Math Art: Fractals

Not really sure what fractals are - other than art created from math using computers. Click on image to see full size.

Created by Wolfgang Beyer with the program Ultra Fractal 3.
Licensed by Creative Commons -

There are also some great images on flickr from the New York Public Library, and LIFE magazine has posted amazing photos on Google.

ICC Book Club: Diaz' Oscar Wao

Today's book club discussion will be treating this book (see wikipedia for summary). It's won the 2008 Pulitzer prize for fiction and the National Book Critics Circle award.

It tells a story - several woven together - of a family, their country of origin (the Dominican Republic) and their new home, New Jersey. The background on the history and politics of the Dominican Dictator Trujillo and his gangster minions alone makes this book worth the read, but the language used - makes this work remarkable.

A lot has been made of the gutter Spanglish - but having studied the work of the Hispanic cultural critic Carlos Mencia, that didn't throw me off - tho my knowledge of gendered nature of swear words has been expanded. The gratuitous use of the "N" word gave one pause, but ultimately the overall effect has been an authentic (albeit coarse) common dialect.

The controlled use of ambiguity makes this a favorite over the last few books we've read. Less a contrived work of art and more a testimony of the Dominican diaspora experience - it succeeds in a compelling, powerful way.

Writing conventions in electronic media

How should conventions of spelling, mechanics and punctuation be treated in email, discussion boards, blogs, etc.? NPR today has text and an audio podcast exploring linguistic innovations from technology, and Dilbert has dealt with the issue for a good minute. The comic is from 6-6-2004 archived at www.dilbert.com Click on image to see the complete (and larger) strip.

Links for teachers

Biology: what glowing hamsters can teach us about genetics (video of animals bio-engineered); reprints of antique medical illustrations - cross reference with cool art; European Molecular biology lab creates 3-D digital embryos - kinda like Google Earth on a REALLY small scale.

Psychology: - study shows cognitive therapy is as good as antidepressants; study looks at why failure inspires some and demoralizes others; book review - The Time Paradox, re: how individuals think of time shapes personality; Brain science - the source of genius;

• Science: Richard Feynman on the essence of Science;
• Language: Merriam-webster announces top 5 words of the year.
• Art and Music: the youtube symphony orchestra puts classical music online; Free downloads of Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash duets; the white album turns 40; 10 fun facts about Picasso (source for images); reprints of antique medical illustrations - cross reference with biology.
• History: world history in images from 1949 to 1989 in under 5 minutes - to the tune of Billy Joel's We didn't start the fire (video).
• Green issues - the environment: green cars at LA auto show.

image from http://neatorama.cachefly.net/images/2008-01/homer-simpson-brain-mri.jpg

National Day of Listening, Pedagogy of Powerpoint,and Holiday Wishes.

NPR is promoting the National day of Listening the day after Thanksgiving -

NEW YORK – StoryCorps, the most ambitious oral history project ever undertaken, will launch the first annual National Day of Listening on November 28, 2008. On Thanksgiving, Americans and loved ones gather to share a meal, express their gratitude and reminisce. StoryCorps is asking Americans to linger a little longer in the Thanksgiving spirit and honor a loved one by conducting an interview about his or her life.

This site provides more detail and audio as well as links to a guide to helping you through the interview as well as how to archive and/or share it. In addition to being a great idea for family and personal reasons, it could be a foray into podcasting. If your audio is 8 minutes or less and relates to content taught here at the school, or pedagogy/andragogy, we'd post it on our podcast. You will greatly appreciate the time you spend doing this - regardless of when or if you post it.

Also this week, we have a new resource on the pedagogy of powerpoint - focusing on when, where and why. There's a pretty funny and apt teachertube video on the subject - regrettably the resolution could be better.

Need something more to be thankful for? Free downloads of Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash performing together in 1969. Via openculture

BTW: the turkey is oragami/ papercraft. Taken originally from a Japanese website - find English directions and info here.

