Elli is on my lap and I think Jackie went upstairs, so perfect time to write. I was reading over a few of my blog entries from the last few years. The post I made at 750words.com yesterday I used as a blog post after some revision. It's good. In fact, some of my other posts are written well also. My writing is kind of bouncy and meandering and fun to read, even a little entertaining. And in no way is it all positive rosy depictions of life. Not at all. But I think I address reality, somewhat. I don't however post on my blog when I'm depressed. If I did that, the flavor would be totally not fun, if I got any words at all on the page. "Nothing to report." Maybe that's all I'd be able to spit out. Fun stuff. Very Eeyore-esque.
I started my blog in January of 2014, when I went back to college at the freeing age of 44, as an undergrad junior at Indiana University, where my husband was assistant professor. I was pretty convinced he would get tenure, we would stay in Bloomington, and our son would attend IU also. I thought if I was attending, he would be able to see me study, kind of modeling the behaviors of a college student. And I did. I studied and read and wrote fiction and poetry and research papers. A lot of my work at that time just ended up taking me away from my kids. But I was convinced the modeling would end up being a good idea. Then, of course, Steve did not get tenure and we had one year to prepare to move. Which is a long time, ample time to perform all the tasks of relocation well, but too long if you're not really into saying goodbyes. Steve moved in January of last year, and the kids and I followed in July. We have now lived here for 6 months.
What's that? Do I miss college? Do I want to go back? Good questions. I miss some of it: the structure provided by the attendance of classes and the bus schedules, the topics of creative writing and world literature were really fun to dive into. What I don't miss is sitting with all these 19 year olds at the age of 44. If I saw a class buddy in the hall at another time in the week, a very limited "Hi" was sometimes pushing it. I wasn't there to be social, though class time was the most socializing I had done aside from church in years. I loved it. But not one of my professors was older than me. I'm not being age-ist, but as sometimes happens with age, we think we've learned a few things over the years, and someone who has not been there yet cannot possibly see things the same way. It was an odd combination, not being as knowledgeable as my professors---or even as many other students!---but having experienced more of LIFE. Very weird. I loved the tasks, the studying, the writing assignments, the books. God, I love the books.
So, recently, I went into a college bookstore, and browsed the shelves, recognizing, "Oh, I remember taking English 101..." and passing quickly by the accounting and nursing sections. I was drawn to some textbooks, some lit books and lots of others, but settled on buying 6 books to bring home and study in my own time. What a great idea! I can spend a little bit of money on books at a discount college book store, and map out my own course of study for them in whatever topic I choose! Which actually is really close to my previous approaches to attending 5 different schools altogether. I never cared about the degree I would receive at the end. I was loving the learning. Best times in my life. Could it be possible to get a good education of a topic by choosing to read and maybe give myself some writing and research assignments? And, if I liked a topic so so much, I could find more resources to study in 201, 301, and 401 advanced classes. Of course, all this studying would enrich my life incredibly, or so I assume, but would it help me get related employment in the case of my husband no longer bringing in the bacon? That would be a "no." Unless I could impress someone in an interview, displaying all the knowledge I retained and was able to retrieve appropriately at any given time. HA! I guess it's possible.
10 February 2016
09 February 2016
Zora Neale Hurston
Hello.
Today I had book club where we discussed Zora Neale Hurston, previously Zora Neal Lee Hurston, but she dropped the Lee and added an E to Neal, probably due to her 3 marriages. She was from Georgia, and moved down here to Seminole county/Maitland area. I can't remember the name of the "ville" but there's a week of devotion to this author in the form of a festival, where the University of Central Florida and local libraries work together to show the movie, have people read the books, have a walking tour of (Eatonville! That's it.) and other fun literary stuff. I guess the movie has Halle Berry playing Janie in Their Eyes Were Fixed on God, which was her most popular novel and the movie's story, and also most like Zora's own life. Amy, the librarian who leads my writing group, and also who led our book club today, praises Hurston as her most favorite black female writer---even more than Toni Morrison! Can you even believe that?? (Big intake of breath.) Anyway, the book is great. It's written, as most of Hurston's books, in a southern black dialect that some at-that-time modern black people would have loved to see disappear, right along with the reality that was slavery. The story illustrates the very real culture and events depicting life for blacks at the end of slavery. This town, that is still here in the county that I happen to have just moved to 6 months ago, is declared as the first all-black city, with a black mayor, etc, in the history of the country. People from all the southern states moved down here to live in it. Hurston's character, Janie, comes from Georgia, while Hurston's real-life people claim to come from Alabama. The story basically goes along through Janie's 3 marriages. Everything about Janie is daring for that time period. The book, and her other works, did not do well before she died in 1960. It took time for the non-feminist world to catch up to her. University classes regularly read this book as a window into Florida and southern and black history. No coincidence then that this author is praised around here in February every year, as the shortest month of the year is declared Black History Month. There's a bone for "their community." Proof that racism is dead.
