Embedded Files
Class Ground Rules
Read all the assignments before class.
Keep yourself on mute unless called on.
Raise your hands electronically.
Focus your comments only on the question at hand rather than straying to other parts of the story.
Refrain from offering a review of the whole story or jumping to the end.
Try to support your comments by referring to details from the text.
Listen to and respond to others with respect.
"I love to write dinner party stories....You push the people together and then tense conversation ensues....I wanted the surprise of someone that the person thinks is the enemy also to have all this suffering behind them." —Lorrie Moore on "Foes"
READ (at least twice): "Foes," pp. 159-170. (Published in The Guardian, October 31, 2008; included in Bark, 2014; https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/nov/01/lorrie-moore-story)
A historical biographer and his wife attend a literary journal's fundraising dinner, where he has a confrontational and transformative conversation with an attractive military lobbyist.
Think about:
The three "chunks of this story: the couple preparing to attend to the fundraiser dinner, the conversations that take place at the dinner table, and the cab ride home.
How does Bake change over the course of the dinner conversation?
Contrast how Bake and Suzy relate to each other before and after the dinner.
Purely Optional
Listen to Joan Allen and Kyle MacLachlan read Lorrie Moore's "Foes," followed by Lorrie Moore and Meg Wolitzer discussing the story and Moore's writing. They also sing together and play and amusing literary game. Begin listening at 16:23.
READ (at least twice): "Which is More than I Can Say About Some People," pp. 643-662. (Published in The New Yorker, November 8, 1993 and included in Birds of America, 1998, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1993/11/08/which-is-more-than-i-can-say-about-some-people - subscription required.)
A mother and her adult daughter on a driving tour of Ireland make their way to the Blarney Stone so the daughter can receive the gift of gab and overcome her fear of public speaking.
Questions:
What the mother learns on the trip.
What the daughter learns.
Kissing the Blarney Stone
The Blarney Stone is a stone set into the tower of Blarney Castle in 1446. According to legend, kissing the stone endows the kisser with the “gift of gab”—great eloquence and skill in flattery. To touch the stone with one's lips, the participant must climb 127 steps up a steep spiral stairway, lie down and lean over backwards on the parapet's edge, grasping iron rails. This is traditionally achieved with the help of an assistant. In 2002, protective crossbars were installed below for safety.
Week 4 Class Recording:
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