Grants and resources for instruction in the arts

Recently in discussion of grants and funding available on campus, someone said, "Why isn't there any money for the arts?" Well, there is, for example the National Endowment for the Humanities, and The Wallace Foundation. Edutopia (a George Lucas educational foundation) has a post on the best places for grant information.

Susan Turner, who writes grants for the college, advises to start early and not underestimate the time needed. She notes that potential grant requests relate to a project—usually within a program area—that can be described and budgeted. All potential requests for funding will be prioritized by the Provost.

Grant requests are based on a problem or need that can be clearly stated. So the first step in submitting a request for funding is to complete the summary section of the approval form The next step will be to discuss the concept with the appropriate dean(s) and secure initial approval. Then submit it to Dr. Sangki Min and he will review all requests with the Provost. Susan will contact the successful requesters to discuss the request and design a realistic work-flow schedule for getting a proposal out the door! Her first concern is developing that work-flow schedule (back dated from the submission date) so that there will be adequate time spent on the research and writing and reviewing stages.

All grant requests should include a timeline of who is responsible for what stage as the project is implemented.

TechTALK wrap up

This post will be a place to respond to ideas from those who attended our session.

Thanks to Herschel Martin who suggested the following cartoon from Real Life adventures.

Let us know what you'd like to know about, or what applications might work best for your class. Post to the comments here and let's extend the conversation.

Web 2.0 - controlling the message

Susan from Online Ed. facilitated with me, Greg, from T3 on a category of Web 2.0 applications.

For a condensed audio podcast on Web 2.0 - check out what I presented at the international NCSPOD conference. An earlier post described the format and process of the GIFT presentation. I intended to present identical 8 minute teacher-fronted informative mini-lectures, but interesting things happened (Click on links to hear it). In the first session a mad torrent of information comes out. Pace and frequent mammoth embedded relative clauses obscure organization. In the second session the audience takes part guiding discussion, wikis get attention and themes such as the Guttenberg project and ESL or international students get treatment. In the final session, a great idea from another presenter (on recognizing faculty and sharing info) is mentioned and the focus is more on the philosophy of Web 2.0. Reviewing the audio has lead to some productive self-assessment.

• KCKCC videos on YouTube ,
  
• Greg's YouTube recommendations
  
• Handouts (HOs) from TechTALK: RSS feedreaders, social bookmarking, finding blogs - Source of my HO (I remixed Tim Davies' work - he's since posted new remixes by others - he does great 1-page HO's)
  
• blogging posts, our feedreader (aggregator)
  
• top 10 objections to using social media - and responses
  

Isn't the headgear a nice touch?

What do you want to know more about? Post suggestions to the comments.

Why should a teacher blog

This week a series on web 2.0 applications that will lead us to the TechTALK workshop facilitated by Susan Stuart and myself (Wed. noon in 3207 - RSVP to B.Hayes).

An excellent job making the case for blogging in education (How/Why/etc. mainly through loads of links) has been done by another blogger - and I've done it through anecdote at my first educational blog, but here I'll throw some recent hard research at you.

A blogging case study (Armstrong and Retterer, 2008) from the AACE Journal, affirmed that computer mediated communication makes writing more fun for students and there's indication that students wrote more, felt more confident and more accurately assimilated second language linguistic features (without overt instruction in grammar).

A phenomenological qualitative study (Felix, 2007) found first through a meta-anaylsis that

differentiated instruction, using multiple modes of presentation, will positively increase a student’s opportunity for learning. Communicating efficiently, using various communication methods, will enhance a teacher’s instructional effectiveness and a student’s ability to understand. Blogging appears to offer multiple opportunities [for this]...

No big surprise. But then the study itself

1. highlights the importance of writing in education,
2. finds that blogging teachers changed instruction to more actively engage students
3. indicates that blogging leads to greater collaboration, connected learning, cognitive complexity, student/ teacher dialogue
   

In E-mail in Academia, a refereed journal article from EDUCAUSE, faculty noted that they liked using email for communication, but didn't like answering substantive questions thru email. Students still feel more comfortable (due to shyness, or because written questions can be better composed) asking these questions thru email. If it's a personal issue or grades - office hours are the way to go, but if it's something the whole class could benefit from - blog it! That way you can share the info with everyone, and archive it indefinitely to pre-emptively address future classes - without necessarily identifying the source of the question.

