As I’ve mentioned, I’m using The Hunger Games this year in my ENG 111 (Expository writing) classes. I was just puttering about finding some images to use in class discussion when I came across some interesting material on Katniss’s namesake. So I thought it might be fun to flip a few pages of the treasured family plant book to ponder why Katniss’s name is both symbolic and prophetic while also looking at a few other pertinent wild botanical samples that crop up as people and themes in the books.
Professor Sprout Goes to District 12 and the Arena: Some ‘Hunger Games’ Plant and Berry Thoughts
September 17, 2010 by 4 Comments
A Curious Cat: Mockingjay’s Tigris As More Than Just Another Freak in the Capitol Circus
September 14, 2010 by 6 Comments
Last week, when our esteemed headmaster, John, sent along his amazing three-part series on Unlocking Mockingjay, I was, like John, and several others, still puzzling over Tigris. She’s a peculiar character, and not just because she has had more plastic surgery than everyone on the cover of the latest tabloid put together. In order to get beneath the stripey surface of this intriguing safe-house keeper, it seems we need to look at three possible purposes that she represents outside her mechanical function as plot-propelling individual who takes in Katniss and the remnants of the Star Squad. [Read more…]
Into the Essay Arena! Hunger Games in ENG 111
August 17, 2010 by 11 Comments
This fall, I am incorporating a novel into my ENG 111 -Expository Writing, for the first time in quite a while. The Hunger Games was the perfect choice, and I look forward to seeing how the students respond. I’ll be sharing their thoughts here as they seem intriguing for discussion, and I hope our numbers are swelled with some of my super students!
In the class, the students will be writing journals on the book, one for every three chapters and then an overview one. They will also have the chance to incorporate the novel into one of the essays.
I’m really looking forward to seeing how this goes. After years of seeing students in ENG 113 who have either never read a book or who haven’t read a book since middle school, I’m hoping the Hunger Games will spark a fire or two in some of my students.
After the jump, find the journal questions I am using. What do you think? I’d love to get some feedback from our serious readers here!
Weird and Wonderful Time at Waldenbooks
June 22, 2010 by 2 Comments
This past Saturday, I had the pleasure of doing a signing for Twilight and History at the nearby Waldenbooks. Fortunately, it was not an experience like Parnell Hall describes in his absolutely hilarious song and video about how depressing it is to have a book signing that no one attends. Every author has had these, I imagine (I certainly have). My husband still dines out on the story of the signing at Barnes and Noble when he was elated to find four people waiting for him to get there, and they were the only ones who showed up the whole time! We had a steady crowd, including one dear thing who looked at the book, looked at me, then said, in motherly tones, “Well, I’ve never read your books, but my daughter and her friends are just crazy about them.” She seemed rather startled when I assured her I was not actually Stephenie Meyer. (That was the weird part) [Read more…]
Beneath the Surface: Continued Conversation on Bree Tanner
June 17, 2010 by 19 Comments
Well, our so-called surface level thread on the new Bree Tanner novella quickly went far beneath the surface, not a surprising development for our readers here! To make sure some of the great conversation, which went quickly into deep waters of the novella as an allegory or defense of Meyer’s faith, didn’t get lost in the pile of comments, we’re pulling them up here to continue the excellent discussion . Feel free to chime in with your thoughts on the deeper aspects of the text, with other posts along those lines to come soon!
James on June 15, 2010 at 3:40 am
There are many insights into the vampire world, to be sure, as Stephenie promised. I realized that the Nomad vampires are actually homeless. Don’t know why I didn’t realize that before. Other than the Volturi and Cullens, all appear to be wanderers. Bummer.
I hope to talk on this with John and Steve Walker in another upcoming podcast, but I also noticed the great deal of hellish imagery associated with Riley’s coven/congregation. This led me to see that Riley is a misleading priest figure, lying to his congregants to keep them under his control, spreading superstition and lies so that they won’t realize they have the potential to live as beings of light (with love again as a potential path to glory/divinization).
So the questions arise, “Does the Creator know the truth? Is the Creator… wrong? Does the Creator assent to her priest/spokesman’s controlling lies and abuse?” And, of course, in any case, “what can/should be done about it?” How can you exercise your “free agency”/autonomy when you realize how ignorant and misled your religion truly is? I think with “Bree Tanner,” Meyer posits a remarkable allegory about what (not) to do when you realize your faith — or other beliefs — are untrue, in contrast with Bella’s finding a true path following the prophetic and godlike Carlisle. Remarkable.
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