Sorry this is so late. I agree that this has been an enjoyable class for me this quarter. It was nice to be able to read something other than long boring textbooks. I thought the topic was interesting and enjoyed discussing the books in class. Bastard out of Carolina was probably one of my favorite books despite it's sad and horrible topic. All in all I enjoyed this class, and will recomend it to other students.

Edited by author 05-29-2002 05:44 PM
Sorry that my message is so late but I was unaware that we were posting messages this week. I hope that it is not too late to post this message.
However, I must agree with the majority of the class and say that this class has been one of the most enjoyable I have taken at OU. The entire class had an extremely laid back atmosphere which made learning very easy. In most classes the pressure to perform is overwhelming, however by making the course more relaxed it allowed me to perform at a high level. I enjoyed the novels we read, and felt that each one had a significant lesson to be learned. Before this course I found reading to be a daunting task, but after experiancing the joys of reading I found myself to be a little more interested in reading and might accually read in my free time. The only thing I didn't really like was the time span on message board. I felt that more time should be given for students to post messages. The time constrants really bothered me. But overall I give this class an excellant rating. I enjoyed it thourghly and will recommened it to my friends.

Since everyone else is writing about the class I thought I would agree with all the good comments and talk about my paper instead.
  I think that I might change my paper topic to a focus on how the books had a porch. The families gathered there and had a lot of memories there. I thought it was pretty interesting how each novel, excluding The Shining and We were the Mulvaneys (didn't read), included a porch where the characters watched life and experienced it.
  Since my family is also centered around a porch this part of each book stuck out in my mind. I beleive that if a family has something like a porch, such as a table, a room or a kitchen it really brings a family together. Now I'm not sure if I am going to use this as my topic or not because it is going to be pretty hard to research this but if I come up empty handed I am going to stick to my old plan.

I enjoyed this class for many reasons. I felt as though the "force" reading really paid off. I didn't really feel forced though, to get the books done on time. I enjoyed these books a lot. This class gave me a greater appreciation for fiction novels, and I have started another novel since the last one we read. By far, my favorite was Bastard out of Carolina. I felt as though it was the best read, and that there were so many issues in it that aren't like many other books I read. I am doing my research paper on the author and Bastard. BY reading and learning more and more about Allison, I have gained a more appreciative understanding of her book. By knowing more about Allison, I can analyze the book more, and gain more from it. I have enjoyed this class a lot, thanks for the reads!

yes i just wanted to restate that although this class was different than maost english classes i have taken, i must say it was a good different. The books we were assigned to read are books that i would not go out and read, but i do feel this was a good thing. My dad who is an english teacher liked hearing the books i was being made to read, and he was glad since i usually go for books by Tom Clancy and others. The only problem i had with the class was this message board, yes this message is late, but i question there use, seeing our time could have been spent better in class. But overall i enjoyed the books and our class discussions, good luck to everyone one the final paper, take care

My favorite part of the class was just getting able to read so much just because I love to read, but usually at the end of the quarter I have a few half finished books because I get caught up in school. So it was fun to have school and reading be the same thing this quarter. I would have to say that I loved Beloved. I had read it in highschool and I didn't enjoy it much, but reading it again changed that a lot. Before I could only appreciate Toni Morrison's writing, but now I was able to enjoy it and I would never have read that again by choice so I am glad I had that opportunity.

Well, I did almost forget, but hopefully I made it. I must say that going into this class I was a little weary, because I did not like Critical Approach to Poetry at all! However, this is definitely one of the best classes that I've ever taken. I didn't like all the books, but I'm still happy that I read them. I appreciated how open and free the class structure was for discussions and papers. I would definitely recomend this class to anyone.

I did enjoy this class, but i feel that i could have gotten more out of it. That may be because it was so early in the morning or that the books werent all to my liking. Either way though i had fun and if i had to do it over again i would still take this class

I really enjoyed this class. I love to read, anything, and spend my summers catching up on books I missed throughout the school year. It was never boring, although I did not love all of the books. Of course it is impossible for everybody to love all of the books. I am looking forward to researching my final topic

Edited by author 05-24-2002 06:52 PM
This class made me want to go into an english minor even more. I can not say that I learned anything, but it certainly helped me read books that I would have never read for leisure. I hated Beloved. I loved The Bean Trees, and there is a sequal to it in Little Professor if anyone is interested. There is one thing that I learned and that was to take the word "like" out of my vocabulary.

