Purity: Warning Signs

Tom's section is written in the 1st person however I felt I learned more about Anabel and her personal sometimes twisted thoughts and acts. Tom describes that his soul had unionized with Anabel's and that they were becoming too similar of people. At first this sounded extremely romantic, but truly became the downfall of their …

Purity: Love Over Time

While Franzen follows a very periodical timeline in parts of Purity I felt a stronger connection with his characters, Tom and Annabel when he told their story in reverse. Starting with their divorce and the problems they struggle with as a couple felt very vulnerable and raw. The intensity of their passion in the woods …

Jonathan Franzen “Purity”: Identity

In light of Tuesday's discussion regarding identity and Dike's struggle to recognize himself as both American and Nigerian, I drew a comparison with Pip. One of the reason's for Dike's depression and identity crisis was that Aunty Uju refuses to acknowledge and bring up the fact that Dike was Nigerian by birth and failed to …

Americanah: Relationship Status

The topic discussed during Tuesday's lecture about impactful relationships was also relevant to this week's reading. When lfemelu returns to Nigeria she encounters a stark contrast to her own relationships in America. The most drastic difference being the relationship between the male and female role. Ifemelu recognizes the submissive roles women in Nigeria feel comfortable …

A Tale For the Time Being: Dear Ruth

Dear Ruth, You wonder about me. I wonder about you. Who are you and what are you doing? Are you wide awake in bed at 3 am, listening to Oliver's deep breaths and pondering your next work? I picture Pesto next to you giving you warmth as the rain falls in Whaletown. Has your passion …

A Tale For The Time Being: Finally, a connection with Ruth

In the last section of reading I finally felt empathetic towards Ruth and became extremely sensitive and vulnerable when reading the darker parts of Nao's story. When discovering Nao's path to prostitution and the horrible details she writes about the disgusting bullying she goes through at her school I felt heartbroken. I felt that Ruth …

A Tale For The Time Being: Curiosity

In class we talk a lot about the ways in which a reading or understanding of a novel can be changed. For me, reading the Stanford Psych Professor's website and the letter that "Harry" had sent to him, changed how I perceived the following pages. I found it particularly interesting how he painted the concept …

Teju Cole’s Seven Short Stories: The Drone Effect

Similar to Morgan, I to found the abrupt deaths written in 140 characters or less to be quite powerful. Cole's idea to take away the hundreds of pages of back story that distinguish the infamous literary character's resembles the process in which a drone strike would occur. You begin the first word of each tweet …

I hate the internet: First Thoughts

Jarett Kobek took me by surprise with his ironic and pessimistic views on modern society. His take on sexism, racism, and capitalism are alarmingly blunt. For instance his claim on page 25, "the business of American literature had become the business of exploiting slave labor. An example of this is the book that you are …

The Culture of Connectivity: Defining “You”

"I know it's hard to understand/ I am with you, and I know how it is." Ben Lerner chooses these poetic words written by Walt Whitman to end his novel 10:04. Whitman's words call upon "you," which we know to be a collective group of people present and future. Lerner seems to use these words, …