READ THIS: PRESENTATIONS

PRESENTATIONS: please take these seriously: they are an important part of your participation in the class. Your job when you present is to lead the discussion on the reading for that day. You may bring in some research, but most of all, you should be very well-prepared with insights, interpretations, and questions about the reading at hand. You may want to begin by summarizing the progress of the plot represented by the excerpt assigned on that day. Then you should have passages picked out for the class to discuss. You may want to be ready, also, with the posts for the day (you can copy and paste them and print them out). The purpose of the presentation is to give more responsibility to the classmembers and de-center the discussion a little bit (although I will still chime in). Here are your assignments, mostly random. 1. Wed. 3/30 Small Things, 84-147, Eidia. 2. 4/4 Small Things, 148-225, Hannah. 3. 4/6 Small Things, ending, Anna. 4. 4/11 Ondaatje, Dan. 5. 4/13 Mukherjee, Michael. 6. 4/18 Poppies, 3-87, Karol. 7. 4/20 Poppies, 88-156, Jason. 8. 4/25 Poppies, 157-226, Joe. 9. 4/27, Poppies, 227-342, Will. 10. 5/2 Poppies, 343-446, Rachel. 11. 5/4 Poppies, finish, Jane.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Will - Naipaul - 2/7


6.  Salim's first sexual experience with Yvette is a moment of enlightenment.  Previously knowing only the pleasures of prostitues, he transforms into a "new self" (176) by having sex with a woman he actually cares about. By having sex with Yvette, Salim begins engaging with the world on more than just a surface level.  He begins engaging the world on a more abstract/spiritual level.  Salim sees Yvette not as a body he can buy, but as a person he must win.

Central to the moment is the shift of Salim's gaze.  He moves from the blind "self-regard" of brothel fantasies, to "a constant looking outward from myself" (175).  During the sex act he is continually looking at Yvette's body, "avoiding crushing the body with my own, avoiding that obliteration of sight and touch" (175).  The nakedness of Yvette's body takes on the aspect of a revealed truth, a "revelation of woman's form" (175).  Salim sees Yvette's body as perfect because he wishes to "win the possessor of that body."  If the exterior reveals the interior, then for Salim Yvette's perfect body reveals her perfect spirit.

Complicating matters is that as their sex continues it becomes "full of deliberate brutality" (176).  It is a prelude to a relationship that becomes disturbingly co-dependent as the book continues.
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