This past cycle, we have done a lot of work with Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony. I have enjoyed our discussions so far. I especially liked connecting the relationship between the number four and the different poems to the directions, seasons, and colors used throughout the book.
In order to fully understand Ceremony, we read it through twice. The first time, I used a pdf that I printed out online and did not read very carefully. In addition, the strange formatting of the pdf actually detracted from the enjoyment in reading the text because the spaces between lines, especially the within the formatting of the poems, was actually fairly significant. I am guessing that others did not read as closely the first time through, because our discussions were not very meaningful.
The second reading, where annotations were required, I used an actual copy of the novel. While this had more pages, I found it considerably more enjoyable to read and had an easy time annotating. I definitely could have benefited from starting my annotations a bit earlier, but I managed my time more effectively than with the Foster annotations and actually completed the novel hours before what I would consider "late" Sunday night.
We also read Sherman Alexie's "Defending Walt Whitman." I enjoyed reading this poem a lot, and I thought that I contributed to the discussion with my interpretation. Essentially, I saw it as putting Whitman, a great romantic poet that defined the "American" romantic movement into a situation where he is intimately involved, or thinks that he is, with the interactions on the Native American reservation. In fact, he is not even there, and what he sees as part of this great sensual experience is not something he even understands. He believes he is controlling a game that he is not even playing in. I thought that overall, we had a productive discussion of this poem as a class.
Thomas,
ReplyDeleteI can see where you struggled with the reading on the PDF. The certain paragraph endings and even some page turns are important to breaks in the story. I even heard that when the poem sections of the story come around, that the shape of them made pictures? Probably false, but nonetheless I can see where that could be confusing but frankly, I was still pretty confused without that! The annotations were a struggle for me too but only cost me my sanity and a few hours of sleep, rather than my grade. The Walt Whitman poem was very interesting but I could never really wrap my head around what it all meant. It did provide for some good talks in class though. Good job.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI agree rereading Ceremony was very, very important to understanding it and really getting into the story. The first time was a struggle even if one was really paying attention. I think it's like drawing a circle (which incidentally makes a great comparison because circles are so important) - when you first draw it you're following an imaginary line and it's difficult to make it well, but then when you look at it again it becomes a much easier task to fix it up and make it much more circular. The annotations were, however, much harder than just making a circle rounder.
Hi Thomas,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you about reading the PDF versus the actual book. I got my copy late, too, and enjoyed the book much better with my own copy. Glad you got better at not waiting until the last minute. I'm also happy to hear that you enjoyed the Alexie poem. =)