FAVORITE FACULTY READS

LA CLUSTER PRESENTS:

A number of Georgetown faculty and staff have shared their favorite fiction selections with us. Below, find the three fliers that highlight these selections.

Alan Moore: The Watchmen

LA CLUSTER THOUGHTS:

• This is a highly acclaimed graphic novel, which, among other accolades, has been selected as one of Time's 100 best novels of all time. Was it an appropriate selection for the LAC? How can we judge the value of a graphic novel in literary terms? Where does the line for inclusion in the 'belle lettres' lie?

• The controversial plot resolution of the novel: did Moore effectively surprise us with his development of events? How much is this like a 'classic' graphic novel in its plot resolution? Was the plot the strongest aspect of the piece?

• The controversial characterization of the various 'watchmen': Was there a redeeming character amongst all the individuals in the novel? Can we call John the foil for the vigilantes? At the end, John decides to leave earth to 'create life elsewhere' – how much of his character is meant to represent God? The female characters also deserved some attention: are there any admirable women in the work? Then again, are there any admirable characters at all?

• How much is The Watchmen a reflection of Cold War fears and disdain for Regan's policies during the 1980s? Pointedly, after Ozymandias's catastrophe, Robert Redford is supposedly running for President – how much are Moore and Gibbons creating a tongue-and-cheek presentation of (to them) contemporary American politics?

• The ethical and moral quandaries of the novel: is Ozymandias to blame for the deaths of thousands at the end of the novel? Is it the watchmen's silence that is more reprehensible than his act? Or do both parties truly act 'for the betterment of humanity'? Where do Gibbons and Moore fall on these questions?

• The supplemental material and the pirate graphic novel: What thematic elements connected all of the stories? Were the supplements at the end of each chapter well-executed and essential to the plot?

David Mitchell: Black Swan Green

LA CLUSTER THOUGHTS:

• Discuss the narrative structure of the novel: why the split of chapters into significant incidents without narrative continuity for the main character? Does the way the story is presented, without explanation or conclusions about certain events reflect the way a person Jason's age thinks about his or her life? Is there a 'tying up of loose ends' at the end of the novel?

• The novel has been called a bildungsroman, one that is semi-autobiographical for David Mitchell. Does Jason Taylor really grow up by the end of the work? What types of characterization reveal his changes? Is it a unique form of acquiring maturity, or a story that has been told before? How do your own experiences in Middle School reflect the kind of dynamics that do not change across continents and time periods?

• Discuss some of the narrative elements critically. Should we be skeptical about the inclusion of the story about the Gypsy camp and Jason's mentoring by French intellectual Eva van Crommelynck? How much do these events serve as expedient catalysts for Jason's characterization, rather than believable events in the life of a tween in rural England?

• What, for Mitchell, characterizes 'growing up'? Is it the loss of innocence – Jason kissing the girl? Is it acquiring active integrity in the face of outside pressure – Jason destroying his tormentor's calculator? Is it loosing the naivety associated with family – the divorce of Jason's parents? Or are these three strands somehow connected?

• Jason destroys his poems during the bonfire his dad organizes. What is the function of the poetry in Jason's characterization? It leads him to Eva van Crommelynck, but does Mitchell try to convince us that Jason is an 'artist'? Discuss the ideas of the 'duty' and 'ethics' of being true to developing a personal talent, in the face of popular resistance.

• Mitchell brings up major socio-economic themes when contrasting Jason with his classmates and when exploring Jason's father's dismissal from work. How much of Black Swan Green is a commentary on England in the early 1980s? The extensive discussion of the Falklands War and Jason's reaction to it also has political undertones. Do the ways Jason reacts to the propaganda of the British government perhaps serve as metaphor of the way the entire British population felt about the war?

• Discuss the linguistic style of the book. How well does Mitchell's use of local dialect work in creating the atmosphere of Black Swan Green? Is it believable?

