Mental Library: Lenses: Biographical*

Hello, Friends!

It's good to be back! I'm sorry I've been so behind on posts lately. I do not have a ton of time to write posts due to other circumstances.

Anyways, today we are looking at the Biographical critical lens. The biographical lens is similar to the Historical lens, but instead of looking at how the time period when the book was written affected it, you look at how the author's life affected the work.

I don't have a specific example for today, but you can look at:

• Events in the author's life

This means tragic events, such as deaths, happy events, such as weddings, etc.

• The author's views of certain subjects

So, if the author lived during the war, did his/her view of the war accidentally creep into his/her writing? Or was it on purpose?

What books have you read that would be interesting to analyze with the biographical lens?

Spruce Nogard

*Post actually written on June 23rd. See here for details.

Attributions: https://pixabay.com/en/gravestone-cross-church-churchyard-2393390/

Mental Library: Lenses: Historical

Hello, Historians!

Today, we are talking about the Historical Lens.

The historical lens looks at the events that were taking place in history when the book was written and sees if those events influenced the book.

For example, we are going to use The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss. (To continue our theme of using children's books to illustrate lenses.)

Here is a link to the full book with pictures if you would like: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7jXFQxsH7wNMi1ZSHZ3MEkxcjg/edit

If you would rather, here's the summary. However, be warned; Dr. Seuss books in summary never sound nearly as interesting or as good as they actually are. I mean, what children's book does?

Yooks live on one side of the wall, and eat their bread with butter-side-up. Zooks live on the other side of the wall and eat their bread with butter-side-down. Because of this, they hate each other, and always have guards at the wall watching the other side. A Zook breaks a Yook's weapon, and they each go back and get bigger and bigger weapons. The book ends with them both standing on the wall threatening to drop a terrible bomb on the other side.

In order to analyze this book historically, we need to know when it was written: 1984.

We can see, then, that the Cold War and arms race was happening. Suddenly the book makes a lot more sense, right?

It basically shows everyone how silly it is to keep getting bigger weapons and threatening each other, especially over such a stupid thing. So, what is Dr. Seuss trying to say about the Cold War/arms race?

This is a fairly common example of the historical lens, and I remember hearing it somewhere. Obviously, people have thought of this before.

The Butter Battle Book is a really simple, straightforward example, but not all books are. You can look at how the history of the time period influenced the writing, setting, characters, etc. Some books you may have to really look for the historical influence to find it.

What books have you read that would be easy to analyze through the historical lens? What books would be hard?

Spruce Nogard

Sources:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7jXFQxsH7wNMi1ZSHZ3MEkxcjg/edit

http://www.historytoday.com/john-swift/soviet-american-arms-race

Attributions: https://www.amazon.com/Butter-Battle-Book-Notable-Classic/dp/0394865804

Mental Library: Lenses: Marxism

Greetings, Friends!

This is a book a teacher I know used to show Marxism.

Today, we are talking about Marxism. The Marxist lens looks at how money and power play into the story. Some questions related to this are: Who has the power? How does that affect the rest of the story?

By the way, this information is coming from my English class. :)

You can use the Marxist lens to:

• Suggest that the author is making specific comments on society
• Use the Marxist lens to explain why something happened
• There are other ways to use the Marxist lens; these are just two

Think of books you might be able to analyze through this lens. Have fun exploring new ideas!

Spruce Nogard

Attributions: https://www.amazon.com/Dog-Read-Myself-Beginner-Books/dp/0394800206/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1491178179&sr=1-1&keywords=go+dog+go

Mental Library: Lenses: Feminism

Hello, Friends!

Today, we are starting a new series. I may still add to the postmodernism series, but, well, this is an exciting topic. I came across it as one of my ideas in my blog journal I had forgotten about.

Critical lenses are lenses literature can be viewed through. Lenses are kind of like putting on a pair of glasses, for example, a green-tinted pair of glasses would make everything look green, a pink pair of glasses would make everything look pink, and so on. Postmodernism is actually also a critical lens. Remember, also like a pair of glasses, just because we are analyzing a piece of literature through this lens does not mean that that is the main message of the book, or even that that is the correct (if there is a correct) interpretation of the book. Just like wearing green tinted glasses doesn't make everything actually green, it just makes everything look green, like Dorothy finds out. :)

The feminist critical lens looks for the balance of power and role of women, particularly highlighting the oppression of women. Many princess fairy tales can be viewed through this lens. Now, I'm not attacking fairy tales, or saying this is absolutely how they have to be seen all the time. This is just one way to look at them. For example, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Cinderella are all rescued by men. They seemingly have no power to control their own destiny, and can only be saved by men. This is just a very simple feminist critique of these fairy tales. Someone posted an article on Twitter arguing why Cinderella shouldn't be seen like this, which. . .well, I can see both sides. Lands Uncharted first brought my attention to it. If you want to read it, click here. (BEWARE: Swearing is used in this article.)

On the other hand, Scarlet, the second book in the Lunar Chronicles, features Scarlet, an amazingly strong woman. Go read it. Analyzing Scarlet through the feminist lens portrays the main character to stand up for herself and not just let men come in and save her.

Another example of a woman saving a man is also in fairy tales. In many fairy tales, the woman has to somehow free her beloved. The most commonly known fairy tale of this is the "Frog Prince."

Try analyzing something through the feminist lens, then post about your experience in the comments!

Spruce Nogard

Attributions:

https://www.amazon.com/Scarlet-Marissa-Meyer/dp/0312642962/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1485662059&sr=1-6

https://pixabay.com/en/frog-king-fairytale-frog-tale-153168/ 

https://pixabay.com/en/sunglasses-sun-protection-526570/