I liked the variety of the books that we read. It went from easy reading (The Bean Trees) to the challenge of Beloved. I also enjoyed the interaction of the class. The best conversation in my opinion is the one about Sethe killing her child. It really challenged us to put ourselves in someone else's shoes and showed us that life throws out a lot more difficult situations then we are used to dealing with.

What I have to say seems to parallel what everyone else is saying. Overall I enjoyed the books we read this quarter. I think we got a pretty broad view of the American family. I think the best part of the class was the fact that we had these postings, because they allowed people to "come out of their shells" and express what they were really thinking. It's just too bad people couldn't have been more vocal in class.

I might as well be honest, I did not enjoy too many of the books we read this quarter. I guess this is due to the fact that the topic of the American family as the plot of a book holds no real interest for me.

The Shinning was far more interesting because it had outside forces influencing the characters. Unlike Bastard out of Carolina, in which the father Glen, was an evil, heartless son of a bi*$#, the Shinning dad Jack Torance was driven to evil through the ghosts in the Overlook. I found this to be much more interesting than reading about what a looser Glen was and how he took it out on his step-daughter.

All in all, I would have to recommend some different books for next quarter.

hello everyone. week nine already....geez, the time does fly by, eh? i'll have to agree with the folks who said they enjoyed other folks' opinions/takes on each of the novels we read. interesting viewpoints, lively discussions, passionate web postings...some more so than others! :-)

as i've mentioned before, i really, really enjoyed the reading list for the quarter. some old faves and certainly some new faves (bastard out o' carolina)-- great exposure to contemporary lit i think. although i didn't find the quizzes or papers terribly difficult, i did struggle to find my 'critical voice' early on. i had to get back into that mind set---to 'digest' it all and then assess it. as this is my first quarter back in school in almost eight years, i appreciated the reminders (MLA style, etc...) and the practice. goodness knows there are plenty of papers to come in my 5 qtrs. left!!!

i'm still chewing on a few different ideas for my final paper....probably gonna use "bastard" and "bean trees". we'll see...thanks again for choosing such great novels. (p.s.....i'm glad we didn't find time to watch all those sitcom reruns----i'm not/never have been a t.v. person---glad we made it through without all that!)

This class didn't change my view of the American Family because I already had seen many of the types of families we read about this quarter. I did enjoy hearing everyone's views about these books. There were many times that I may not have agreed with these views, but I still enjoyed hearing them. The most important thing that made this class enjoyable for me was this message board. I'm not the type of person to speak up in class at all. This discussion board allowed me to express my opinions a little more freely. :)

This weeks topic of conversation appears to be what we learned in class. I didnt learn much from this class, however it did change my view of the American Family. I realized everyone comes from different walks of life. This class introduced me to a few books that i enjoyed and recommended to my mother who loves to read. All and all i enjoyed the class.

I'd have to agree with Jared that this class didn't really introduce me to anything I haven't seen before, but it was nice to have the forum to be able to discuss our different opinions. Looking back on the year I'm glad that I was able to hear everyone's different arguments, even though I didn't agree with many of them. I'm also glad I got a chance to read literature instead of just textbooks for a class. On that note, I still hate Beloved.

Well I'm not going to say I've learned a lesson in life or anything quite so dramatic as that, but I will agree that I've been exposed to quite a few good books that I never would have read had it not been for this class. I've always known the things we read about go on in the world, but I've always been rather apathetic about it. I've never had to deal with it, so I never really bothered much with it. Through reading about it though, I think that maybe I've come to understand more and even sympathize with those who earlier I would hardly consider a victim (Bone's mom for example). In all, I enjoyed almost all of the books, and I'm glad I read the one I didn't enjoy, because now at least I know I don't like it and I can even tell people why. I like being able to have an opinion on something, because I value my own opinion so much:P

I learned a lot more about life from this class than anything else. Many people don't realize the abuse and neglect that goes on in families, because they do not grow up with it. I grew up in a house where there was no abuse or alcohol, and that sort of set a standard that made me think, "gee, if I don't see that, then maybe other families don't either." And that was unbelieveably nieve of me. I knew it was out there, but I never knew how prodominate it was over today's society. I learned that family always comes first, whether it is your blood family or not.
And I also learned that families come in all shapes in sizes, there is no such thing as a "normal" family.

