to two dot’s forming a line (a line that can include an infinite number of points) seems sensible. I agree that awards, no matter how distanced I feel from their significance, cannot exclude author’s based on their race. If you are excluding characters or genres in the hopes of honoring specific features of literary quality, than by all means. But, as a writer, I would be incredibly disparaged by the idea of exclusion through skin color. Aronson honors the origination of such awards and the necessity for facilitating literature within and for races that had not previously been recognized, but we are at a new place in literature. These “racially based awards” seem like a step backwards instead of a pathway to honoring authors who deserve it. While the awards may really seek out spectacular literature, it seems tainted by the lack of availability to others who wish to create stories and characters deserving of consideration.

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