First Questions for the Second Half of EN 190/190HM

Good evening :)

This evening I realized that I haven't sent out the email that I usually send out on Thursday evening--and here it is Saturday night!

With that in mind, the reading for Tuesday will be  “Superman and Me,” the excerpt from Maus, and “I Am Not Batman” as well as “The Man to Send Clouds,” “Cigarettes,” "Here," and “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings.”  Note that these are the same readings we had for last Tuesday.  We will move on to the stories by Sherman Alexie on Thursday.

This afternoon my husband and I saw Wajdja, a movie set in Saudi Arabia.  This movie is about a girl who is at odds with her milieu, and it kind of reminds me of "Cigarettes."  Here is the trailer to Wajdja:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZEiM9vIMI4

Here is the trailer to Persepolis, the movie version of the book from which "Cigarettes" was taken.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PXHeKuBzPY

Actually, you can see the whole movie here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNx4Pa2Gqfk

These are a few questions to start with.

-- Now that you are midway through our semester (and the unit on fiction), what comes to mind when you think about literature?  Why?

-- What comes to mind when you think about drama and the theater?  Why?

-- What comes to mind when you think about fiction?  why?

-- How did Ms. Vartanoff's presentation help you with Tuesday's reading?

-- Why should EN 190 include graphic fiction?

-- Why should EN 190 *not* include graphic fiction?

-- How is graphic fiction literature?  How is it not literature?

-- Recently my husband and I saw a play based on a foreign film from the 1970s?  Is it a good idea for playwrights to adapt movies to the stage?  Why?  Why not?

-- What do today's readings add to your understanding of fiction?

-- What would you like to write about for your paper on fiction?  Why?

-- Compare the trailers to Wajdja and to Persepolis?  Which seems to be a better vehicle for a coming of age story of a girl in Muslim society?  Why?  Why might someone prefer a live action film?  Why might someone prefer animation?

-- Compare the trailer to Persepolis and "Cigarettes."  Does "Cigarettes" seem to be a representative selection from Persepolis?  Why?  Why not?  Why do you think that our editors chose this particular story?  

-- Feel free to compare "Cigarettes" to other "coming of age stories" that we've read, especially to "Today's Demon: Magic" but also to "The House on Mango Street" or "Where are You Going, Where Have You Been?" or "Superman and Me."

-- Do you feel that the excerpt from Maus is representative?  Why?  Why not?

-- Discuss "Here" and "Girl" as stories that take risks with style and narrative.  Come to think of it, for its day, "Hills Like White Elephants" also took risks, never entering the minds of its characters.  Compare these three stories with other, more conventional ones like "The Red Convertible," "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been," or "Today's Demon: Magic."

-- What is it like for you to return to drama with "I am not Batman"?

-- A number of today's readings are not from writers based in the US. What do these stories add to our understanding of literature?  Does anything seem to be lost in translation?  Why?  Why not?  Should EN 190 include more works from authors who write in languages other than English?  or from authors whose graphic novels include no text?  Why?  Why not?

Now I am returning to the journals.  If you haven't sent me your journals from the first half of the semester, please do so so that I may post your midterm grade.  Thank you.  :)

Dr. Szlyk