Purity: The Body

In this portion of the reading, the body, its functions, and its ephemerality seem to be a leitmotif. There is Anabel's project about her body, Tom and Anabel's sex life, Anabel's frustration with men peeing standing up, Anabel's eating and exercise disorder, Clelia's colon, the dead body and ashes of Clelia, the cessation of Anabel's …

Purity: First Person Narrative

I was caught off-guard by the shift in narrative point of view with "[lelo9n8a0rd]." I was not expecting to read any first person accounts in the novel, and I'm curious as to why Franzen introduces this narrative technique so late in the novel, and only for Tom. I almost feel cheated that I get to …

Purity: Detail

Franzen's way of describing the world always strikes me as so real and fresh and exact. I wanted to make a post of appreciation for some moments of description in this first section. Also, after reading a book like I Hate the Internet, which is practically stripped of any superfluous detail , it feels fantastic to be steeped in …

Americanah: Shan’s Spell

In Chapter 35, Adichie introduces us to Shan. She has this magnetism about her that makes anyone in her presence acquiesce to her way of seeing the world. Surprisingly, Ifemelu succumbs to this power. It seems that Shan is the only person to whom Ifemelu doesn't speak her mind, and I'm curious about why this …

Americanah: America’s tribalisms

The themes of Americanah keep appearing in my other classes, and I'm really excited (my American idiom is self-aware here - see page 167, and another commentary on "excited" earlier in the text that I can't find) about the interdisciplinary overlap of these themes. I'm reading The New Jim Crow in an Anthro class, we just read …

A Tale for the Time Being: East/West

I have so much to talk about from the last portion of our reading, but one of the passages that struck me most was Nao's father's suicide note. At first, I didn't see the difference between the two sentences of the note: "I should only make myself ridiculous in my own eyes if I clung …

A Tale for the Time Being: Temporal Stuttering

Ruth's typographical representation of what she deems "temporal stuttering" on pages 227-229 is a really interesting manipulation of the media at her disposal. She attempts to articulate her impatience with waiting for the Professor's email response: "her impatience grew. This agitation was familiar, and paradoxical as though some force was at once goading her and …

A Tale for the Time Being: Translation

I think that translation studies is one of the most interesting components of studying literature. Ruth Ozeki's novel is itself a translation study. The character Ruth footnotes Nao's journal with definitions of Japanese words and phrases, and includes appendices to translate larger concepts, such as the teachings of Zen Buddhism. There is Nao's attempt to …

Seven short stories about drones: death before life

I thought that the format of Cole's piece, "Seven Short Stories about Drones" was incredibly powerful. He tweets about seven of the most well known and highly regarded modern novels, each ending with notable characters' deaths by drone strike. The stories are so short and the deaths so abrupt that the effect of reading them …

10:04: Park Slope Food Coop

I researched the Park Slope Food Coop and the New York Times "exposé about certain members sending their nannies to do their shifts" (96). It's real. Here is the link to the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/nyregion/18coop.html?mcubz=3. There were also a slew of responses, such as this one from a former Coop member: https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/praise-from-afar-for-the-park-slope-food-co-op/?mcubz=3 - check out the comments at …