English-alumni-club

Members:

• Norah Doss - norah.doss at gmail dot com
• Michael Lutz - j.michael.lutz at gmail dot com
• Joey Holloway - joey.holloway at gmail dot com
• Molly Malcom - mollymalc at googlemail dot com
• Faith Woodside - fawoods09 at earlham dot edu
• Johanna Wilcox - cherrypi3.14 at gmail dot com

Welcome! To make edits, log in. Never used a wiki before? Take a look at a well organized wiki page and click the edit tab to see the mark-up. There are some buttons at the top of the edit window that will put in some mark-up for you if you're not sure what to do.

I tried making a template for what the page might look like when we start using it to converse. Take note that headings and subheadings are arranged in the contents box - like an automatic outline! Huzzah! Also, you can click the edit tab at the top of the page to make changes anywhere on the page, or the edit button on the right across from any section heading to make changes to that section only. Don't forget to click "save page" at the bottom when you make a change.

Business and Scheduling News

Talk about stuff besides the texts here!

August Book: EITHER Left Hand of Darkness or A Place on Earth. WHICH ONE?

• My vote would be for Le Guin. But I didn't read the last two books, so I think my vote should count for very little. -Johanna

• I'm reading Left hand of Darkness now! It must be a sign! But honestly I'm fine either way. - Joey

Book Title

Comments made by the person introducing the book?

Responses

Initial response by so-and-so

Lalala!

Love, So-and-so mm/dd/yy

Comments

• I like your idea, so-and-so! However, have you considered pg. 172 and the role of patriarchy? -- Mr. Pants mm/dd/yyy

Initial response by such-and-such

Blah blah!

Sincerely, Such-and-such mm/dd/yy

Comments

• Indeed, blah and so-forth! -- Ms. Liz Bennet mm/dd/yy
• Ms. Bennet should consider that her fine eyes are brightened by the exercise. -- Mr. Darcy mm/dd/yy

Love Medicine

Maybe Molly would like to say something about why she picked this text?

Responses to Love Medicine

Norah's thoughts

I just finished rereading (so honestly I skimmed a lot) Love Medicine. I looked for the paper I wrote on it for Barb, but with no success. I'm sure that is ultimately for the best....

I enjoyed reading it again, and I remembered a great deal of it. I don't remember being quite so confused about the narrators, but it's probably because I was reading it more closely then. I won't go super in depth because I know no one wants to read that, but I will say some things that interested me. I'm really fascinated by the catholic imagery throughout the book. The catholic school, rosaries, and even names like Lazarre (lazarus anybody??), and Marie. I think if I someone were to really do a deep reading of it, the argument could be made that all the characters function as a form of saints mimicking the catholic tradition, each character representing a safe space and answering prayers. There is a lot of juxtaposition of winter and summer as well, bad things happen when it's cold and good things when it's warm. June (the character, and the month) dies in the middle of winter and Lulu gets pregnant in the winter (which could arguably be a negative turning point). Male characters seem to be more involved in their families in the summer. The female characters are often described as, or compared to, cats. I'm not totally sure what to do with that, but I think it's interesting. Erdrich also does this thing with her prose that makes even good moments seem so very sad. I don't mean this in a bad way, it's quite amazing. Every chapter has a deep sense of melancholy in its telling, and yet I still like it. 

These are just some little things I was thinking about regarding the book. I really liked reading it again, from an older and different place.