Contemporary Literature

[juliabeckman-blog]

Jennifer Egan’s book, A Visit From The Goon Squad is a slice of life most people don’t like to think about. Remembering how things were in high school or even in college and how everything changes once you graduate can lead many to wonder what happened to the good ole days, where your biggest…

[caitlinjateff-blog]

I agree that the author is trying to explain how the characters change from point A, which is high school, to point B, which would be adulthood. She shows how the characters and their relationships change throughout the years. When Bennie was in high school, he was in a band with his friends. After high school, him and his band parted ways and did their own things. Bennie owned his own record label company, got married and then divorced. His high school friend Scotty disappeared for 20 years and then made a come-back with the concert Bennie put together for him. Through these characters, Egan explains that there is always a beginning and an end, and all the events that happen in the middle can’t be changed.

[eaglefan4life]

Yeah, I thought it was interesting to see how much each person from the band changed from point A to B. After the band split Bennie struck it big while Scotty fell into a world of delusion and drug addiction, and Jocelyn spent years doing drugs and partying like crazy. Egan uses the idea of going from point A to B and distance to illustrate how much each individual change and the time they have lost. Bennie can look back from point B at the person he was at Point A but he can never travel from B to A because that distance represents represents time and you can never go back in time.

[anna-webber-blog]

As the class comes to an end and I look back on my experience I find myself more satisfied than I ever expected to be when I initially signed up for the class. Not only were the books very interesting and out of the norm from what I would usually have chosen, Professor Clark made the class fun...

[eaglefan4life]

When I first signed up for this class it was strictly to get honors credit, if it wasn't for that I probably would be in some other class. However in hindsight I am glad to have signed up for this class and would easily do it again. I have to agree with you that these books are far from any book I would have ever read or picked up, but I enjoyed reading them and they have opened my eyes up to a new type of books they would like to read and learn more about. Also I would have to say that my favorite book would have to be "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close", although "The Things They Carried" was much more entertaining to read, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" seemed so much realer to me just because it is something we all saw and have different experiences with.

[eaglefan4life]

The End

When I first came into this class I was dreading the readings and the essays, pretty much the entire class. However, after we got into "The Things They Carried" I was easily drawn into the book and had trouble putting it down. Now that's a big deal for me because I would much rather do math and science than literature or any type of reading. But this class has given me a new respect for post-modern literature and I could actually see myself reading more POMO books. Learning about POMO will help me to understand future readings and I am glad to have Professor Clark as a teacher. 

[taylorrhastings-deactivated2013]

I enjoyed watching The Road in class this week; however, the book was definitely better than the movie. But I think that works for almost every book. We make up these scenes in our mind and how it all seems to appear and the movies usually can never beat that. One of the big differences that I...

[eaglefan4life]

 I agree, the book was incredible and left me with high expectations for the movie but I was soon disappointed. I can see what you are saying that we make up our own idea of scenes, but I think most of my disappointments stem from expecting one thing to happen and it never does. The movie was still entertaining to watch but it is kind of a hard movie to sell, it would be better if the movie was like "The Book of Eli" or something where there is a purpose and an ending that is easier to swallow then just the death of the father. The only people I would expect to see this movie are fans of the book or fans of McCarthy, but besides that the movie would probably be looked over.

[eaglefan4life]

The Road and AVFTGS

The Road and AVFTGS were great books but I would have to say the Road was more entertaining to read and easier to follow. Don't get me wrong AVFTGS was a entertaining but it I jumped around so much and changes points of view a lot and left me feeling dazed and confused. It wasn't until I went back and reread some of the chapters after finishing the book that I realized what the heck was going on. On the other hand the Road was some much nicer and easier to follow. I didn't have to worry about  the change in point of view or time, it was cut and dry. The Road was also so much more entertaining it was dark and mysterious an the connection between the father and the son is so deep and moving, it is easy to see why McCarthy won a Pultzer for it.

[taylorrhastings-deactivated2013]

I have really enjoyed reading The Road. I have found it to be very different in structure from most books based on his style of writing and punctuation. However, I have found the story that is portrayed to be very interesting since it is so different from our society. I can’t help but to feel…

[kellylasko-blog]

I would like to say I agree the novel has been very different from most everything I have read in the past. I also think the novel has been very interesting to read as well. In the beginning I was unsure and thought it dragged out a little to much. However, when I sat down and just started reading it I found I became very attached to the father and son. You are correct about feeling the compassion for the two of them hoping that they find some form of hope when they reach the coast. Although, it ends with the father dying so not much hope there. But the son is all the much wiser due to the love and bond his father has taught him. The little boy to me really shows he cares for people and sometimes in life that is all one needs.

