Meeting:
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Library
3:15-5:00
Facilitator: Brad Craddock
from Wikipedia.com:
The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a 2013 novel by British author Neil Gaiman. The work was first published on 18 June 2013 through William Morrow and Company and follows an unnamed man who returns to his hometown for a funeral and remembers events that began forty years earlier.[1]
Themes in The Ocean at the End of the Lane include the search for self-identity and the "disconnect between childhood and adulthood".[2]
Among other honours, it was voted Book of the Year in the British National Book Awards.
Author website: neilgaiman.com
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Library
3:15-5:00
Facilitator: Brad Craddock
The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel
from Wikipedia.com:
The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a 2013 novel by British author Neil Gaiman. The work was first published on 18 June 2013 through William Morrow and Company and follows an unnamed man who returns to his hometown for a funeral and remembers events that began forty years earlier.[1]
Themes in The Ocean at the End of the Lane include the search for self-identity and the "disconnect between childhood and adulthood".[2]
Among other honours, it was voted Book of the Year in the British National Book Awards.
Author website: neilgaiman.com
The Boys in the Boat from Pat Moynahan
ReplyDelete1. audience. When people are living in an oligarchy they are reluctant to read or believe anything contrary to those in power. I don’t believe a literary rediscovery could initiate a new “swerve” today because the general population is much more educated, knowledge more widely available so that people can not only question something but “google it” to confirm or find opposing arguments. There is also much more value given to individualism and less dependency on community in our industrialized world...
2. I believe I agree that the written word can carry a great deal of power. The impact often depends upon the humans have this nostalgia for the past, for two reasons, one is to learn from the past mistakes an successes of our forefathers, and the others to learn more about themselves.
4. Discuss Greenblatt’s brought this story to life by connecting us to historically significant events and by relating the individual stories of each individual on a personal level – who they were, where they came from, what they did, what their parents did, was all defined in great detail. I think that people have an insatiable curiosity about others people and their stories which connects their world and ours. \
5. I agree that Bracciolini’s obsession kept him from succumbing entirely to the corrosive cynicism of his world. When you have no answers or explanations for something, you keep searching, keep looking and analyzing.
7. People’s fears are often rooted in the unknown and supported by their belief system. I think the freedoms and the knowledge sharing that occurs today, rather than suppression of information, is a major difference.
8. Greenblatt’s discussion of the loss of books to bookworms and the destruction of libraries definitely speaks to current debates over printed versus digital books. From a historical perspective the book was very informative in regards to the science of preserving the manuscripts. From a material’s engineering perspective I was especially interested in the detail given regarding the writing materials and various papers used, “smooth bound volumes of vellum, still creamy white after more than 500 hundred years, contain page after page of perfectly written script.” I myself am concerned that digital images will not survive as printed material of the past.
9. I was surprised that monasteries became havens for forgotten books at a time when people were censoring books, however the focus was put on the craft of script writers and the actual physically activity, as opposed to preserving the content. It does make one wonder however, that there were some very intelligent, thoughtful groups of people that truly knew how vitally important this work was.
10. I will always believe that literature is the most impactful medium. I can still remember the first time I found an error in a textbook, I thought, this just can’t be- the written word is so powerful. How many times do you get an e-mail that someone really believes & forwards to you, only to find out later it’s a hoax?
11. It is a very interesting debate. Are people civil because of the punishment that they might have to endure? On Earth or in an afterlife? Or is it just human nature to be “good”? Or is it more “natural” to be barbaric?
I just finished the Ocean at the End of the Lane. I really enjoyed the book! Lettie, Ginnie and Old Mrs. Hempstead are working hard to keep evil out of the world. The 7 year old is having a happy life when the family runs into money problems and rents out his bedroom. One of the the residents commits suicide with the family car on the Hempstad property. This act becomes the "end of innocence" for the 7-year old boy.as he is with his father when they discover the man's body. This is where the book gets interesting and the boy realizes there is evil through the worm in his foot which takes a part of his heart. Lettie Hempstead becomes his protector with help of her mother and grandmother who've been alive since the beginning of time. Lettie has an ocean where she goes for healing. It makes everyone that goes in it feel comfortable. The Ocean at the End of the Lane has so many health topics to discuss with our students. The suicide due to gambling loses started the end of innocence. The father's infidelity and how it affected the family. The family money issues and how they changed the way the lived. Dealing with rejection when no one from school attends his birthday. How to deal with stress. How do our students deal with stressful situations. If they see something inappropriate, do they keep it a secret or do they let someone else know. Self-concept vs. self-realization.
ReplyDeleteParker- Blog post for The Ocean at the End of the Lane
ReplyDeleteOcean was short enough for an afternoon read, so that I could envelop myself within the full of the tale’s creepiness at one time. The unnamed male protagonist who returns to his childhood locale for a funeral for someone who is, as well, never named, decides to explore the flinted road that evokes a powerful childhood memory. What Gaiman created was a contemporary fairy tale with all the haunting undercurrents of modern life. He unravels a childhood memory, pulling apart an event precipitated by a family’s economic frustrations, a suicide, a mother who must take a job to ease the finances, a demented adult babysitter with whom his father conducts an affair, and the running over of the narrator’s kitten. These events alone are emotionally challenging, never mind that the narrator is a deeply introspective person, whose recent birthday was attended by none of the invitees. His world was one of books and fancy, and the reader stepped into his life that was further blurred by time. I ‘m convinced that the fleas of the world to which Granny Hempstock refers are manifestation of evil. Gaiman surely took these from William Blake’s The Ghost of a Flea.
This evil literally crawls into the protagonist’s heel, and despite his efforts, cannot be extracted solely by his efforts. Gaiman fills the tale with a panoply of nightish creatures that contrast with bounty of the Constable countryside. “I could not explain it: perhaps they were from a place where such things as counting didn’t apply, somewhere outside of time and numbers,” explains the speaker as eleven-year-old Lettie attempts to rescues him. Ocean appeals as a good story, but is really a psychological exploration of how one processes life, how one’s character and personality contrives to explain even the most traumatizing of childhood events. The narrator remains unnamed, because he is everyman.