Update: I’ve received a few questions about our plans after my absence. We’ll continue the schedule as laid out, but I’ll be looking over your journals on Monday the 19th. Thanks, JS

Love in the Time of Cholera is not for the faint-of-heart, as I’m sure you’re all aware by now. I’ve posted a reading schedule below. It would be wise to read ahead (and journal all the way) over the weekends and breaks if you’re afraid of falling behind. (For those who find themselves lost in discussions of passages they’ve read beyond, the reading journal is a good way to refresh your memory.)

Journaling is vital to the creation of a solid paper towards the end of this novel. If you scroll to the end of the schedule, you’ll notice that we end the novel on a Wednesday (the 28th) and turn in a final draft of your term paper the next week (the 3rd). By journaling as you go, you are keeping track of patterns that emerge (see “Some things,” below). When you formulate your thesis, you are explaining what these patterns say about the work as a whole. From there, creating an outline is a matter of going through your journal and grouping quotations and insights that support your thesis, then putting them in a logical order. Writing a rough draft should be mostly copying your comments and their accompanying quotations from your journal.

It is not a simple process, but most of the insight work should be done while you’re reading and during our discussions. The writing process is communication work: organizing, working on flow, reinforcing your points.

I’ll work with each of you as we go, but I can’t read/journal for you; I can merely guide you in the right direction.

Possible essay topics:

• Explore the use of water imagery and how it reflects the themes of the novel.
• Contrast the characters of Dr. Urbino and Florentino Ariza using the symbolism that surrounds each.
• Explore the many types of love found in this novel. Are there any commonalities?
• Explain Marquez’s use of setting to reflect the tone of particular scenes.
• Explain the parallels between the city and the characters (particularly Dr. Urbino) as they age.

These are only ideas; let me know if you come up with another one.

Some things to be journaling:

• All liquid imagery (particularly water, but all other fluids)
• Mixed metaphors or images that seem contradictory
• First impressions and sketches of Dr. Urbino, Fermina Daza, and Florentino Ariza
  • As the characters interact, note how they compare or contrast. (“Would Urbino react like Florentino does in this scene?”)
• Keep tracking the different types of love!
• Always
  • Questions
  • Vocabulary
  • Cool passages
  • Your interpretations/reactions of events

We will have a brief quiz on Monday. If you are having difficulties keeping up with the reading, see me and we’ll work it out.

To check your understanding, check out this site, which has a list of basic questions about each section. This isn’t an assignment, though it would be beneficial to read over them after you finish a section.

Reading/writing schedule:

We finished Hamlet today in fifth hour (we’ll finish tomorrow in third). Your completed journals are due the day after we finish (tomorrow for fifth hour, Wednesday for third). If you elected to write the essay, a draft is due before Thursday.

I’m very excited about how things are going. Journaling, like essay writing, is a skill that takes time and practice to master. For those of you with questions, I can offer practical advice: “Write your reactions to and questions about the work. Quote nearly as often as you react or question.” My longer answer can be found in the previous post.

I can also offer more experimental advice: “Play around with your journal. After all, it is yours. I’m only grading on coverage (did you write about the whole story), so the rest is up to you. Choose a cool notebook; use page tabs; use colors for different ideas, themes, characters, questions/responses, or vocab; draw pictures… I may look over it, but your only audience is you. Literature means nothing without a reader; it’s just words on a page, but a good journal can make a dusty work relevant and alive. Make yourself proud; it’s your education.”

I’ll follow this up tomorrow in class, before we begin our foray into existentialism.

On Monday I proposed a deal: If you keep a detailed (definition of “detailed” below) reading journal for our current work, one that includes as much or more information than an average essay, and turn it in at the end of the reading, you do not have to write a paper.

My hypothesis: A few of you would decide to just write the paper, as you are familiar with that routine and comfortable with your writing process; most of you would write down a few words you don’t know, perhaps a summary of the reading, a few questions, and be through with it; and a few would run with the idea, draw character maps, look up outside information, learn new words, come to class with questions about weird sentences and quote interesting passages.

The bell curve, right? Shame on me; I should have known better.

The past few days in class have blown me away. Nearly all of you have come to class with questions about the reading (or viewing, in Brit Lit), words you’re not sure about, connections you’ve made with outside works, points I’ve missed, and interpretations I hadn’t considered. You all seem to be enjoying the readings more (even though you have to write as you go), and understanding them in more depth. I’ve practically thrown out all my prepared questions for the past few days; yours are much better. I can’t wait to sit down with your journals at the end.

While I wrote this on the board, here is the list of things to look for or record in your journal:

• Questions about the work. We read so we can learn. If we don’t have questions, we need to read more difficult material.
• Figurative language: metaphors are always important, but so are all of the other words we reviewed at the beginning of the year. Check your handout.
• Words you don’t understand. If they might be vital for you to understand a passage, look them up immediately. Otherwise, look them up afterward.¹
• Interesting passages with citations—this does two things:
• Helps you keep track of the important parts of the story, so when someone asks “When did the character do this?” you can quickly save the day. Also helpful when writing papers…
• Helps you develop as a writer. Writing down cool sentences (not copy-and-pasting them) helps you get a feel for the language (and grammar, and punctuation) and helps you remember quotable lines.
• Connections with other works, ideas, philosophies, medical conditions, etc. The great thing about English classes is that we can write about anything. Do Hamlet’s actions match the symptoms of a medical condition mentioned in the ICD-9? What about Meursault’s? How closely does the plot of The Lion King sync with Hamlet? etc. Go nuts with this one; the crazier the comparison (if solid), the better the paper.
• Sketches, drawings, diagrams. I don’t draw much in my own journal, but if you are a visual person, go nuts! The only person who needs to be able to understand your journal is you.
• For all of the above: write down your reactions. I can’t emphasize this enough: write down your reactions. If a character does something hilarious, crazy, confusing, terrifying, completely out-of-character, make note of it. If it reminds you of something, write it down. Books are meant to be interacted with, not simply absorbed.

You will turn in your journals the day after we finish the work. I will read them over that night, and return them to you the next day. I will not write in them, but simply give you advice on organization, some things you should focus on, etc. (I might steal some ideas for my own journal, too. Hope you don’t mind.)

If your journal is detailed enough (covers the entire work, or Act III through the end of Hamlet), you will be excused from the final essay. If you chose not to create a journal, or it seems a bit sparse (or is simply a list of quotations without your reactions), I will ask you to write the paper.

We will be creating reading journals for every reading assignment from here on out. For our next unit, I’ll show you how to write most of your essay in your journal before we even finish the novel.

Send me an email if you have questions, or post them below.

This is going to be an amazing year.

1. Ninjawords.com is great for this. Simply put all of the words, separated by commas, into the search box, and you’ll have a list of definitions. For the truly adventurous, try this online etymology dictionary for where it came from and related words. [↩]