Blog #6: readicide

Blog #6
I think that Readicide is a real problem in our public schools. I think students aren’t interested in reading because they are required to analyze books so much that the reading isn’t enjoyable anymore. I think books like To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, and Brave New World would all be enjoyable if I had read them outside of my English classroom. Once I had to annotate, analyze, and write an three page essay on these novels, I didn’t enjoy these books anymore. I didn’t want to read these on my own time because I had so many bad experiences from school. I do not think genre fiction is less “worthy” than literary fiction, but I don’t think they should place genre fiction or best sellers in the curriculum because it would also ruin genre fiction for the students. I think it would only be acceptable if students didn’t have to have to analyze every idea, theme and symbol from the text. Once a student is assigned to do this, they will most likely become less motivated to enjoy or even read the text. I think this class does a very good job at keeping students motivated to read and enjoy reading outside of school. I think genre fiction is very important and is just as worthy as literary fiction, but I believe it should stay at home where it can be enjoyed. I would NOT be okay with switching out Of Mice and Men for Twilight because it is a very specific genre. With all the romance in this book, every boy in America would rebel if we did this. In 20 years, every student would hate this book. It doesn’t matter what book it is, students are not going to enjoy the book they’ve been asked to analyze.

Blog Post #5: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

If a filmmaker adapted the book Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, I think they would need to include many important scenes from the novel. First, they would have to show the scene where Oskar stands up to the bully (Jimmy) during the school play. Oskar got the role of Yorick, which is actually just a skull that Hamlet is talking to. Hamlet is played by the school bully, Jimmy Snyder. Jimmy had recently made fun of Oskar's grandma in front of the cast and crew. While the play is going on, Oskar imagines himself speaking as Yorick and revealing secrets about Jimmy to the audience. "You are guilty of having abused those less strong than you: of making the lives of nerds like me and Toothpaste and The Minch almost impossible, of imitating mental retards, of prank-calling people who get almost no phone calls anyway, of terrorizing domesticated animals and old people--who, by the way, are smarter and more knowledgeable than you." He then proceeds to beat up Jimmy while the audience is applauding the whole time. I liked this scene because it was funny and satisfying even though Oskar didn't really stand up to the bully.
I also think the movie needs to show when Oskar meets his grandfather for the first time. Oskar came back to his grandma's house to look for her and found a man in her bedroom. He didn't know who it was, but he had no one to talk to so Oskar told this stranger his whole life story. Oskar's grandma had made her husband promise to stay away from Oskar because he didn't know he even had a grandfather and she figured it would be better if it stayed that way. I think this scene is very sad and emotional because you know that Oskar's grandfather wants to connect with his grandson, but he can't because of his promise.
 I also think the movie should include Oskar's father's stories that he tells Oskar. He talks about how New York City once had a sixth borough, which was an island that separated from Manhattan. He talks about how children of New York would put fireflies in glass jars and float them between the boroughs. We don't know if he made up theses stories about the sixth borough or if it's an old legend, but it shows Oskar's strong relationship with his father.

One of the things I would exclude from the movie would be all of the people Oskar meet on his journey to find the lock to the key that was in his father's vase. I think these characters are unnecessary and only a few of them actually have meaning to the plot. I also think that they should exclude Oskar's mom's boyfriend Ron because he doesn't really seem important to the plot and the book doesn't really explain their relationship in any way.