YALIT/Crit

Looking for Alaska and The Virgin Suicides

Judging from the agenda for next week, I don't think we'll be discussing Looking for Alaska again, but there was something that I wanted to mention.  I read Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides a few years ago, and a few nights ago I watched the Sofia Coppola film version for the first time.  Watching the film, I was reminded of how much I loved the book, though the film does stand up pretty well to the book.  Anyway, I couldn't help but think how nicely Alaska and Virgin Suicides would work in conjunction or studied subsequently.  Alaska, the character, and Lux from Eugenides' novel are both these apotheosized, seemingly polymorphous, rebellious young women.  Despite the fact that the images we are provided of them are idealized versions told by infatuated young boys, they are distinctly individual girls who find the small adventures of life the most thrilling, but ultimately take their lives (in Lux's case, with her sisters), and the boys who loved them will never know why.  The girls are enigmas, and they remain enigmas after their deaths.  Of course, it is not entirely clear that Alaska committed suicide, but Pudge's unwavering, intense love for her is so exact, reminding me not only of the boys in Eugenides novel, but also of the intense infatuations of my own boyhood.  But, detailing teenage love and loss is not what makes these novels important.  They are important because they try to answer larger questions.  Pudge's trajectory takes him through an exploration of spirituality, or a lack thereof.  And the boys in The Virgin Suicides must live with the fact that the girls they loved are gone, and inexplicably made them part of their mass suicide.  The Virgin Suicides turned out to be a house full of female "Richard Cory"s: they were the most coveted girls in school, and they didn't want to live any longer.  Alaska and Lux are beautiful, eccentric, and haunting, and I may be lame for it, but I can't help but love them a bit and be in awe of them too.

I apologize for cluttering the blog with my ninth grade comparison essay.  I'm so immature.  But, someone should still sign up for my humor seminar.

Alaska

I honestly never thought that I would find Y-A lit. to be so powerful.  The first half of the novel was a bit long ( it did drag a bit); however, the second half more than makes up for it.  Although the 'tragedy' that was mentioned in class did take away that surprise, it definitely did not take anything from the ending.  I found some of the story rather predictable.  When we knew Alaska had crashed, I had already guessed that it was the date of her mother's death.  Actually, that really was the only thing I was able to predict.  I feel the author did an outstanding job of creating characters who dealt with the death of a close friend realistically.  Picturing any local high school where DWI has hit far too many times, I am sure the reactions of Pudge, Colonel, Lara and Takumi are quite believable.  I don't imagine too many would actually question the officer on the scene, but then most often there aren't two possible explanations of an accident.  Trying to decide whether Alaska did it on purpose or whether they were to blame for her demise seems to be a reasonable reaction.   I especially enjoyed the entire religion piece.  Young people (as well as old) are often struggling with suffering.  Many people want answers.  People want to know why bad things happen.  People who believe in some form of God, also question how an all-powerful God can let bad things happen.  This novel addresses so many issues that teenagers deal with.  I don't think that anything in this novel is glamorized or glorified.  I feel the author tells a story that quite realistically portrays young people struggling with many issues that many teens deal with.  (I think I am rambling now.)  Some teens drink, some teens drink, some do other 'things' that perhaps they shouldn't be doing.  Rather than preaching, the author illustrates how teens come to terms with some very serious issues.

Interview with John Green on writing ALASKA

Do read this very interesting interview w/Green before class on TH--when we will discuss the novel's end.

Here's an excerpt from it:

"What was the catalyst for this novel?

A. In the study of religion, there is this word theodicy, which refers to the question of why a God who is both loving and all powerful would allow there to be such unequal suffering in the world. In college, when I started to study religion, that was the question that interested me most. So in some ways, that was the catalyst for the novel. After I graduated from college, I worked for a while at a children’s hospital, where I encountered the same problem in stark, awful reality. It was in the hospital that I started to think about writing a story in which teenagers experience loss and a consuming guilt that cannot be easily assuaged. I started writing it just a few months after I left the hospital."