The (Last) Performance...

I really enjoyed a number of the pieces that we were assigned to read...definitely more than I expected. The short stories/excerpts in the anthology were entertaining for the most part. I enjoyed reading A Streetcar Named Desire, and I feel like I appreciated it more once I wrote the first paper on it. We discussed the play in class and looked at some of Tennessee Williams' influences, and I feel like it really helped to understand the storyline much more. I could begin to make connections between characters and plot. I also liked reading Sula: probably more for Toni Morrison's writing than the story; And out of the poetry, I liked James Dickey more than the others, for example The Shark's Parlor... because I fish a bit back home and I could relate to the experience. Overall, I liked the books and short stories that we read, I don't think I would add or replace any of them, especially since they tend to reflect different styles, influences, and topics.

I didn't really enjoy Atonement too much, or some of the other poetry pieces. Atonement I just didn't appreciate too much, not sure why though, I guess because I don't really care for those types of love and despair stories...too me it was too much like a soap opera, maybe just not as cheap. The book could definitely be left out, it would also allow more time for the other books that we had to read. I feel like we could have spent more time on the others and not hurried through them just to add in Atonement. As for the other poetry, it just wasn't interesting to me...nor could I understand some of it. I think it's important to have a number of pieces of poetry, but they might be swapped out with some other contemporary stuff by Billy Collins or someone like that...if it meets the criteria for the class of course.

And that's my two cents...