Ultimate Opinion: Loved It

From the book jacket:

Mia had everything: a loving family, a gorgeous, adoring boyfriend, and a bright future full of music and full of choices. Then, in an instant, almost all of that is taken from her. Caught between life and death, between a happy past and an unknowable future, Mia spends one critical day contemplating the only decision she has left- the most important decision she’ll ever make.

Simultaneously tragic and hopeful, this is a romantic, riveting, and ultimately uplifting story about memory, music, living, dying, loving.

When I first heard about this book soon after it was published I wasn’t sure what to think.  I knew this type of subject could easily veer into the maudlin or the preachy if not handled with care.  I put off reading it in favor of other books on my list, but enticed by the positive things I’d been hearing (and finding myself in possession of a few B&N gift cards burning a hole in my wallet) I decided to give it a shot.  I’m now kicking myself for not picking it up as soon as I first heard of it.

I’ll admit to a liking for books that can adequately and simply express grief.  They don’t have to be poetic or exceptionally eloquent or even all that sad.  They just have to touch that part of you that knows what it’s like to really experience hurt and loss.  There’s something really beautiful about being able to express something as personal and unique as grief in such a universal way.  I’ve read a few books lately that are able to do this clearly (Looking for Alaska, Sisterhood Everlasting, Lamb just to name a few) and I’d certainly add If I Stay to this list.  It’s not dramatic and it’s not wrenching, but there are parts of it that will just break your heart.  And there are parts that will put it back together again.

Forman’s writing style isn’t complicated; it’s pretty simplistic, actually.  This works well for the subject matter, though.  The words themselves take a backseat to Mia’s experiences and memories instead of masking them with lyrical language.  After a few pages the reader is concentrating less on the actual words and more on the story as a whole.  The narrative structure is less straightforward.  Alternating between minutes spent in the hospital at the present and Mia’s memories of her past slowly reveals her life, which helps give a context and add gravity to her decision.  The novel is very internal.  The reader sees and feels everything through Mia.  Because of that, I found myself just as conflicted about the decision she should make as she was.

Though the subject matter might seem dark – a girl deciding whether to live or die – it’s more bittersweet than morbid.  it’s certainly become one of my go-to books if I want to spend a little time considering life (and if I want a good cry!).

Today, the fantastic Maureen Johnson linked to this article, the latest in the attacks on what kids are reading. The author’s argument is…odd, to say the least, especially for an educator of at-risk youth. The first thing that struck me was how this article was simply dripping with disdain for his students. Obviously, I don’t know Nazaryan or really know anything about him, but if I were to base my view solely on this one article I would guess that not only did he not understand his students, but he felt he was above them. This is not an appropriate attitude for a teacher to have. It’s a pretty harmful one, in fact. His disdain for his students isn’t the point of the article, however. He compounds this harmful attitude with the opinion that (with the apparent exception of Sappho) long-dead, white, male authors are the only ones worthy of reading. To quote:

We need less Myers and more Homer – and not in Cambridge and Oxford, but in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Southside Chicago. …Do I congratulate myself? Very well, I congratulate myself. I hit upon an idea – with plenty of help from my colleagues at the Brooklyn Latin School – and I want others to emulate it. I want them to put away the Walter Dean Myers and dust off Homer, Virgil, Sappho, all of Beard’s bemoaned lot.

I have two problems with this stance. First, while I agree that teaching classic and “literary” literature should be a part of the high school curriculum, why must primarily works by privileged white men be all that’s taught? There was no mention of the myriad of excellent writing by authors of color, authors without privilege, or other female authors. This could have been merely an oversight on his part instead of intentional, of course, but wouldn’t an English teacher who really valued those other works have made sure to mentioned them? Academia has a history of ignoring minority and female writers, but many schools are attempting to remedy this. Instead, it seems Nazaryan would have us move in the other direction. This would be bad enough in a school full of upper-class white students, but to do so in a school full of underprivileged minority students it’s pretty shameful. Actually, you know what, no. It’s shameful in either case. All students should be exposed to a variety of authors and their viewpoints, not just those of the privileged white male. By telling students that white males are the only authors worth reading, he’s telling every one of them who isn’t a white male that their own opinions and contributions and experiences are somehow less.

