A Staggering Wallflower

Contemporary Fiction. Tue, Apr 8th, 2008 at 3:38 pm

Themes: Discussion, Heartbreaking Work, The Perks of Being, Video

Eh, that was a stretch.

First Hour

Finish chapter six of A Heartbreaking Work. If you’re interested, here’s the Eggers video from TED.com:

Third Hour

We’ll be reading through page 73 for tomorrow. To continue the discussion of a book’s impact on how we frame our language, write a journal entry in the style of Charlie. The topic does not matter, though I would suggest pulling from the previous week’s events. It is not necessary to think of something exciting. In fact, a banal event night be best. Look at it through the eyes of a "Wallflower." How did the people act? Why? Try to "understand" as Charlie does. He’s grappling with some very new concepts, and has been thrust into a world that he does not always understand. How is he affected by this?

Charlie mentions reading To Kill a Mockingbird. He is about the same age as Scout, and they are put into similar situations. Are their reactions similar? Why? Maybe this quote by Shunryu Suzuki can shed some light:

In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.