In Response to "This Blessed House" by Jhumpa Lahiri

In this story, a young Indian couple move into a new house.  As they go about unpacking, cleaning, and fixing small things, the wife, Twinkle, discovers many Christian "menageries" throughout the house.  She finds it very interesting and wishes to display them on the mantle.  The husband, Sanjeev, despises all of the things that his wife finds and strongly and persistently claims that they are not Christian.  As the story progresses, they have a house warming party and the guests are intrigued by the story and join the hunt for more items.  They all search the attic where they find one last thing, a silver bust of Jesus.

What's interesting to me about this story is the obvious relationship between Sanjeev and Twinkle.  Twinkle is very carefree and happy all of the time where Sanjeev seems like a very organized and well put together person.  To me, Sanjeev does not respect his wife like he should.  Sure he shrugs of the items that Twinkle finds and loves, but more than that he's short with her, shows no interest in what she does, gets easily aggravated with her habits, and at one time in the story even regrets being with her.  When they have the party, all of the guys are impressed by Twinkle and seemed to indicate that Sanjeev is a lucky man, but that's just not what he thinks. To me that is another problem.  Sanjeev keeps these thoughts bottled up (other than saying they're not Christian) and constantly chews on them throughout the story.  He never tries talking with his wife.  They fail epically at communication.

Spoiler Alert!!!.....the end of the story is like crossing the finish line and not being overcome with the feeling of victory, or maybe it's better explained as already having crossed the finish line and not realizing it.  Either way, Sanjeev's and Twinkle's lives just carry on as is.  Lahiri seems to indicate that Sanjeev continues to keep these feelings bottled up and their relationship never changes.  Who knows though?  Another question I would like to raise is, “What is the meaning of all the Christian menageries placed throughout the house?”  Were they unintentionally left by previous owners?  Or were they intentionally left?  What role are these items supposed to play in the couple's lives?  These questions are meant to be chewed on, and possibly even meant for you to write your own ending to the story.

A Variety of Literature

After having read "Why Read Literature" and "Darkness, Questions, Poetry and Spiritual Hope" by Paul T. Corrigan and "Reading for Transformation..." by Francis X. McAloon, I found it hard to find a topic to write about seeing that all of these pieces are very different, but also very much relate.  So for this blog, I believe I will just write about all three.

Professor Corrigan relates reading literature to physical exercise in "Why Read Literature."  Both are "fundamental aspects of daily life" and "requires discipline and perseverance."  Many people find it difficult to stay committed to physical exercise and staying healthy as well as many find it difficult to stay mentally healthy by reading literature.  Little do those people know, reading literature will probably come easier to them than they think.  Professor Corrigan suggests that everyone loves a good story whether it is about sports, romance, mystery, different types of poetry, ect.  Anyone who reads because they are interested is reading literature.  They just may not realize it's literature.  Through "discipline" and "perseverance," one will find that reading literature becomes more interesting and meaningful and will find a deeper appreciation towards it.  By being disciplined and persevering through literature that may not even be pleasurable to read, one will find that their appreciation will increase even more.

In "Reading for Transformation..." McAloon claims that using poetry to pray can open us up spiritually to even more than what we can imagine.  He uses poetry to pray through a series of events he calls "lectio."  It is basically a process of meditating on the poetry and allowing it to come from his heart in the form of prayer.  Through this, he discovered an appreciation for poetry that he originally was uninterested in.  This reminds me of the statement, “What you get out of what you read is determined by how you read.”

In Corrigan's essay, "Darkness, Questions, Poetry, and Spiritual Hope," he talks about sitting with our questions from dark experiences as opposed to "finding" our "spouting" out answers.  We are merely humans and don't necessarily understand why the death of loved ones have to occur in the timing that they do.  We don't understand why catastrophes happen and put our hearts into depression.  These are questions that are hard to come to terms with.  I love what Corrigan says in the second paragraph of the essay:  "A mixture of optimism and answers is nice while it lasts, but in order to have a spiritual hope that is authentic and what will sustain us in the darkness, we must take an intimate account of suffering."  Christ suffered for us and tells us that we too will suffer for the cause of Christ.  It is in Him that we will find comfort and joy in times of darkness.