For an example (case study(?)) using blogging in a class click here.

Writing comics and irritating usage

How many decent regularly produced comics do you know about writing and/or grammar? Here's one to check out from Karen Riddick, who does an electronic magazine (an e-zine) on writing and usage (and who just published a book). Click on the image to see a complete, full-size comic (shrinking it to fit the blog compromised legibility). This is a great source for images to embed in lessons (a la wikis, email, blogs etc.) to punch up interest and spark discussion.

The example above links mechanics and linguistic meta-language with the current election. Connecting learning to our students' lives makes it click. Also on the issue of the topic of the above comic, Oxford researchers have released a list of the top 10 most irritating words or phrases in English. Not all of them are cliches, but...

And what is the difference between a cliche and a colloquialism?

Title 3's Denver Conference: casa bonita

Of course it was business during conference hours, and handouts and powerpoints from the conference are available now online.

But the real story may have been the dining tip Media Guru J. H. gave the T3 team. "An experience you won't forget - Cliff Divers in a Mexican restaurant - Casa Bonita" Turns out South Park has done a sanitized and idolized treatment of the place. That episode (see complete show here ) is one of the creators' top 10 favorite episodes.

Think an aging theme park crossed with the dinosaur restaurant. Think theater production values approaching a small town renaissance festival in a down year: high school students shouting into a squawking P.A. system that rendered them absolutely incomprehensible. Kitsch on an absurd scale.

I had a great time and we all have a story. Did you know of said Media Guru's reputation as a practical joker? In his defense he claims to have not been there for 20 years, but you have to suspect him. Someone should've tried the margaritas.

The food aspired to concession stand standards, but the wait staff were warm, friendly and harried. The mariachi's (seen here singing me happy birthday) rocked.

Preparing to teach: tips and ideas for the first day

Tomorrow (Nov. 13, 2008 at 12:30 in PDR) Cindy Otts will be facilitating a Dine & Design workshop on "Tips and ideas for the first day." Please RSVP to Ben Hayes if you plan to attend.

This dovetails nicely with Janet Velazquez' Academic Symposium yesterday on What the Best Teachers Do. A big part of Janet's presentation talked about preparation and touched on ideas such as:

• making promises rather than expectations,
• framing the big provocative question that guides the inquiry of the class
• figuring out what students know and understand, and
• creating an environment conducive to learning

This also connects to Tips Ben has circulated re participatory lectures (particularly the idea of framing the big question). Ben has also shared the Hawaii Community College system links which have loads of Tips on many teaching concerns including the first day.

Cindy's workshop will be collaborative. Consider checking out the first KCKCC wiki, where we collected icebreakers from our faculty - to build community, establish trust and start class off. But NOTE: Icebreakers and community building isn't just for the first week or two; like all relationships, classroom dynamics require maintenance.

Sustainability and Green Issues

From the Keynote speaker at the 2008 NCSPOD , to the theme of the upcoming KCPDC Professional Development Conference in March (not to mention the election), environmental concerns are getting more attention.

Here's some links I've collected:

Thomas Friedman has written a book, Hot, Wet and Crowded. It's about the green revolution; here's the Daily Show interview. There's a quick video on electric cars and mileage that could be great for teaching math skills and applying it to students' lives - deep learning. The effect of climate change and the lack of sustainability -one in four mammals facing extinction - interest to biology teachers. How to do more with less: packaging idea to reduce waste. A how-to describing a process to convert an old pizza oven, an ink jet printer and nail polish remover into a Solar Cell (from NPR),

A Call for Input

Who would you recommend to deliver a keynote on the environment (going green or doing more with less)? We want someone engaging who can address green issues - or doing more with less. Johannes Feddema, a KU professor and climatologist, has been recommended by a colleague, and I just heard an interview with him on NPR (11-12-8 at 7am). Post suggestions to the comments.

