Establishing The Connection

  

                I absolutely disagree with the statement that genre fiction is ‘unworthy’ to be taught as compared to literary fiction. Genre fiction definitely deserves a spot in the school curriculum. If anything, I actually think that there should be more genre fiction taught in the school curriculum, because then people will like reading much more. If you think about it, what are you training the students to think if the only things they are ‘forced’ to read are boring, old literary books? Granted, not all literary fiction is boring, I get that. But can you give me an example of a literary fiction that ISN’T boring? … That’s what I thought. From giving students literary fiction books they just automatically labeling reading as ‘boring,’ and therefore something they would never do in their free time, whether the book be interesting of boring.

                I think that literary fiction gives books a bad name. Disagree with me all you want, but when a person is forced to read a boring book the last thing they’d ever want to do are read something out of the necessary amount.  People who are raised to dislike books won’t gain the creative knowledge or life lessons that they would from a book, and literary fiction turns them away almost instantaneously.

                Genre fiction should be added to the curriculum, YES. Although I don’t want to swap out Of Mice and Men with Twilight, per say, I think it could be swapped out with something else, such as the hunger games, where students can relate to and ENJOY relating to the characters and their emotions. Quite frankly I find it difficult to the characters and time period of the literary fiction, so there goes the connection between the book and the reader. This connection could be reestablished very quickly with the introduction of genre fiction into the school curriculum.

                Reflecting on my response, this quote summarizes a lot of what I believe on the subject.

‘The problem with fantasy literature is that it has a certain stigma attached to it. This stigma has been identified and debunked by literary critics for quite a while now, yet the genre itself continues to be dismissed as escapist fluff-full of scantily clad sorceresses and wizards with long staffs. What seems lacking in acknowledgment are two facts about fantasy that make it perfect classroom fodder:

1. Students like it.

2. It is a metaphor for the human condition ripe with mythic structures, heroic cycles, and social and religious commentary.’

 (Teaching Fantasy: Overcoming the Stigma of Fluff’ by Melissa Thomas)

STUDENTS LIKE IT. Isn’t’ that one of the most important things? The student’s actually enjoy the book they’re reading, they engage in the plot, they get stuck on the cliffhangers.

Relating to the book, establishing that Connection—isn’t that what reading’s all about?

Eat Pray Love, the movie

My book is Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I’m not finished with the book yet, but because of the way the book is divided into three sections (Italy, India, and Indonesia) and I’ve finished all of Italy and am working on India right now. So my answers are going to come from only those parts of the book.

                First of all, this book is a true story, so the author is the main character. For this book, I think that some challenges a filmmaker would have in turning this book into a movie would be that for one, nothing is actually happening in ‘real time.’ Most of it is just the author’s thoughts after the fact. If I were making this into a movie, The whole idea of thoughts after-the-fact would kind have to be taken out, and replaced with mostly real-time interactions.

                A scene I believe is necessary to keep is the section of the book where the author is going over her divorce, especially when she’s in the car with her friend and they’re talking about how she wants her husband to sign the divorce agreement and everyone is ‘signing it.’ Another scene I think is very important is when the author breaks down in the car and Giovanni comforts her and takes her to a statue to help calm her down. The final scene which is very important would be in India, when she finally achieves her state of meditation, and then  when she’s finally about to be totally connected to her spirit or whatever the blue-ness in her meditation symbolized, she stopped and yelled out ‘I’m not ready yet.’

                There were actually a lot of things I would cut. I would definitely cut the three to four chapters where she talks about her sex life and that she is sex deprived. The younger guy hitting on her could go too, because it was kind of weird and seemed random. Another thing I’d cut if I were making this book into a movie is the part where her sister comes to Italy to visit her, because I didn’t really see a point in it.