In Response to "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" by Raymond Carver

Raymond Carver is an interesting man, who lived an interesting life, who wrote an interesting short story called "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love."  There are two couples at a house drinking gin while having a conversation.  The main character, Nick, and his wife, Laura, seem to be ordinary people.  Their friends, Mel and Terri, argue constantly and have two different opinions about love, but nonetheless claim they know they love each other.  Mel and Terri are unarguably the most talkative, Nick and Laura just throwing in comments and asking questions from time to time.  Mel and Terri both have former spouses that have left only dark memories.  Mel gets aggravated when Terri claims that her former husband, Ed, loved her and that she will not be convinced otherwise.  Mel argues that a crazy man like Ed, who physically abused Terri, could not have loved her.  This was mentioned a few times throughout the story.  As the story progresses, the conversation seems to get less and less meaningful and weirder, in my opinion.  Mel starts to use profanity often.  This is an effect caused by drunkenness.  It seems that all four of the characters were drunk by the end of the story.

My thoughts on this story are still forming.  Of course, I had a few initial thoughts as I was reading it.  One of those thoughts was that Mel and Terri need to get their act together.  Either they love each other or they don't, but it seems to me the disrespect they had for one another indicated there was no true love in that relationship (of course this being my opinion).  I can picture that Nick and Laura give each other looks throughout the conversation as if to indicate that Mel and Terri are crazy.  I am also trying to figure out the moral of the story, if there even is one.  It would help me if I knew the purpose for which the story was written.  I believe that if all four of these characters gave their hearts to Christ, that they would find a love more real and more true than they have ever known.  After having found this love, then the couples could truly love their spouses.

Reading In a New Way: Actively

Reading a literature is a privilege, an opportunity to grow.  Reading literature, I would think, is the basic underlying backbone of education.   Professor Corrigan's essay "Active Reading of Literature" really broke down the basic rules for reading "actively" as opposed to "passively."  Active reading includes engaging in conversation with the author.  How does one do this?  By following the principles of active reading laid out in the essay.

Corrigan breaks active reading down into five categories:  preliminary reading, annotating the text, making note of familiar passages, commenting on characterizations, and making note of difficult passages.  Each of these categories is then broken down into more subcategories.  He explains, in detail, the importance of each.  Take annotating the text, for example.  I have just started doing this within the past few months.  By taking notes, writing down questions, noting of my own thoughts and experiences related to the text, I am able to understand the literature better.  Whether it be boring or exciting, I can now develop a deeper understand and appreciation for both the literature and the author.

"What you get out of what you read is determined by how you read."  This statement couldn't be truer.  If you would have told me this several months ago, I probably would have found a few reasons to argue against that statement, but now having put active reading into practice, I honestly get more out of what I read.  I am pretty much like anyone else on Earth:  good fiction stories capture my attention more than non-fiction.  Everyone loves a thriller novel, for some romantic, and for others mystery.  No one pays as much attention to the non-fiction section that seems to pour out endless facts.  As one matures as a reader, however, he/she comes to appreciate the non-fiction section.  I am currently working on it, and with each new book, I'm getting better.  Non-fiction books are very popular in college.  Active reading has helped me to get more out of these books so that I can perform better academically and so that my mind can grow.

My Literary Experiences

Growing up, I really never was much of a reader, but as I get older, I learn that I enjoy reading more and more.  I am also grasping the concept that reading is important and can change minds.  Literature has changed my mind, even through my childhood.  My parents occasionally read bedtime stories, but not so much as every night to put me to sleep.  I can remember my mom serving as my brother and mine's preschool teacher.  She would read us books and help us pronounce words so that we could be somewhat prepared going into kindergarten.  Also, I learned many Bible stories from my parents and Sunday school teachers growing up.

My most recent memories of literature include my English Composition II class last semester.  I read short stories, books, and essays.  I also continue to read the Bible daily, learning and growing in God's word.

The most significant literary text that I have read would be the Bible.  This book, I believe is the most important book anyone could read.  It teaches about the past, the present, the future, and how to live.  And it's much more than that.  It guides us through this life as we strive to know God more and to do His will for our lives.

I believe that Professor Corrigan's essay, "Literature Is a Thing You Do as Part of Life," is very thorough and meaningful.  It puts literature into a new context, more than just a word.  He describes it as a "thing you do."  Literature, he describes, is about engaging with words.  He also thoroughly laid out the plan for this course, which will be useful for us students to refer to throughout the semester.  I see this semester full of new and exciting things to come.