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Thursday, July 11, 2024
Book Discussion: While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence by Meg Kissinger
Would you recommend this book to another reader? Why or why not?
How does this book compare to different memoirs you have read in this genre?
Did you find the author’s writing style easy to read or hard to read? Why? How long did it take you to get into the book?
Who was your favorite character? What character did you identify with the most? Were there any characters that you disliked? Why?
Did any part of this book strike a particular emotion in you? Which part and what emotion did the book make you feel?
Did the book change your opinion about anything, or did you learn something new from it?
Did the direction of the book surprise you?
Were there any parts of the book that frustrated you?
Did you highlight or bookmark any passages from the book? Did you have a favorite quote or quotes? If so, share which and why?
How would you adapt this book into a movie? Who would you cast in the leading roles?
Were there any instances in which you felt the author was not being truthful? How did you react to these sections?
Thursday, May 11, 2023
Book Discussion: Big Swiss by Jen Beagin
A woman in upstate New York who works transcribing therapy sessions for a sex coach becomes infatuated with one of his clients, a repressed married woman from Switzerland who has a refreshing attitude towards trauma.
Have you ever been to Hudson, NY? How would you describe it? Similar or different from the author?
What does the beehive inside the house represent? Is there a metaphor buried there? (maggots at the heart of the hive)
In the beginning of the book we learn that Greta was diagnosed with Emotional Attachment Disorder by a therapist. (a behavioral disorder that effects the ability to form and maintain relationships.) In what ways does this manifest in her relationship with Big Swiss?
When speaking with OM about her trauma Big Swiss says on page 8 "I'm not attached to my suffering. I'm not attached to what happened to me. I don't believe it explains everything about me, because I haven't made it part of my identity. I'm a worker, not a wallflower. I would never call myself a "survivor" I'm just -not one of those trauma people." Is trauma something you think a person can ever get over? Does making trauma part of your identity hold you back or fuel you?
On page 79 Big Swiss says she accepts some responsibility for her attack because she went to his house on his own volition and ignored her instincts. Does society condition victims to think they were players in their own trauma? What are your thoughts on this?
On p. 247 Greta mentions Big Swiss might have something to teach her about living. To "eradicate self-pity and replace it with something productive." How do you think one can actually accomplish that?
Did you find OM an effective therapist?
Big Swiss was not able to orgasm for her whole life until the mid-point of the book. She describes masturbating to images of flowers. Is this just a metaphor or do you think there is something deeper there?
What do you think drew Big Swiss to Greta?
Throughout their affair what traits or behaviors do Greta and Big Swiss bring out in each other?
Was Greta obscuring her true identity from Big Swiss an ethical violation? How would you have handled it if you were Greta?
On page 216 at the dinner party with Luke Big Swiss says that the Swiss "like to keep each other in check. Americans could never handle that, because they're such infants, and so easily rattled. They can't ride the train without getting their feelings hurt. They can't walk down the street without being offended." Do you think this is true of Americans? If so why is that?
There are times that Greta seems to be hostile or antagonizing to Big Swiss. Where does that behavior come from? P. 232 Big Swiss tells her her tough girl routine is transparent.
What did you think of the ending?
Monday, February 7, 2011
New York State Learning Standards
Standard 1: Creating, Performing, and Participating in the Arts Students will actively engage in the processes that constitute creation and performance in the arts (dance, music, theatre, and visual arts) and participate in various roles in the arts.
Standard 2: Knowing and Using Arts Materials and Resources
Students will be knowledgeable about and make use of the materials and resources available for participation in the arts in various roles.
Standard 3: Responding to and Analyzing Works of Art
Students will respond critically to a variety of works in the arts, connecting the individual work to other works and to other aspects of human endeavor and thought.
Standard 4: Understanding the Cultural Contributions of the Arts
Students will develop an understanding of the personal and cultural forces that shape artistic communication and how the arts in turn shape the diverse cultures of past and present society.
Career Development and Occupational Studies
Standard 1: Career Development
Students will be knowledgeable about the world of work, explore career options, and relate personal skills, aptitudes, and abilities to future career decisions.
