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Recent reading
Feb. 23rd, 2008 05:24 pmI checked, and the last time I posted about my reading was well over a month ago. Sheesh! Last semester I read tons and tons of novels, but this semester my reading has been more diverse: essays, articles, single chapters in larger works... That makes it a bit more difficult to keep track of it all. Nevertheless, I will attempt to catch up.
Writing in the Asylum by Jennifer McCormick: The asylum in the title is not the foreboding madhouse that the word evokes, but is rather McCormick's word for the troubled urban high school where she spent some time tutoring and teaching poetry. The book describes her experiences and advocates for poetry as a means of addressing some of the social issues, psychological challenges, and disempowerment facing the students who are educated in these kinds of schools. It was originally written as McCormick's dissertation, and it's a strange mix of personal stories and highly academic writing. McCormick also makes no attempt to hide the fact that she has an agenda. It's an interesting enough book, but Sapphire's Push deals with the same issues in a much more visceral way.
The Circuit Writer by Margot Fortunato Galt: Another take on teaching poetry in schools, this time in rural Minnesota. This book could not be culturally farther away from Writing in the Asylum, but there's an underlying similarity in their messages. I appreciated the fact that Galt stayed closer to the concrete than McCormick, but I had some disagreements with some of her pedagogy. I have been reading a lot this semester about the teaching of writing outside of academia, and it's very interesting to be able to take these different readings and consider them in light of each other.
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson: I really liked this novel. This book is a double narrative, concerning events that happened to the narrator, Trond, the summer of 1948 and in the present. I wished that Petterson had spent more time in the present--I liked Trond as an old man, living in an isolated house by a Norwegian lake and trying to decide how to spend the end of his life--but the flashback story had its compelling moments as well. It's very beautifully written (and translated), with a wonderful sense of narrative voice.
On Bullshit by Harry Frankfurt: This book made a bit of splash when it came out a few years ago, mostly because a Harvard professor had written a book with a bad word in the title. Having now read it, I can say that the most noteworthy thing about this book is that a Harvard professor wrote a book with a bad word in the title. It's an inoffensive bit of fluff-philosophy that doesn't actually seem to have much to say. Parts of it are mildly amusing, and it only takes about an hour to read, so at least I can't blame it for wasting much of my life.
That's all I have time for right now, but I really do hope to begin posting more regularly again!
Writing in the Asylum by Jennifer McCormick: The asylum in the title is not the foreboding madhouse that the word evokes, but is rather McCormick's word for the troubled urban high school where she spent some time tutoring and teaching poetry. The book describes her experiences and advocates for poetry as a means of addressing some of the social issues, psychological challenges, and disempowerment facing the students who are educated in these kinds of schools. It was originally written as McCormick's dissertation, and it's a strange mix of personal stories and highly academic writing. McCormick also makes no attempt to hide the fact that she has an agenda. It's an interesting enough book, but Sapphire's Push deals with the same issues in a much more visceral way.
The Circuit Writer by Margot Fortunato Galt: Another take on teaching poetry in schools, this time in rural Minnesota. This book could not be culturally farther away from Writing in the Asylum, but there's an underlying similarity in their messages. I appreciated the fact that Galt stayed closer to the concrete than McCormick, but I had some disagreements with some of her pedagogy. I have been reading a lot this semester about the teaching of writing outside of academia, and it's very interesting to be able to take these different readings and consider them in light of each other.
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson: I really liked this novel. This book is a double narrative, concerning events that happened to the narrator, Trond, the summer of 1948 and in the present. I wished that Petterson had spent more time in the present--I liked Trond as an old man, living in an isolated house by a Norwegian lake and trying to decide how to spend the end of his life--but the flashback story had its compelling moments as well. It's very beautifully written (and translated), with a wonderful sense of narrative voice.
On Bullshit by Harry Frankfurt: This book made a bit of splash when it came out a few years ago, mostly because a Harvard professor had written a book with a bad word in the title. Having now read it, I can say that the most noteworthy thing about this book is that a Harvard professor wrote a book with a bad word in the title. It's an inoffensive bit of fluff-philosophy that doesn't actually seem to have much to say. Parts of it are mildly amusing, and it only takes about an hour to read, so at least I can't blame it for wasting much of my life.
That's all I have time for right now, but I really do hope to begin posting more regularly again!
