Important info!

Dear students,

We won't have a class on Monday, April 1st.
I will see you again on Friday,  April 5th.

Two short-stories for our first reading club section:

Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield
Pru by Alice Munro

(A copy is already available in our building)

Conversation Clubs

The purpose of the clubs is primarily to generate conversation and so, incidentally, help people to improve their English.Some other clubs also can help people to learn more about different cultures.

In England in the city of Sheffield there's a group of students who act for refugees, which created a conversation club that besides helping to improove English considered that a logical extension of this, without compromising the ethos of the conversation clubs, was to run informal English classes as well, so that the refugees can communicate more easily and can feel more confident within a new culture.

March 22nd, Tasks for today

*Read this article, explore the hyperlinks and watch the video:
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/03/considering-the-future-of-reading-lessons-links-and-thought-experiments/

*Explore the blog to read and comment your classmates' posts.

*Look for information about reading clubs, their purposes, activities and policies and share what you consider relevant for us.

To read is to fly

For me, reading has always been a way to watch a movie without going to the movies, it's on of those ways you can have fun without moving from where you are. At the same time, writing is the art to make people fly, cry and laugh as if they were part of the story. To read is to give life a story, is to get lost in the plot and want to make it your own reality. I like to read because it shows me a whole place full of dimensions, ways of living, ways of thinking, is to live another life without leaving your own. 

review: The blind side of love

This is my review draft.

Sometimes, when I ask writers about their creative processes I can get answers from: “I saw a chair and made a story out of it” to “I was in a car and listened to a song and created a story about it” like Ingrid Diaz, the star behind “The blind side of love” a romantic light comedy packed with funny and exciting situations as well as familiar experiences that anyone can relate to. She has rewritten the novel to be published two times now. She couldn’t publish it before because of contract issues. The final version will be published officially in 2013. Also, she was the author of Alix & Valerie, her debut novel which was published in 2008. When asked about how she got the idea for TBSOL, Diaz laughs and says:

  “The idea came to me about four in the morning; back when I was in college...On the weekends we’d stay up all night watching movies and then go out to get food at weird hours... So, we were in the car, listening to the radio, and a song came on. ..That same week, I’d met a girl at school who was obsessed with that singer, and I started thinking how interesting it would be if this girl started chatting with the singer online and didn’t know it was her. The thought led me to wonder if one could build a love story on that premise...”

  Also, she explains that the idea stayed in her head and it slowly started to take shape. Over time, the concept of a singer meeting a fan online morphed into one of an actress meeting someone entirely by accident. She claims she sat down to start TBSOL about a year and a half after that.

Although she started writing a long time after she came with the idea, when she finished the book, her readers online told her they wanted more. They wanted a sequel. So, she started to upload a second version by chapters from time to time in LiveJournal while solving personal stuff. Then, people from all countries started to follow her uploads and she found herself thanking people when they confessed they would create an account just to read her. 

 “The first draft of TBSOL was under contract for publication about a week after I finished it. I was contacted by a popular publisher of lesbian fiction, who loved the book. I had an editor who sent me back a lot of notes. I began editing the book for publication, but the publisher closed down before my book was published. I was pretty disappointed. I decided to fix it a little at a time, and focus on my paranormal series, Rayne. Then, I started working as a professional blogger. For the next four years, I was busy and making decent money from my blogging and graphic design work. I abandoned Rayne, but always found myself going back to TBSOL. I felt guilty that people were still following the story and that I wasn't updating it very frequently, so I'd work on it from time to time. I knew people wanted more after version one because they told me. If my publishing contract hadn't fallen through back when it did, then TBSOL v1 would have been published, and there would be no version 2 or 3. So, it turned out to be a blessing.”

 But, does one endanger when wanting to rewrite something lots of people in the internet have read already? Well, challenges are what Ingrid Diaz wants to fight against when writing. TBSOL is filled with characters that deal with challenges and this is the message she tries to give us. In 2011, in an entry in her journal she says her biggest challenge has been figuring out the book all over again without disappointing her readers. She admits it was a daily struggle because their expectations were constantly affecting her creative process.  And she confesses:

 “I don’t write because I’m good at it, or because it comes easily to me. I don’t share what I’ve written because I think it’s so amazing and everyone should read it. I do it because it scares me. I do it because it’s difficult. I do it because I don’t want fear to stop me from doing what I love. And I don’t want fear to stop anyone else from doing what they love, or what they think they might love.” She writes to be brave to show others they are not alone and they can also be brave. Especially LGBTI people, because they can sometimes feel not relate to anyone that’s why she blogs and other things that are related to it.