My second problem is with his view that young adult literature that mirrors the lives of the students is not worth reading. As I’ve written before, I believe that YA literature can and should hold an important place in the classroom. Since I’ve covered it recently, I won’t expound on that view again here, but, suffice it to say, his view that non-classic literature is not worth reading does not improve my opinion of his argument.

He also espouses the idea that literature’s sole purpose is to elevate. He says:

I think that because I am an unashamed, unapologetic believer that the purpose of literature is to elevate. Not to entertain, to problematize or to instruct, but to take what Hamlet called our “unweeded garden” and revel in its thorns. Not to make the world pretty, but to make it true, and by making it true, make it beautiful. All real art is high art.

This, in essence, makes him a literary snob. Having been an English major at a small liberal arts college, I am very familiar with this particular brand of literary snob. Now, despite disagreeing with their opinion, them holding said opinion isn’t a problem. Having high standards or preferring a certain type of literature is perfectly valid. To each his own. However, when that opinion is thrust upon another, particularly students who are still trying to form their own opinions, that’s when it becomes a problem. Nazaryan wasn’t lamenting that his students weren’t reading. He was pointing out that they were reading the “wrong” types of literature. Wrong, of course, being determined by his own standards. Standards which are seemingly based not on educational value, but by personal opinion.

The other problem with this is that he doesn’t seem to realize all that’s contradictory in his claim. He states that the purpose of literature is not to entertain, but then uses the fact that it entertained his students as reason for his methods to be valid. He claims that it shouldn’t instruct, but seems unaware that much of the classic literature he loves did have instructional purposes. He wants literature to make the world true, but doesn’t understand that the classics aren’t the only works that can do that. He seems to have a very narrow view of what is the truth of the world. Why couldn’t the truth of the world be the one the students are experiencing? Why shouldn’t they be allowed to read about their own truth instead of his? Why should their experiences be silenced, while those he believes are right are emulated?

One of the most common complaints of young non-white readers is the dearth of literature that imitates their own lives and experiences. I’ve heard and read time and time again of complaints by readers that there aren’t enough narrators that look, sound, or act like them. If there are books by a well-respected, award-winning writer that the students not only relate to, but devour, who is Nazaryan or anyone to tell them that they shouldn’t be reading them? That they’re not worthy? I am of the opinion that any reading is good reading. The fact that the students – some of whom, as he said, had “a 5-year-old’s command of the English language” – were reading at all is what’s important. To try to stop them from doing so simply because he thought the books they were reading were “insipid” (And really? Insipid? Is he serious?) is irresponsible. Encouraging them to expand their horizons and exposing them to more difficult literature is one thing. But claiming that it should only the classics and nothing else is ridiculous. Why can’t it be both? Why can’t a student enjoy Virgil and Meyer? Why couldn’t he, as a teacher and authority figure, show his students that literature is a diverse field to be explored and enjoyed, instead of yet another clique filled with only the “right” people?

I’ve not doubt that Nazaryan had the best intentions, but that doesn’t excuse his misguided viewpoint. I admire his drive to push his students to go beyond what was expected and beyond their situations, but, unfortunately, his methods in doing so just took them out of one box and put them in another.

Today is Veterans Day.  This is a day that should be important to every American.  This day is also personally important for me because I have husband who is active duty (and who will be a veteran this time next year).  I could easily climb on my soapbox and write at length about the issues veteran’s and active duty face (the high unemployment rate for veteran’s, the health issues so many of them face, and the high suicide rate for veteran’s and active duty) and the lack of support they often receive, but there are others who can handle that much more eloquently than I.  Instead I want to focus on something good.  So, in honor of today, I wanted to draw your attention to a very cool project through the Library of Congress.

The Veterans History Project

The Veterans History Project of the American Folklife Center collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war.

Spend some time searching this database and you’ll discover some amazing stories and pictures.  There are first hand accounts directly from the service members, current and past photos, news articles, videos, military papers, a treasure trove for any history lover.

I am a history nerd, but I’ll be the first to admit the way it’s so often presented  – especially to students – can be so dry.  When we focus on the bare facts and the dates we often lose the personality of history.  We forget that history happened to actual people who were just like us.  And we forget how very young some of these service members were when they went off to fight and, in some cases, give their lives.  Archives like The Veterans History Project can remind us.  This is why archiving is so important, because remembering is important.  So, today, I encourage everyone to look through these stories and maybe find someone in your life who has their own.