Standard 2: Integrated Learning
Students will demonstrate how academic knowledge and skills are applied in the workplace and other settings.
Standard 3a: Universal Foundation Skills
Students will demonstrate mastery of the foundation skills and competencies essential for success in the workplace.
Standard 3b: Career Majors
Students who choose a career major will acquire the careerspecific technical knowledge/skills necessary to progress toward gainful employment, career advancement, and success in postsecondary programs.
English Language Arts
Standard 1: Language for Information and Understanding Students will listen, speak, read, and write for information and understanding. As listeners and readers, students will collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral, written, and electronically produced texts. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language to acquire, interpret, apply, and transmit information.
Standard 2: Language for Literary Response and Expression
Students will read and listen to oral, written, and electronically produced texts and performances from American and world literature; relate texts and performances to their own lives; and develop an understanding of the diverse social, historical, and cultural dimensions the texts and performances represent. As speakers and writers, students will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language for self-expression and artistic creation.
Standard 3: Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation
Students will listen, speak, read, and write for critical analysis and evaluation. As listeners and readers, students will analyze experiences, ideas, information, and issues presented by others using a variety of established criteria. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language to present, from a variety of perspectives, their opinions and judgments on experiences, ideas, information and issues.
Standard 4: Language for Social Interaction
Students will listen, speak, read, and write for social interaction. Students will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language for effective social communication with a wide variety of people. As readers and listeners, they will use the social communications of others to enrich their understanding of people and their views.
Health, Physical Education, and Family and Consumer Science
Standard 1: Personal Health and Fitness
Students will have the necessary knowledge and skills to establish and maintain physical fitness, participate in physical activity, and maintain personal health.
Standard 2: A Safe and Healthy Environment
Students will acquire the knowledge and ability necessary to create and maintain a safe and healthy environment.
Standard 3: Resource Management
Students will understand and be able to manage their personal and community resources.
Languages Other Than English
Standard 1: Communication Skills
Students will be able to use a language other than English for communication.
Standard 2: Cultural Understanding
Students will develop cross-cultural skills and understandings.
Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education
Standard 1: Analysis, Inquiry, and Design
Students will use mathematical analysis, scientific inquiry, and engineering design, as appropriate, to pose questions, seek answers, and develop solutions.
Standard 2: Information Systems
Students will access, generate, process, and transfer information using appropriate technologies.
Standard 3: Mathematics (Revised 2005)
Students will understand the concepts of and become proficient with the skills of mathematics; communicate and reason mathematically; become problem solvers by using appropriate tools and strategies; through the integrated study of number sense and operations, algebra, geometry, measurement, and statistics and probability.
Standard 4: Science
Students will understand and apply scientific concepts, principles, and theories pertaining to the physical setting and living environment and recognize the historical development of ideas in science.
Standard 5: Technology
Students will apply technological knowledge and skills to design, construct, use, and evaluate products and systems to satisfy human and environmental needs.
Standard 6: Interconnectedness: Common Themes
Students will understand the relationships and common themes that connect mathematics, science, and technology and apply the themes to these and other areas of learning.
Standard 7: Interdisciplinary Problem Solving
Students will apply the knowledge and thinking skills of mathematics, science, and technology to address real-life problems and make informed decisions.
Social Studies
Standard 1: History of the United States and New York
Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the United States and New York.
Standard 2: World History
Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in world history and examine the broad sweep of history from a variety of perspectives.
Standard 3: Geography
Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the geography of the interdependent world in which we live—local, national, and global—including the distribution of people, places, and environments over the Earth’s surface.
Standard 4: Economics
Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of how the United States and other societies develop economic systems and associated institutions to allocate scarce resources, how major decision-making units function in the United States and other national economies, and how an economy solves the scarcity problem through market and nonmarket mechanisms.
Standard 5: Civics, Citizenship, and Government
Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the necessity for establishing governments; the governmental system of the United States and other nations; the United States Constitution; the basic civic values of American constitutional democracy; and the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship, including avenues of participation.