Writing Instructional Materials

Found an online punctuation game from the creators of the book, Eats, Shoots and Leaves. It's fun - and I didn't ace it. While this book, and the assorted support material, promotes a conservative view of grammar, for students who haven't been exposed to the rules, it's a legitimate resource. I'm of the "descriptive" rather than "prescriptive" school, but appreciate both perspectives.

This as well as a vocabulary test, were found at Daily Writing Tips - an RSS feed/ blog that has some great stuff. It's not all grammar - it also lists places to get ideas for writing, advice for the divergent as well as the convergent aspects of the craft, and tips and tools for online writing. It's one of the best writing resources I've found, though for audio check out Grammar Girl.

I enjoyed the "Black board moments" post - though I disagreed with many of their alleged offenses against English. ("Blackboard moments" means occasions of usage that evoke a response akin to fingernails on a chalk board). What I find useful is the need for all teachers to acknowledge their own grammatical fetishes and share them with student writers.

The vocabulary test may never replace www.FreeRice. com for a fun way to learn vocabulary, (and it doesn't feed the poor) but it's another tool for androgogical kit. See also Chomp chomp grammar - an online grammar learning game.

If you have sites you like - share them in the comments.

Intercultural Book Club: _After Dark_ by Murakami

The physical descriptions of characters intrigues me - men seem to be described initially, but the initial lack of description of the female characters might mean something. Halfway through it I've finally gotten a description of Mari, but not really of her sister. Eri, the model, maybe needs no description because Japanese and Chinese models fit a type: tall and willowy of stature, with higher-bridged and more angular noses, and lacking the epicanthic fold. The mind wandered to how class and status define "beauty" and how the genders see differently. Ethnic groups see differently too. Japanese readers see something exotic in Denny's, the way someone from Kansas might find a Teppanyaki house.

Doesn't the ICC have Roger Shimomura prints in storage? (art seen here is his). Though I recall the prints the school owns are earlier and more conservative works, but a lot of his later work - or what you find in the Nelson or at KU's Spencer museum - show that split world / past-modern/ Pop-schizo thing that I kinda see emerging from this book.

Resources for study.

• Quick and dirty plot summary and cursory analysis
• Washington Post review
  

Special thanks to E.K. for finding the book on CD and reminding me to get on my homework.

Title 3 Conference in Denver

People keep saying you TItle III can be a catylist for changing campus culture toward more student centered practices, and a way for faculty to explore new ways to teach.

Carteret Community College, see their blog, have used T3 funding to rethink approaches to advising, assessment and distance learning to improve retention rates. Distance learning (aka Online ed.) thrust their program into a leadership role thru/due to aggressive professional development opportunities.

They used Skype to live webconference in the presentation. They also reccommended http://www.dimdim.com/ as a tool to web-conference. It's free and they said it's excellent software. They've also used all these tools and IM (Instant Messaging) to provide tutoring/ support to students.

Donald Staub, their director noted that administrators and facuty don't know what Title III is and we need to communicate with them better. One thing he does is to pay for adjuncts to cover faculty classes so that key faculty can attend professional development. He also reccomended

• we find out the attrition rate for online classes, as well as web-enhanced classes
• we establish a common language (specifically lexical) for our discussions
• we ask deans, "how would you like to see teaching change on campus"

Ben's Active Learning Resources

Ben Hayes collected the following resources as part of a Dine & Design workshop.

