Winn Dixie

I read Because of Winn Dixie yesterday. I wasn't really planning on reading it, but I had a lot of time in waiting rooms, so I got it finished.

It's interesting when I think about it in terms of criticism. The book has a nice enough story to it-- kids seem to like it, but I guess I'm fascinated by some of the critical elements.

One is gaps-- Gloria Dump is called a witch, but she isn't-- the characters say there is no such thing as witches. But why do they think she's a witch in the first place. What has she done to scare the children before Opal arrives on the scene and shows that she's so nice?

One is stereotypes-- Boys and girls don't get along, but then at the end they become friends-- but nothing happens to make the friendship at all seem natural. Opal's mom has left and she misses her. That's a crucial theme to the book, but she leaves because she doesn't like being a preacher's wife and she drinks. It just all seems a bit contrived.

Then there is the dog--If this dog is so great, why has he been neglected? Why isn't anyone looking for a well behaved dog that smiles?

intertextuality

I read N.E. Bode's book _The Anybodies_ this weekend. It's a creative story. The thing I'm most interested in is it's intertextuality. It matches up with Maria Nikoljelavia's ideas about intertextuality. The author expects the reader to have read a certain number of classics in order to fully get everything out of the book. But, Bode does list off all of the books he references on his webpage, and that seems to minimize the effect somehow.

The things I don't like about the book--It is too obviously set up for a sequel and the author interrupts the story why too often to talk about himself. He doesn't do the nineteenth century dear reader bit, but he reminds the reader too often that this is a book and how this is fantasy and it differs from reality. To me that seems like a bit of intertexutality in and of itself.