Reblog 12, week 13 April 14, 2013

[eaglefan4life]

Yeah I agree the book is different from anything else I ever read. I like how McCarthy is vague and leaves a lot to the imagination. All of the towns and the road all seem the same and it helps to show how monotonous and tough life is for the father and son. Yeah I definitely felt that the book was kinda slow in the beginning but it picked up pretty rapidly after they had there first encounter with the first group of bandits. Truthfully after page 100 I had a hard time putting the book down. I also wish that the father could have had some sort of closing before his death but at least the boy found some goodness in this world.

[eaglefan4life]

Not Exactly a Happy Ending

After finishing The Road I have to say that all in all I liked the book. The book does an incredible job of showing how good men and women act in times of total chaos. While others were selfishly killing for supplies and resorting to cannibalism the father managed to keep a good moral sense and show his son how good men acted. 

The final couple of pages of the book were pretty rough.I was hoping that something good would come the boy's way and I was glad to see the man come out of nowhere to help him, however I still am kinda confused on where the man came from.I would have been happier if the father had lived through the end of the book or at least found some sort of safe haven for the boy before he died but the end of the book was still good.

[soniapham21-blog-deactivated201]

Pure Language

In this chapter, I felt like everything had come full circle in a sense. All the details finally came together in their own way. All the little details finally made sense. The intricacies of the story finally blended together.

However, there was just a small part of the chapter…

[jmbeezley-blog]

I also enjoyed how the author brought all the characters full circle.  The author even finished the book with Alex who I would have thought was a secondary sort of character.  The part about Lulu I think I interpeted a little different:  I figured instead of the tattos, piercings and such still being cool it was the clean ones who were the “cool ones” in the future, I think.  I’m not sure when this book was written so I’m not so sure that the author predicted that texting was going to be as widely used as it is today.

[eaglefan4life]

Yeah it was really cool how after you read all these stories that seem to have nothing in common that it turns out that everything seems to come together and every character is related one way or another. I didn't think we would ever  hear from Lulu again but low and behold she ends up being a major character in chapter 13. I  was also blown away by how accurately Egan predicted the future, especially with how prominent she predicted texting would be to our society. Our society isn't quite as pure as Lulu's but there are definitely some similarities.

[eaglefan4life]

Chapter 13 AVFTGS

After reading the final chapter of AVFTGS you realize that the entire book is about time and how time changes people, society, and the world. The final chapter showed that time can change society and the world by illustrating the drastic change between two generations of people. Bennie's generation was rough, vulgar, covered in tattoos and piercings, and listened to rough music. However, Lulu's generation is much different, they have no tattoos, use no foul language, would rather text than talk to one another, and listen to much softer music than Bennie's generation. Furthermore, the final chapter shows that as time passes the old will be replaced by the new, for instance Sasha was replaced by Lulu and Bennie was replaced Alex. Egan showed that there is nothing constant in life and that time shows all.

[eaglefan4life]

A to B

 I am not completely done with story yet but as I read I am starting to see a pattern in the story. Egan introduces each character at some random period of their life and she jumps to the future or the past and illustrates what has happened from point A to B. For instance, Egan introduces Jocelyn as a young self-destructive teenager who hooks up with a forty year old man Lou, and then Egan introduces Jocelyn in the future where she is now forty years old and have gone through drug rehab and is trying get her life back on track. Egan does this with multiple characters to illustrate that our actions and choices have consequences. Each character has to live with their actions for the rest of their lives and some characters never seem to recover.

[soniapham21-blog-deactivated201]

Generation X

I can honestly say that I really don’t understand this piece that much.

I really feel like you are sitting with a kid while they are explaining this weird magical world of her’s. I really felt like one those adults that somehow get stuck sitting next to a little kid on the bus or...

