― David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day
AGENDA:
Natalie Goldberg exercise--brainstorming for autobiographical essay.
Go to:
http://keepwriting.net/prompts.htm
Continue to read Me Talk Pretty One Day
THINK, PAIR, SHARE:
Discuss and post a reply to questions 1-4.
Begin to work on your own autobiographical "Sedaris" essay. What techniques that Sedaris uses can you use as you write your own essay? (Refer back to previous posts)
1. What
better place to start a discussion of a Sedaris book than with the parts
you find the funniest? Which parts make you LOL (laugh out loud)?
2.
Are there sections of the book you feel are snide or mean-spirited?
Perhaps his criticism of Americans who visit Europe dressed "as if
you've come to mow its lawns." Or perhaps the piece about his stint as a
writing teacher. Is petulance a part of Sedaris's schtick...his charm?
3.
Talk about the Sedaris family, in particular his parents. How do they
come across? Whom does he feel closest to? Sedaris makes an interesting
statement about his father: it was a mystery that "a man could father
six children who shared absolutely none of his interests." Is that
unusual?
4.
David Sedaris is a descendant of Woody Allen's brand of humor—personal
idiosyncrasies or neuroses raised to an art form. What does Sedaris
reveal about himself, his insecurities, angst, secret hostilities, and
do you find those parts funny or somewhat touching, even sad? Actually,
do you like Sedaris as he reveals himself in his book?
5. Sedaris has a number of obvious biases. Identify at least two of them and explain why this bias may exist for him.
6.
Sedaris uses humor to touch on several sensitive topics, homosexuality
for instance. Does this comic tone take away from these issues? Does the
fact that he makes light of these issues make them easier to discuss?
7.
Several essays begin with a flashback to an earlier time in Sedaris's
life, which generally sets up the topic for the essay. Discuss how
Sedaris uses this mechanism to continue the themes of
growth/self-improvement and self versus society through the book.
8.
A number of significant places are discussed in this book, but France
is particularly important. Discuss how Sedaris's perception of American
life has changed after moving to France.
9.
Sedaris writes of his encounters with several different people, and how
these people altered his perception of the world and/or himself.
Identify at least two of these important people. Discuss how and why
Sedaris's perception changed because of this person.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete1.What better place to start a discussion of a Sedaris book than with the parts you find the funniest? Which parts make you LOL (laugh out loud)?
ReplyDeleteThe parts I found the funniest were David’s Billie Holiday impression. Listening to the audio, I really heard how much he sounded like Billie. I could only imagine Mister Manici’s face after hearing David sing. Another funny part of the book was the Rooster. The character was reckless, and spoke his mind, which was admirable and hilarious. David’s impression of the Rooster made it even funnier, the high pitch voice, strong country accent was pleasantly jarring.
2. Are there sections of the book you feel are snide or mean-spirited? Perhaps his criticism of Americans who visit Europe dressed "as if you've come to mow its lawns." Or perhaps the piece about his stint as a writing teacher. Is petulance a part of Sedaris's schtick...his charm?
As much as the light-hearted humor is an attempt to mask it most of Sedaris’s essays are snide. He pokes at the flaws in his school, the kids who attend it. He talks of how much he hated his teachers, his French instructor. His family undergoes a lot of scrutiny; however, he is most snide when discussing himself. He hates his voice, his awkwardness, his inability to learn fast, his lisp, and how he is not like “other boys”. No matter the subject most of his essays circle back to a personal flaw of his own. This being one of the reason Sedaris’ humor is so universal, because the joke is always on him. No one could be offended; he creates himself as a loveable character who can’t seem to catch a break.
3. Talk about the Sedaris family, in particular his parents. How do they come across? Whom does he feel closest to? Sedaris makes an interesting statement about his father: it was a mystery that "a man could father six children who shared absolutely none of his interests." Is that unusual?
David’s family comes across as a middle class family that is just trying to get by. There are many children, so sometimes it seems David falls between the cracks. David’s mother comes across as loving, but occupied. His father a smart man, full of potential, who somehow got caught up in the life of a middle class man, kids, a wife, and a job. Sedaris discusses this in Giant Dreams, Midget Abilities, in which he fails at guitar, or quits. In this essay, we learn about his father’s love for Jazz and how he disappears into the music, as if he is escaping from his everyday life.
4. David Sedaris is a descendant of Woody Allen's brand of humor—personal idiosyncrasies or neuroses raised to an art form. What does Sedaris reveal about himself, his insecurities, angst, secret hostilities, and do you find those parts funny or somewhat touching, even sad? Actually, do you like Sedaris as he reveals himself in his book?
I think Sadaris’ self-depreciative humor is his best attempt to appeal to the audience’s pathos. It is not obvious, at first you think he is trying to get a laugh, which he may be, but as you go on you can see he is serious, these things did really happen to him. As the reader, you begin to see his humor as a coping mechanism. As humans we are usually our worst critic, he is an example of this. Though very intimate and at times uncomfortable Sadris’ humor connects to people because perhaps we have similar thoughts about ourselves.
1. One of the parts that made me laugh in the book were one of the first few chapters where he was forced to get guitar lessons. The way the guitar instructor was characterized and described made it more all the funny. The part about naming his guitar made me chuckle but my favorite part about this section Is Mr. Mancini’s reaction when he heard David sing.
ReplyDelete2.
3. His father is very pushy in a sense. He wants and pushes all his kids to do things he wants them to do rather than what they want to do themselves. One example, as talked about in the first question, is making them take instrument lessons. None of them wanted to play the instruments they were given but their father pushed it onto them because of a band he loved.
4. He reveals his insecurities about his when he had his speech impediment when he talks about the “agent” that would take him from his classroom and how he would be embarrassed when his teacher would announce it to the whole class and how he would avoid words with the S sound and replace them with other words when he could.