agenda | 19 june 2009

Agenda

• Attendance Quiz
• Discussion of "Everything that Rises Must Converge" and "The Nature and Aim of Fiction"
  
• Group work time
  

Discussion Questions

• What do you make of the title of this story? What is the “everything that rises”? And what things “must converge”?
• Like Joy/Hulga from “Good Country People,” Julian is college educated but living with his mother. What similarities do you detect between the Joy/Hulga and Julian? Between their mothers? What about differences?
  
• Which characters out of the story are most sympathetic to you? What about the character(s) makes him/her sympathetic?
• Based on O’Connor’s remarks on the profession of writing in “The Nature and Aim of Fiction,” consider Julian’s college education and intention of becoming a writer. Where in O’Connor’s theories does Julian seem to fit?
  
• You have now read two of O’Connor’s short stories. How do you react to the theories about writing (and especially about short fiction) in relation to her fiction? What do you think is the “vision” (last paragraph of the excerpt) she believes is necessary? Do you think she has it? Do you think Julian has it?
  

Homework due 6/19

• Read "Desiree's Baby" (available here) and "The Birthmark"
  
• Blog in response to one of the discussion questions