• Definitions of Active Learning (with brief examples, and a list of online resources from the University of California at Davis).
• The Active Learning Site, Charles Bonwell. Bibliographies of active learning articles in disciplinary areas, for large classes, and to promote critical thinking; research summaries and Internet links.
• "Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom," Charles C. Bonwell & James A. Eison. Discusses the value of active learning and ways it can be incorporated into the classroom.
• Active and Cooperative Learning, R.M. Felder. Links to active/cooperative learning journal articles and websites.
• Active Learning for the College Classroom, Donald R. Paulson & Jennifer L. Faust: Describes 29 active learning techniques.
• Active Teaching and Learning Rationale and strategies for active learning in the college classroom, including teaching and learning in the lab. (Module 3 of Getting Results, an online course for instructors on course development, funded by the National Science Foundation, produced by WGBH in Boston and The League for Innovation).
• Scenes from a Classroom: Making Active Learning Work (University of Minnesota, Center for Teaching and Learning Services). A tutorial with guidelines and keys to success for planning active learning activities. Includes scenarios depicting typical problems and their solutions.
• Active Learning in Large Classes: Video Resource (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Center for Instructional and Professional Development). This site provides an interactive tutorial. Seven video clips, each accompanied by a Word document, demonstrate: clickers, learning teams, discussions, and other in-class activities
• Active Learning with PowerPoint University of Minnesota, Center for Teaching and Learning Services). A tutorial on ways to use active learning strategies with PowerPoint presentations; includes 12 active learning strategies.
• "Active Learning on the Web," Bernie Dodge (San Diego State University). Ways to use the Internet for active learning.
• "Student Diversity Requires Different Approaches to College Teaching, Even in Math and Science," Craig Nelson, Indiana University (In American Behavioral Scientist, V. 40, No. 2, 1996, 165-175). Research by Triesman and others demonstrates the positive effect of using collaborative small groups with students from non-traditional backgrounds, (ie Blacks, Hispanics, and rural whites), who struggle with college coursework. Argues that traditional approaches are biased, while active learning strategies can lead to “massive differences in overall student achievement.”

Teaching with the election

Many are finding teachable moments by incorporating the election into their courses. Dr. Janice McIntyre has her reading students read a selection of articles on how the campaigns target young voters (and what young voters think) from USA Today October 6, 2008. The link has video of supposedly representative young voters from the 4 categories they fall into.

Her students do a "My view" project. They

• read the article(s),
• annotate it,
• write their reactions and
• engage in a discussion about what it all means - to them personally and to the larger community.
  

For full details of the assignment click here where it's stored on their class wiki.

We invite them to continue their discussion in the comment section of this post.

NCSPOD "GIFT" Sessions

GIFT is an acronym and a play on words. You share a Great Idea for ....Teaching? Faculty Topics? I forget what it stands for - Anyway it's clever. They set up 7 or 8 tables and somewhere between 60 and 100 people came in and distributed themselves at tables, organizers rang a bell and presenters had 10 minutes to share their project, experience or item of expertise. Then the bell rang again, groups shifted to different tables, and the presenters went through it again - repeating the excercise 5 times (+/-). Something like speed dating meets the Old-School lecture.

It turned out to be amazingly fun, and the cruising learners/ customers/ datees(?) seemed to have a blast. Intense in a good way, without enough time to get boring, the topics and format seemed to pique everyone's interest and motivate self-directed learning. Several presenters noted how they really honed there presentation through the process. I aimed for that and admire their success. Our table however seemed to get more interactive and the center of gravity moved toward the group. Not planned but not unwelcome. I recorded audio of our last 3 sessions and I'm thinking about posting them as a sort of reflection/ meta-analysis of the evolution of the experience. It may be interesting to dissect it, look at how it evolved, and consider implications for professional development. . .

I ran out of handouts and promised to post them on a wiki. They're up. Also posted are pages with more info. I'd like to see other people post material there as well. Presenters had intriguing stuff - and no one can be everywhere at once. Don't worry about making mistakes - anything lost can be found again. Password to edit is KCPDC08 -the last two characters are numbers. Many hands make light work, and an archive could help a lot of people - me in particular. If you haven't posted to the web by yourself yet - ya gotta do it.

AND/ OR post links in comments to this blog. I saw people shooting video of the Poster sessions with Flip cameras, and rumor has it they will be posted to the web - if you know where tell me. I'll post a link when I find it.

2008 NCSPOD Conference

The NorthAmerican Council for Staff, Program and Organizational Development (NCSPOD) Conference has just ended in Reno, NV. In addition to providing an invigorating forum for collaboration among community colleges and universities, the international organization presents awards to honor exemplary performance.

