Team B reading questions. Responses of 250-300 words are due by 9PM on Monday 11/17 as an original post. Don’t forget a creative title for your post.
1. The reading for today is considerably darker in terms of plot: the fight with Bruce’s girlfriend, Joy’s premature birth, Cannie’s hysterectomy. How do these plot elements affect your appraisal of the book? Is it still a “beach” book? Is it escapist? Is it, as Weiner states in her introduction, “diverting, uplifting, and, above all, entertaining?” What precise adjectives would you use to describe its effects now that you’ve finished reading it?
2. Karl Kraus is not a household name, but Franzen’s analysis of the German writer says a lot about what Franzen finds valuable about reading and writing. What are these values, exactly? In other words, what do we (and what should we) get out of reading books, according to Franzen?
3. Examine the tone of Franzen and Weiner’s online essays and write your own internet rant. You might choose to write in defense of predictable endings, or in defense of pretension. Or you might choose an entirely different topic – the world is your oyster. But your post must be polemical.