Readings for 359 by Whitney French

Doing the Right Thing: Leanne Samosake Simpson

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-09-12 01:32:21 UTC

Does this work relate to your aesthetic tastes? Why or why not? Does this impact the way you read the work?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-09-12 01:32:37 UTC

What surprised me about this text and/or what felt predictable in this work?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-09-12 01:32:52 UTC

Even on the second read...

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-09-12 01:34:52 UTC

This is the area to write down if there's something that we felt went over our heads. Maybe a peer can clarify...or we can be lost together

What is the historical, sociological, cultural context of this work? What might I be missing?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-09-12 01:35:50 UTC

What do people think about the opening line?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-09-12 01:37:29 UTC

Two Part Invention: Doretta Lau

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-09-12 03:51:47 UTC

"I look him in the eye in a way that makes him feel unsafe, and wrong. Threatened. Like he has met his match. I do not look away."

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-09-12 03:57:45 UTC

What were your first impressions of Lau's narrator? Did it change at all throughout the text?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-09-18 00:19:41 UTC

What was surprising about the story? Were there moments that were disinteresting or predictable?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-09-18 00:21:36 UTC

What did you think about the ending of Lau's narrative? What impact did it have on your reading of the text?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-09-18 00:40:45 UTC

If you were to guess, how do you think this short story should be categorized? (literary fiction, speculative, romance, biographical, other?)

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-09-18 00:49:25 UTC

"I open the menu and order a hamburger and fries because it is something familiar and I am in an unfamiliar situation"

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-09-18 01:43:05 UTC

Even on the second read...

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-09-18 01:44:03 UTC

This is the area to write down if there's something that we felt went over our heads. Maybe a peer can clarify...or we can be lost together

The Swimmer by John Cheever

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-09-25 21:37:00 UTC

How is repetition in the first paragraph of "The Swimmer" effecting the reading of the story?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-09-26 20:04:12 UTC

What were your general thoughts of the ending of the story?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-09-26 20:04:53 UTC

This was written in 1964. Are there elements of the story that reflect the time it was written?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-09-26 20:05:08 UTC

The narrator in "The Swimmer" uses the words like “might” “seemed to” and how does this colour the story as a whole?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-09-26 20:05:38 UTC

Even on the second read...

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-09-26 20:06:23 UTC

This is the area to write down if there's something that we felt went over our heads. Maybe a peer can clarify...or we can be lost together

“Was his memory failing or had he so disciplined it in the repression of unpleasant facts that he had damaged his sense of the truth?”

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-09-26 20:19:58 UTC

Resident Alien by K-Ming Chang

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-10-13 19:12:29 UTC

The opening sentence has a semi-colon and multiple clauses. How did you experience the first paragraph of the story?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-10-13 19:19:45 UTC

Which of the 25 widows stood out to you the most? What did the widow tell about the protagonist/ the writer?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-10-13 19:21:01 UTC

Have you read a story in vignettes before? How did the short sections impact your reading of the story?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-10-13 19:21:53 UTC

Chang is blending surrealism in these piece. By slanting reality, how does this impact your reading of the themes explored?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-10-13 19:28:58 UTC

"Moonwatching was the process by which you wooed a woman down from her night perch"

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-10-13 19:33:17 UTC

Even on the second read...

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-10-13 19:34:52 UTC

This is the area to write down if there's something that we felt went over our heads. Maybe a peer can clarify...or we can be lost together

Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-10-19 03:54:39 UTC

What are your first impressions of the protagonist's brother? Are these impressions altered after meeting Sonny in the story?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-10-19 03:55:40 UTC

What are some of the themes and/or emotions that surfaced while reading the final performance?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-10-19 03:56:50 UTC

How does Baldwin weave jazz into the language of the story? What do you notice musically?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-10-19 03:57:48 UTC

What elements of craft do you witness in "Sonny's Blues" throughout the final scene?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-10-19 03:59:48 UTC

This story was written in 1957 when racial segregation was still active in America. It is also set in Harlem. How does the setting impact the narrative?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-10-19 04:02:27 UTC

“One boy was whistling a tune, at once very complicated and very simple, it seemed to be pouring out of him as though he were a bird, and it sounded very cool and moving through all that harsh, bright air, only just holding its own through all those other sounds”

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-10-19 04:07:52 UTC

Even on the second read

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-10-19 04:08:45 UTC

This is the area to write down if there's something that we felt went over our heads. Maybe a peer can clarify...or we can be lost together

"Everyone is looking at something a child can't see"

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-10-19 04:56:48 UTC

Nalo Hopkinson's "Whimper"

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-10-26 03:56:49 UTC

The story, unlike the others, offer us a brief author's note. What do you make of the idea knowing what inspired the piece before reading it?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-10-26 03:59:16 UTC

How does Hopkinson's treatment of the end of the story (especially on a sentence level) impact the conclusion of the story?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-10-26 04:00:32 UTC

Even if you've never heard of the myth of the leggobeast, what do you think they are? What would yours look like?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-10-26 04:01:21 UTC

Do you find Hopkinson's language and/or use of dialect immersive or isolating as a reader? Another experience?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-10-26 04:02:35 UTC

What do you think our protagonist is up to? How are they implicated in the events of the narrative?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-10-26 04:03:07 UTC

"Soon they had a third row of people clinging to the people clinging to the five. They all starfished out on the surface of the water."

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-10-26 04:08:24 UTC

Even on the second read

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-10-26 04:10:19 UTC

This is the area to write down if there's something we felt went over our heads. Maybe a peer can clarify...or we can be lost together

T.S. Elliot poem "The Hollow Men"

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-10-27 20:50:22 UTC

The final stanza is inspired by Hopkinson's prompt about choosing the "bang" or choosing the "whimper"

Ursula K Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omela"

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-11-02 02:55:56 UTC

Is this an immoral society? In which ways is it different than our own? In which ways is it the same?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-11-02 02:58:19 UTC

What role does art and the artist play in the world of Omelas?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-11-02 02:58:46 UTC

What is the narrative structure LeGuin using in the piece? How does that impact the moral dilemma of the piece at the end?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-11-02 02:59:34 UTC

How does the rhythm of Leguin's sentences shift as the subject matter shifts?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-11-02 03:00:32 UTC

Would you leave Omelas or would you stay? Would you do something different? Could you?

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-11-02 03:02:15 UTC

"Smiles, bells, parades, horses, bleh. If so, please add an orgy. If an orgy would help, don't hesitate."

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-11-02 03:07:08 UTC

"The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting."

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-11-02 03:08:36 UTC

Even on the second read...

whitneyfrenchwrites — 2025-11-02 03:12:01 UTC

This is the area to write down if there's something we felt went over our heads. Maybe a peer can clarify...or we can be lost together