Challenging Conventions: C Period

After taking the surfing lesson with the Saint, Heller writes, “We walked up the sidewalk crowded with spring break tourists and young surfers carrying boards and I felt like a king. I belonged. All the surf kitsch--the surfboards in the windows of beachwear stores, the boards hanging over the fronts of restaurants, the surf-scene prints on the shirts of the passing visitors--I saw it all and thought, Yeah, that’s the culture everybody wants to be a part of. My culture. Cuz I’m a surfer now” (37). What is it that makes Heller feel like he belongs to this culture? Do you agree that he truly belongs as a member of the surfing culture at this point in the book? Why or why not?

What are some specific kinds of tacit knowledge that Heller attempts to gain in this reading by going to surf school? What are some of the essential skills for surfers that can only be acquired by practice and experience? How easy or difficult is it to acquire these skills? What does that tell you about the barrier to entry for surfing culture--how easy or difficult is it for newcomers to join the community?

In the first few pages of Kook , Heller describes what it’s like to learn something new and to try to join a community of experts even though he himself is just a “kook.” What are some of the things he has to learn? What specialized knowledge does he need? What norms does he encounter that he has to adjust to? What does this tell you about the complexity of this world of surfing?

While this text is about surfing, it also reveals a lot about the person who wrote it. What does this reading tell you about Peter Heller? Why is he so fascinated with surfing? What does his approach to depicting surfing reveal about who he is as a person?

Describe the allure or draw of surf culture, as expressed in Kook. What do people find appealing about it? What does Heller specifically find appealing about it? Do you find surf culture alluring? Why or why not?

How would you characterize surfing culture, as expressed in Kook? What is unique about this culture? What do you have to know to be fully a part of this culture? (Vocabulary? Gear? Techniques? Implicit knowledge?)

She goes by many names but serves one function: The presence of a queen bee–the domineering, self-serving, and manipulative female character who, cunning as she is beautiful, uses her elevated social status to rule over and maltreat her peers with little consequence–is a defining characteristic of many novels and films detailing the lives and times of teens. She’s rich and attractive and therefore popular, or popular by way of attractiveness, which makes others assume she is rich. This larger-than-life presence is usually supported by a loyal group of lackeys who stick behind the Queen not because of kinship, but for protection from her vitriol and safety from her warpath. Such is the nature of the friendship between Regina George, Gretchen Weiners, Karen Smith, the Plastics, and their newest initiate, Cady Heron in the cult classic 2000s film Mean Girls –a dynamic that is closely mirrored by the friendship between Ruth, Tommy D. and Kathy H. According to the Mean Girls wiki page...

Amelia Margaret Francis Duffy Boardman Mrs. Schieffelin NLMG Connection                                                                      Cloning Wallflowers Every teen novel has that one overly emotional character. As our class has exhaustively discussed, Tommy embodies that character in Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Never Let Me Go . He was known as a child for his temper tantrums and as he grew older, was targeted for his emotional and sexual conflicts. Similarly, Charlie from Stephen Chbosky's novel The Perks of Being A Wallflower  has no idea where he is going with his life. He is emotionally conflicted and struggling with depression. When he begins high school, he finds himself without a friend group or support system. By chance, he falls in with a group who call themselves the "wallflowers". This group...

Elán James Stadelmann 5th Esq. Ms. Schieffelin NLMG Connection Connecting a Tragic Book About Teenagers to Another Tragic Book About Teenagers As we were reading Never Let Me Go, I had a distinct feeling that I had witnessed some common tropes of the plot before. The first thing that came to my mind when reading this book was a different book Unwind by Neal Shusterman. Unwind is a tragic book about teenagers dealing with an inevitable fate. In the book, a bill of life is passed in the united states. This outlaws abortion, but allows for a child to be "aborted after birth" through the years 13 to 18. When this occurs, imagine every single donor in Never Let Me Go has every single donation happen all at once, up to and including the brain.  The only major difference that I noticed between these processes is that in Unwind, the patients are conscious but feel no pain during the procedure. This text plays with the questioning of ethics similar to Never Let Me Go, and I ...

The Neighborhood - Afraid (Explicit) When I wake up I’m afraid, somebody else might take my place When I wake up I’m afraid, somebody else might take my place Make that money, fake that bunny, ache my tummy On the fence, all the time Paint young honey, face so sunny, ain’t that funny All my friends always lie to me I know they’re thinking You’re too mean, I don’t like you, fuck you anyway You make me wanna scream at the top of my lungs It hurts but I won’t fight you You suck anyway You make me wanna die, right when I When I wake up I’m afraid, somebody else might take my place When I wake up I’m afraid, somebody else might take my place When I wake up I’m afraid, somebody else might take my place When I wake up I’m afraid, somebody else might end up being me Keep on dreaming, don’t stop giving, fight those demons Sell your soul, not your whole self If they see you when you’re sleeping, make them leav...