Week #6 MP4---Jennifer Egan "Black Box" and "To Do"

AGENDA:

Jennifer Egan (born September 7, 1962) is an American novelist and short story writer. Egan's novel A Visit from the Goon Squad won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. As of February 28, 2018, she is the President of the PEN America Center.^[1] Egan lives in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn with her husband and two sons.^[2]


Read Jennifer Egan's "Black Box" and "To Do".   Write a Twitter short story (140 characters) or a "To Do" story.

https://thebookreviewpage.wordpress.com/2016/01/26/jennifer-egans-black-box-and-short-stories/


https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/06/04/black-box-2

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jul/22/jennifer-egan-short-story

Week #5 MP4--Readings and Response: George Saunders "Puppy"

AGENDA:

DUE: Friday, May 22
Read the following George Saunders short story "Puppy" and answer the questions below in a paragraph response for weekly credit.  See Checking In post for a quick video  response as well.

Story link:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/05/28/pupp


Commentary:
https://everythingbutthefiction.blogspot.com/2007/05/george-saunders-puppy.html

More stories by Saunders:

http://www.openculture.com/2013/03/10_free_stories_by_george_saunders_author_of_itenth_of_decemberi_the_best_book_youll_read_this_year.html


QUESTIONS TO ANSWER (for class credit):

In the story "Puppy," which mother loved her children the most? What characteristics do you use to determine which mother is best?

Checking In--Week #5 MP4

I hope you are all doing well! 
Let me know how you're doing.  Just checking in again.

Watch video and post a comment for classroom credit!
We could all use some kindness now.

https://vimeo.com/214754441

Week #4 MP4--ZZ Packer "Gideon" and "Brownies"

AGENDA:

Read "Gideon"
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/oct/06/featuresreviews.guardianreview32

Read "Brownies":
https://fictionwritersreview.com/essay/a-writer-awakens-on-zz-packers-brownies/

http://writ101van.weebly.com/uploads/2/2/7/3/22735066/packer_brownies.pdf

https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/ZZ_Packer_%22Brownies%22

Interview:
http://www.identitytheory.com/zz-packer/

RESPOND on Google Classroom:
1. How are the girls in Snot’s Brownie troop similar toand different from the girls in Troop 909? What is the significance of these similarities and differences in the story?

 2. To develop well-rounded characters in literary fiction, no character can be entirely “good” or entirely “bad,” even if a character leans more one way than the other. How does Packer show Snot to be less than entirely virtuous? Conversely, how does Packer show a character like Arnetta to have at least some positive aspects to her personality?

3. What role does religion play in the story?

 4. How does Packer move the theme of discrimination to the foreground at the end of the story, making plot secondary after the narrative’s climatic moment?

Week #3 MP4---Assignment #3--Junot Diaz/Zoom workshop

AGENDA:

Please read the Junot Diaz short story "Drown" and answer the questions.

More importantly, prepare one of your short stories to read and share at a Zoom workshop this week.
How is Thursday at 4 pm?

https://shortstorymagictricks.com/2018/04/25/drown-by-junot-diaz/

“Drown” 
1. How would you characterize Beto, the narrator’s friend, based on the first couple pages of the story. Choose two adjectives that best characterize Beto and cite a sentence or two from the early part of the story that demonstrate each. 
2. What kind of son is the narrator to his mother, in this story? What are two reasons to think he is a good son and two reasons to think he is not a good son? Which side would you say is weightier, more significant, more valid as an interpretation?
 3. How is the narrator’s father depicted in this story? If he were to represent two powerful forces in the narrator’s life, what would those forces be, and which incidents or dialogue in the story substantiate each of them? 
4. The narrator has two sexual encounters with his friend Beto. What they tell us about the narrator’s sexuality, if anything? How does sexuality affect the relationship between Beto and the narrator? In the end, what kind of relationship do Beto and the narrator have?

More Junot Diaz:
http://www.openculture.com/2015/02/seven-stories-from-junot-diaz-free-online-in-text-and-audio.html

http://www.junotdiaz.com/2012/05/19/the-money/