PAGE 117
Who are Powell and Rice? Also, look up the expression ‘name dropping.’ Do you think it is related to what is going on here?
‘where
the buck stopped.’ This is another cultural reference, a popular
expression. Which expression do we use in Spanish for this?
PAGE 118
Do
you understand now? Or go to p 119 to see the true story revealed. Do
you agree with Howard that it was better to lie about this? Why?
PAGE 119
Who is Clinton? Why the reference to pheromones, charisma, etc?
PAGE 121
What exactly gave Howard and Claire away?
What is affirmative action?
What do you think about the way Kiki handled the situation?
PAGE 122
Affirmative
action and anti … What does this mean? Can you think of similar
situations in Argentina? Where do you stand on the issue?
Victoria reappears here. What do you make of her?
The title of the novel is On Beauty. Does it have anything to do with Victoria?
PAGE 124
Howard
hesitated at the word DJ. The topic of the generation gap and the
language variations along generations is introduced in this simple
rhetorical question of Howard’s. Whether you are closer to Howard or to
Victoria in age, do you recognize this situation?
PAGE 129
The chapter opens with a personification. Do you like the image?
Zora is the protagonist here. What is she like?
From now and for a few pages, Zora will be surrounded by swimmers, ideal people and misshapen people. Find
examples of descriptions. What do suppose is the case – are the two
groups so different or is it Zora’s way of looking at people and at
herself? Notice that the author does not say ‘Zora compared … and thought that…’ This is a characteristic of Modernism, it is sometimes difficult to tell whose point of view we are having: is it the narrator’s or Zora’s? Or is it just what really happens?
PAGE 135
More stereotypes of African Americans.
PAGE 137
Again, is everybody so striken by Carl’s face, or is it just Zora?
PAGE 138
Notice the use Carl makes of the idiom ‘to hit a nail in the head.’ He expands on it and uses it to describe himself.
Personally , I don’t
think either of them is much of a ‘talker.’ I don’t think they
understand what the other is trying to say. For instance, when Howard,
according to Zora, says that students have a very basic vocabulary, he’s
speaking from the point of view of a scholar who expects a wider
vocabulary range from his students. As a teacher I feel identified with
him. But can Carl be referring to that? What is he referring to, then?
PAGE 139
Now look at Zora’s monologue ‘Howard – he’s great…’ Is she acting as a person who knows how to have a conversation?
What is the precious thing that has escaped?
PAGE 141
If you were to go to this lecture, Constructing the Human, what would you expect of it? Later on the Enlightenment is mentioned. Both terms are related.
PAGE 142
Notice Smith’s pronunciation of ‘power point’ and of ‘I.’
PAGE 145
What does Smith say about Zora’s academic work? She wants to be accepted in a creative writing class. Do you think that is the appropriate place for her? Once more, the dichotomy feeling – thinking.
What does Howard really want to say to his daughter? What is there behind all these warnings? Perhaps you disagree with me or find evidence to the contrary, but I feel this Is the first time we witness love in Howard’s toward his children. And he doesn’t even say anything, he thinks about
it (and seems to be considering suicide)! And, in case you’re
interested, my own cultural reference. This is a poem I particularly
like, and I’d like to share it with you.
A Wish for my Children
On this doorstep I stand
year after year
and watch you leaving
and think: May you not
skin your knees. May you
not catch your fingers
in car doors. May
your hearts not break.
May tide and weather
wait for your coming
and may you grow strong
to break
all webs of my weaving.
(in Veronica Zundel (ed.) (1991) Faith in her Words, Lion Publishing P. 133)
PAGE 146
Ms
Smith pokes fun at many groups in the novel (African Americans,
scholars, both conservative and liberal, urban tribes…). There are many
words which turn on a red light of alarm when somebody says them. One is discrmination,for instance. Which one is mentioned here?
PAGE 147
Why does French pause before the word ‘work’? ( Why does he think Zora has ‘a full hand’?
