Re: THE INVERTED FOREST

patrick flaherty (pfkw@email.msn.com)
Sat, 25 Jul 1998 18:31:39 -0400 

-----Original Message-----
From: J J R <jrovira@juno.com>
To: bananafish@lists.nyu.edu <bananafish@lists.nyu.edu>
Date: Saturday, July 25, 1998 2:09 PM
Subject: Re: THE INVERTED FOREST

My focus as an undergrad was actually on British literature.  The program I
was in also had a teacher certification component.  I took a class in
Shakespeare that I will always remember fondly because of the wonderful
teacher I had.  In fact this same prof, Dr. Henry Vittum, also taught a
class in the Victorian novel which had a great impact on my "tastes" in
literature.  I did take several American Lit courses and really got into
Walt Whitman for a while.  I've found that as I am now forced to make up my
own reading lists, I do not read as much poetry as I would like(ought?) to.
I never took a class with Charles Bukowski on the reading list.  However, I
was encouraged to read him by a prof that I very much respected.  He first
mentioned Buk to me after reading some of my informal reader-response
journal entries that were required in his course.  I guess what I liked most
about my experience at Plymouth State was that most of my teachers
encouraged me to read widely outside of the set curriculum and, in most
cases, did not pass judgement on outside materials that I incorporated into
my work.  Salinger, Camus, Vonnegut, and Bukowski were never required
reading.  However, I often made allusions to their work in class papers as
well as discussions.  I felt that, because I read these guys with the same
level of "passion" that I read, say _Coriolanus_, my reading of them was on
the same "level."  Am I clear?  I even wrote a paper in my Shakespeare class
comparing rock stars to Elizabethan actors using a few quotes from Jerry
Garcia and I aced it!!

I just took my first class in grad school.  I am in an American and New
England Studies program which is really an integration of lit, history, and
art.  So far my favorite fiction has been that of Sarah Orne Jewett.  She is
the Jane Austen of America, in my opinion.

Anyway, I guess I'll stay on the list and learn to pick and choose what to
respond to.

Patrick
>Patrick,
>
>Who did you read in your state college, who are you reading in Graduate
>school, and how did your professors come up with those authors?  WHY were
>THEY selected for you to read?
>
>If the study of literature was just a matter of personal passion, the
>professor's personal passions would be forced on their students, and
>students would become impoverished (and this does happen).
>
>There may be a good reason we're ALL made to read Shakespeare, while only
>some of us have read Bukowski.
>
>Jim
>
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