Wednesday, 17 October 2012
I’ve agreed to participate in an author reading coming up next Friday. In case you’ve lost track of what I’ve been reading where, this is another reading of excerpts from Atheist Voices of Minnesota, in which my essay “Losing My Head” appears.
This reading will be at Valley Bookseller, a rather trendy book store in Stillwater. My favorite aspect of the store is the large aviary with finches nesting and flitting about.
I think there will be four readers, and (I hope) a question-and-answer session. Then out to eat at a local swanky restaurant.
Let me know if you’d like to join my wife and me – or just show up and surprise us.
Thursday, 18 October 2012
For class, I had to reread Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which I now like marginally better than the first time I read it.
The edition we read features a couple dozen essays about the book, and the professor set it up such that each student has to read and deliver a presentation on one particular essay. My presentation, which I gave today, concerned a feminist approach to Huck Finn, but many of the essay discussed the racism.
Let me sum up the essays on racism for you real quickly: The problem with Huck Finn is that black kids will think less of themselves and maybe even be picked on by the white kids. The essayists differed on whether the novel should even be read and discussed at all in classes with young students.
After the third (or maybe fourth?) such essay, I had to raise my hand and ask: Do any of the essays adress the harm the novel might have on white kids, or even all kids in general?
No one seemed to know what I meant, so I clarified: All the essays seemed to think that readers just automatically will identify with characters based on race. I explained that I, like the (black) character Jim, am a married father in my 30s. So I identify more with Jim than with 12-year olds Huck and Tom. And even if I was to identify with Huck, it doesn’t make me feel empowered to launch racial slurs or not mind if slavery should be re-legalized, it would make me embarrassed that white folk used to act like such rednecked bigots…and that they still do.
The professor said that it really depends on where we are – reading Huck Finn in 1960s Alabama might have posed a real problem for black students. I said that I assumed we were talking about reading this in classrooms in 2010s Minnesota.
In other news, if you’re in the market for a new binder, then I suggest checking out the reviews for this white Avery Durable View Binder with 2 inch EZ-Turn Ring. If you don’t laugh, there must be something wrong with you (like, you’re probably Mormon or something).
Friday, 19 October 2012
For over a month now, I’ve had the word “Community” written down on today’s date on the calendar.
“Why is that?” you ask.
Great question. I’m glad you asked. Here’s the reason: my favorite sitcom, Community, was slated to begin its fourth season this evening, and I wanted to catch it. Well, with kids, it was unlikely I would watch it right when it aired, but I figured I would watch it later, after they went to bed.
So what happened?
Well…NBC postponed it.
Not sure why. Could be becuase it’s a funny show that I actually enjoy and it seems that my enjoyment of a show is a surefire measurement of how bad a network screws with said show.
“Postponed until when?”
Again, I’m glad you asked. I don’t know. After conducting extensive research (I checked Wikipedia’s article on it), it would seem the network hasn’t released the season’s premier date. Sad.
In brighter news, here’s the cast of Community explaining this season-postponement conundrum to us fans:
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