I’ve reached that part of the semester where my schedule is just crazy.  I have a few half finished posts I’ll be putting up soon, but until then here is something for you to enjoy.

This sign was posted in an entry over at Forever Young Adult (a great site for those who love YA, but aren’t exactly YA themselves anymore).

How clever!  Click through the image to see Carrie’s great YA display at her library.

A few days ago I came across an article entitled Beyond Relevance to Literary Merit: Young Adult Literature as “Literature”.  In it, the authors argued that YA literature should be accepted as legitimate “literature,” especially by high school teachers. They state:

We have found, both in our teaching and in our personal reading, that a considerable body of young adult literature can withstand the test of close literary scrutiny. We consequently argue that the next move is to engage those who might otherwise question young adult literature’s literary merit in what Peter Elbow describes as a “believing game”, thereby helping them become more receptive to the possibility that young adult literature is not only about subjects and themes that are relevant to adolescent readers, but that its treatment of those subjects and themes reflects a level of sophistication that invites serious interrogation on the part of readers eager for a marriage of intellectual and affective engagement.

They go on to note a few examples that suggest that our definition of literature and what has literary merit is not clearly defined and often simply based on the fact that a certain book is canonical (and taught), while another is not.  The test one professor conducted asking literature students to identify whether quotes were from adult books or YA is pretty telling:

They freely admit that when they identify an excerpt as coming from a young adult text, it is usually a guess based on inferred clues about a character’s age or circumstances…What is important to note, however, is that they rarely make a selection based on style—that is, they do not argue that one excerpt is more simplistic in its portrayal of character, setting, or perspective.

As someone who has read, and loved, a great many YA novels, I’m often disappointed by the lack of respect they receive. They tend to be dismissed based almost solely on the fact that they are written for a teenage audience, without regard for any other facet.  It’s true that there are some terrible YA novels out there, just as there are terrible adult novels.  It’s also true that some of these terrible novels become inexplicably popular, again as with adult novels.  But, while fiction written for adults isn’t dismissed simply because there are a few books out there that shouldn’t have made it past the query stage, YA fiction isn’t offered the same treatment.

I’ve heard it said that YA novels simply do not lend themselves to analysis and that’s why they aren’t taught or used in schools more.  I would argue that perhaps the reader isn’t looking deeply enough in the text to see the possibilities.  Many YA novels contain the same themes that canonical literature do and can be more relatable for the students.  In Salon’s recent article asking readers which books they would ban from schools, the author suggests that some of the literature taught in schools isn’t effective because students can’t fully comprehend the context surrounding them. Whereas they can easily recognize Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother as commentary on Post-9/11 America and oppressive government, understanding A Tale of Two Cities and how it relates to the French aristocracy’s oppression of the peasants pre-revolution can be difficult for many students.  This isn’t to say that canonical literature shouldn’t be taught, but why only teach it?  Why not teach Doctorow and Dickens together?  Or Maureen Johnson’s Devilish with Faust?  Or Suzanne Collin’s The Hunger Games with Greek and Roman mythology?

Anyway, check out the original article for a really great argument in favor of teaching YA, as well as some good reading suggestions.

Deemed: Enjoyed, With Reservations

From the book jacket:

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

I’m of two minds with his book.  On the one hand, I love Southern fiction, quirky characters, and complicated female friendships.  On the other hand, there are some problematic issues with the book, especially with the ending.  However, I did find myself really enjoying the story and the characters.

First, the parts that I liked. The story was compelling and descriptively rich.  It was easy to picture 196os Jackson, even if it was a rather tame version of it.  The cast of characters was well-developed.  The three narrators were entertaining and sympathetic.  I felt myself drawn into their stories almost from the moment I started reading.  The minor white characters don’t suffer from lack of description, either, though I would have preferred more description of the friend and family of the African American characters.  The story is humorous, sad, and heartwarming.

As far as the rest, I actually read this book a few weeks ago and I’ve been trying to think of what I want to say about the issues and criticisms and I’m still not entirely sure. There are those I agree with (that the dialect is too exaggerated, the ending is too white-washed) and those I don’t (that it’s inappropriate for a white woman to write anything other than a narrator who is a white woman), but ultimately I guess I just don’t really know how to feel. As I mentioned, I do think people are focusing on certain things they shouldn’t. However,  I don’t have the experiences or the history they do. I know how infuriating it is when a man tries to tell me I shouldn’t be upset or feel that something is wrong as a woman because obviously he doesn’t understand what it’s like. I don’t want to marginalize someone else’s experience because I can’t relate, either. But that didn’t stop me from enjoying the book.

