Comments for Being the Blog of Rebecca Kuder

Comment on Stammering on NPR by rebeccakuder

rebeccakuder — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:18:49 +0000

Eric, thanks for stopping back, if this is the same Eric. (Though I’m sorry it was prompted by irritation!) Again I’ll say how nice it is for me not to be alone in my critique. Maybe I should send this link to those two notables…

Comment on Stammering on NPR by Eric

Eric — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 19:28:57 +0000

I am listening to David Dye right now. He is doing the same thing as he usually does. I hope David Dye and/or Terry Gross find this blog so they can see that it irritates people. Maybe they will see it and do something.
They make their living at speaking, you would think they listen to themselves on the radio from time to time and critique their own work. We cannot be the only ones who notice this annoying interview method.

Comment on Into her drawers and shadows (Joan Didion’s Blue Nights) by rebecca

rebecca — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:45:17 +0000

Thanks, Shawn. That line really popped out at me, and what a sad precursor. When you read this book, let me know what you think. I’m still sorting out my reactions to this book, which is why it feels a little artificial to opine so soon after reading for the first time. I’ve read reactions that Didion is too obsessed with name dropping and brand names. I can see why people think so, but then it does create the sense of her world, and often she names things because she’s making a point that the fact of something being a designer something is important to the story–one of those central ways of deciding what to keep in a story (eye color of a character isn’t in itself important, unless it serves the story, some say.). She mentions a rental house (in Puerto Rico?) and in her world, it’s important that it was a rental, and not a house they owned. And so on. (Still sorting out the bits, as you can see!)

Comment on Into her drawers and shadows (Joan Didion’s Blue Nights) by Shawn

Shawn — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:34:38 +0000

Great connection to “Slouching” — I had forgotten completely about that line. Didion is magical (sort of how I felt about Adrienne Rich the first time I read her poetry). As soon as everything cools down, I will be reading this.

Comment on Joan Didion and her bits by rebeccakuder

rebeccakuder — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:34:47 +0000

I keep notebook(s), lest I forget everything, but I don’t know if I will ever go back through them methodically. As it happens, it seems the times when there’s a lot going on in front of my mind (and things that need my immediate and constant attention) I don’t write much down. So I likely won’t have the harvest there. Then there’s the question that Didion deals with in Blue Nights (one of many questions she deals with) about confronting people she’s lost in every drawer, every closet, their detritus, things for which, she writes, “there is no satisfactory resolution.” That idea has been haunting me. The things she kept (of her husband, of her daughter) and cannot give away, throw away, but also does not want to see, it doesn’t help her to see those things. Lots to think about in Blue Nights.

Comment on Cinderella, what big, sharp teeth you have! by rebeccakuder

rebeccakuder — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:29:11 +0000

Thanks! If you get to reading that book, let me know what you think. I’m sure there’s plenty to turn off everyone in some way, so I should be offering caveats, but there were some really resonant things for me. And if your daughter has not yet seen “Buffy” maybe it’s time. Of course those human girls get involved with vampires and werewolves (albeit ones with souls) and a human boy gets involved with a former demon girl, but… I love how the Buffy stories deal with black and white and all the shades of grey in between. (I’ve even noticed they sometimes use those colors, meaningfully, in costuming. So someone might have a white tee underneath a black hoodie, and so on. And often when a character is grappling with these big questions, she is wearing grey. I bet “Riley” would approve of that color choice.)

Comment on Cinderella, what big, sharp teeth you have! by rebeccakuder

rebeccakuder — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:25:07 +0000

I did see that video of Riley, and yes, it made my heart glad. I think it was pink stuff, but I know what you mean!

Comment on Cinderella, what big, sharp teeth you have! by KathyH

KathyH — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 21:29:16 +0000

Great post, Rebecca! My girls are out of the Princess phase, for the moment (we have a bucket of Barbies in the Freecycle pile in the spare room), but it always seems to be something, of course, LOL. My older one has embraced the heroine of _The Hunger Games_ but still devoured the entire Twilight series (I’m hoping she doesn’t see sparkly vampires as the ideal romantic partner). That said, it’s hard to raise girls, particularly in a culture where beauty–and altering one’s looks to be beautiful–seems to be emphasized younger and younger. I will look for the Orenstein book.

Comment on Cinderella, what big, sharp teeth you have! by artwritinginterviews

artwritinginterviews — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 18:16:37 +0000

Disney gets them at all ages, Rebecca. Their television programming promotes all of the stereotypes wrapped in the message that adults are stupid and popularity is all that counts. My 12-year-old daughter and I faced that battle. The more I rejected the shows, the more fascinated she became. I found that the best I could do was be aware of the messages and counter them conversationally. On another note, a video from the website Jezebel was posted on fb right around Christmas. It is of a preschooler named Riley, and she is pissed off about how “the companies who make all this purple stuff try to trick the girls into only buying purple stuff.” I hope you get to see it. It will make your heart glad.

Comment on Joan Didion and her bits by artwritinginterviews

artwritinginterviews — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 18:03:10 +0000

This is one of my favorite essays by Didion. I can see so much of myself in her observations, although, I cannot seem to keep a notebook!