09-10 Common Book Finalists

Dear Colleagues,

Thanks to everyone who took the time to nominate a potential Common Book!

Earlier today we heard a baker’s dozen’s worth of excellent nominations. (And because these nominations were all so thoughtful, I am attaching a summary of them. They might suggest some excellent titles to consider for your future classes or pleasure reading.)

After initial discussions, five titles emerged with strongest support. These are listed below, with hyperlinks to websites that include excerpts and other information about each book.

During the next three weeks, I will be researching each of these titles and the ways in which each might work, if selected, with WSU curricula and programming. By next week, there will be a few copies of each book made available at Krueger Library (ask for the Common Book Reserve) and in the WSU Writing Center (Minné Hall 348).

• Kao Kalia Yang, The Late Homecomer (Coffee House Press, 2008, 296 pp., $15 paperback)
• Dave Eggers, What Is the What (Vintage, 2007, 560 pp., $16 paperback)
• Thomas Maltman, The Night Birds (Soho, 2008, 384 pp., $14 paperback)
• Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma (Penguin, 2007, 464 pp., $16 paperback)
• Nicole Helget, The Summer of Ordinary Ways (Borealis, 2007, 185 pp., $15 paperback)

The Common Book selection will be taught in a number of WSU classes across the curriculum, including many sections of English 111, College Reading and Writing, and related programming is likely to include visits, lectures, and/or workshops offered by the author (or another relevant invitee). As always, the selection and the project itself are contingent upon funding. 

Please feel free to leave any comment regarding the nominations by using the “reply” feature (requires registration).  And please consider attending the Common Book Selection Meeting, Tuesday, April 21, in the Minne 2nd Floor Lounge, from 11:00 a.m.-12:00 noon.

Best,

Paul

Dr. J Paul Johnson
Professor, English; Director, University Studies
317 Minné Hall, Winona State University
Winona, MN 55987-5838
507.457.5453 / pjohnson@winona.edu

Share Your Ideas

Are you doing a class project with The Blue Death? Did you create an assignment based on or stemming from the book? Have you found some great resources relating to water and health?

Please share your efforts and findings with your colleagues. This blog awaits your valuable input!

Creative Residency Coming Soon

Starting October 19, In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre (HOBT) will work with students and community members to create a drinking water related performance. Participants will showcase the work in a public Friday noon performance on October 24.

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1.      The residency schedule…

…is right here. (Download HOBT Residency Schedule)

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2.      Come one, come all, to one or all.

Hi Gretchen,

The residency sounds great! I’d like to invite my first-year English composition students to attend some of the events and/or workshops. Is it okay for them to pick and choose the sessions, or would they be required to do the residency from beginning to end?

Dan Wahl, English instructor

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Hi Dan,

Thanks for your interest!  Absolutely they may pick and choose events from classes and workshops and especially encourage the Friday noon performance on the PAC main stage.  If they want to be involved with performing, they need to attend all rehearsals.

Attached is a copy of the schedule.  If your class meets during one of the times, you could come as a group. Just let me know.

Thanks,

Gretchen Cohenour, Dance Program Director
Department of Theatre and Dance
WSU Performing Arts Center 212

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3.     What’s in the heart of the beast?

Here’s a past project HOBT did, called “Invigorate the Common Well.” This will give you a hint of the creative community mission of In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre. 

But wait, there’s more! Here’s a news report about that invigorating project, from an organization called On the Commons. Their website also has some good info on water that may fit nicely with class projects related to The Blue Death.

Dr Robert Morris to Appear at WSU

Dr. Robert Morris, author of Winona State’s 2008-09 Common Book, The Blue Death, will be on campus Oct. 22 and 23, 2008.  All events are free and open to the public:

Wednesday, October 22, 2008: 7 pm, Performing Arts Center Main Auditorium
The Great River Reading Series, The Consortium for Liberal Arts and Science Promotion, and The WSU Common Book Project Present Dr. Robert Morris, author of The Blue Death: The Intriguing Past and Present Danger of the Water You Drink

Thursday, October 23, 2008: 10-11 am, Performing Arts Center Main Auditorium
An Interview/Question-and-Answer Session with Dr. Robert Morris, author of The Blue Death: The Intriguing Past and Present Danger of the Water You Drink

Thursday, October 23, 2008: 1-2 pm, Stark Auditorium
Interdisciplinary Perspectives on The Blue Death: A Panel Discussion with Dr. Robert Morris.  Panelists will include Dr. Brian Aldrich, Professor of Sociology and Social Work; Sandy Spieler, Lead Artist, Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre; Dr. Colette Hyman, Professor of History; and Dr. Bruno Borsari, Professor of Biology.

