For the past week, our class has been diving into our second read of The American Dream. I can't say that this process was easy...since my class in particular LOVES to nit pick at the smallest of details. I'm not saying that this is a bad thing, since it definitely helps me along with noticing things that I never would've deciphered myself, but I'm just noticing that it takes about three class periods just for my class to get through about seven pages of reading.
Anyway, I guess I could say that so far, I've been pretty intrigued with the different ideas and theories that have been formed of the passages. For example, somebody in my class pointed out the repetitive letters within a section of the reading to be taken as a sexual reference. Speaking of details...kudos to him for noticing this because never in a million years would I have gotten that message just from a few letters. But back to what I was saying...the message behind the play is vague enough so that anybody who reads it can form a different perspective as to what Albee is really trying to get at and...that really is one of the reasons why I love literature. I actually enjoy sitting there during class and writing down the interesting ideas that everybody comes up with in my book. It's not just for the satisfaction of having scribbles all over my book that make me feel all cool, but also just the fact that I can read what I've written down and actually understand the section better. Annotating is a pretty nifty thing I must say.
So other than dedicating an entire week of in depth discussion and annotating, our class really hasn't done anything else. It's alright though, because I got to learn how to become a better annotator AND started noticing the littlest of details that I wouldn't have given a crap about a week ago. So yay.
My class doesn't sound nearly as detail oriented as your class is, but after reading your response, I wish we were. It sounds like your class is coming up with ideas that my class doesn't even get close to. The idea about repetitive letters is a very intriguing one. I also agree with your point about every person's different perspective, and I also enjoy listening to all the different ideas that people come up with. I'm trying to think of some more feedback for this post... it would have been cool to hear some of your own ideas about The American Dream. Also, I meant to write this in an earlier post, but I like the name of your blog!
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