The book club discussion frequently went back to the "dialect" and the "black accent" and some readers absolutely could not read past page one, and chose to download the audio book onto their devices. Whether the club members were from the south or not, most agreed that hearing the words as they are written is much easier to understand than reading them off of a page. A few times, I found myself wondering if the discussion were of a southern white woman of that time period, and that white woman was married controversially 3 times, if the discussion would go where it went. I don't think any of these women are intentionally racist, but I could see their, and my own, white privilege flag waving proudly. What I mean to say is, if a black woman walked into the room, or had stood at the doorway and considered entering, she would have heard what I sensed, and upon noticing the black woman, as light or as dark as you please, all of us would have back-pedaled a little and felt the need to explain their previous spoken sentences.
There was an interesting mix of feminist, girl-power praise for the book, which, like I said, was way ahead of it's time, black, brown, yellow or white, off-set by quite an opposite view. Some thought the book created fewer options for women and situations that boxed Janie in too much. It was written in a time when officially blacks and whites should be able to go to school together and pee in the same toilets. But unofficially, women were not legally allowed to vote, denied ownership of property and definitely living a stranger in a man's world. One could argue that at that time no women living in America or anywhere else could imagine the benefits I enjoy today as a woman. Not in their wildest dreams.
Or maybe I am wrong. Maybe Flora Neale Hurston dreamed of a time when a woman could start and own a business, decide to get married or to not, decide whether or not she would have children, or make all kinds of decisions about her body freely, work the same business and education jobs as any man, and travel and spend her money as she damn well wished. Perhaps she did imagine a world where the framed boxes white men put everything and everyone into would fall and all people could decide for themselves how they wanted to live their lives. I wonder if she had the capacity to imagine every person valuing every other kind of person as a human being and respected and loved them as equal, and that respect and love translated into laws and governments of equality. Hmm.
zorafestival.org
Today I had book club where we discussed Zora Neale Hurston, previously Zora Neal Lee Hurston, but she dropped the Lee and added an E to Neal, probably due to her 3 marriages. She was from Georgia, and moved down here to Seminole county/Maitland area. I can't remember the name of the "ville" but there's a week of devotion to this author in the form of a festival, where the University of Central Florida and local libraries work together to show the movie, have people read the books, have a walking tour of (Eatonville! That's it.) and other fun literary stuff. I guess the movie has Halle Berry playing Janie in Their Eyes Were Fixed on God, which was her most popular novel and the movie's story, and also most like Zora's own life. Amy, the librarian who leads my writing group, and also who led our book club today, praises Hurston as her most favorite black female writer---even more than Toni Morrison! Can you even believe that?? (Big intake of breath.) Anyway, the book is great. It's written, as most of Hurston's books, in a southern black dialect that some at-that-time modern black people would have loved to see disappear, right along with the reality that was slavery. The story illustrates the very real culture and events depicting life for blacks at the end of slavery. This town, that is still here in the county that I happen to have just moved to 6 months ago, is declared as the first all-black city, with a black mayor, etc, in the history of the country. People from all the southern states moved down here to live in it. Hurston's character, Janie, comes from Georgia, while Hurston's real-life people claim to come from Alabama. The story basically goes along through Janie's 3 marriages. Everything about Janie is daring for that time period. The book, and her other works, did not do well before she died in 1960. It took time for the non-feminist world to catch up to her. University classes regularly read this book as a window into Florida and southern and black history. No coincidence then that this author is praised around here in February every year, as the shortest month of the year is declared Black History Month. There's a bone for "their community." Proof that racism is dead.
The book club discussion frequently went back to the "dialect" and the "black accent" and some readers absolutely could not read past page one, and chose to download the audio book onto their devices. Whether the club members were from the south or not, most agreed that hearing the words as they are written is much easier to understand than reading them off of a page. A few times, I found myself wondering if the discussion were of a southern white woman of that time period, and that white woman was married controversially 3 times, if the discussion would go where it went. I don't think any of these women are intentionally racist, but I could see their, and my own, white privilege flag waving proudly. What I mean to say is, if a black woman walked into the room, or had stood at the doorway and considered entering, she would have heard what I sensed, and upon noticing the black woman, as light or as dark as you please, all of us would have back-pedaled a little and felt the need to explain their previous spoken sentences.
There was an interesting mix of feminist, girl-power praise for the book, which, like I said, was way ahead of it's time, black, brown, yellow or white, off-set by quite an opposite view. Some thought the book created fewer options for women and situations that boxed Janie in too much. It was written in a time when officially blacks and whites should be able to go to school together and pee in the same toilets. But unofficially, women were not legally allowed to vote, denied ownership of property and definitely living a stranger in a man's world. One could argue that at that time no women living in America or anywhere else could imagine the benefits I enjoy today as a woman. Not in their wildest dreams.
Or maybe I am wrong. Maybe Flora Neale Hurston dreamed of a time when a woman could start and own a business, decide to get married or to not, decide whether or not she would have children, or make all kinds of decisions about her body freely, work the same business and education jobs as any man, and travel and spend her money as she damn well wished. Perhaps she did imagine a world where the framed boxes white men put everything and everyone into would fall and all people could decide for themselves how they wanted to live their lives. I wonder if she had the capacity to imagine every person valuing every other kind of person as a human being and respected and loved them as equal, and that respect and love translated into laws and governments of equality. Hmm.
zorafestival.org
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)