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.
bookhenge
I hope Dr. Irons is educating future history and English teachers, Scott. This 360-multiple perspective and multi-genre perspective sounds very much like what Aronson recommends. You'd appreciate that he's authored a "transnational history" of the Revolutionary War titled, The Real Revolution: The Global Story of American Independence that sheds light on motivations during the players at that time that we certainly didn't read about in our American history books.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it's not surprising that you enjoyed nonfiction writing so much. Thomas Newkirk describes writing as one of the most "open spaces" in the curriculum -- one that gives guys the chance to explore and create with a lot of freedom.
So why do you think that you were drawn to creating your own fantasy worlds rather than writing about the only one most of us know? Have you read any interviews with fantasy writers who reveal how they became interested in the genre?
I love your comment that "Kids respond to the way we plan and prepare for them." So true! I love learning about a period in history and then reading both fiction and non-fiction titles about the same period. During my junior and senior years in high school, I participated in an experiment that did just that. It was, by far, my favorite class. Anytime we can create links between what kids are learning, we strengthen and enrich the learning process.
ReplyDeleteFYI, if you haven't read Joan Kaywell's Complement to the Classics you should check it out. Cris recommended it to me. In volume 4 there is a chapter on literature that deals with the Native American experience.