Author: Rebecca

Our arrival here, in Chester and on Tancook, seemed sprinkled with good omens, in that we happened to run into Gary as he was coming off the 1:30 ferry that would turn around and take us to Tancook at 3:40, and then I had already called Carolyn and arranged for Lee to pick us and our luggage up at the wharf, so he was the first person I saw when the ferry steamed into northwest cove,  and a very welcome sight he was, looking exactly the same as I remembered.

Before we even had a chance to load up all our gear, I heard a young voice with the broad accent of the island (that Roger and Helene’ later said is actually old Canadian) bemoaning the fact that someone who had sent him an empty box on the earlier ferry this time had sent him the part (for something on his fishing boat) but obviously a used part, “old enough to be an antique,” he said. He could probably sell it as such, he said, on the local version of ebay or craigslist and get more than the part they should have sent him was worth.

What was so delightful to me was that as soon as I heard him speak I knew who he was, or rather I knew whose kid he was ~Lee and Carolyn’s, our friends on Tancook that we met on our first visit seven years ago. I looked toward the voice and sure enough ~ he has her coloring and (at the time) acerbic tone of voice combined with Lee’s build and industrious nature.

His name is Leslie but, with the exception of his accent, which I find incredibly appealing, he looks and acts like a young Adam Sandler. The same kind of mixture of smartass and subtle humor that sneaks up on you.

For instance, after we’d taken our gear up to the cottage and got settled in, Lee came back and picked us up and we went to Caroline’s for dinner. After we’d eaten, Leslie came in and sat down still grousing about the part that had first been nonexistent and then antique. Carolyn chided him for his language, but with a look that was clearly loving, and indulgent at Leslie’s quiet response that he’d a right to curse a bit, after the day he’d had.

One of the topics of conversation before he came in had been about how best to get this cast off my arm. James and Roger already said that they would cut it off with tin snips, comes the day, and I had joked with them before we ever got to the island that if that didn’t work Lee would figure out some way to get the silly thing off (I’ve yet to see a practical problem he won’t tackle and very few that he fails to solve, one way or another). And sure enough, upon hearing when it was meant to come off (and that I didn’t want to have to go to the mainland and clear into Halifax or Bridgewater to get it taken off) he suggested slipping a thin piece of metal underneath the cast and then using a grinder of some sort to cut through it and take it off. Leslie could do it, he said.

So when Leslie came in and sat down, ready for a supper (of whatever was easiest, he said), Lee asked him about it ~ couldn’t he just slip a thin piece of metal into the cast and then cut through it with the grinder?

Leslie said, in that delightful broad accent of his, “you wouldn’t even need the metal. The cast is purple, and what’s under is white. All you need to do is cut through the purple and stop when you get to the white.”

And Roger (who is also a funny fellow) said to him, laughing, “and what about if you get to the red?”

Leslie snapped right back with, “well, if you get to the red, you have to keep going another 3 inches and see where you come out!”

(still using MacSpeech for most of this, so forgive the errors I don’t catch ~ thanks! also, posting for the next little bit by creating posts and saving them until I get to a place where I can get internet access ~ mainly, the mainland 😉

It’s Wednesday, July 20, 2011 and my first full day on big Tancook Island. We arrived Monday afternoon early enough to get a snack, pickup some few odd and ends like coffee and bread for toast in the morning before catching the ferry at 3:40 ~

Since the last time we were here, it hardly seems like it could be seven years ago but it has been, the ferry has stopped running every hour and has cut down the schedule to four trips a day ~ basically, 2 early in the morning, and 2 later in the afternoon. Of course there are extra ones on Friday evenings, just as it used to be, for those who might like to go out and take in a show, run into Halifax for dinner etc.

But as I say it my first full day on the island, because yesterday Helene’ and I went into town ~I should say took the ferry onto the mainland ~to get groceries, supplies for the next two weeks. And it was fun, running around town, trying to get everything we needed and still make it back for the last ferry at 5:30 ~ there a couple things we didn’t do, but nothing that can’t wait until Friday when there is a farmers market I want to check out.

… and here it is Thursday, July 21, and I’m just getting back to this blog entry. The island keeps calling me away ~to take a walk, sit on the deck, and continually breathe in the sights, sounds, tastes and textures of the sea.

Even with this cast on my hand, humidity that comes of sea mist is ever welcome, a balm to my soul, a refreshing of my mind and heart. It is so beautiful and peaceful and still, here on the island.

I should know better ~

On Wednesday a reporter from The Exponent emailed me.

Rabecca Longster,

Hi, my name is Lauren and I am emailing on behalf of The Exponent. I am writing a piece for Friday and I heard you teach the Harry Potter books for your english course. I was wondering if you would be wiling to do a phone interview or meet with me sometime today or tomorrow. Please let me know. Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you soon.