PAGE 148
Something else to think about on the issue of affirmative actions.
PAGE 151
Carl Lewis: another cultural reference.
PAGE 153
What about the poem?
Para los alumnos de Oral 3 Turno Mañana
PAGE 154
Notice how Howard just sees one feature of each student.
PAGE 155
‘Art is the Western myth with which we both console ourselves and make ourselves.’ What do you think?
Why has he preserved ‘carefully’ his English accent?
What would you answer to Howard’s questions?
Victoria again, and the topic of beauty again.
PAGE 166
Why would Kiki be annoyed at being told that she was ‘a strong woman’?
PGE 171
‘This was
what she liked…’ Can you think of people who have that quality? Can you
think of the quality you admire the most in the people you care for?
PAGE 172
Carlene has asked about Jerome, about Kiki’s looks… Do you find her intrusive? Rude?
PAGE 173
Hallelujah
as a hymn deconstructing a hymn. Lots of cultural references! Do you
know the song? What is a hymn? What does ‘to deconstruct’ mean? Which
hymn is the song deconstructing?
PAGE 174
Kiki reflects on memories. Memories mingle, sometimes an ‘edited’ version becomes more real to you than what really happened.
Notice how often what happens makes her mind turn to her failed marriage (she uses the adjective. Would you use it?)
More
cultural references: Gatsby, Taxi Driver, Buckley, Lennon, Maîtresse
Erzulie… Which ones do you already know? Try and find out about the
others.
PAGE 175
Cultural ref: the Christian world, Western cultural and binary points of view.
PAGE 178
Bill O’Reilly. Another reference.
PAGE 179
Do you think Levi has a right to feel let down?
PAGE 180
From here and for some pages we’ll learn about this big corporation Levi works for. What can you say about it?
Also notice throughout these pages the character’s reactions to the news that they’ll have to work on Christmas Day.
PAGE 182
Who
is Harold Bloom? What is Falstaff? Is half an hour listening to Levi on
rap as valuable as half an hour with Bloom on Falstaff? What’s your
opinion? And whose opinion is expressed in the text – the narrator’s or
Levi’s?
PAGE 184
Cult ref: Tupac
PAGE 186
More of the racial question
PAGE 188
Again the question of race, again beauty.
PAGE 191
What is a brother in this context? And a nigger? What does Bailey mean when he says he know where Levi comes from?
PAGE 193
Cult ref: Gramsci (mentioned by Howard to Levi on p 181) and Rembrandt. Why the wrong spelling?
PAGE 199
Why
was Zora so keen on taking this class? Because it would be such an
asset in her career? Out of some morbid desire to be part of her
father’s ex lover? To provoke her mother? To pretend so was open minded
and thought nothing of Claire and the affair? Is she now trying to
apologise to her mother or to provoke her? And what should Kiki Have
done?
PAGE 200
Plath: another cult ref
Noam
Chomsky: yes, you do get this reference. Now, is it a coincidence that
he should appear when Zora is looking for something cerebral? And is it
true that she doesn’t pay attention to beautiful faces, as her mother
says (and she seems to admit)?
PAGE 207
Beauty again.
PAGE 209
More ref: the flood, Aspen, Flaubert, Foucault, Adorno, Austen
PAGE 210
And more! De Beauvoir, the Zomeister (with a pun on Zora), the salt of the earth, Kevin Bacon, Ezra Pound.
What does ‘here were people’ mean? (The topic of people and belonging continues on p 211).
PAGE 212
Cult ref: the Spoken Word
PAGE 214
What is beauty associated with here?
PAGE 217
Two idioms for you!
PAGE 218
Mick Jagger,
Sam Shepard, Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti,Virgil, Pope, the Romantics (you’ll
see about this poet and this movement in Language and Culture 3).
What is the purpose of Zora’s question?
PAGE 221
You don’t need to Google this name; go to the author’s note at the back to find out about Doc Brown.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario