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Friday, February 7, 2020
Native Son
Native Son
Adult fiction
"That next book was Native Son. As Wright later recalled, when
he started to write the story of Bigger Thomas, the basic story flowed
almost without an effort. In a real sense, he had been studying
Bigger Thomas all of his life. Wright's essential Bigger Thomas was
not so much a particular character caught in a specific episode of
criminal activity as a crime waiting to happen; all the elements to
create Biggers' mentality were historically in place in America,
stocked by the criminal racial system that was America..."
If you want to understand racial injustice in America, you need
to study history. Richard Wright's Native Son (set, by the way, in
Chicago, not a rural Southern backwater) gives a lot of insight into
racial relations in a time (the 1930s) when Jim Crow and Black Laws
were the law of the land and every space from neighborhoods to schools
and public accomodations was separate and very far from equal.
Bigger Thomas, Wright's protagonist, is to be his family's route
to avoid starvation. Taking a job driving for a wealthy family, the
Daltons, means that his mother, sister, and brother won't be taken off
relief and his siblings will be able to stay in school. His first
night he is told to drive the Dalton daughter, Mary, to a lecture at
the University. Mary, however, has another destination in mind.
After they pick up Mary's communist boyfriend, Jan, they go to a
restaurant.
At the restaurant Mary and Jan insist that Bigger do the
unthinkable--eat with them. Recall that even drinking from a "White"
water fountain could get a Black in big trouble. And relationships
between Black men and White women were strictly regulated. To keep
his job he has to obey Daltons which requires him to put himself in a
very dangerous position.
Throughout the evening Mary becomes very drunk. Back at her
home she is too intoxicated to climb the stairs to her room. Carrying
her there he is almost caught. When that danger is past he realizes
that he has accidentally suffocated her. A Black man killing a White
woman--if he's found guilty he'll pay the ultimate penalty.
On a personal note, I was disturbed by the similarities between the
time portrayed in the book and now. The most obvious is the fervor
with which the police officers tear the Black community apart in the
search for Mary's killer, disrupting the lives and livlihoods of many
innocent people. That's still going on. There was, for example, a
White guy who shot his pregnant wife and gave himself a superficial
wound, claiming a Black man had done the shooting. Black
neighborhoods in and around Boston were torn apart with many innocent
men taken down to the station. And how about all the White cops who
shoot unarmed Black people?
Another similarity is inequality in housing. In a very dramatic
beginning to the story Bigger fights a huge rat that has entered his
family's dilapidated one room apartment. The man who hires Bigger is
the slumlord to whom his family pays rent. The properties he rents to
Blacks are not only much worse, but more expensive than those he rents
to Whites. These days the blighted areas most impacted by
environmental pollutants (lead paint, toxin dumping) are inhabited by
blacks. And there's plenty more to get angry about.
A great big shout out goes out to the writers who expose the
systematic roots of racism and its evils.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Adult fiction
"That next book was Native Son. As Wright later recalled, when
he started to write the story of Bigger Thomas, the basic story flowed
almost without an effort. In a real sense, he had been studying
Bigger Thomas all of his life. Wright's essential Bigger Thomas was
not so much a particular character caught in a specific episode of
criminal activity as a crime waiting to happen; all the elements to
create Biggers' mentality were historically in place in America,
stocked by the criminal racial system that was America..."
If you want to understand racial injustice in America, you need
to study history. Richard Wright's Native Son (set, by the way, in
Chicago, not a rural Southern backwater) gives a lot of insight into
racial relations in a time (the 1930s) when Jim Crow and Black Laws
were the law of the land and every space from neighborhoods to schools
and public accomodations was separate and very far from equal.
Bigger Thomas, Wright's protagonist, is to be his family's route
to avoid starvation. Taking a job driving for a wealthy family, the
Daltons, means that his mother, sister, and brother won't be taken off
relief and his siblings will be able to stay in school. His first
night he is told to drive the Dalton daughter, Mary, to a lecture at
the University. Mary, however, has another destination in mind.
After they pick up Mary's communist boyfriend, Jan, they go to a
restaurant.
At the restaurant Mary and Jan insist that Bigger do the
unthinkable--eat with them. Recall that even drinking from a "White"
water fountain could get a Black in big trouble. And relationships
between Black men and White women were strictly regulated. To keep
his job he has to obey Daltons which requires him to put himself in a
very dangerous position.
Throughout the evening Mary becomes very drunk. Back at her
home she is too intoxicated to climb the stairs to her room. Carrying
her there he is almost caught. When that danger is past he realizes
that he has accidentally suffocated her. A Black man killing a White
woman--if he's found guilty he'll pay the ultimate penalty.
On a personal note, I was disturbed by the similarities between the
time portrayed in the book and now. The most obvious is the fervor
with which the police officers tear the Black community apart in the
search for Mary's killer, disrupting the lives and livlihoods of many
innocent people. That's still going on. There was, for example, a
White guy who shot his pregnant wife and gave himself a superficial
wound, claiming a Black man had done the shooting. Black
neighborhoods in and around Boston were torn apart with many innocent
men taken down to the station. And how about all the White cops who
shoot unarmed Black people?
Another similarity is inequality in housing. In a very dramatic
beginning to the story Bigger fights a huge rat that has entered his
family's dilapidated one room apartment. The man who hires Bigger is
the slumlord to whom his family pays rent. The properties he rents to
Blacks are not only much worse, but more expensive than those he rents
to Whites. These days the blighted areas most impacted by
environmental pollutants (lead paint, toxin dumping) are inhabited by
blacks. And there's plenty more to get angry about.
A great big shout out goes out to the writers who expose the
systematic roots of racism and its evils.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Thursday, February 6, 2020
You May Now Kill The Bride
You May Now Kill The Bride
YA fiction
"Holding Rebecca like a baby, Peter lowered his face to hers and
kissed her lips. And as they kissed, he walked to the edge of the
mesa. He held the kiss for another few seconds. Then he raised her
in his arms and tossed her over the side of the cliff."
That's not what you expect a groom who has just exchanged vows
to do to his beloved during the wedding...
...unless both are characters in an R. L. Stine novel. Stine
and I go way back. His Goosebumps books were favorites of my
daughters, especially the choose your own ending ones. I spent so
many lovely rainy days and spooky evenings reading them out loud.
Until one day I was reading Stephen King out loud, assuming, in view
of Amber and Katie's increased sophistication in horror fare, I was
parting company with Stine. Only I was so wrong. Recently I
discovered that the man has moved on up to YA series. You May Now
Kill The Bride, part of the Return to Fear Street series, will be a
hit with his target demographics and well beyond.
The year is 1923. The wealthy Fear family has its dark secrets,
secrets centered in a musty, dark attic room equipped with black
candles and ancient spell books passed down through generations along
with a potent curse based on a bloody feud with another family.
Ruth-Ann has grown up in the shadow of her beautiful, vivacious
sister, Rebecca, the obvious family favorite. Finally she has a
boyfriend, Peter, who, unlike the rest of the world, doesn't make the
feel lesser than...
...until the night he doesn't show up for a date and she
discovers him slow dancing with Rebecca in a club.
"Peter was mine. I worked so hard to get him. I had to use so
much magic, cast so many frightening spells to make him mine.
Now Rebecca waltzes off with him. She thinks she's entitled to
everything."
The next day Rebecca and Peter announce their engagement at the
Fear family supper. Rather than side with jilted Ruth-Ann, her father
tells her to control herself. When Ruth-Ann declares that she will
make sure that the wedding never takes place a scornful Rebecca asks
her if she's going to cast a spell.
You'd better believe it!
The decades pass. Now another Fear wedding is about to take
place on the same mesa. A wedding where a younger sister resents the
bride. A younger sister who knows magic and isn't afraid to practice
it.
Is history about to repeat itself?
You need to read the book to see.
And I need to find more of Stine's YA offerings. Us grad
students just gotta have fun, you know.
On a purrrsonal note, I've been having an excellent week so far,
mostly school and work and homework and loving my Tobago kitty. It's
been snowing all day today. There's supposed to be more tomorrow. A
big topic of conversation in Wells Dining Commons was whether Friday
classes will be cancelled. I have to go to Bangor--2 buses each way--
no matter how the weather turns out. I have to get the ingredients
for Eugene's Valentines Day molasses cake and chocolate chip cookies.
I also have to get cereal high in iron because I ran out today and I'm
scheduled to donate blood next week. While I'm in that area I might
as well check out Goodwill for the first time since renovations--see
if there are any cat shirts, leggings, pajamas... that need to be
liberated. I'll tell you if I accomplish all my missions and find any
good stuff.
Right now Eugene is sleeping, resting up to go plow. Tobago is
napping in her loft. And the white stuff keeps coming down.
A great big shout out goes out to all who will be plowing to enable us
to drive and walk in safety, sweet little Tobago, and Joey who was a
wonderful blizzard companion in the 16 years he was with me.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
YA fiction
"Holding Rebecca like a baby, Peter lowered his face to hers and
kissed her lips. And as they kissed, he walked to the edge of the
mesa. He held the kiss for another few seconds. Then he raised her
in his arms and tossed her over the side of the cliff."
That's not what you expect a groom who has just exchanged vows
to do to his beloved during the wedding...
...unless both are characters in an R. L. Stine novel. Stine
and I go way back. His Goosebumps books were favorites of my
daughters, especially the choose your own ending ones. I spent so
many lovely rainy days and spooky evenings reading them out loud.
Until one day I was reading Stephen King out loud, assuming, in view
of Amber and Katie's increased sophistication in horror fare, I was
parting company with Stine. Only I was so wrong. Recently I
discovered that the man has moved on up to YA series. You May Now
Kill The Bride, part of the Return to Fear Street series, will be a
hit with his target demographics and well beyond.
The year is 1923. The wealthy Fear family has its dark secrets,
secrets centered in a musty, dark attic room equipped with black
candles and ancient spell books passed down through generations along
with a potent curse based on a bloody feud with another family.
Ruth-Ann has grown up in the shadow of her beautiful, vivacious
sister, Rebecca, the obvious family favorite. Finally she has a
boyfriend, Peter, who, unlike the rest of the world, doesn't make the
feel lesser than...
...until the night he doesn't show up for a date and she
discovers him slow dancing with Rebecca in a club.
"Peter was mine. I worked so hard to get him. I had to use so
much magic, cast so many frightening spells to make him mine.
Now Rebecca waltzes off with him. She thinks she's entitled to
everything."
The next day Rebecca and Peter announce their engagement at the
Fear family supper. Rather than side with jilted Ruth-Ann, her father
tells her to control herself. When Ruth-Ann declares that she will
make sure that the wedding never takes place a scornful Rebecca asks
her if she's going to cast a spell.
You'd better believe it!
The decades pass. Now another Fear wedding is about to take
place on the same mesa. A wedding where a younger sister resents the
bride. A younger sister who knows magic and isn't afraid to practice
it.
Is history about to repeat itself?
You need to read the book to see.
And I need to find more of Stine's YA offerings. Us grad
students just gotta have fun, you know.
On a purrrsonal note, I've been having an excellent week so far,
mostly school and work and homework and loving my Tobago kitty. It's
been snowing all day today. There's supposed to be more tomorrow. A
big topic of conversation in Wells Dining Commons was whether Friday
classes will be cancelled. I have to go to Bangor--2 buses each way--
no matter how the weather turns out. I have to get the ingredients
for Eugene's Valentines Day molasses cake and chocolate chip cookies.
I also have to get cereal high in iron because I ran out today and I'm
scheduled to donate blood next week. While I'm in that area I might
as well check out Goodwill for the first time since renovations--see
if there are any cat shirts, leggings, pajamas... that need to be
liberated. I'll tell you if I accomplish all my missions and find any
good stuff.
Right now Eugene is sleeping, resting up to go plow. Tobago is
napping in her loft. And the white stuff keeps coming down.
A great big shout out goes out to all who will be plowing to enable us
to drive and walk in safety, sweet little Tobago, and Joey who was a
wonderful blizzard companion in the 16 years he was with me.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
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only several weeks?
Try this complex strategy and get the negative SEO effect to come much
faster and last a lot longer than the traditional Negative strategies
More info here
https://www.creative-digital.co/product/derank-seo-service/
Unsubscribe:
in the footer of our site
Saturday, February 1, 2020
Black Cat
Black Cat
Picture book
Imagine my surprise when, shelf reading in the juvenile wing of
the the Orono Public Library, I saw a black cat with gold eyes,
looking just like my Tobago, staring at me from the cover of
Christopher Myers' Black Cat! Talk about serindipity! Myers is the
very talented son of his deservedly famous writer father, Walter Dean
Myers. And at UMaine we've just raised the flag to commence the
celebration of Black History Month.
"black cat, black cat,
cousin to the concrete,
creeping down our city streets
where will you live? where will we meet?"
Through lyric poetry and vivid collage art, readers get to
follow a city cat through Harlem and Brooklyn streets: listening to
music filtering through project windows, hunting rodents in subways,
tightrope walking on chain link fences...the epitome of beauty, grace,
resilience, totally at ease on its turf. And in the end the author
decides that its home is anywhere it chooses to roam.
What Myers doesn't mention is the danger that lurks at every
turn for even the most street savvy cats. Feral cats live much
shorter, more brutalized lives than felines with homes. And there are
so many of them.
Black Cat can enable families to examine this important issue.
How do the homeless cats in your locale get by? What dangers do they
face? What, if anything, is being done to help them?
Families can do a lot to help homeless cats: raising money for
shelters, volunteering at them, fostering young or skittish cats so
they can become more adoptable...
...and if the situation is right, adopting their own family
furever friend.
On a purrrsonal note, Tobago keeps adapting beautifully to her new
home. She's been with Eugene and me a little over a month. She seems
to be a very happy little girl.
A great big shout out goes out to the people who work so hard to match
cats with families and homes.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Picture book
Imagine my surprise when, shelf reading in the juvenile wing of
the the Orono Public Library, I saw a black cat with gold eyes,
looking just like my Tobago, staring at me from the cover of
Christopher Myers' Black Cat! Talk about serindipity! Myers is the
very talented son of his deservedly famous writer father, Walter Dean
Myers. And at UMaine we've just raised the flag to commence the
celebration of Black History Month.
"black cat, black cat,
cousin to the concrete,
creeping down our city streets
where will you live? where will we meet?"
Through lyric poetry and vivid collage art, readers get to
follow a city cat through Harlem and Brooklyn streets: listening to
music filtering through project windows, hunting rodents in subways,
tightrope walking on chain link fences...the epitome of beauty, grace,
resilience, totally at ease on its turf. And in the end the author
decides that its home is anywhere it chooses to roam.
What Myers doesn't mention is the danger that lurks at every
turn for even the most street savvy cats. Feral cats live much
shorter, more brutalized lives than felines with homes. And there are
so many of them.
Black Cat can enable families to examine this important issue.
How do the homeless cats in your locale get by? What dangers do they
face? What, if anything, is being done to help them?
Families can do a lot to help homeless cats: raising money for
shelters, volunteering at them, fostering young or skittish cats so
they can become more adoptable...
...and if the situation is right, adopting their own family
furever friend.
On a purrrsonal note, Tobago keeps adapting beautifully to her new
home. She's been with Eugene and me a little over a month. She seems
to be a very happy little girl.
A great big shout out goes out to the people who work so hard to match
cats with families and homes.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Hair Love
Hair Love
Picture book
When my daughters were little I did most of the traditional
mothering tasks. Hair care, however, was one of the things I was
totally inept at. When Amber and Katie's long hair snarled it was
their construction worker dad who carefully combed the tangles out.
So I was delighted to Matthew A. Cherry's Hair Love.
"My name is Zuri, and I have hair that has a mind of its own.
It kinks, coils, and curls each way."
Zuri's father has lots of ways of styling her hair that help her
feel beautiful. Beaded braids transform her into a princess. With
puffs she's a superhero.
One very special day Zuri wants a perfect do. Dad's first
attempts leave something to be desired. But he isn't giving up. And
that makes the book a fine celebration of the love of a father for his
beloved daughter.
Besides the human members, the family includes Rocky, a grey cat
with a very expressive face and body language whom parents and
children will enjoying finding on the different pages. Rocky kneading
Zuri early in the morning with a thought bubble encircling a can of
cat food will surely provoke knowing laughter.
Hair Love is a sweet and gentle book for families to share.
On a purrrsonal note, Friday I had two great surprises. The first was
pancakes made any way you like in the commuter lounge. I had mine
with blueberries and butterscotch chips and topped them with real
maple syrup and whipped cream. They were devine. They were better
than Dennys. What a way to start a day!
The other--you're going to have to wait on that one. But, let me tell
you, it is MAJOR! When I read the email I screamed out loud right in
the periodicals room of UMaine's Fogler Library...
A great big shout out goes out to our commuter lounge pancake making
crew. You add so much to our days with your culinary wizardry!
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Picture book
When my daughters were little I did most of the traditional
mothering tasks. Hair care, however, was one of the things I was
totally inept at. When Amber and Katie's long hair snarled it was
their construction worker dad who carefully combed the tangles out.
So I was delighted to Matthew A. Cherry's Hair Love.
"My name is Zuri, and I have hair that has a mind of its own.
It kinks, coils, and curls each way."
Zuri's father has lots of ways of styling her hair that help her
feel beautiful. Beaded braids transform her into a princess. With
puffs she's a superhero.
One very special day Zuri wants a perfect do. Dad's first
attempts leave something to be desired. But he isn't giving up. And
that makes the book a fine celebration of the love of a father for his
beloved daughter.
Besides the human members, the family includes Rocky, a grey cat
with a very expressive face and body language whom parents and
children will enjoying finding on the different pages. Rocky kneading
Zuri early in the morning with a thought bubble encircling a can of
cat food will surely provoke knowing laughter.
Hair Love is a sweet and gentle book for families to share.
On a purrrsonal note, Friday I had two great surprises. The first was
pancakes made any way you like in the commuter lounge. I had mine
with blueberries and butterscotch chips and topped them with real
maple syrup and whipped cream. They were devine. They were better
than Dennys. What a way to start a day!
The other--you're going to have to wait on that one. But, let me tell
you, it is MAJOR! When I read the email I screamed out loud right in
the periodicals room of UMaine's Fogler Library...
A great big shout out goes out to our commuter lounge pancake making
crew. You add so much to our days with your culinary wizardry!
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
The House On Mango Street
The House On Mango Street
YA/adult fiction
"At school they say my name funny as if the syllables were made
of tin and hurt the roof of your mouth. But in Spanish my name is
made out of a softer something, like silver, not quite as thick as my
sister's name--Magdalena--which is uglier than mine. Magdalena who at
least can come home and be Nenny. But I am always Esperenza."
This paragraph from Sandra Cisneros' The House On Mango Street,
a classic from 1984, really resonated with me and hooked me on the
book. For humans names are so much more than identifiers. So many
nuances from genderedness and ethnicity to flowing or clunky sounds
(not to mention the potential for peer cruelty and teasing some carry)
evoke emotions around them. Lots of adults seem to have forgotten
this. Reading that sentence, I knew that Cisneros would put into
words aspects of life that children feel deeply and adults often
conveniently forget.
