English 325: I am J

I’ll be honest here, I really don’t know what to think of this one. I liked it, I thought it was a nice read with interesting characters and a good storyline. The thing is I don’t have much experience dealing with works of literature regarding the issues that this novel focuses on. I don’t really know what a fair portrayal is and what a stereotype is. Because of my own ignorance I felt like I was just floating through this work, buying into the information that was being presented before me as truth and just going with the story from there.

I empathize with J, and his whole ordeal. I think a lot of the work focused on teenage love, a subject that most people can admit is already hard enough. Add on the fact that J is transgender and it just makes the whole thing even more confusing. I think that’s one of the reasons I like this work is because even though I couldn’t relate to the main focus of the work, it makes it very clear that J is dealing with the same issues other guys deal with, just with some added stress tacked on.

The work feels very scatterbrained in many ways, popping between many different character and with those characters perceptions of J and what he’s going through. For this reason I found it somewhat difficult to follow the progression of him throughout the work, because I was constantly barraged with different and contrasting views of the protagonist, whether from J’s parents, Melissa, or the other characters in the work.

I think this text would work well with adolescents. First of all, I think it would do good relating to anybody going through the same sort of thing, but I don’t think this is the only merit. It also presents, at least I think it presents, a fair view of someone who is transgender, and that’s a good lesson for kids in high school. Plus, the book has relatable teenage problems that I think most kids can really connect and relate to whether they are transgender or not. Not being understood is a huge issue for most teens I think, and while this book takes that idea farther than what I think most people experience, it is a very relatable and relevant idea.

Like I said, I enjoyed this work. I didn’t think it was spectacular, it just kind of came and went. I liked it, didn’t love it. Maybe if I had a better understanding of the subject matter I would have liked it more, or perhaps less. What else can I say. Solid B. 

English 325: Wintergirls

This is an interesting one. I think that first and foremost, this is a difficult work to read solely because it address so many uncomfortable and hot issues. Suicide is a tough discussion on its own, but mix that with anorexia, an incredibly strong sense of guilt, and self harm, and this book becomes even more serious.

I know that our class spends a lot of time talking about do whether author’s have “the right” to create these stories if they haven’t experienced them themselves. In the vast majority of cases I role my eyes and say “Of course they do!” If people only wrote about their own experiences chances would never be taken, and many great stories would never be told. You can’t remain silent because you fear what will happen if you speak up. That said, for this novel I think it is very important to either have some firsthand experience or have done some very extensive research. I say this because I’m taking the author’s word on this subject as fact: this is how it is. I’m buying into the idea that this is how people with anorexia feel about themselves and others. I have no knowledge on the subject matter so I’m going to believe this stuff, and students will do the same. When what you are writing is taken as fact on a very hot topic, it is important to know what you’re talking about.

With that out of the way, I think the theme of this novel is good. It is basically a coming of age story in its own unique way. Growing up in this case means understanding that you need to help yourself, identifying a problem and being willing to fix it. Even the title Wintergirls almost hints at this sort of frozen stasis that Lia is in and only at the end does she emerge from this state to grow. Going hand in hand with this is Lia’s growth throughout the novel not only coming to terms with the grief she feels for Cassie’s death but also with her own anorexia. I think it is an interesting way of doing a coming of age story.

I’m not sure about this book’s appeal. It deals with a very important issue, but I’m not sure how many kids would be interested in it. It is in a way a ghost story which are always interesting, but beyond that anorexia is not a universally relatable idea. I don’t think this is a reason not to teach it, just because something is not relatable does not make it any less valuable, I just mean to say that I think it lacks the immediate relevance that some other books we’ve read possess.

With all that said, I’ll be honest, I just didn’t really like this one. It wasn’t bad by any means but I just never felt fully invested or engaged. Perhaps it was the lack of relatability or just the uncomfortable nature of the text but I never really enjoyed this novel. Like I said, it wasn’t bad in any way, just not great. I’ll give it a solid B. 

English 326: Final Blog

I have always enjoyed writing stories, it was something that has been close to my heart since a very young age, and I honestly think that most kids have a strong imagination and are not given a change to utilize it very often. Now this is just a concept, but I like the idea of teaching grammar through creative writing. Imagine having an English class where you do the normal everyday high school English class things. Read a novel, pick it apart, and analyze the themes – those sorts of things. Now imagine that same class but every Friday there is a new grammar concept. I teach the class the rules of using whatever that week’s concept is and then give them their task: continue their story, experimenting with this week’s concept.

I like the idea that throughout the course of the semester students write a novel of sorts, piece by piece. Every Monday another page, double spaced, of their story is due. It is a pretty small assignment, but by the end of the year they have a pretty substantial story on their hands. Not only does it get students just to write, never a bad things, and not only does it allow students to utilize a creative side of themselves that schools normally don’t stress, but by asking them to experiment with new grammar concepts it as helps them learn.

Then students can share with the class, if they want to, what is happening in their story and how they used the grammar concept to help them make a more solid sentence. This concept is very similar to how you have us use a new grammar concept every week, but instead of a blog post on a certain subject, it is a running story of the student’s own creation. It makes grammar relevant and its integration hopefully less stressful.

If all that wasn’t enough, it also makes grammar relevant to writing. Instead of being something that is tied to a worksheet or a lesson, students are trying to utilize it within the bounds of their own writing, their own story. I think it creates a bond between grammar and writing that is much stronger than just teaching a lesson on grammar.

I understand that this sort of strategy might not be for everyone, and that not everyone loves to write creative stories, but it is a very small amount of writing on a weekly basis that ingrains concepts in a fun and innovative way.

    

English 325: Whatever blog number this is. I'm really tired right now...

Okay, I’m not a big fan. Normally I really enjoy dystopian novels. I like how they can reflect the darker aspects of our culture, but also provide us with a certain amount of hope. I love how characters come to realize the injustice of their way of life. Books like 1984, Brave New World, and The Giver are among some of my favorite novels of all time. Despite this however, I have not enjoyed this novel so far. I think a major reason for this is that it doesn’t seem reasonable. While the other works I mentioned seem believable in their own right because they allow time for the change to occur or provide a believable explanation for the changed circumstances, this novel provides us with a very foreign world with major, unlikely and unbelievable changes, while still grounding it with modern popular culture references. Perhaps this was an attempt to make it seem like this future is closer than we think, but it just comes off as out of place and strange.

I feel as if the themes of this novel are also forced and over the top. The novel presents a world that is ridiculous, would never come to pass, and is clearly over the top wrong and incompetent. Then the novel proceeds to try and convince us that that world is wrong. No duh! I’m sorry but you’re not clever because you’re telling us that killing off children is a bad idea. It is an oversimplification of a complexed issue and it does nothing to further any sort of point.

Characters at this point in time are okay I suppose. Nothing special here. I don’t dislike any of the characters but feel no sort of real connection with them. The plot for the most part is just the kids getting into and out of bad situations, interwoven with comments about how bad their unrealistic world is.

The main characters are pretty young, but I still feel as if they’re not represented in the best way. It feels like young teens as written by older adults. Kids like Taylor Swift right? We should include Taylor Swift in their conversation! Additionally, I don’t care how weird your world is, I don’t think anybody would be happy to just go off and die, so there’s also that.

It must be pretty sure that I don’t really like this one. It just feels forced to me and additionally it seems like its building up a massive straw man just to feel superior when it beats it down. I could always buy the world of 1984 or other dystopian novels, and this one fails to do that, a critical failure that I can’t overcome. I don’t know what else to say, I’m just not a fan. It’s not terrible, but certainly not something I have enjoyed thus far. C-