[eaglefan4life]

Yeah i can definitely see where you are coming from. The story doesn't exactly have clear cut meaning and left me trying to figure why would anybody write such a strange story. As I read I could tell that some things and people in the book where suppose to symbolize things and mean stuff but I couldn't figure out what. For instance the spaced poisoned astronaut Buck seems to stand as some sort of symbolism but what? Moreover the name of the asteroid "Texlahoma" obviously is suppose to have a connection to small town U.S.A. but why? All in all I just don't see the meaning of this story. 

[eaglefan4life]

First Impressions

After reading the first 90 pages of "A Visit From the Goon Squad" I have to say the book kind of took me by surprise. I mean the first two books we read have a had some rough scenes and vulgar language but this book definitely tops both of them. The book has strong language and some bizarre sexual scenes that left me questioning how these scenes and moments were suppose to tie into the overall meaning of the story. Furthermore, Egan constantly jumps from one point of view to the next and never really tells you who is and who isn't a main character. For a while I thought Rolph was a main character but next thing you know Egan says he kills himself. The only thing that I am absolutely positive about this book is that it is Postmodern. 

[kurtbarger-deactivated20130701]

After reading all the novels and short stories that we have been assigned I have come to the conclusion that I have enjoyed this class way more than any other “reading/writing course.” Before the class I hadn’t even heard of this POMO style type writing (probably because I don’t read much) and...

[eaglefan4life]

I agree POMO is definitely more entertaining than the more traditional type of writing that I am use to. The traditional writing I have read just feels so stagnant and rigid when compared to the two POMO books we have read. The POMO books have so much freedom they can jump from story to story, use pictures and play with font and word placing, and they can be outright irrational and there is nothing wrong with it. I would definitely like to start reading more books, especially POMO books, but it is so hard to find time to read while working and going to school. Hopefully I can find some time this summer to read. 

[eaglefan4life]

So far so good.....

So far this class has been relatively easy and i have enjoyed the books we have read. Ill have to admit when I read our first couple of readings I was rather intimidated especially after reading in "The Heart of the Heart of the Country". However the in class discussions of the reading are extremely enlightening and have been helpful in my understanding of the readings. Furthermore the tumblr post for this class aren't really has hard or much of a hassle as I thought they would be. I have never had a tumblr so I didn't really know what I was getting into but it is really not that bad, a hundred words a post is easy to surpass and two post a week isn't bad at all. The real trouble I have with tumblr is reminding myself to do it every week.  

[cassie-nagel]

Between the two novels that we have read so far in this class, I think that I prefer “The Things They Carried” over “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”. “The Things They Carried”, I feel was an easier read, and although a lot of what was going on was sort of depressing, I felt as though I...

[eaglefan4life]

I agree, "The Things They Carried" was a much better book then "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”. Its not that "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” was a bad book it was just extremely different from any other book I had ever read. Foer presents so many different points of view and blends them into one massive picture. Now I like the idea of multiple points of view but I found myself confused most of the time while reading Foer's book because you didn't always know who was talking. Tim O'Brien also uses multiple points of view but he is much easier to follow and usually presents some sort of conclusion where he discusses the overall them of the chapter. However, I did like the mystery aspect of "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" because it gave the reader something to look for just like Oskar.

[eaglefan4life]

Pictures

Throughout the entire book Oskar takes photos and places them inside of his things that have happened to me book. Now I know that some of these pictures merely represent what has actually happened to him, such as the picture of Abby Black and his grandfather's hands, but I am really confused about what the pictures of a doorknob and lock in different positions. My best guess so far is that maybe the different positions the lock is in could represent how close Oskar was to the truth or something but im still confused. Please help.

[soniapham21-blog-deactivated201]

The Renter

Once the mention of the renter started in the book, I had a feeling that he was either the grandfather or another relative that was not mentioned but really important. I don’t know if its just me, but I’ve noticed that a lot of times parents, grandparents, or other adults,...

[eaglefan4life]

Truthfully when I first heard of the renter i thought he was one of grandma's imaginary friends so I was suprised to see Oskar's grandpa living in the apartment. Anyways, I feel really bad for Oskar that he doesn't figure out that his grandfather was right in front of him the whole time. I can kinda see why the grandparents kept the grandfather's identity hidden but I wish they wouldn't have. If Oskar had found out about his grandfather he would have become closer to his father in a way and it might help him to find some closure. However, if Oskar did find out about his grandfather it could also have negative side effects.