Prize Fiction Reading Log 5

Name:_Phoebe Carrona_   Date:_9/29/24 Entry # _5_

PART 1: PREPARING FOR DISCUSSION

SOURCE IDEAS:

“If he can create a deep enough impression of this Delano, like tracing his name until what lies beneath bears the indent, perhaps at some point he’ll find his way back.” (202)

“Your girl Jelly moved in this past september and has already come to loathe living here, due in no small part to your’s brothers antics; his instance you not clear the ivy thats ripping into the roof; his 3:00am sing-alongs with strays he rescues from this or that shithole bar; the dish towers he constructs on the kitchen counter and stove top and in the sink.”(205)

SYNTHESIZING COMMENT/ANALYSIS:

 Delano sounds pretty depressed and out of it from the perspective of his brother and his own perspective. It’s like he’s trying to find himself away from his family and defining himself by pulling away and doing dangerous and risky behavior. He’s changing throughout the book but in to what?

QUESTION:

Why is it that he is acting like this? Is it because of his relationship with his brother or family that is causing this? How does this help the plot of this book? What parts of him change his views or how he lives?

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Part 2: In-class Writing Response (NAME:__________________)

Name:_____Phoebe Carrona_____   Date:____9/20/24_____       Entry # _____4____

 SOURCE IDEAS

“Your newness left you ignorant of the beef, but you’re told these rivals hail from an island just two over from Puerto Rico: Jamaica. Osvaldo supplies this information as a parting gift. You are no longer welcome at his table.”(13). 

“You attempt to befriend your Jamaican classmates. These attempts involve enduring humiliations…till it becomes obvious they will never accept you among their ranks, especially not after you spent time with the browns. Members of both go out of their way to trip you in the halls or knock over your lunch tray.”(14).

“With your fathers guidance, he is rebuilding: rebuilding the house, the life Andrew washed into oblivion. He is constructing manhood.(15)

SYNTHESIZING COMMENT/ANALYSIS:

 There is  a construction being presented by the author in this book about how racial relations in the usa is constructed based on racism, gender and nationality. I’m seeing a lot of this in this book. It is a personal single written narrative in this first chapter that talks about different areas and family relations as well as gender ideals. When the main character’s older brother leaves to live with their father but not him because he is a boy.

QUESTION:

 Is this book showcasing how much the undertones of racism and nationality tie into each other in the United States? Could it have been chosen because of these topics of interest as they are very much needed to be looked at in the United States and have been ignored for so long?

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Part 2: In-class Writing Response (NAME:__________________)

Prize Fiction Reading Log

Name:_Phoebe Carrona__ Date:___9/5/2024___ Entry # ____2_____

PART 1: PREPARING FOR DISCUSSION

SOURCE IDEAS:

1 “Martha J. Cutter (1995: 133) tells of one student at the University of Connecticut who complained, “Everyone keeps telling me that Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a noncanonical writer, but so far this is the third course in which I’ve read ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’!” One of the unintended ironies of the canon wars has been the reformation of the imaginary canon. Gilman may not yet be part of the imaginary canon as defined by the likes of George Will, but her recent critical and pedagogical popularity certainly makes her a viable candidate, and many might argue that she has indeed ‘made it.’ “(56)

“With traditionalists, such as William J. Bennett and Lynne V. Cheney, on the one hand, and multiculturalists, such as Thomas Sobol and Jane P. Tompkins, on the other, the discussion frequently takes on a militaristic either-or quality. James Atlas terms the fray “the battle of the books,” while Gerald Graff calls us to move “beyond the cultural wars.” Although what takes place in the classroom is at stake in these skirmishes, the grounds on which these battles are fought are usually ideological, with competing definitions of common, value, and American hotly contested, often by critics who have long since abandoned the day-to-day practices of pedagogy” (53).

2 “It is obvious that (with a few possible exceptions) a work must become a material object by means of publication before it becomes a candidate for a pedagogical canon. When it comes to African texts, the means of production are especially decisive. Christopher Miller (1990: 285) has noted the way in which the African literary canon is more crucially linked to the material conditions governing publication than the American canon. Due to economic and educational scarcities, there is little to no market of general readers in Africa, so publication is even more closely linked to pedagogy than in the United States.”(57).“Dangarembga wondered whether the publishers’ diffidence was prompted by a negative assessment of her writing abilities or by the fact that an editor was afraid of the controversial issues the novel raised regarding the role of women in African society. Was her opportunity to be considered for the pedagogical and imaginary canon a matter of aesthetics or ideology? Fearing the latter, Dangarembga decided to submit the manuscript to a feminist publishing house. …The unsolicited manuscript might not ever have received even an initial reading were it not for Dangarembga’s personal advocacy. Another boost might have come from the fact that the director of the Women’s Press at that time was Ros de Lanerolle, an expatriate South African who wanted to publish more works by African women. “ (58). 

