Theatre of the Oppressed

Theatre of the Oppressed by Augusto Boal is a nonfiction work about passive entertainment.  Boal's title evokes the classic 1960s book on education by Paulo Friere, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which is about passive education.  Friere is a personal hero of mine (and Oman's) and some of the theory behind our race, class and gender course is based on his work.

Boal applies Friere's theories on education to theater.  He traces how theater has evolved over the centuries from something with more audience participation to a model in which the audience sits passivly and watches.  He suggests that through empathy with the characters and catharsis through the action in the story, spectators are rendered passive. He belives that when spectators have no control over the outcome of the story, it affects them in their lives outside the theater.  He believes this passivity translates into the spectators' wider life and that our model of theater helps to create a general society that is helpless and incapable of social change. 

Boal started a "people's theater" in Peru in which audience members participate in the action.  They improvise a scenario in which spectators have the opportunity to change the action to see what kind of outcomes may arise.  He gives a series of theater exercises at the end of the book, and they sound truly fun.  We plan to try some of his ideas out next year in race, class and gender.  Boal has presented workshops on his methods all over the world.  I got this book from Elisa Hernandez, and she and I plan to go to one of these workshops for training in his methods.  Unfortunately, Boal died last year, so we won't be training with him personally, but he left behind a movement in theater and many people are teaching his techniques.

Boal's theories on story are thought provoking.  He even makes me question The Hero's Journey as a story model.  According to Boal, story is a powerful educational force, and through it we are conditioned to believe that power resides in individuals and that those individuals are usually someone outside ourselves.  He makes a good point, but that's only because most theater (and literature) is bad.  A good story motivates, changes and empowers the reader.  I'm left with the question what makes good story and what activates people to make positive changes in the society they live in.

Testimony

Testimony by Anita Shreve is, on the surface, a testimonial against teenage drinking.  Set in a elite boarding school in Vermont, the story revolves around a sex scandal that occurs ostensibly as a result of binge drinking.  The author says in the clip below that if she could chose an audience for this book, it would be teenage boys.     

The story unfolds through the voices of each of the major characters and with each entry, the plot thickens.  Suffice it to say, things are not as they appear on the surface.

This book has gotten excellent reviews.  I read quite a few  and not a single one questioned why Shreve does not go more deeply into the back story of the girl who was involved.  She deepens almost every other character's story.  I was left wondering what would motivate a girl to behave this way and Shreve did not answer my question. I thought it weakened the book considerably.

Daemon

Daemon by Daniel Suarez is not a book I would normally read.  It's an action packed, high tech thriller with a bit too much violence for my taste.  I read it, however, because it is the set up to Suarez's sequel, Freedom, a book that deals with corporate globalization.  Freedom was recommended to me by Paul Hirsche, and José Cordero is reading it right now.  Both say it is worth the read.

A daemon is a software program that runs continuously in the background of a computer system.  It's invisible to users until an "event" happens that triggers the program.  In this case, the "event" is Matthew Sobol, a legendary computer game designer's death.  Sobel is the architect of a program that once activated, takes on a life of its own.  Essentially, Suarez's daemon is on the way to systematically taking over the world.  It runs, of course, on logic, and the author does a good job of making the story plausible.   Since virtually all of our institutions dependent on computers, it's not difficult to feel vulnerable to this sort of attack. Plus, certain aspects of this dystopia are similar to the world we live in already.  We don't have to imagine the presence of nefarious minds tampering with our data.  We read about technology spies and hackers in the news.

This book is by no means great literature, but an interesting commentary on today's political, technological and economic climate.  I want to follow up with Freedom before the summer is over, but I'm in no rush.  According to my sources, Sobol's motives for creating the daemon are revealed in Freedom, and they are not what you think they might be.

World's Greatest (or at least most famous) Love Story

I just read about this book in the New York Times this morning. It's based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The book hasn't been released yet, but is getting great reviews. Since some of you expressed an interest in reading Shakespeare, this provides a great incentive. A lot of schools start with R&J in 9th grade, so here's your chance to get a head start. I suggest you begin by watching two film adaptations of the play. First watch the award winning 1968 version by director Franco Zeffirelli. He stays true to the scene and setting of the original play. The second film is a modernized version of the story made in 1996 and stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo. They update the scene, but retain the original dialogue. After watching these two films, you'll develop an ear for the language and will be able to read and understand the play.

After reading the play, the novel Juliet should be far more accessible and interesting. The character Juliet, by the way, was 13-years-old in Shakespeare's story.  To read an Amazon review of the soon-to-be-released-in-the-U.S. book, click here.

Paideia Video Trailers

Here are a few cool video trailers that students created in Anna's short term course last year. To see more book trailers created by Paideia students, click here.







Better yet, here is a trailer for The Good Theif that Grace and Ellery made in Greg's lit class.

Ideas for video blogging

Here are some short videos about favorite books.

Ever wonder what the president likes to read?


Here's a cute video about someone's 12 best list.



Here are a couple of Public Service Announcements about reading. You could make your own.





You could also interview a "character" from a book you like and post that.

Confessions of a Literature Teacher

I start a lot of books I don't finish. In fact, it's rare that I actually read a book all the way through. Either I'm very hard to please or I have a very short attention span...or both. I need a page turner. Is that bad? I won't list the titles of all the books I have started and not finished because that would be rude and besides, there isn't enough room here.

The last book I read all the way through was The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Stockett is an Atlanta author and I like to keep up with local writers. The Help is set in Mississippi during the 1960s and the story is told from several Characters' points of view. Some of her characters are wise and wry and others are just plain ignorant. Among other things, the book is a social commentary on racism in the South during that time.

I read all the time. I read news article, professional articles and do plenty of research to prepare for classes I teach. I sometimes feel a bit recalcitrant because I don't read more fiction. But then when I stop and think about it, my life is more interesting than most books. Still, it's great to find a good book that you can't put down. Feel free to send me your recommendations.