I have been really enjoying the discussions of Ceremony in the last two weeks. The book is so fascinating and complicated, and I love how there are so many different interpretations of something as seemingly insignificant as the color yellow. Actually, this novel is sort of turning out to be a novel I really love. I love stories about stories, and things that explore the power of words and cultures. I also find it interesting to be reading this novel from the “white person” perspective, because I think the culture from which we’re approaching novels, this novel especially, probably alters our perceptions significantly. I doubt there’s really a way to try and see the novel from a Native American perspective. That being said, one question we haven’t asked in class is, “who do you think Silko is writing to?”
Annotations, however, I find unusually difficult in this novel because initially there are so many different interpretations of one word, that I can’t really put down one more definitive conclusion, as I could with, especially, The American Dream. In that play, I had a pretty firm idea of how I saw the text. In this one, I often have no idea what Silko is arguing, so this may turn out to be one of those fun ambiguity-filled no-answer situations like Passing or Wicked, or how Stephenie Meyer could even bring herself to write Twilight.
Hahaha. Hey Maya, this is Tia.
ReplyDeleteTheres no assignment to comment on your blog or anything (sometimes i just enjoy creeping on other people and reading what they think about AP Lit) but i found you last paragraph quiet amusing and i just has to write a response to it.
Firstly, nothing is set in stone when you write it down in a book. You'll often see in my annotations a sort of transformation from the beginning to the end because the ideas change, are added on to or completely discarded. What you end up having is one seriously long thought process about a story and thats the point of annotations, right?
If you're just looking for one definitive conclusion then you might overlook details that will point you another way. I find myself asking more questions than putting down annotations and thats a-okay. You need to be open to more than one interpretation, esp. since ambiguity is a writer's best friend.
And ahahahaha, Steph. Meyers. That woman.
Maya--now that I have access to blogs again, I'm going through and reading (belatedly) 3rd quarter blogs, for my own info (even though grades are already in, I still want to know what everyone is thinking and how everyone is doing!) I'm not writing a lot of comments, but I couldn't resist commenting on this post--your comment about Stephanie Meyer was hilarious =)
ReplyDeleteUh, yeah, I mean 2nd quarter, of course =)
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