I agree with a lot of what people have already posted. I found the class very enjoyable and I love to read so the homework was more like leisure to me. It's true most of the books we read I would never have picked on my own, but I'm glad I was exposed to the different styles of writing and different views on the American family. Also, I love to hear what other people have to say about certain issues in the books because people are so oppinionated (in a good way) and have so many different ideas. Although, I rarely shared my oppinions in the class, I was fortunate enough to have this discussion board to leave my thoughts and ideas. I liked all the books at least a little bit, and The Shining and Bastard Out of Carolina were my favorites. I'm writing my paper on Bastard Out of Carolina because I enjoyed the book a lot. At the beginning of the year I didn't have time to read but with this class I had that opportunity, and since we'ver read Bastard Out of Carolina I've read three books on my own. I know this has nothing to do with the class but I want to suggest the book, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, to everyone because it's an excellent book. It reminds me of a modern day Catcher in the Rye. So with that, good luck to everyone on their research papers!

One of the main things that i learned in this class is that there are many different family types. This does not mean that one types is better than anoter, just different. Also, this quarter i learned that reading books can be enjoyable. I have never really read a book that i was not forced to, but after taking this class, i would think about reading certain books like the shining. Overall, i had a fun quarter and really enjoyed hearing everyone's comments concerning all of the different books.

I can't say that I learned anything in this class because most of the issues that were discussed I have heard before. I can say that I enjoyed a couple of the books that we read and disliked others(The Shining, especially!). I liked the discussions we had and how people brought up things in the books that I had overlooked. All in all I think it was a good class, and I'm glad that I was able to take it.

    What I enjoyed most in the class was being able to discuss the books we have read. I liked being able to talk about questions on the book and every one discussing their oppinions on a specific topic. It was fun and interesting when a good depate came up to see how others feel so strongly and differently about the same topic. I feel that hearing other oppinions and views on a book is important for a better understanding of that novel.

Edited by author 05-24-2002 02:11 AM
I am not an avid reader, but I read for enjoyment often enough. A few of these books I may have chosen to read. Others definitely not. Despite that, I am really glad that I was exposed to different authors. I disliked Beloved with passion, but I will admit Morrison's style was very unique.
One thing I really liked was the discussions. Sometimes I completely overlooked parts of the book that others thought were very key and it helped to hear what everyone was thinking.

I think that all of the books we read this quarter have qualities that are impressive. Though we all may not have liked all of the books, they do offer something different to the reader. Personally, I enjoyed reading The Shining and Bean Trees the most.
I feel that these papers could be very interesting to do. I must say though, I was shocked to hear that some people have not read critical essays on books before. I don't want to sound pompous but when I read a book and love it, I actually enjoy reading essays about it because they open completely different meanings for the book. Sometimes critical essays make you realize how genius some authors are. I'm sure all of these books have really interesting essays about them.
Anyways, I just wanted to say that I enjoyed class discussions and I think we brought up many valid points during class. Hopefully we all learned something this quarter.

   Well, here it is, or second to last post. All of our reading assignments are behind us and all that is left is our research paper. What to write about? It was suggested that we write on our topics for our final paper. Seeing as I have little else to say, I will take that suggestion and see what comes from it. For my research paper I am going to focus on "The Shining", as many of us have decided to do. While the movie/novel comparison does sound appealing to me, I am going to attempt to try a topic of my own creation. In my paper I plan to discuss the issue of the American Family as it really exists in our society. Basically, by definition, the Torrance Family should be an ideal American Family. A mother, a father, and their child. However as we see early on in "The Shining", they are far from the ideal image that our Society has provided us with as almost a standard. I want to prove that King's portrayal of a family is far more accurate and representative to the majority of families in American Society today. I plan on using statistical documentation to prove that domestic abuse as well as alcohol abuse is a far more common element in today's American culture than anyone is willing to admit, and "The Shining" is truly a perfect example of today's average American Family (well, besides the haunting and psychic ability thing that is).

Welcome to Week Nine!