Amusement == an articulate teenage girl in the house

A few days ago T got a letter from the newly merged Science/Liberal Arts Academy, notifying her that she is to read two books from an enclosed reading list and to prepare a ‘response journal’ for each, to be ready when she walks in to English class on the first day of school.

The list is:

• Kate Chopin, The Awakening
• Black Elk, Black Elk Speaks
• Gloria Miklowitz, The War Between the Classes
• Adeline Yen Mah, Falling Leaves: The True Story of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter
• Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams
• Chris Crutcher, Athletic Shorts
• Charles Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying
• Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street

L recommended T try The Awakening, because (1) we already have it in the house, and (2) L wanted to hear T’s take on it, as a baby-amazon feminist grrl.  T, however, took a quick look over it and decided it was too late-Victorian for her taste.  T also rejected The House on Mango Street out of hand, because she’s already had to analyze it twice for English classes (once in junior high, once in her freshman year of high school) and detests the book to begin with.  In the end, they took off for Half Price Books in search of Athletic Shorts, which T thought she might enjoy because she wants to learn sports journalism, and A Lesson Before Dying, because it deals with interracial stuph.

Before they headed for the book store, however, I was treated to a highly entertaining rant from T on the nugacity of the “commentary” she was supposed to provide.  Her principal objection was that the “suggested comments” fly directly in the face of everything she’s been taught about lit-crit ever since junior high school, and the comments are absurd on the face of them.  I must say I agree.  Here’s the list of recommended comments she was given:

1. I wonder what _____________ means.
2. The ideas remind me of:
3. I don’t understand _____________ because ______________________.
4. This character reminds me of ______________________.
5. This part confuses me because ________________________.
6. This description makes me feel ____________________.
7. The setting creates an effect of ________________.
8. This technique of __________________ works to _______________________.
9. This part means ________________________.
10. The tone of this part makes me feel _______________.
11. The author seems to think/feel ______________ because ___________________.
12. I didn’t expect ____________ to do this because ________________________.
13. This part makes me think of what will happen later because ___________________.
14. This section is particularly (emotion) because ___________________.

Stephen Spielberg helps Luke Skywalker and his explosive amphibian.  Fnord.