Reading List 2007

Howdy folks.  So, I like to read.  Spare nearly three years post-undergrad, reading has been a life-long love.  (Attending college with an overloaded course schedule and just over two hours of sleep a night for the final two years was more than enough to destroy a 20-year love of reading.  By the time I got out of school I contentedly walked away from books – of all kinds – for a long time.  Ironically (but perhaps not so uncommon), school killed my love of reading.  And it took me years to get it back.  I started slowly – reading just fiction and children’s lit and staying away from anything too serious or academic.  With great thanks, I moved on and rediscovered all the brilliance that is literature, reestablishing my love of language.)

After moving to the Chi and starting grad school I decided that I needed a way to catalog my reading, particularly as I was building a library of non-fiction I knew I would need to remember for my upcoming thesis.  Enter GoodReads.  (Since, I have also established a complex EndNotes database to organize my reading, but that’s another story...)

It seems only relevant that as the year rounds to close that I would look back on what I have read during the past twelve months.  Now that I’m in grad school, there is (again) little time for independent reading.  (Or perhaps I just use that time for other things – like sleeping, eating, or staring blankly at the wall, trying to clear some space in my brain for more grad schooling.)

So, without further ado, I present my Reading List for 2007.  It’s everything I’ve read this year (I think).  I’m a non-fiction nerd, for sure.  Take note, too, that every book on this list, save one, was a grad school required reading.  (And that one book was a required read for a class I didn’t take, but picked up from the bookstore anyway.)  Typically I would typically toss in “for fun” books on breaks, but on the Christmas holidays I just needed a brain break and over the summer I was in Mexico (for school).  So, my literary life is all school, all the time.  And I’m more knowledgeable for it!  (The list includes readings from Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall terms 2007.)

I have organized the books into fiction and non-fiction categories, and they are listed in date order such that books I read early in the year are listed first and books I read more recently are listed later.

Until next time, read on, my good fellows!

Fiction

• 1.  Passing by Nella Larsen

Non-fiction

• 1.  The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies by Marcel Mauss
• 2.  The Edison Schools: Corporate Schooling and the Assault on Public Education by Kenneth J. Saltman
• 3.  School Commercialism: From Democratic Ideal to Market Commodity by Alex Molnar
• 4.  Concepts of the Self by Anthony Elliott
• 5.  The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures by Jean Baudrillard
• 6.  The Accursed Share 1: Consumption by Georges Bataille
• 7.  Working Towards Whiteness: How America's Immigrants Became White:  The Strange Journey from Ellis Island to the Suburbs by David R. Roediger
• 8.  White Out: The Continuing Significance of Racism edited by Ashley W. Doane and Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
• 9.  To Be an American: Cultural Pluralism and the Rhetoric of Assimilation by Bill Ong Hing
• 10.  Who Are We?: The Challenges to America's National Identity by Samuel P. Huntington
• 11.  Immigrants Out!: The New Nativism and the Anti-Immigrant Impulse in the United States edited by Juan F. Perea
• 12.  Displacing Whiteness: Essays in Social and Cultural Criticism edited by Ruth Frankenberg
• 13.  Mind in Society: Development of Higher Psychological Processes by Lev S. Vygotsky
• 14.  The Child's Conception of the World: A 20th-Century Classic of Child Psychology by Jean Piaget
• 15.  An Invitation to Social Construction by Kenneth J. Gergen
• 16.  The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything by Joe Trippi
• 17.  Education for Critical Consciousness by Paulo Freire
• 18.  Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy, and Civic Courage by Paulo Freire
• 19.  Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire
• 20.  Rancheros in Chicagoacan: Language and Identity in the Transnational Community by Marcia Farr
• 21.  Kinderculture: The Corporate Construction of Childhood edited by Joe L. Kincheloe
• 22.  Language, Culture, and Teaching: Critical Perspectives by Sonia Neito
• 23.  Shop 'Til You Drop: Consumer Behavior and American Culture by Arthur Asa Berger
• 24.  What If All the Kids Are White?: Anti-Bias Multicultural Education with Young Children and Families by Louise Derman Sparks and Patricia Ramsey
• 25.  What If and Why?: Literacy Invitations for Multilingual Classrooms by Katie Van Sluys
• 26.  The Consumer Society Reader edited Douglas Holt
• 27.  Branded Nation: The Marketing of Megachurch, College Inc., and Museumworld by James B. Twitchell

(2012.06.18)

The Nutcracker: a re-envisioned holiday classic

I saw a brilliant play this past Thursday. The House Theatre of Chicago put on a version of The Nutcracker unlike any you are likely to have ever seen. I've seen several versions of the classic tale as told by other companies in the past, showcasing diverse artistic interests - both dance and theatre - including the Boston Ballet's classic version set to the Tchaikovsky score and the Ballet Rox Urban Nutcracker rendition that similarly follows the story penned by E.T.A. Hoffman but uses both Tchaikovsky and a little Duke Ellington in a modern retelling. But this production was something totally new, and in some ways so much better.

