Response 2 due on Wed., 9/30:

The assignment guidelines can be found on Oasis, under our coursework. The file is a .doc and should be downloaded. Remember that it is due on Wednesday.

Baldwin on 9/23

Just wanted to put out a friendly reminder to read "Sonny's Blues" and to be prepared to discuss the questions at the end of the story.

Also, in regards to class discussion: it is wonderful that we've had a great handful of students already contribute to dissection of the read pieces. That said, remember that participation in these discussions is imperative to your own learning/grade. Don't rely on other's to lead the way every class, as those students will tire!

If you have your own line of questions or bouts of insight...we are happy to enter those into our talks. If the rest of us miss something in a story, or if you think you're missing something, use that as a chance to be engaged in the course more fully.

bests,

C.

Cheever Questions for Monday, 9/21:

- Read John Cheever’s “The Country Husband” and the preface on “plot”

- Consider the following questions and be ready to discuss:

- How is your reading affected by how Cheever begins the story?

- After reading the story, how would describe Cheever’s subject matter? What and who are his subjects? Is the subject familiar to you, a reader in 2009?

Alexie Questions for In-class Wednesday

As I said in class today, here are some questions that we will discuss in class on Wednesday. Though these are not "due" for class, I thought I'd give you time to let the questions marinate your brains for a more flavorful discussion Wednesday . . . .

1. Does Sherman Alexie’s “Flight Patterns” feel more contemporary to you than either Paley or Carver’s story? What parts of the story make you feel either way? Theme; language; content; plot; something else? Discuss as a group, then explain both the part(s) and those specific lines within the story that fulfill your response.

2. One of the things our class discussed on Tuesday was both the conflict and resolution of a story. Explain what tension/conflict within “Flight Patterns” drove the plot towards its conclusion. What kind of resolution is there at the end of the story? What do you infer about William’s character based on his final actions?

3.In “Flight Patterns” two men discuss how people can become trapped by other people’s ideas of who we are, especially when we are seen in terms of our race. What is the nature of this trap? Is it dangerous? Or merely inconvenient? (from the publisher’s website, Grove Atlantic)

4. Here in “Flight Patterns,” Alexie chooses to go with third person point of view. Thinking back to our first readings, where the narrator was a character, how does this affect the reader’s view of the character? What kinds of information, and possibly language, does the reader get that they may not if the story were told from William’s perspective? In what ways are the narrator and William similar?

5. After reading Alexie’s poem “Father and Farther,” you may notice that the native Indian man is a subject of each the poem and “Flight Patterns.” Discuss how Alexie tonally deals with the subject in each piece. Is there a similar resolution to any of the themes within the poem and the story? What are some statements of the native Indian man Alexie is making?

Monday's Readings and Writing

Reminder: tomorrow we are discussing Raymond Carver's "Cathedral" and Grace Paley's "A Conversation with My Father." And, your first Response essay is due, typed...of course.

For those who have yet to buy the text, you can find these stories on-line, in other lit anthologies of short stories (found at a library?) and in their original collections from each author (again, at libraries, possibly).

It's imperative to have the course start off having read the stories, as 15 weeks comes and goes quick as the night. And who wants to spend that night desperately finishing their first writing response?

bests,

C.