The Blue Death Selected as 2008-09 WSU Common Book

Winona State’s Common Book Project announces its selection for 2008-09: Dr. Robert Morris’s The Blue Death: The Intriguing Past and Present Danger of the Water You Drink.  The Common Book Project brings together a large community of readers in the discussion of a single work. 

 

Dr. Robert Morris, MD, PhD, is an environmental epidemiologist and a leading researcher in the field of drinking water and health. He has taught at Tufts University School of Medicine, Harvard University School of Public Health, and the Medical College of Wisconsin and has served as an advisor to the Environmental Protection Agency, the Center for Disease Control, the National Institutes of Health, and the President’s Cancer Panel. His work has been featured in the New York Times and the London Times, and on Dateline NBC and the BBC.

His book, The Blue Death, has been recommended by the Los Angeles Times, the Denver Post, Science News, Booklist, and Kirkus.  With compelling narratives both historical and recent, Morris examines the infrastructure of our drinking water supply and calls for widespread action to preserve this most precious of natural resources.  Morris’s book can be addressed from a range of perspectives, and faculty will be adopting The Blue Death in disciplines as diverse as nursing, biology, chemistry, physics, statistics, education, history, and first-year composition.  Additionally, Winona State University will be participating in a year-long community project, Our Drinking Fountains, Our Water. All three local postsecondary institutions, the city of Winona, the Southeast Minnesota Water Resource Board, and In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre of Minneapolis will be working together to engage our community in education, discussions, and celebrations of drinking water.  The year will culminate with the decoration of a public drinking fountain and a community-wide celebration on Earth Day, 2009.  Readers of The Blue Death can expect a wide array of artistic, scientific, and civic-oriented programming related to the topic of water safety and stewardship. 

“The Blue Death chronicles the story of drinking water in terms of compelling accounts of early cholera epidemics, how scientists solved the mystery of the microbes in water, and the economic and political forces at play both then and now in controlling our water,” observes Computer Science Professor Joan Francioni. “It provides science in the form of a fast-moving narrative by giving a fascinating history of water-borne diseases and mankind’s quest for safe drinking water.” 

The Blue Death is currently available from booksellers in hardcover and will be published in paperback by HarperCollins in July, 2007.  Dr. Morris is scheduled to visit WSU in October, 2008, and again in March, 2009.  More information about The Blue Death is available from the author’s website, http://web.mac.com/drrdm/Site/The_Blue_Death.html.  Additionally, a packet of teaching and contextual materials for prospective adopters will be available by midsummer.  Faculty adopters should simply list the book (ISBN 9780060730901) on their book request form through the WSU Bookstore.  For more information about the project, please contact Dr. J Paul Johnson at pjohnson@winona.edu or visit the Common Book website at www.winona.edu/commonbook. 

 

-—J Paul Johnson

2008-09 Common Book Finalists Selected

Four finalists for the 2008-09 Winona State University Common Book were recently selected from a list of thirteen nominations. The finalists are listed below, with hyperlinks to websites that include excerpts and other information about each book. Based on each book’s author’s availability, affordability, and willingness, a selection will be chosen at an open meeting scheduled for 11:00 am Tuesday, April 22, in the second floor Minné Lounge. During the weeks leading up to that meeting, I will be researching each finalist and the ways in which each might work, if selected, with WSU curricula and programming.

Copies of each book will be made available at Krueger Library (ask for the Common Book Reserve) and in the WSU Writing Center (Minné Hall 348). To comment on any of these selections, please use the “comment” feature below (login required).  

