April 2024 – RMST Blog Avery

Hurrah! We have done it! We have conquered the second semester, I don’t know about you all but I’m reeeally ready for this semester to be over! What I’m finding a little harder to let go of, however, is this class!
If you happen to be reading this post from a future Jon Beasley-Murray I encourage you to not be frightened by the different course structure! It looks inttimidating at first but you get the hang of it quick! If you are someone who likes self-direction and consistency I think you will enjoy this class structure. One of my favourite aspects of this class were the in-person discussions. I felt that so much was revealed to me through not only our professor and TA’s but by my classmates. I was actually awe-struck sometimes at the things my classmates picked up on from novels! I felt very greatful to be in a class with such passionate, observant, adn smart classmates that made me really think outside of some of my original thoughts.

My favourite book was “Death with Interruptions” by Saramago! I just thought it was so interesting to think about what would happen if we couldn’t die and the reprecutions that I didn’t even think of that the novel explored. I loved it even more as it got more fiction like with the death character and her experience. I just enjoyed it the most and the lecture that was done by the TA’s was very fun! I wish I had been able to read “The book of Chameleons” by Aqualusa. From the blog posts I skimmed over that week and the small bits mentions during our discussions it sounded like a funny yet interesting read! I mean a book told through the eyes of a chameleon/lizard/reptile (??) making comments on memory, identity, and life…who wouldn’t want to read that!
Currently I am reading the ACOTAR series (I’m on book 2 out of 5) which someone from this class suggested in a comment on my first blog post!

Well thats it for me! As I took this course as literature requirement I dont think I will be doing many more courses like this, though I saw this course as a “requirement” before I ended up really enjoying it and I loved the fact I got to be exposed to so many books that I wouldn’t have read otherwise!

My question to you is: What is on your TBR (To be read) list? Or are you planning to never look at a book until school starts again? Any summer book suggestions for me?

I hope you all have rejuvinating summer and are proud of yourself for getting through this year! See ya 🙂

At last, we have arrived at our last book of the semester (summer is near we can do it!) and what a way to end! ‘Faces in the Crowd’ by Valeria Luiselli was an interesting read, it had many layers of story-telling that was only made (semi) clear to me after I had watch the lecture and gotten it explained to me. This was definetly not an easy read! It was confusing and in my mind I compared it to mens 3-in-1 shampoo.

I talked to some people about this book and their interpretation, it seems that there are many interpretations, rightfully so, as I feel this book leaves many loose ends just because of the style its written in. I don’t want to say it doesn’t flow because it does in it’s own way, just not a traditional storytelling way, and I think this leaves out bits and pieces. Anyways the way I initially interoperated it was a women writing a story about her young past (simply put) but I really though about the part where the boy asks what his mothers (our author) book is about to which she responds that its about ghosts.
“It’s a ghost story.
Is it frightening?
No, but it’s a bit sad.
Why? Because the ghosts are dead?
No, they’re not dead.
Then they’re not very ghosty.
No, they’re not ghosts.”
(pg 13-14)
The way I interoperated it was she is writing about people she once knew, their ghost aka the memories she has of those people, the shell of those people, and that maybe she was writing about the ghost of her own past self. I thought about this symbolism of ghost and what it could mean and the first thing I thought of was ghostwriters. A ghostwriter is a person who is hired to write for another person who is credited as an author. This got me thinking a lot about our story, how our narrator goes un-named, and how it seems like the author Gilberto Owen is writing a similar story to our authors life. This then brings up questions of who could be a ghost writer for who? Who is being hidden? Maybe it has something to do with her husband as from my understanding in the lecture he was first written in as a writer as well? There are so many writers and stories within this story that thinking about this long and hard kind of makes my head spin, so I’d love to know what you all think!

Question for you: Who or what do you think she is referring to when she talks of writing about ghosts?

RMST Blog Avery

Monthly Archives: April 2024

And the RMST 202 students lived happily ever after!

We’ve been tricked! “Faces in the Crowd” a 3-in-1 Book