 The blind side of love characters show the fear of being put out naked in the middle of the crowd and the fear to be judged for what you love and to be seen different from people who you care, the fear of being alone.

 Julianne Franqui one of the main characters in the novel is an actress who everybody knows and talks about, but only one person knows her, Adrian Cruz, her best friend. She is tired and feeling like she can relate to anybody. Until she sees the painting.

While she is in New York City she goes to Washington Square Park and sees a painting which shows a crowd gathered in circle looking at somebody and this person’s shadow is inside the circle but she is outside of it looking at other place. She feels identified and buys it. What she doesn't know is that this painting is going to be the path to fill in that emptiness she feels within her, that her head is soon going to be upside down.  

 Kris Milano, the artist of the painting is the other protagonist. She is a Puerto Rican who lives in New York City. She is twenty years old, studies visual arts and loves it. She has a boyfriend called Nathan but actually her parents are the ones who are in love with him, not Kris, so she is with him to please them. She does what her parents tell her to do, so she is always thinking about what her family would think about everything she wants to do. Kris personally thinks the actress; Julianne Franqui is a snob until she meets her. Although but she doesn’t know she know her, because they talk through internet. The only person that encourages Kris’ dream to make it as an artist is Leigh Radlin, her roommate and best friend. Leigh wants to be an actress and it’s principally who makes Kris’ life easier to live.

 One good day Julia Raye (Julianne’s real name) emails Kris to thank her for having painted the piece. They soon start talking to each other about how they feel and although they seem to relate to different stuff they start to get be friends. Also, soon they find themselves doing things they are advice to do by the other one. Reading, staying awake to watch the sunrise, go to museums and let the paintings fill their soul with the peace they lack. All of this without Julianne telling her, she is actually the actress. Julia tells her she is gay. Kris starts wondering how she is like; Leigh tells her she is blond, because the day she bought her the painting Leigh was in charge of their selling spot at the park. Julianne is offered a gay role in a movie; she thinks it through and decides to take it because it's filmed in New York where Kris lives. She and Nathan break up after that he tries her to have sex with him. Kris starts to be happier than usual, because of her friendship with Julianne but there Julianne realizes Kris hates the actress. The lie starts to get bigger. And at the end explodes. Kris gets angry with Julianne but forgives her. From that, there friendship change and soon this starts to become something else, they start to fall in love.

 During all this, we watch a series of secondary characters which seem to be there for a reason but aren’t less developed than the others. Diaz while talking about the design of her characters claimed that for her, secondary characters are as important as the main ones. And this, not being unnecessary for the story makes it, even more interesting, complex and complete.

When reading TBSOL for the first time, you found yourself so entangled in the plot, that you feel anything that you do before finishing are distractions and even then, you find yourself wanting to know more, as not wanting it to end.

 I think this occurs because unlike other novels I’ve read, I feel like the characters are alive and their lives have to continue. I feel that if I don’t read about them, they can’t live. This makes me read the story from the beginning and following this line I dare to compare TBSOL with J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Because, I feel like I would like to live in the world the characters live, to see what happens with their lives after the end of the book.

This feeling is what makes readers want to read a book over and over again. After all, stories aren’t stories if somebody doesn’t relive them while reading them.

 Diaz in an entry of her journal confesses she has no idea if TBSOL v3 will be as good as v1 or v2 or even better, or it will at list be successful among the critics.

 Not all books have this particularity and when they do, they speak for themselves as good literature. Diaz in an entry of her journal confesses she has no idea if TBSOL v3 will be as good as v1 or v2 or even better, or it will at list be successful among the critics. This also makes me admire the details and reasons her writing has. Over everything I admire her and this book, because it’s revolutionary and not only speaks for the life of LGTBI people but also for the author. She pushes away her fears when publishing her stuff and encourages others to do so.  