• Dave Eggers, What Is the What (Vintage, 2007, 560 pp., $16, paperback)
• Robert D. Morris, The Blue Death: Disease, Disaster, and the Water We Drink (HarperCollins, 2007, 320 pp, $25, hardcover)
• Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, Three Cups of Tea (Penguin, 2007, 368 pp., $15, paperback)
• Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle (Scribner, 2006, 288 pp., $15, paperback)

The eventual selection for the 2008-09 Common Book will be taught in a number of WSU classes, including many sections of English 111, College Reading and Writing, and related programming will include visits, lectures, and workshops offered by the author. As always, the selection and the project itself are contingent upon funding.  –J Paul Johnson

Ruth Ozeki is multi-talented

                It often happens that when one enjoys the work of someone else, they come to find that when they are able to listen to and meet that person, disappointment follows. This was something that I, and many other students who read My Year of Meats, were curious and a bit apprehensive about before Ruth Ozeki’s visit to WSU.  Fortunately, I came to find that Ruth Ozeki is as engaging and eloquent a speaker as she is in her writing.

                Having the opportunity to hear Ozeki speak in both casual and more academic, formal ways was an interesting experience for me personally. Many people have the ability to write informative, moving, and interesting speeches and deliver them well, while lacking the ability to effectively communicate their ideas in a more extemporaneous setting. Between listening to Ozeki’s presentation “Telling Lies, Telling Truths” as well as the panel discussion “What We Eat and Why it Matters,” I am of the opinion that Ozeki is an incredibly intelligent and well-informed individual.

While presenting little recognized facts about the truth (or, occasionally, the lack thereof) that can be seen in television shows, as well as the reasons some things are newsworthy and others are not, Ozeki was able to draw in her audience and keep their attention. Her presentation was well-organized and very interesting to listen to. It seemed to me, however, that Ozeki felt more comfortable in the less formal panel discussion. The panel served to show Ozeki’s impressive array of knowledge about the food industry (as well as that of the other members of the panel), citing facts and statistics that came as a shock to many members of the audience. The panel proved that she is a great extemporaneous speaker, in addition to her skill in writing and film-making. Overall, I was incredibly impressed with Ms. Ozeki.

The Influence of Ruth Ozeki, in Person

I was intrigued by the philosophies of Aristotle, but then found out he was fiercely sexist: I now dislike every word he wrote. I enjoyed Kurt Vonnegut’s short story “Harrison Bergeron,” but after I learned he visited Winona State University years ago and acted pretentiously, my reading was affected. I avoided a writer’s lecture because I had not finished his book. I did not want my reading to be influenced by his demeanor and statements. Perhaps a writer’s reputation and my own perceptions of his or her personality hold too strong a sway for me.

Every time a writer visits WSU, I feel a sense of tension, some form of expectation and nervousness. I ponder, will they be too self-serious, will they speak in a scholarly language I will not follow, or, worst of all, will they ruin the book for me? Ruth Ozeki’s recent visit to WSU marked one such instance. With a hint of apprehension, I attended a viewing of her documentary, Halving the Bones, followed by a short interview.

The film, visually stunning and delicately woven, provided a brief window into Ozeki’s personal life, featuring primarily re-constructed, imagined depictions of her grandparents’ lives. Overall, a fine sense of seriousness permeated from the film, though it did not translate to Ozeki. She arrived after the viewing of the film, gracious, eager, and open for questions and responses. Her warm and relatable personality, combined with her humorous tips and confessions regarding her experience at the Sundance Film Festival, (“bring an entourage”) enhanced my viewing, and my reading of her novel, My Year of Meats. She is able to laugh at herself, and her work, while remaining insightful and compelling. My experience regarding the reading and viewing of Ozeki’s novel and film were certainly altered by her visit, enriched, thank heavens, not ruined.

-Sally Slattery

Halving the Bones

On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to show Ruth Ozeki’s Halving the Bones for the second time this year.  The documentary continues to intrigue me.  Unlike the other films we have shown as part of this year’s Common Book Film Series, Halving the Bones constitutes a sort of meditation.  Viewers must pay close attention to the narration in order to understand what Ozeki is doing—in order to question the reality posed by the film—and this questioning, in fact, mirrors Ozeki’s own exploration of identity and memory.  It’s a documentary that needs to be watched perhaps more than once (and if you haven’t seen it, or would like to see it again, I encourage you to check it out of the library.  It might inspire some great essay topics).