A couple years ago when I decided I wanted to pursue my MLIS, I checked the ALA’s list of accredited Master’s programs only to discover that there were only two in the entire state of California and neither was in my area.  Not wanting to put off my education for another three years until we would be able to move, I started looking into online schools.  Originally I was wary of going that route.  I’d heard horror stories of uninvolved professors, unusable classroom sites, and finance offices from hell.  Then, of course, there were the endless stories about the stigma of an online degree.  Despite all t – and helped by the fact that the online programs were all offered by “traditional” schools who were ALA accredited – I decided to go ahead and enroll in an online program.  Two years later and almost 2/3 of the way through my degree, I’m so glad I did.  I’ve learned so much in my program and I’ve learned quite a bit about online school in general.  I thought I’d share some pros and cons from my experience.

Just a note: As I am taking an online program from a traditional school, my experience would probably be different from someone who went to an online-only school.

Pros

A more open schedule. I work full-time in order to pay for school.  I also volunteer and have other personal commitments.  If I tried to fit a set class schedule in there, something would surely have to go or at least suffer.  I’ve found I really like that I can sign into the class on my own schedule, often at times when a regular class wouldn’t be held – during my lunch break, at night when I get home, Saturday mornings, etc. This also gives me time to think about and research my responses.

More reading-centric. I learn best when I can read the material myself rather than listening to someone else explain it.  While a few of my professors have held online lecture sessions, most post their lectures in a Word document or PDF.  This is in addition to the texts and the articles they post.  Not only am I able to better understand the material this way, it’s also considerably easier to take notes.

New technology. Obviously, I’ve learned to use new classroom programs such as D2L and meeting programs such as Elluminate.  My school also has a SecondLife.  However, I’ve also have the opportunity to use other programs I might not have encountered in a regular classroom.  My classes still require presentations on occasion.  Since we’re unable to do the typical stand in front of the class and give a speech type of presentation, these often involve some type of presentation software.  It can be as simple as a Powerpoint, but many times I’ve been able to incorporate programs such as Jing, Prezi, and Livebinders.  This set-up also means that our professors are better able to share, and often demonstrate, websites and other online programs while we view and use them on our computers at home.

A diverse student body. While a traditional school will have students from all different backgrounds and areas, they typically all live and work in the same area while in school.  With online school I have classmates who are currently living and working all over the world.  When we discuss an issue that libraries face, I can hear from classmates how their libraries handle it in the city where I live, a library across the country, or one on the other side of the world.

Cons

No actual classroom meeting. Though a more open schedule is nice, I do miss attending an actual class and interacting with my professor and classmates.  Though there is online interaction and group work, it can feel much more impersonal.  It can also be more difficult to arrange times to “meet” with the professor or group members, since there isn’t a set time each week when I would see them.

Difficulty contacting professors. I’ve been lucky in that most of my professors have been very timely in their post and email responses, however it can be frustrating that those are often the only way to contact a professor.  If the professor doesn’t hold periodic “office hours” during which he or she will be available by chat or through the meeting software, students must almost solely rely on emails or posts to the classroom site in hopes that the professor will answer as soon as possible.  This can be difficult if the question is time-sensitive and the professor is away from the computer.

Disconnect from the campus.  I receive emails from the various student organizations at my school and often those emails include information about events occurring on or near the campus.  As I am living about 8 hours away from campus, I’m unable to attend any of those events.  I’m also unable to visit any of the offices I need to speak to in person. I don’t have a student ID.  I’ve never even seen the campus.  This can lead to a feeling that I’m not really a part of the school, not in the way I was with my undergraduate university.

The pros have greatly enhanced my experience and the cons have taught me a new way of working around those issues.  No school experience is perfect, but all in all I am glad that I chose to go ahead and pursue my degree online rather than waiting.

I’m Kim.  I’m currently working on my MLIS.  I spend a lot of time talking about libraries, technology, and books, to the point that I was driving my husband and friends crazy.  I decided to start this blog to give myself a place to share my thoughts while sparing them.  So, here we are!