 “…What I do know is that pushing through fear is the hardest part of doing anything that forces you to put yourself out there. Creating is hard, but sharing what you’ve created is the true challenge. But that’s why it matters. That’s why we have to do it anyway.”

 This previous claim is as certain as anything. Personally, reading TBSOL made me push myself forward in my dream of being a writer. I pushed away the doubts and started writing. She made me write without the fear of doing it in the wrong way and found myself writing one day without these feelings. She made me go chase my dream by showing me that I would never know how it was going to be if I didn’t at list try.  That’s why this book, is so recommendable because it makes you laugh, it makes you cry and it makes you change your perspective on lots of things you see in your daily life but never pay attention to. It makes you do what you don’t feel capable of doing. It shows you that no matter if you have no wings; you can fly if you really want to.

Opening Paragraphs

Reviews, opening paragraphs

The Blind Side of Love

TBSOL can be described as a journey of passion, feelings and madness from the L.A. glamour to the shady streets of New York where an artist and a movie star will run into love and their lives will change completely.

Julianne, an A-class movie star, lives alone in a big house full of comfort but empty. She only has two friends because her lifestyle doesn’t let her go beyond that. She has a secret.

In the other side of the country Kris Milano lives with what she thinks is the most she can get in her life: friends, family and a boyfriend called Nathan, who is a jerk. They will run into each other and they will become friends.

Easy Money

Easy money is a novel that combines many socio-economic elements that are related to a youngster’s life. For Richard Steel money is what will allow him to have everything he wants and needs in his life.

Amy, el niño de las estrellas

Amy, el niño de las estrellas tells the story of a little boy who has this meeting with another boy who apparently comes from the stars. This is where the adventures and drama begin and it is almost immediately that the reader can get lost inside the story. It is not necessary to be a kid for falling in love with the characters and the story itself.

The Red Book

It is almost a taboo for a psychologist to experience by himself his own theory. That would be a subjective point of view, not valid to be a scientific master piece. That is why “The Red Book” has caused controversial opinions and his author, Carl Jung, has been labeled as an animist or religious man, rather than as one of the most important founders of psychoanalysis.

La casa de los espíritus

A world full of fantasy and reality, paranormal abilities and good common sense, romantic relationships and politics. That is the setting of this contradictory yet so well-assembled novel. Allende, with extreme smoothness, manages to take the reader through almost every aspect of life. This, without being tiresome or confusing, which is remarkable.

The Night Circus

Magic tricks, unknown dimensions and talking animals are part of a normal day. Or are not they? In “The Night Circus” they are. Days just pass by but since you get into this circus they are not the same again.

Questionnaire-Susan Sontag

Interview to Susan Sontag by Eliana Caicedo motta

1º What  do you think are the differences between writing and rereading?
2º Why is importante to rewrite / reread?
3º What is writing?
4º What do you think about Woolf's assertion  :" the state of reading consist in the complete elimination of the ego"?
5º Wow reading includes writing?
6º Why do you think people stop reading when they became writers and how do you feel about it?

What is Reading for me?

Reading in general can be a pleasurable activity or in contrast can be boring and tiring. Everything is related with the genre and the subject I'm reading.
Reading in English is a possibility, it's a way out I find to imagine, to (re)create scenes and characters in my mind about what I'm seeing in paper, in a screen or in an image.
Reading is a skill that allow me to know new information, cultures, people, subjects,stories, routines, feelings, ideas and many differents visions and perspectives.
It's also an useful strategy to improve my grammar learning, reading comprehension, vocabulary and lexicon; to learn new expressions and a helpful tool to understand many things that happened around my.

In addition, Reading in French is one of the best activities I found to learn how to conjugate verbs, I learn a lot of vocabulary and verbal tenses that sometimes are better to learn using them in determinated contexts and not by mere explanations.
It is a wonderful
I enjoy very much reading in french because it takes me to a different level in writing, reading and pronunciation. I feel pleasure reading kind of novels ans storytelling books.

What is reading for me?

