Robert Cormier wrote I Am The Cheese back in 1977. I just finished reading it for the third time. The first time was several years ago, and I really believe that I didn't get it. I mean I understood the story, but I didn't see the brilliance behind Cormier's writing. The second time was only a couple of years ago, and it finally began to make sense. Now, reading it for the third time, I see so many things he's trying to do in the text.
The back of the laurel leaf edition says, "A boy's search for his father becomes a desperate journey to unlock a secret past. But it is a past that must not be remembered --if the boy is to survive." I wish that wasn't there. It gives the book a level of intrigue that takes away some of suspense Cormier builds in.
Wolfgang Iser writes about reader response theory, and how texts have certain gaps in them. I Am The Cheese is all gaps. That's the point of the text. The main character has blanks in his memory and he's trying to fill them in while simultaneously having an adventure on a bicycle. However, these two happenings are explained through different voices, so the reader doesn't know, do they happen simultaneously. Are they related one to another?
I'm trying to decide how I feel about difficult texts addressed to young adult audiences. This text is often censored for its content. People argue that it makes the government look bad. Fiction is fiction; I don't think this is making some big statement about fake government offices that we supposedly dissolved before the novel even began. I'm not sure young adults will understand the split in the text. Maybe they will understand it better because they are not married to the idea of a unified text.
I don't have a solution today. But I do have a question? What should we do with "difficult" texts? Why do we like them so much?
Dear Me...
11 years ago
1 comment:
Don't have an answer to your question about difficult texts. I love to read them, and don't mind my kids reading them (age-appropiate of course.) But how do I feel teaching them? Not so comfortable. I'm not good at handling in-class convtroversial discussions.
Buut I do want to say that I agree with you about the plot summaries on the jacket cover of books. So often they give away too much! Sure, they get you interested in the book, but often they give away too much, especially if it is the sequsal in a series. If you haven't read the first, then the jacket cover for the second gives away too much and then turns me off the whole series altogether.
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