In its promotional material, the show, currently playing at the Upstairs Theatre of Chicago's renowned Steppenwolf theatre house, is described as follows:

When their son is killed in the war, David and Martha are unable to help their daughter Clara comprehend the loss. Instead she retreats into a nightmarish world in which evil rats are trying to destroy her. Just when all hope seems lost, Great Uncle Drosselmeyer arrives bearing a mysterious gift that may help Clara and her army of toys defeat the rats just in time for Christmas.

The House’s completely re-imagined version of The Nutcracker isn’t the dusty old ballet you remember. It weaves together riveting dialogue, astonishing puppetry, beautiful song, spellbinding spectacle, and a thrilling eight piece string orchestra to tell a darkly moving story of magic and mystery that you never knew existed.

Sound interesting? I thought so too. Staying true to select structural points that have carried the traditional Nutcracker for decades (the dinner party, the gift from Drosselmeyer, the coming of the rats, the great battle), The House Theatre's version brings a new life to the old tale. Writers Jake Minton and Phillip C. Klapperich create a world whose depth distinguishes itself from the happy holiday piece we're so familiar with. There are no Sugar Plum Fairies or dancing sweets. No prince. Little revelry. And no dreams one can easily wake from. Instead the traditional story of The Nutcracker is transformed into the dark, yet playful, psychological journey of a little girl struggling quite deeply to deal with the death of her beloved brother. Her story is told through the true-to-life "play" of children battling to understand a world of adult hardships that are anything but joyous and protective of innocence. Strikingly true to the psychology of a child struggling with the loss of a loved one, I was moved, sometimes nearly to tears, while still laughing (quite loudly at times) at the rich comedy built into the characters and the script.

And despite the "feel good" sense you walk away with, you are also reminded of the difficulties and hardships the holidays can carry. The show's director Tommy Rapley said in November, just after the show opened,

Not to get too personal on you, but my family has lost some pretty key players in the past year and a half, and the holidays have changed for me because of that. They still have candy, and magic, and Santa, and warm cocoa and fireplaces, and twinkling lights, but they also have loss. Deep loss. And I’m not the only one. There are a lot of families in this world who gleefully watch their children open presents as they mourn for someone whose presence is sorely missed. Making our Nutcracker helped me to identify that for myself. This play is about people who are having a hard time at Christmas. It’s not always cookies and bunnies all the time for everyone out there, and I’m proud that we acknowledge that. I’m also proud that in our story we persevere with lifted spirits by the end, as we all will and do in our personal lives.

What an important truth to acknowledge. And what a strong voice reminding us of the power of the arts, including theatre, to serve humanity. To make us feel less alone. To allow us a place to reconnect.

Rapley goes to to paraphrase Jake Minton, (the play's co-author and the actor who plays Drosselmeyer) , saying that

We think of the theatre as a safe place to come together — with friends and strangers alike — and exercise our emotions; to practice for the things that may, and probably will, happen to us in real life; to share with others in the triumphs and losses of fiction, so that we may endure our own facts with strength and dignity.

Perhaps that what I enjoyed so much about the production. It wasn't just a happy (unrealistic) story. It captured the joys and deep sorrows of life and intermingled them richly, just as is true in our everyday world.

In an interview with the Lincoln Square Chamber of Commerce (The House Theatre was highlighted the Member of the Month in May 2006, as their main office is in the Lincoln Square neighborhood), the House Theatre was described in the following ways:

The House Theatre presents all original work, with most plays written and co-written by its prolific members. The plays are built on the myths of their generation and spring from influential pop culture like rocket ships, monsters, space, movies like Star Wars and E.T. "The stories are mythic, epic and playful," explains Nathan [a founder, Nathan Allen]. "We want our audiences to have a great party and celebrate life." But make no mistake: the players may be whimsical, but the subject matter is as serious as Shakespeare. Explains House Theatre founder and writer Phillip Klapperich, "Our treatment of the subjects is never childish. We include elements that could be found in stories for young people, but we've woven in serious topics." Actor Chris Matthews puts it this way: "We want to break your heart, but we want to trick you into having fun while your heart is breaking."

Pretty accurate, if you ask me. It was truly my pleasure to see such fresh and truly rich theatre this past week, and I am looking forward to keeping my eye on this young company. I am sure there are good things to come.