The House On Mango Street captures the frustration and awareness
of powerlessness that many children feel. Not surprisingly, Esperenza
wants a new name. She also wants a house. Much of her life involved
frequent moves from apartment to apartment. Her parents kept
promising a real house. But the one they have finally managed to
acquire is too small and rundown.
"I knew then I had to have a house. A real house. One I would
point to. But this isn't it. For the time being, Mama says.
Temporary, says Papa. But I know how these things go."
The book is composed of succinct vignettes that convey the
innocence and precariousness, the joys and sorrows, of a childhood in
a low income ethnic neighborhood in a time when kids still played
outside, free of constant adult supervision. Three friends chip in to
buy a used bike to share. A new car being driven around the
neighborhood, giving gleeful children rides, become the object of a
police chase. Donated high heel shoes make girls feel beautiful until
they attract the wrong kind of attention. Preteens jumping rope
debate the meaning of woman hips.
You don't want to miss out on this evocative coming of age
story, as meaningful today as it was when it hit the bookstores
decades ago.
On a purrrsonal note, Wednesday I was doing a little studying in the
multicultural lounge. People were setting up for an activity--making
vision boards. I wasn't going to make one. I had to get to work on
time. But they had really cool pictures and quotes. So I made an
awesome one which I will put in the studio for inspiration. It was
such a refreshing opportunity to have an unexpected chance to be
creative. And I got to work on time. When I got home I called Adam
to wish him a happy birthday. My baby is 23. :-)
A great big shout out goes out to Jeff and his crew who keep the
multicultural center a great place to learn about diversity,
celebrate, study, and just chill.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
YA/adult fiction
"At school they say my name funny as if the syllables were made
of tin and hurt the roof of your mouth. But in Spanish my name is
made out of a softer something, like silver, not quite as thick as my
sister's name--Magdalena--which is uglier than mine. Magdalena who at
least can come home and be Nenny. But I am always Esperenza."
This paragraph from Sandra Cisneros' The House On Mango Street,
a classic from 1984, really resonated with me and hooked me on the
book. For humans names are so much more than identifiers. So many
nuances from genderedness and ethnicity to flowing or clunky sounds
(not to mention the potential for peer cruelty and teasing some carry)
evoke emotions around them. Lots of adults seem to have forgotten
this. Reading that sentence, I knew that Cisneros would put into
words aspects of life that children feel deeply and adults often
conveniently forget.
The House On Mango Street captures the frustration and awareness
of powerlessness that many children feel. Not surprisingly, Esperenza
wants a new name. She also wants a house. Much of her life involved
frequent moves from apartment to apartment. Her parents kept
promising a real house. But the one they have finally managed to
acquire is too small and rundown.
"I knew then I had to have a house. A real house. One I would
point to. But this isn't it. For the time being, Mama says.
Temporary, says Papa. But I know how these things go."
The book is composed of succinct vignettes that convey the
innocence and precariousness, the joys and sorrows, of a childhood in
a low income ethnic neighborhood in a time when kids still played
outside, free of constant adult supervision. Three friends chip in to
buy a used bike to share. A new car being driven around the
neighborhood, giving gleeful children rides, become the object of a
police chase. Donated high heel shoes make girls feel beautiful until
they attract the wrong kind of attention. Preteens jumping rope
debate the meaning of woman hips.
You don't want to miss out on this evocative coming of age
story, as meaningful today as it was when it hit the bookstores
decades ago.
On a purrrsonal note, Wednesday I was doing a little studying in the
multicultural lounge. People were setting up for an activity--making
vision boards. I wasn't going to make one. I had to get to work on
time. But they had really cool pictures and quotes. So I made an
awesome one which I will put in the studio for inspiration. It was
such a refreshing opportunity to have an unexpected chance to be
creative. And I got to work on time. When I got home I called Adam
to wish him a happy birthday. My baby is 23. :-)
A great big shout out goes out to Jeff and his crew who keep the
multicultural center a great place to learn about diversity,
celebrate, study, and just chill.
jules hathaway
Sent from my iPod
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