To which I replied:

Hi Lauren ~

I’m sorry, but I’m not in town currently (or even in the country ~ I’m in Quebec) but I would be happy to answer any questions you have about the series, etc. via email or ichat ~

Best wishes ~

Rebecca

To which she replied:

Hi Rebecca,

Okay, well I have put the questions below. Thank you so much. Also, this story is running tomorrow so if you could get back to me as soon as possible that would be great. Thank you.

Fine. No problem, right? So I spent an hour or so composing these answers, and the “article” that came out today? “my” statements in the article bear almost no resemblance to what I really said and emphasized as important.

In case you’re interested, what I actually said was as follows:

Hi Lauren ~

Sure, no worries ~ I know all about deadlines 😉
——
Why did you chose to teach Harry Potter for your class?
I initially chose Harry Potter for my English 108 classes because I admired the series so much ~ not just the content of the series itself, the engaging storyline, the well drawn characters, and so on, but also because I had seen for myself how the series caused a resurgence in reading for pleasure not only for children in the target age group but also for adults who, before Harry Potter, did not read as a leisure pastime. Also, the students were enthusiastic about the idea, some of them having “grown up with” Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

Why a book series, specifically Harry Potter, for an advanced composition class?
It’s difficult to teach only one book from a series, and that is especially true of the Harry Potter series because ~ while each book has its own story arc, providing a definitive beginning, plot, complication, rising action, climax and dénouement ~ the overarching plot and story arc take place across all seven of the books, with the series itself being uniquely structured like a book.

By that, I mean that the first three novels build in intensity up to the fourth book which one can think of as the “spine” of the story. Book Four: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is, indeed, the axis upon which the series turns from a fairy tale/child’s fantasy to a darker more adult fantasy tale. In fact, significant literary criticism has been written on the fact that many components of the final three novels mirror events, places, objects, and character interaction of the first three (hence, the 4th book, in the center, is the spine in both a figurative and a literal sense within the world of the story).

How did you incorporate that into your advanced composition course?
In advanced composition class, the emphasis is upon learning to write well about most any subject, even those that are unique and out of the ordinary. I’m also of the opinion that students, including adult students, learn more and retain what they have learned longer when the material is presented to them in a way that’s fun. Harry Potter is nothing if not fun.

The Harry Potter series lends itself particularly well to the contemporary composition classroom inasmuch as there is not only a wealth of content in the books themselves for students to draw upon but also a wealth of literary antecedents to write about, opportunities to create projects that are “composed” in media other than print, illustrating visual rhetoric, for example (the first project in my class was a visual rhetoric project, and the last one q multimedia project ~ and I don’t mean PowerPoint presentation).

What themes or motifs did you find important in the series for college
students?
Since I taught from a “writing through literature” perspective, identifying literary strategies and devices, like the author’s use of themes and motifs, and tracing them through a particular novel or the series as a whole was in itself important to my students’ experience in critical writing and composition. In fact, I had several final papers from  students in my Harry Potter classes that could easily have been shaped into publishable articles, the students had put so much time and thought into them. I also had several students who presented visual rhetoric projects, most of which were not about Harry Potter, at the Spring 2010 iCaP Showcase (one of whom won the “Judges Choice,” I believe it was, for a video he created).

I know you taught only the 4 through the 7th books in your class, why did you choose to do that rather than the whole series?
Actually, I taught books 1 through 4 through the first two semesters, and then changed to teaching books 4 through 7 during the last semester that I taught 108, again choosing to include Book 4 in both cases because it is the “center” of the story. I would have loved to have taught all seven books in each class ~ and if it had been a literature class, I would have done ~ but in a composition class there is so much else one needs to teach in addition to the texts themselves, “composing” in unconventional or nontraditional media, for instance, that there just isn’t time for the students to do a close reading of seven novels. In fact, I would love to design a literature course that focuses on the entire series, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen for me, at least not here at Purdue.

Anything else you would like to add?
Anything else I would like to add ~ hmmmm. Well, as the eighth and final movie debuts this weekend, I can only hope that the movie does justice to the characters, events, and revelations of the final book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Rowling was able to fulfill the promises made by the series to two very disparate audiences ~ the adults who saw Harry’s death foreshadowed so many times and the children who were expecting (and rightly so) the fairy tale ending of “and they lived happily ever after” ~  in the final book, and did so in a way that was eminently satisfying to both audiences. I simply hope that the movie honors that.
——————-

Well, there you go. Sorry it’s so long ~occupational hazard for writers and teachers, and I’m both :-).

You’re welcome to use the Q & A verbatim, if you like ~ but if you need it shorter, I hope you’re able to distill it down into whatever length you need without losing the message ~good editing practice, right? 🙂

I also hope you enjoy that movie ~ I hope we all do! 🙂 have a most excellent weekend.

Best wishes ~
Rebecca Longster

That’s the second time someone from the Exponent has taken what I said out of context and completely changed the tone and, indeed, the meaning ~ the significance ~ of what I actually said into some inane nonsense they could have made up themselves.

Next time, they can just skip the interview entirely and do that ~ sans attaching my name to it.