The biggest award (to my biased and imperfect understanding) is the Glenn Schmitz Award. It "recognizes an individual or a group that has provided outstanding service to the NCSPOD board. " This award perhaps creates the most excitement and suspense because it is the only award kept secret. No one outside of the active board, not even the esteemed Helen Burnstad (who has an annual award named after her) knew of the selection before the NCSPOD President, Louanne Whitton, announced the winner.

Of course it went to KCKCC's Ben Hayes. All agreed that the recognition was well deserved and there was no luck about it, but you should ask him about how he did at the tables. The fates smiled on him this week.

More teaching resources from the web.

With the election there's a load of great content that might connect to students' lives.

• The last presidential debate in 10 easy minutes (video)
• Standford's course on presidential elections (lot o' links + video)
• The geography of the US presidential election - part 1 (Spoiler alert: the whole Red/ Blue state dichotomy is misleading and trite). Stanford lecture (almost 2 hour video)
  

In the world of literature:

• Academy award winning animated video of Hemingway's The Old Man and The Sea
• This year's Nobel prize for literature goes to...
• Free Yale course on the american novel since 1945

Business and Economics

• Nobel Prize (in Econ) Paul Krugman on the current "readjustment/ crash" (word choice depends on your portfolio).
• Free Yale course on Financial Markets

See Also:

• Art:a horse paints -is it art?
• Geography and culture: gaming software used to create virtual tour of BeiJing's Forbidden City
• History: PBS documentaries on the 1929 crash
• Debate: Batman vs. the Penguin

Free courses by Yale including:

• Milton, Greek history, The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845-1877, Fundamentals of Physics , France Since 1871, game theory

and seasonal botany photo

700 lbs - so it says.

Web resources for teachers

Going to try a new format. Too much fun (and potentially relevant) stuff; if it isn't shared quick it could be lost, so minimal descriptions

Video of scholarly and education merit to provoke discussion (or digression):

1. Anthropology: KSU's web celeb anthropologist Michael Wesch
   
2. Biology - crab rides a jellyfish; Learning about memory and aging on YouTube
3. Business: Yale professor explains financial crisis in 10 minutes
   
4. Chemistry;
5. Physics (including a boomarang in zero gravity);
6. Art: THe 50 greatest art videos on YouTube;
7. Collections: NYTimes top 5 online video lectures - and Open Cultures top 75 online educational videos - part of their "signs of intelligent life on youtube collection". Free Engineering and SCience courses from Stanford online; source to watch complete documentary films for free;
8. Pedagogy: Father Guido Sarducci breaks it down (learning and retention- Remember Saturday Night Live in the late 70's? funny because it's true)

See Also

• Education and technology: research shows people are more likely to lie in email;
  
• Brain Science: how the mind works - Brain Rules reviewed; What Magic teaches us about neural processing (2 articles), what it feels like to have a stroke (neuroanatomy part of TEDS talks - best stuff on YouTube); 2008 election and neuroscience
  
• Language: argument that English is a user-defined and user-modified technology; Chinglish recognized as full-fleged dialect (anyone have info on Spanglish?); Stanford's online writing classes; podcasts can teach you almost any language
  
• FREE AUDIOBOOKS: The Gutenberg project - a huge mass of audio books on line - I only bookmark human read titles, see also the growing collection by Literal Systems; 1984 by Orwell:
• How to (DIY's): how to make garden lights out of LED lights and mason jars; How to make online video's without getting sued (copyright info).
• Pedagogy and books to consider: review of book How Children Fail by John Holt;
• History: animated video of Howard Zinn's History of the US Empire
  
• Election related: a non-partisan project helps community organizers to find neighbors who think they are registered but actually aren't; 2008 election and neuroscience
  
• Of arcane scholarly interest: info and links to photos by famed Harvard Ethnobotanist (combined ethnography and botany);

Podcasting Research

The Pew Research Center reports that podcasting is continuing to proliferate.

Unsurprisingly, few people report downloading podcasts every day, but increasing numbers are accessing and downloading content.

