MEC 11/3

Hi all--sorry I was slow to get this post up. I've been scrambling trying to get ready for this trip to the conference.

Anyway, remember that there are no tutorials this week and that you are meeting for the full class period on Thursday to watch a film. Here are some questions to consider as you watch:

Both Cross Creek and Ecology of a Cracker Childhood are set in the south, and in many ways, the "ecology" of the stories are similar.  Last week we talked about leaving your childhood home to get a better view of it. However, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlins has gone to what is to her a very foreign environment.

1) How did coming from a different place shape her understanding of the new place?

2) What are some of the things she learned about it? (Think of the things she found that were "different.")

3) What things would she use to describe the "vernacular" of the place? (e.g., the courtliness of the people; the attitude toward strangers)

4) In what ways does the place itself become a character in the story? In other words, would this be a different story in a different settings? If so, then how does this place affect the telling of this story?

I didn't write down the prompts we came up with last week, and now I've forgotten one fo them. Here is the one I remember:

1) Look back on your childhood place and tell us about it. What is its "vernacular"?

2) What is your first awareness of nature as "other"? That is, when did you first recognize that it was something that existed outside the more immediate world of your house or family?

Y'all be good while I'm gone. Don't take any wooden nickels!