Our UW class was very different - during some weeks I was the lucky girl on the floor who had nothing for UW homework and the next week was up until 5 am working on a paper. Overall I really liked the class and the things we learned. It turned out a lot differently than I expected. I came in thinking we would be studying feminists throughout history, or maybe reading several memoirs over the course of the semester. Instead we saw a movie on Patricia Arquette and read blogs. It was different in a good way! I also learned a lot about how I write, and how to improve. I am also so grateful we had the library sessions because I did not know how to work the Gelman Library system at all so it was very helpful.
This was my only small discussion class so I got to know a lot of people in the class very well...and even if it was a little bit of a hassle getting to the vern I got to spend some GWorld money at Ames (the semester is ending and I've got $613 to go...) I'm going to miss our little class a lot I think next semester!
Friday, December 14, 2007
Sunday, December 9, 2007
The Julie/Julia Project
I knew going to our group discussion that I was probably going to be the only one who didn't really like the book Julie & Julia: My year of cooking Dangerously.
The book is based on the blog of Julie Powell who decided that she was going to try and make all of the recipes found in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking during the course of one year. She took on the challenge when she hit somewhat of a quarter-life crisis (including a bad job and a disorder that might make having children difficult).
As a narrator Julie can be funny and is very self-aware. Every time she is being ridiculous she knows she is being ridiculous. She is always the first person to talk about how supportive her husband was throughout the whole process and recognizes how much he put up with.
The book, however; sometimes became overwhelmingly opinionated. I felt like I could definitely have read her blog entries and thought she was great - in weekly doses. But in 307 pages it was too much. Our discussion all agreed that small stories about Julia Child that came every few chapters was also unnecessary and confusing - we couldn't exactly figure out if they were taken from letters? Or if Julie wrote what she thought might have been happening to Julia?
I think part of my dislike for the book was because it was very informal - and something I'm not very used to. Plus the fact that Julie Powell and I could not be more opposite.
The book is based on the blog of Julie Powell who decided that she was going to try and make all of the recipes found in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking during the course of one year. She took on the challenge when she hit somewhat of a quarter-life crisis (including a bad job and a disorder that might make having children difficult).
As a narrator Julie can be funny and is very self-aware. Every time she is being ridiculous she knows she is being ridiculous. She is always the first person to talk about how supportive her husband was throughout the whole process and recognizes how much he put up with.
The book, however; sometimes became overwhelmingly opinionated. I felt like I could definitely have read her blog entries and thought she was great - in weekly doses. But in 307 pages it was too much. Our discussion all agreed that small stories about Julia Child that came every few chapters was also unnecessary and confusing - we couldn't exactly figure out if they were taken from letters? Or if Julie wrote what she thought might have been happening to Julia?
I think part of my dislike for the book was because it was very informal - and something I'm not very used to. Plus the fact that Julie Powell and I could not be more opposite.
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