Daniel - your presentation today really stood out, I think, because of the subject you are dealing with, and the ideas that you bring to the table. In class, we have discussed the reasons for Porter's creation of her disabled characters, and their incapability of existing in society. It is clear that you are focusing on this idea with your statement of "the other within a society."
I love your comparison of "He" to human waste, and Professor Cook's real-life example today in class made your topic that much more significant.
I guess my question for you at this point is:
While examining the behavior of these "diseased" characters, and the behavior of society in relation to them, have you discovered any one explanation for society's behavior? I know that society is afraid, and that ultimately, nothing is done...but does that mean you are going to work in that idea of "nothing" into your paper as well?
I think this idea has a good transition into your paper - does "nothing" lie in the idea of disability/disease in these given characters? Are these characters viewed as nothing, so therefore have nothing to live/fight/work for? Or is possibly that these characters do live for something, but get nothing back in return?
Just a thought! Overall, I think you have a great paper already.
Hi Daniel! Great job today! I especially liked the part when you went into how He is like a damaged boy that somehow is assumed to have a moral deficiency and therefore must be avoided. I think the reason why society treats him the way they do is very important to your paper. I also liked what you said about Him being in opposition to "us" as society because he is incurable.
I think using Foucault is a great idea, and it was really interesting how you presented Foucault in relation to your paper. I also liked what you said about the indistinguishable state in medicine.
I was a little confused by the point that at the end of "He," the driver racing away is representative of society racing away from He (did I get that right?).
I think your paper is going to be really amazing! If you have any questions, please let us know! Thanks for sharing!
Daniel - your paper topic is really interesting. The connections you make between a character's silence and disease grabbed my attention. You mentioned that He is kept away from the family's food; this is to prevent him from contaminating and spreading his silent "disease". You mentioned that you were going to work with "Holiday" as well and I was wondering how you were going to incorporate her as a diseased or sick character. Because unlike, He, Ottilie is not kept seperate from the family food, in fact she handles and supplies them with food every day.
However, she is isolated from the rest of her family; she is secluded and kept in a what appears to be a back closet without any windows and a lumpy cot. She is kept isolated so as to not infect others with her sickness. Hatsy even says to the narrator, "That is Ottilie. She is not sick now. She is only like that since she was sick when she was a baby. But she can work so well as I can. She cooks. But she cannot talk so you can understand" (Porter 420). Hatsy speaks as if Ottilie became silent, as if she caught it, like a cold.
I enjoyed your analysis of "He" from the perspective of theory. I wasn't quite sure what you meant when you said you were combining Foucault's theory on disease and the defininition of abject. I see how they correlate, but are you trying to incorporate each entity into one? I think you could, but I didn't catch the process. I'm sure if I could have read your paper along with you things would be much clearer. Overall, I was really interested in your analysis and your theory interjections. One final question: You said that the family abuses He by neglect and so on, but what about all the mother's claims that she loves him best and her continual focus on him, almost a verbal obsession...?
4 comments:
Daniel - your presentation today really stood out, I think, because of the subject you are dealing with, and the ideas that you bring to the table. In class, we have discussed the reasons for Porter's creation of her disabled characters, and their incapability of existing in society. It is clear that you are focusing on this idea with your statement of "the other within a society."
I love your comparison of "He" to human waste, and Professor Cook's real-life example today in class made your topic that much more significant.
I guess my question for you at this point is:
While examining the behavior of these "diseased" characters, and the behavior of society in relation to them, have you discovered any one explanation for society's behavior? I know that society is afraid, and that ultimately, nothing is done...but does that mean you are going to work in that idea of "nothing" into your paper as well?
I think this idea has a good transition into your paper - does "nothing" lie in the idea of disability/disease in these given characters? Are these characters viewed as nothing, so therefore have nothing to live/fight/work for? Or is possibly that these characters do live for something, but get nothing back in return?
Just a thought! Overall, I think you have a great paper already.
Hi Daniel! Great job today! I especially liked the part when you went into how He is like a damaged boy that somehow is assumed to have a moral deficiency and therefore must be avoided. I think the reason why society treats him the way they do is very important to your paper. I also liked what you said about Him being in opposition to "us" as society because he is incurable.
I think using Foucault is a great idea, and it was really interesting how you presented Foucault in relation to your paper. I also liked what you said about the indistinguishable state in medicine.
I was a little confused by the point that at the end of "He," the driver racing away is representative of society racing away from He (did I get that right?).
I think your paper is going to be really amazing! If you have any questions, please let us know! Thanks for sharing!
Daniel - your paper topic is really interesting. The connections you make between a character's silence and disease grabbed my attention. You mentioned that He is kept away from the family's food; this is to prevent him from contaminating and spreading his silent "disease". You mentioned that you were going to work with "Holiday" as well and I was wondering how you were going to incorporate her as a diseased or sick character. Because unlike, He, Ottilie is not kept seperate from the family food, in fact she handles and supplies them with food every day.
However, she is isolated from the rest of her family; she is secluded and kept in a what appears to be a back closet without any windows and a lumpy cot. She is kept isolated so as to not infect others with her sickness. Hatsy even says to the narrator, "That is Ottilie. She is not sick now. She is only like that since she was sick when she was a baby. But she can work so well as I can. She cooks. But she cannot talk so you can understand" (Porter 420). Hatsy speaks as if Ottilie became silent, as if she caught it, like a cold.
Daniel,
I enjoyed your analysis of "He" from the perspective of theory. I wasn't quite sure what you meant when you said you were combining Foucault's theory on disease and the defininition of abject. I see how they correlate, but are you trying to incorporate each entity into one? I think you could, but I didn't catch the process. I'm sure if I could have read your paper along with you things would be much clearer. Overall, I was really interested in your analysis and your theory interjections. One final question: You said that the family abuses He by neglect and so on, but what about all the mother's claims that she loves him best and her continual focus on him, almost a verbal obsession...?
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