 

My favorite sections of the documentary continue to be those with Ozeki’s mother.  Her personality comes across beautifully, as does her humor.  I was pleased, last semester, when much of the audience laughed during these scenes, and although the atmosphere was a little more subdued this past week, I still noticed a few tempered giggles. 

 

If you would like to read a comparison between My Year of Meats and Halving the Bones, take a look at last semester’s post “Fictional Documentaries.”  Here, however, I would like to provide a few brief highlights from the interview that followed the showing of the film.

•  At the beginning of the interview, Ozeki mentioned that she does not enjoy watching Halving the Bones anymore.  Every time she does, she wishes she could get back into the film and reedit certain scenes.  Earlier this week, she made a similar comment regarding My Year of Meats; she said she hasn’t reread the book in its entirety for quite some time.  Although some sections might continue to impress her, others she wishes she could revise.  When you read over work you produced a few years ago, do you feel the same?  Do you think an artist or writer ever considers their work “complete?”
•   Ozeki kept her mother informed about the documentary and sent her written copies of the questions she would ask.  Ozeki also showed her mother the film once it was completed.  During Wednesday’s interview, Ozeki mused that her mother, like anyone who sees him/herself for the first time on television, thought she looked bad and said the wrong things.  How does knowing this affect your understanding of the film’s authenticity?
•   When asked if she would ever return to filmmaking, Ozeki said yes—if someone handed her the necessary money on a platter, she would make another film.  She loves the editing process and would enjoy returning to it.  All of the art-making processes, it seems, contain multiple steps.  Which part of the writing process do you enjoy most?  What does Ozeki’s comment tell you about the differences and similarities between film and fiction?

 

I was thankful for the opportunity to visit with Ruth Ozeki and ask her questions about both her films and her writing.  Her work makes us question the “truths” revealed through media as well as the capabilities of the cinematic and literary forms.  Her visit certainly inspired a few thought-provoking questions.  Feel free to respond to some of the questions I have posed or to come up with a few of your own.

Cultural blending and sumo wrestling

In her novel My Year of Meats, Ruth Ozeki clearly supports the blending of cultures as evidenced by a number of things. Cross-cultural families were often pinpointed by Jane Takagi-Little as she looked for families to showcase on “My American Wife!” One example is the Beaudroux family, who adopted 11 Korean children and brought them to Louisiana. Also lending to the impression of support is Akiko’s ultimate decision for her life and that of her child. It was through the influence of an American that Akiko finally gained the courage to leave her husband in Japan.

There are some institutions, however, that see the mixing of cultures to be extremely threatening. Japanese professional sumo wrestling is one of those institutions, as is shown in the documentary Sumo: East and West. The sport of sumo wrestling remained very closed for a very long time. It wasn’t until the 1960s that a Hawaiian sumo wrestler went to Japan to join the sport. As more non-Japanese began to participate in the sport, the sport began to close its doors even further in order to maintain the sense of tradition that is a large part of sumo.

Choosing to be a professional sumo wrestler in Japan is truly choosing a way of life as the wrestlers live, eat, and practice together. As the documentary shows, it is difficult for many Americans to adapt themselves to the tradition and lifestyle they become a part of when they travel to Japan. Not only must a wrestler speak Japanese, they must also meet requirements of height, weight, and hair length. There are rules to follow within their stables-groups that they live and practice with-and, as a Hawaiian former pro sumo wrestler shares, disobeying leads to punishment.  The closing of the sport has been described as leading to “the Japanization of foreign wrestlers” rather than the “internationalization of sumo.”

Much about the developing circuit of amateur sumo wrestling is disturbing to the established professional Japanese circuit of wrestlers. While professional sumo does not allow a woman to so much as touch the ring in which the wrestlers fight for fear of rendering it impure, amateur sumo is allowing women to compete. This is just one example of the type of thing that causes professional sumo to continually tighten its ranks in order to preserve its tradition.

While Ozeki’s novel supports the preservation of tradition, it also encourages sharing traditions and allowing them to blend together to create something new.   Professional sumo wrestling takes the opposite approach: watchfully screening its participants in order to keep the sport as pure as the dohyo they wrestle on.

–Heather Mead