Furthermore, access to the necessary hardware is increasing even faster, and socio-economic status doesn't hinder youth from having that hardware: "Like podcast downloading, ownership of iPods and MP3 players has also increased since 2006. According to a December 2007 Pew Internet Project survey, 34% of American adults and 43% of internet users report owning an iPod or MP3 player, up from 20% of the total population and 26% of internet users in April 2006.

Young adults between 18 and 29 years old are the age group most likely to own MP3 players, 61% of whom own these gadgets."

The Effect of Web-enhancement on Classes – Quantitative Research.

An article by Wingard (2004) ,
Classroom Teaching Changes in Web-Ehanced Courses,

"assessed the kinds of changes that occur in face-to-face instruction when faculty add Web enhancements to their course. "

It comes up with some expected and unexpected results. The affected faculty expected the following:

• more efficient face-to-face interactions, better class discussions
  
• more active learning,
• less lecture
  
• more readily available practice and feedback opportunities for students, and
• more student-centered instruction.

That was essentially the case; moreover, “an unanticipated consequence of continual and comprehensive student access to course materials and resources was an elevation of faculty's expectations for students" [emphasis mine].

Where change was noted it was much more likely to be positive.

Source: Educause. Follow link in first sentence for full article.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

In honor of the first meeting this semester of Multicultural Literature Book Club sponsored by the Intercultural Center (and since prior commitments will keep me from our discussion tomorrow, 9-16-8, in the ICC at noon) this post is a book review.

Special thanks to Barb Stransky for tracking down an audio version of the book for me. I audio-read/ listened to the text. The best discussion I’ve found might be found at shortlist for the Booker Prize site, an online debate over the merits of the short list for the 2007 Booker Prize.

At first I found the first person thing annoying. 1^st person narrators are notoriously unreliable, ambiguous and subjective, and he refers to that when he says his “history” is at least true in its essence. That said, this makes it unconventional and artistic. The choice provokes discussion and avoids trite resolution.

The novella is overtly symbolic, in the nature of a Hawthorne novel, and is best understood in terms of an allegory. Wikipedia notes that his name, Changez, is Urdu for Genghis. The Chilean bookseller’s reference to young men captured and trained to kill for their adopted groups is Christian, right? But Genghis Khan’s tribe exchanged princes with the Romans in the same way. Maybe even Genghis himself, (if I remember my history channel).

Erica symbolizes the American dream, much like the Statue of Liberty or any other physical monument. Like Gatsby, Changez reinvents himself for the object of his desire, this Erica/ AmErica.

The crux is the Ghost seduction scene – where, after a failed attempt at “possession” – to “have her” - he tells (Am)Erica, “Imagine I’m Chris.” Changez hijacks the ghost of Chris and uses it to ram the twin pillars of Erica’s long guarded treasure. This results in, as the French would say, “La petit mort” her first with another man (she’d only reached climax one other time since Chris’ death, where she pulled her own trigger while imagining Chris.) Like the towers on 9/11, her shudders signal collapse and impeding devastation.

Or does Changez offer himself up as a vehicle for the ghost – himself a spiritual victim of a long lost idea? We can’t trust his rationalizations. Was Changez the plane or the hijacker? Meat puppet or metaphysical date-rapist? I see him as the incubus who destroys his lover and loses his soul. His rationalizations for co opting the dead Chris smacks of the rationalizations of date rapists on a recent episode of “The Closer.”

The allegory isn't pure or consistent. Working for Underwood Sampson, he’s been blind and weak, but he regains his strength after his hair grows out.Christianity is a clear source of the allegory, but Changez shifting identifications with disparate images shows his actions are rationalizations for baser motives rather than the altruistic goals put forth in a monologue meant, after all, to detain and expose an enemy combatant, so anything said is unreliable. Does he blame some Delilah for cutting his hair? Would he say anything's fair in love or war? Could the pillars be also a Philistine prison?

And what about Chris – and obvious Christ figure who died for the sins of others (remember he died of lung cancer though he’d never smoked until he learned his death was inevitable and immediate)?