Happy Tuesday, all! My apologies for being late posting this, but I found this neat blog last night and forgot to post it! I googled literary blogs because I don't regularly read them myself and came across an article about blogs geared towards people in their 20s- our class, essentially. I liked this blog over the others because it has a more relaxed feel and I like how they structured most of their reviews. In each review that I looked at, there's a little information about the author and enough about the plot to pull you into wanting to read it, but not giving away too much. I hope you all find it as interesting as I did!
http://electricliterature.com/category/books-3/
-Kylie
I read "The Dude with One Eye Ate Six of My Friends" by Jeff Bender on this site. It's under "Okey-Panky" which I honestly don't understand, however, this story was hilarious. We have talking about the impact words have and questioning how many you really, REALLY need to get your point across and this is a perfect example. Basically it's a brief, modernized satire of the Odyssey. In very, very few words, Bender tells the story of Odysseus, his wife, the suitors, maids, shipmates, etc and he does it in a way that is easy to read and made me question the purpose of the thousands of words present in the Odyssey.
ReplyDeleteBut as funny as his story was, it reiterated for me the importance and significance of language, beautiful, language and prose. There is a place for sparse prose, I am not denying that, but there is something to be said about an epic poem like the Odyssey. We can break down the story into fifty words in an easy to understand format, however, what dialogue, imagery, and vocabulary is lost? Both are extremely important for different reasons, and I truly think Bender's story is genius, I am simply recognizing the awareness the story triggered in me of the crucial presence of language.
Of all the links that I have seen on this blog so far, Electric Lit is by far my favorite. This is because it is not only a source of entertainment for people who enjoy reading short, fun fiction and nonfiction pieces, but it is also a valuable resource for book recommendations, interviews with the authors of books (which of course provides a new insight on the process of writing, and the life of the writer) and things going on in literary news.
ReplyDeleteI read an article under the category "Scuttlebutt" (which I've gathered is the category for literary-related things in the news) that discussed an Illinois high school banning the book "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" on the grounds that there are some sexually explicit scenes and the parents were not given the option to have their kids opt out. The counter to this, as stated in the article, is "flagging books for ‘adult content’ creates the wrong impression that a book is somehow dangerous and damaging." I have to agree with this argument made by the Kid's Right to Read Project-- labeling a book like this as containing something damaging completely changes the message of the book. This book isn't about sexuality, and though it is included, it is not the main focus and therefore should not be labeled as such.
The banning book debate is something that has existed for hundreds of years, and will continue to do so. I think the important thing to remember in regards to these things is asking what exactly is it that we are trying to hide from our kids? Are they not experiencing this same content in other forms of their lives already? And lastly, why is it important that they read materials with things like sexual content or rape? (Because I think it is very important in understanding true, worldly happenings/issues).