Ha Ha Ha

I really enjoyed our discussion today. Boland is really great, and she is certainly one of modern Ireland's most important female voices. Today's discussion about gender and beauty was really important, and I appreciate those of you who made the effort to be prepared with the reading and come to class. For some reason over half the class was missing today. Might that have had anything to do with the fact that a progress report was due? I am still expecting a progress report from the rest of you, in one form or another, sometime this evening.

For Monday, you will need to have read the first 100 or so pages of Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha. Let's read up through the line "I didn't tell him about his underpants" on page 103. Doyle does something in this novel that other writers have tried to do but very few have pulled off authentically: he writes in the voice of a child. This is a perspective we've talked about a lot this semester but have not encountered in the literature. Paddy Clarke, age 10, is one of the most intriguing narrators in contemporary Irish fiction. Doyle won the Booker prize for this novel (which is more or less the U.K./Ireland equivalent of the Pulitzer), and I think you will quickly see why. It's a gem.

Friday's Reading List

I've really enjoyed our discussions this week about Boland's work. As usual, I wish we had more time to discuss more poems. A week just isn't enough time. Three weeks on Yeats was not nearly enough time. We're always hearing time's winged chariot.

Here is the list of poems for Friday. This is your last chance to talk about poetry in class this semester (with the exception of our review sessions of course), so bring your A-game.

Friday
"A Ballad of Beauty and Time" (122)
"The Serpent in the Garden" (125)
"The Woman Turns Herself Into a Fish" (131)
"The Muse Mother" (134)
"In the Garden" (136)

From Domestic Interior:
"Night Feeding" (139)
"Hymn" (144)
"Endings" (147)
"After a Childhood away from Ireland" (149)
"Domestic Interior" (151)

Don't forget about your progress report, and if you have the time, get started on Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.