Back to basics.

[discountsatori]

BINFICS: a convenient acronym for my Books I Never Finished In College Series. This series encompasses more books than I'd like, seeing as college fell into a time in my life that found me spending my waking hours feeling sorry for myself* and not recognizing that I wasn't living up to my hard-wired ideals about the books and authors that English

Comments

[blairly]

This is sort of on topic and sort of not. I have an upstairs neighbor, . She was born in New York City, and raised in the Catholic Worker movement. Dorothy Day was her godmother, and she spend most of her childhood on Worker farms. Talking to her is like reading a history book, and one of my favorite ancedotes she's ever given me was the story about when Allen Ginsburg came out to one of the farms and wouldn't work, and that she thought he was a weirdo.

[blairly]

hmm. screwed up my tag. tuscendi

[metaphile]

My English major BINFICS most definitely outnumbers yours. I remember being so very wise and taking many lit classes simultaneously, and when I bought books I would have around nine to eleven per class and the cashiers at the bookstore would laugh at me. They were all studying biology or economics which simply required one hefty book, but for me this was not the case.

Anyway, I had an intro English class with a new professor who changed his section from ENG 211 to ENG 211: Narratives of Urban Black America at his own discretion. I read "Native Son" and thoroughly enjoyed it, wrote my final paper on it and even followed it up by reading a lot of review and lit analysis on it. So my experience has only been positive, and I am a total sucker for Bigger Thomas. So I recommend it, but then again my class environment really contributed to my enjoyment.

[discountsatori]

I'm excited about revisiting Native Son. It's going to be like reading a totally new book for me -- I didn't even remember the main character's name until you mentioned it in your comment. The class I (nearly) read it for was taught by a professor who, though very well-known and widely published, tended to stick to surface-level discussions in his undergrad classes. I think, for Native Son, we just recounted plot points. Yawn.

Oh yes... the nine to eleven books per class was a reality for me, too. I would fill a shopping basket with novels at the beginning of the semester. Crazy.

[lizzabette]

I met a guy who met Keroauc. Namely, Russel Banks, short story writer and film writer extraordinaire.

He met Keroauc in the last two years of Keroauc's life. Apparently even by then, Jack was having a hard time. He was not a people person. He never wanted fame, and yet he somehow became a "voice of a generation," a title he dreaded rather than coveted. I guess, according to Banks, Keroauc had a hard time living up to everyone's expectations that he was a party boy and a drifter --- because even though he was to an extent, the hype and the hyperbole around him and his most famous book just ate away at him in ways he wasn't able to understand.

Banks said it was one of the saddest experiences of his life, meeting this iconic figure who was so lost.

[sailalias]

I think the BINFICS is brilliant. My problem is, I can't even remember the books I was supposed to read but didn't. Tons of Shakespeare and For Whom the Bell Tolls are the only things that come to mind. Pathetic.

[katbemused]

I find myself feeling that way about a lot of things that brought me comfort in my days of self-loathing. It's so interesting how we are able to, years later, look back and think "Grow up!" You wouldn't think a person could change that much over such a small amount of time, but alas, we do.

[discountsatori]

I know! It's really only been a few years since then, and already I can look back and wish I could revise so much about that time in my life. Whenever I read my old journal entries, I just sort of shake my head at some of the ways I spent my time.