In Spanish

Reading in Spanish for me is a little bit like watching a beautiful picture or painting; but a different one each time. It is always inspiring, but in diverse ways. Sometimes it happens to be relaxing and so it inspires me to calm down when I'm stressed out; others it is nerve-wracking and it makes me want to write something to let the emotions go out; and some other times it is simply amusing, and this occasions I feel like talking to a friend or something more interactive; however, it never stops being inspiring... Like a good painting.  

In English

Reading in English for me is more like a didactic video game. I know it does not sounds very amusing, but it is: It is mainly a challenge, because of the unknown words and structures -like when you play the video game you like, but you can't level up. It is extremely fun because I feel at the same time the contradiction of  understand better the overall than in Spanish and because I love English -like when you know you can understand better the video game than your actual life, even if you still can't level up. And finally, I learn so much (vocabulary, structures, culture) that it ends up being like one of those didactic video games for little kids. 

In French

Reading in French is very stressful and confusing. My French level is not so good so I do not comprehend a lot of what the texts means, but also when I read, I need to write something most of the times; when I do not comprehend so many things, there is not much inspiration that can comes from it... And it is specially frustrating when I know there are so many great readings in French and I cannot comprehend them yet. So, for all of this, it has been like playing chess... It is very interesting, I would love to do it properly, but I feel frustrated because I don't know how; although I will learn.

What is reading for me?

In Spanish

In Spanish, reading is for me to play a movie in my head throgh the words, a movie  you don't know what the end is going to be, so I keep on going and I don't want to stop till I konow what's next and the thing I like the most about playing this movie it's that nobody else can watch it the way I do.


In English

For me, reading in English is to play a puzzle, because as long as I move on I put all the pieces together, sometimes in the wrong way so I have to remove a piece and try a different one-that is, to reorganise my ideas-, and in the end display a whole picture in my head, a picture that might be abstract, totally different than the writer's thought.

What is reading for me?

Readin in Spanish is...
A way to get out of the daily stress; is the plain for my free-time week and vacations. If the reading is made appropiate it could be a tool to improve the syntactic problems.  

Reading in English is...
To discover an unknown culture, to learn a bunch of new vocabulary, to get into someone else's mind. It is for me a door to a far away place, but the arrived is not always pleased because in some cases I feel stupid when I just cannot understand what the author is trying to tell me.

Reading in French is...
A huge challenge because since I was a child I hated French. However, it is not too bad, it is also a source for learnig French language and their way of telling/writing things.

Angelica and Ingrid

Reading definition

 Reading is the compound of a skill and a vocation which allows you to immaginate and play through the words the author's thoughts in your head, just like a movie, after which you feel the desire to express your ideas for others to play them along their minds, then you make sure your thoughts are clear by checking through rereading and that's what makes reading and writing to be bound.

Narda and Ingrid (Interview)

Interview to Susan Sontag:

1.What do you think about this phrase Isben inscribed on the flyleaf of one of his books: "To write is to sit in judgement on oneself"?
2.When you were telling us about rewriting, you seemed to be complaining. Did you mean you don't enjoy writing?
3.And what about people who cannot reread? I mean blind people, do you think they cannot feel a writer pleasure?
4.What do you think is the difference between reading and writing?

Decoding and the Jabberwocky's Song by Sebastian Wren

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/404/

Alejandra, Carolina and Cristine

Interview to Susan Sontag 

1. Why do you write 
2. What do you like best, reading or writing?
3. What do you inspire on when you write?
4. Susan, how do you define your own style?
5. You’re a very polemic writer, How do you react to the different opinions people have about you?
6. What do you do in order to create such great short stories, essays and novels?
7. And finally, what is the part you enjoy the most when writing? 

Definition of Reading

Reading is for us to go back and check what has been written for judging, but it is to go deeper in a narration and get bound to it, this is something that is developed and allows you to wear the autor shoes and feel the same pleasure that he or she felt when writing.

Interview to Susan Sontag - Angélica and Juliana

1. You mention that for you, reading is a normal activity while writing is such an odd thing to do, so what is the relationship between reading and writing?
2 You said that writing is intimidating, then what is the pleasurable part of writing?
3. Why do you find it torment when reading?
4. Do you prefer writing about yourself or about others and why?
5. What is the difference between reading and writing?