“The material production of a text is a necessary but not sufficient guarantee of its place in the pedagogical canon. Texts may be published many years after they are written; out-of-print texts may be revived due to critical attention and pedagogical demand; texts published by small presses may eventually make their way into the mainstream. In the United States, with its vast publication, marketing, and distribution system, there is a huge numerical difference between the corpus (what is printed) and the canon, both imaginary and pedagogical. Consequently, works and authors must slug it out on the critical battlefield before they are admitted to any canon” (60)“ Teachers search out such works and add them to their syllabi. To what extent do ideology, aesthetics, and issues of representation enter into these decisions? Once again the story of Nervous Conditions demonstrates the complexity of such influential factors. The content of the text itself is extremely important. Put most simply, Nervous Conditions is highly teachable. Put most skeptically, it is politically correct.”(61)

SYNTHESIZING COMMENT/ANALYSIS:

1/ There is this new form of “almost” made it to pedagogical could it be that these authors in this section are not quite but almost there are what is making people change society. Making it the process of being within society as an ideological thought and holding value for you. 

2/ publication helps bring light to different authors. Which plays a big role in which ones are used in pedagogical canons. It takes time for pieces to circulate and it really seems to depend heavily on where you get it published. Like for Dangarembga. She had to get her work published in London, because of different social and cultural views. Her going to interviews and talking about having advocate for the piece is a big deal because it is pushing her ideas and why she wanted the text published so badly. The works and authors must have something that society wants or needs to read to be considered a canon. 

QUESTION:What is the difference between society and culture in this ideal of pedagogical canons? What is pedagogical awareness in this to describe works of authors?  What makes a ‘made it’ work to be a pedagogical canon? 

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PART 2: IN-CLASS WRITING RESPONSE (NAME:__________________)

Prize Fiction Reading Log

Name:_Phoebe Carrona__ Date:___8/31/2024___ Entry # ____1_____

1. Choose two key ideas from two different sources from our daily reading assignment (These could be chapters in the novel, selections from the novel AND the contextual materials in our assigned edition, from the novel AND the assigned secondary criticism)

2. Synthesize these two ideas: How do they speak to one another? What are you seeing in their relation? You’re making text-text and text-world connections here. 

3. Raise an open-ended question that follows from your synthesis. Given what you’re seeing/thinking, explain also what you’re wondering. What do you think is important we discuss in class?

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PART 1: PREPARING FOR DISCUSSION

SOURCE IDEAS:

1. “This year marks the fifth Booker Prize sponsored by billionaires Michael Moritz and Harriet Heyman, who asked that their charity not be appended to the prize name, unlike previous sponsors the Man Group. This act of linguistic modesty has saved commentators and critics from being forced to write “The Crankstart Booker”—a tuneless, steampunk appellation”(pg 5)

“The closeddoor talks have been historically nothing of the sort: jurists’ exit interviews are often conducted with a member of the British press, guaranteeing much gossip and a bit of tawdriness. In 1974, Elizabeth Jane Howard pushed for Ending Up, which happened to be written by her husband Kingsley Amis.”(pg 4).

2. “Harding’s book doesn’t want respect; it wants a pat on the back. And the overreliance on real-world events is both suspicious and fraught. That much-abused phrase “Based on a True Story” should be incidental to the work, not its fundament, and it clouds Harding’s novelistic judgment. A novel isn’t an op-ed. I’m aware that books with good politics have many readers. But let’s not give them the Booker.”(pg 18)

“His stated inspiration for the Prophet Song is telling. Syria’s tragedies are entwined with religious extremism, history, and geography. They can’t be airlifted to the Republic of Ireland. And by withholding any policy, politics, or individualized antagonists from his novel, Lynch prevents any engagement with the why of such human destruction. It’s a three-hundred-page melody played with every knob turned to ten.”(pg 21)

SYNTHESIZING COMMENT/ANALYSIS:

How do they speak to one another? What are you seeing in their relation? You’re making text-text and text-world connections here. 

1/ A lot of the judges seem to be in the literary world as well as receiving the prize themselves. Does being awarded based on what the judges wanted help the author get some criteria of their own, and just move ideas along in a similar light without making it much different. The current sponsors especially asked that their charity not be added to the prize itself. Charity means the sponsorship so they don’t want their interests to be involved in the choosing of who wins the prize. That would be different according to the author of this article. As prefuse sponsors wanted to be involved in some way with who wins it. ITs like a marketing name that is well known enough that sponsors want to sometimes in past years send messages it seems. Appearly in the past people have pushed for their spouses to win. 

2/ This critic definitely has some critiques toward the prize. Which is staying away from detailed politics. It seems that this award isn’t according to this author not deserving of the booker in their own criteria. In comparison with The Prophets Song which isn’t detailed political strife compared to Harding’s book which is detailed and specific in political and social issues.  

QUESTION:

How much has the Booker’s Prize changed over the years with who is judging it? Do personal interests of the individual judges fall into how the criteria is formed? How are they selected to judge? 

What are some of the personal/business interests that fall into the prize? 

What do people want to read? 

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PART 2: IN-CLASS WRITING RESPONSE (NAME:__________________)