David Foster Wallace: Oblivion

LA CLUSTER THOUGHTS:

• Analyze the consistency of style between the stories: the purposeful lack of dialog, the different ways of emphasizing words in sentences. Is David Foster Wallace successful in creating narrators through narrative structure, and the constant addition of non sequitur?
• Discuss the story “Incarnations of Burned Children,” which in only three pages allows paints an exceedingly painful picture. How does this qualify for a short story – what makes it more than a story about a burned child?
• Does DFW try to shock us more than teach us something? Compared his writing to Chuck Palahniuk, Johnathan Safron Foer, and other contemporary male writers who have distinct writing styles; how much of it is shtick?
• Discuss the story “The Soul is not a Smithy” which united comic book imagery with the powerful characterization of a middle school class: discussed the uniting of themes through the intertwining of seemingly disparate stories; what was DFW trying to tell us in the story?
• Discuss the title of the collection and the story “Oblivion” - was DFW just giving up on story development when he ended this particular piece? Discuss the evenness of the collection and the quality of the structure of the collection. Which stories can qualify as favorites and why?
  

Gunter Grass: The Tin Drum

LA CLUSTER THOUGHTS:

• What is the reason for eliciting our general distrust and dislike for the narrator? Is there a redeeming foil in the novel? Which character can be identified as 'moral' or righteous'?
  
• What is the problem with calling the novel 'magical realism'?
• What are the connections between the historical placement of the novel and the relationships between characters that might symbolize Grass's opinion about the period?
• What are the projections for the novel based on the first section? How does this initial character development affect the rest of the novel?
• What is the link between the brutality of the novel and its artistry? Does Grass 'portray the history of post-WWII Germany' through direct metaphor or through eliciting the emotional landscape of the time period?
• Recently, Grass's participation in the Hitler Youth has brought much attention to the morality of his work. How does this historical moral confusion reflect he actual ethical paradigm presented in the novel?

Hermann Hesse: The Glass Bead Game

LA CLUSTER THOUGHTS:

• Does a gender, Marxist, or Post-colonial reading, still allow for Hesse's book to retain value?

• Division of genders in the book. Given the time the book was written, have to move beyond clear bias and ask whether the life in Castilia is primarily meant to be asexual. That is, is the important part that the sexes are separated or particularly that women are absent from the establishment?

• What are the values of Castilia actually? Although Knecht spends much of his school time defending the institution, only the pro-worldly arguments are clearly stated. How much of this is a factor of the type of audience the book is fictionally addressing and how much is it Hesse's assumption that the actual audience does not need the explanation? Is a Castilia possible and can it be morally defended?

• The presentation of Duty in the novel. How is duty determined? Why are the characters completely accepting of the hierarchy of Castilia? Is Knecht's character a foil to the other observers of their Castilian duties, or is he the emblematic example? Can we make moral judgments about his behavior justified by 'duty'?

• The characterization of Knecht by both the narrator and implicitly by Hesse. What makes Knecht different from the other representatives of Castilia? What aspects of his personality does the narrator miss through his implicit awe? How do the 'three lives' and poetry written by Knecht and attached to the end of the novel reveal more about who he is than the reports of the narrator?

• What Hesse seems to be saying about biography and presentation of a subject in a purportedly objective narrative? Issues with the writing style of the novel, its apparent dryness, etc.

W. Somerset Maugham: The Razor's Edge

LA CLUSTER THOUGHTS:

• Allusions to Christian mysticism. What are Maugham's attitudes toward philosophy and his mode of conveying it to the reader?

• The characterization (or lack thereof) in the novel. Which character is the most sympathetic? Is there a difference between the character which we find personally most positive and which the narrator would like us to most admire? This seems related to Larry's book... who is truly “successful” out of the characters? Is Larry the main character?

• Is Maugham is criticizing the upper classes? Where does he/the narrator see himself in relation to this class? How is the role of “author” represented in the society Maugham describes? Is there a figure in the novel most emblematic of what the “upper class” is? What it should be?

• The religion present in the book: What is Maugham's commentary on Catholicism? How does he pin it against other faiths? How is religion it related to materialism?

• The creation of dichotomies in the book: contemplation v. productivity; wealth v. “tough joints”; gentility v. uncouthness... among others. Is the division Maugham sets out black/white? How does he mix the divisions in his characters?

• Maugham's philosophizing on passion, love, sex, and aesthetic beauty. How is each presented in context of the human relations in the novel? Where is the possibility of mixing?

• Maugham's presentation of “national character.” Does he always remain “the Briton describing Americans,” or does he get at a truer definition of the difference between old and new worlds? Can he be excused for his portrayal of the "Far East" based on the type of culture he lived in?

• The narrator: how much of Maugham is in the Maugham in the novel? Can we/are we meant to trust him? What is his sexual orientation? Does this matter?

• The presentation of the self-discovery archetype and other archetypes present in the book. Is Maugham rooting for a certain type of worthwhile life?