Thoughts on "My Book & Heart"...

One thing that stuck out in my mind was the story of Little Goody Two Shoes. How the story got from where it started to what it means now in today's society. I have never read the story of Little Goody Two Shoes and I knew nothing about it. The one thing that I associated with the term "Little Goody Two Shoes" is someone who is a know-it-all, or a suck up, or "that girl/guy" in class that seems like they know everything. After seeing the movie, that is not where that name originated at all! The name came from the little girl who finally got two good shoes! I find it so interesting that the story goes from that one extreme to the other. How on earth did if shift that much in its meaning.

I loved the part about "The House That Jack Built." Hearing Michael and Lynda read it back and forth to each other was fun.

Another part I liked were the pictures of wood carving and the text that was beneath them. A lot of them seemed to contradict each other which I found very interesting. I think it is weird on how things were interpreted back then to how they are now. It is amazing to see how far things have come since then. What is and isn't acceptable. Back then they showed how man and ape looked the same where now evolution is a huge debate. But, did the idea of not being allowed to question it slow down that debate?

One question I do have is where the title "My Book & Heart Shall Never Part" came from? Is it from one of the little books that Lynda had. Is there a specific reason for her naming the film this? I remember seeing the little girl read it from one of the books I think.

Is there such a thing as a child?

I like my response as to what I thought a child was. Then Lynda came and talked to us about her movie and it's concerns with children, books and nature. Then Sutter brought up a really interesting point in class the other day..."is there such a thing as a child." I almost want to say, "no there isn't." Children aren't really ever given the time to be children. From day one they are always learning something. They are constantly aquiring more and more knowledge on everything. So if this person is always learning something that is helping them mature, are they indeed, every considered a child? If they aren't, then what are they...young adults? Or if you indeed would call them children because they are constantly learning things, is there even such a thing as an adult. You don't ever stop learning. Everyone is constantly expanding there knowledge of something. Are we all children, since we are continuing to learn? Or does it only deal with literacy. So many questions roaming through my head and no definite answers...

Reminders!

• Thursday, October 23 at 7:00 is the world premiere of "My Book & Heart Shall Never Part" at the Emerson Cultural Center. Everyone is required to attend!
• There will be no class on Friday, October 25. Write a response on your blogs by Monday regarding the film.
• We will begin discussion on Alice on Wednesday, October 29.

20 October 2008 Class Notes

• Begin reading Alice In Wonderland/Alice In Sunderland ---> try reading them both at the same time...
• Have "His Dark Materials" done by November 14, it will make it easier to discuss.
• DIDACTIC
• Tatology: talking in circles, it is what it is, the poem is a poem...
• Learning something but not questioning it...
• Is a child ever really a child? People argued that childhood wasn't invented until the 19th Century, children didn't exist until the 19th Century?
• Rites of passage --> boys becomeing men in tribal areas
• Cynical, satirical, ironical ---> things used in comin up with your own version of the moral to Cinderella...
• Taylor, Ashly, Rebecca, Julie and Brett read their moral to the story of Cinderella...
• Sexson read from Beauty & the Beast ---> almost identical to Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.
• In "Jane Eyre" she was brought up in an orphanage and somewhat by aunt. Attitude at orphanage was very adultlike, there wasn't room for the kids to act like children.
• Parody makes fun of things while respecting what it is making fun of.
• Anglea Carter's "The Tiger's Pride" ---> read it
• Eastern version of the rose was a lotus.
• This idea of committing crimes that didn't seem serious ---> eating of the apple in Adam & Eve, picking a rose from a garden, eating rapunzel

17 October 2008 Class Notes

• Lynda Sexson was the guest lecturer for class today. She talked about her upcoming film and things that it addressed.
• Is there such a thing as children's literature?
• Didactic: God------>speculative---->children begin to ask questions, morals, etiquette, pragmatic (ex. don't drink from a hot tea kettle)----->humor, nature
• All of those things (morals, etiquette, etc.) leads to literacy
• By becoming literate a child stops being a child.
• Nostalgia - a reminder of home, the old ways
• Books of nature--->leading to thoughts of God
• Influence of the Protestant Reformation..."anyone can learn to read"
• 1650 - John Eliott came to teach the Native Americans of Massachusetts how to read
• First bible printed in America was in the Algonquin language...
• Reading became a diversion for land
• Two world views colliding..."why do englishmen hate snakes?"
• John Newbery - the way by which we read is the way by which we think...
• Influence from the Enlightenment (think Thomas Jefferson whose library became the basis of the Library Of Congress) ---> notion of deism rather than theism.
• The notion that people can be rationale
• In 1803 Charles Peale opened a museum where for 50 cents, people could come in and see the bones from a mastadon
• John Goode wrote several books on nature but he had cracks in his world view
• JG would ask children not to think of the origin, not to think about where something came from.
• Wanted children to learn and become literate but not question certain things, only wanted them to reach a certain level of literacy
• Books on nature ---> some of the images conflict with the text
• Books were distributed by the American Sunday School Union and Religious Tracts among others
• iconoclasm: shattering/smashing of the image
• facsimile: made to look like an original
• "pocket books" from applewood books, nationalist enterprise
• "the blueback speller" produced by noah webster...wanted to regularize language in an American way
• Bluebeard, it is safe and scary at the same time when you are reading it, making it more appealing
• The world of books helps us with the world of words.

15 October 2008 Class Notes

• Graded each others tests in class...thank goodness I did much better than I thought I would.
• Possible Future Test Question! What is the last word in de Beaumont's "Beauty & the Beast"? The answer is VIRTUE!
• Lynda Sexson is coming to class on Friday to lecture. Everybody needs to come to class that day!
• Below is a symbol for virue...

13 October 2008 Class Notes

Today was the big day...our first test. It was harder than I thought it was going to be. I think I got so wrapped up in trying to remember all the stories that I didn't focus as much on the notes and such from class. Next time I will know to do it differently.