12 Tishrei/ 30 September 2009
Sep. 30th, 2009 09:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bearshortyToday I looked at more rough drafts, this time from my other section. I have a feeling they are not yet putting enough effort into the drafts, thinking that because they are not graded, they are not important. They don’t get yet how a rough draft works and what it can do for their writing. Tomorrow I will need to put more emphasis on it and work on paragraph building. They are also having a hard time talking about more than one author at the same time and putting the author’s ideas together. I have to remind myself that the early rough drafts and papers are always terrible and that the students do learn during the semester.
I started Uwen Akpan “Say You’re One of Them” today. It was Oprah book club selection. I usually don’t pay attention too much to that, most books she picks don’t interest me, but this book sounded intriguing. (Well I did finally read “Anna Karenina” five years ago after Oprah picked it but that was because I felt guilty that I haven’t read it while many in America were reading it. I’m glad I got through the book but I found the main character very boring). Uwen Akpan is a Nigerian priest and this is his first collection of short stories told from the children's point of view. All five stories come from perspective of children of different African counties and deal with very harsh reality of their lives. Last thing I read from an African writer (other than St. Augustine and history articles) were fairy tales when I was a kid, and this book got a lot of praise from critics. So got it from the University library and started it last night. I just read the first story “An Ex-mas Feast” told from the perspective of an eight-year old Kenyan boy whose family lives in a shanty in Nairobi. The oldest sister, who is twelve, is pretty much supporting the family by prostitution. She is the most interesting character, very strong willed girl who sees her work as an opportunity to raise up her family though paying for her brother’s education and ultimately by saving some money for her own betterment. It is certainly an unfamiliar environment and makes me grateful for never having to face that kind of deprivation. I never had to result to sniffing glue to hold off hunger or live in a cardboard box. I always had enough to eat even in very lean years after the Soviet Union collapsed and food was more scarce. We couldn’t be picky about food, or have much choice about what we ate but we always had enough food. (we did have a dacha and grew food in the summer too). These stories all deal with difficult subjects but promise to give a glimpse at the mentality.
Weird discovery of the day: New York Philharmonic has a YouTube channel. Sometimes technology is insane and awesome.
I started Uwen Akpan “Say You’re One of Them” today. It was Oprah book club selection. I usually don’t pay attention too much to that, most books she picks don’t interest me, but this book sounded intriguing. (Well I did finally read “Anna Karenina” five years ago after Oprah picked it but that was because I felt guilty that I haven’t read it while many in America were reading it. I’m glad I got through the book but I found the main character very boring). Uwen Akpan is a Nigerian priest and this is his first collection of short stories told from the children's point of view. All five stories come from perspective of children of different African counties and deal with very harsh reality of their lives. Last thing I read from an African writer (other than St. Augustine and history articles) were fairy tales when I was a kid, and this book got a lot of praise from critics. So got it from the University library and started it last night. I just read the first story “An Ex-mas Feast” told from the perspective of an eight-year old Kenyan boy whose family lives in a shanty in Nairobi. The oldest sister, who is twelve, is pretty much supporting the family by prostitution. She is the most interesting character, very strong willed girl who sees her work as an opportunity to raise up her family though paying for her brother’s education and ultimately by saving some money for her own betterment. It is certainly an unfamiliar environment and makes me grateful for never having to face that kind of deprivation. I never had to result to sniffing glue to hold off hunger or live in a cardboard box. I always had enough to eat even in very lean years after the Soviet Union collapsed and food was more scarce. We couldn’t be picky about food, or have much choice about what we ate but we always had enough food. (we did have a dacha and grew food in the summer too). These stories all deal with difficult subjects but promise to give a glimpse at the mentality.
Weird discovery of the day: New York Philharmonic has a YouTube channel. Sometimes technology is insane and awesome.
