On Thu, 15 May 1997, Jo Ann Rangel wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Summer reading...what came immediately to mind was as a precocious 4th grader
> I read A Tree grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith...was the first time I saw a
> swear word in print heh heh...
>
> But onto other more science-fictional pursuits...sometimes people slap on the
> label SCI FI when they come across something they do not understand, and for
> me my slapping of the label has been in the realm of critical
> theory...yesterday I attended my independent study for my Octavia Butler
> research project and I asked a very general question about the whole spectrum
> of literary criticism and discovered from my mentoring prof that there was a
> time when critical theory was such that the works that the theories were to
> be applied to became secondary if not unneeded in order to apply a theory of
> criticism??? That the critical field became a genre in itself to a degree by
> which you studied theory simple pure theory and found little need for the
> texts aka the novels, the writer's creations et. al...? I was toying with
> the idea of including a thorough critical backround with my doctoral work, as
> in choosing critical theory for one of my interests, but silly me, <his words
> in facetious fun :)> wanted to actually apply approaches to particular works
> of fiction, which I thought was the basic idea of analysis in literature...so
> I throw the question out there, why have theory if you are not applying it to
> works, I thought this was the basic idea of analysing literature in general??
>
>
> silly me, asking rhetorical questions....heh heh
>
> Jo Ann :)
>
Maybe a lot of fields go through a stage of thinking all they need
is theory and no reality. I'm in Social Psychology, where at least some
theories seem pretty distant from what goes on in the world. (I.e. famous
quote from Kurt Lewin, "father" of social psych: "There is nothing so
practical as a good theory.")
At the risk of exposing my ignorance, who is Octavia Butler and
what has she written? I already have a list of about 20 books to read
from these discussions.
Oh, comment to Farah. Definitely yes on the concept of books
as a box of chocolates. I always read _Restoree_ by Anne McCaffrey
whenever I'm sick; it's my comfort book. I like McCaffrey a lot -
she often has competent female characters. Although you almost always
get a happy ending tied up with a nice, neat bow. For some "reality,"
I like Sherri S. Tepper for her ability to kick you simultaneously in the
heart and the head (I read _Beauty_ in one sitting, crying the whole
time).
Karen
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