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RE: Up for Discussion: How I Became a Ghost
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From: Reid, Robert A. <REIDRA_at_uwec.edu>
Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2014 18:09:20 +0000
I was just re-reading Nick Glass's interview with Tim Tingle in the April 2012 issue of LibrarySparks. Tingle mentioned that aspiring authors need to fill in their writing time gaps with reading. Go back to Chaucer and Shakespeare. "How much Western civilization and writing that comes from it come from Shakespeare? We need to know that even as American Indian people." And then Tingle goes on to add, "Within our tribal cultures, we need to go back to the old people and listen to their stories as closely as possible." Thinking back, I can see some of the supernatural aspects of Shakespeare (the veil between the living and the supernatural world), as well as Shakespearean themes, along with American Indian folklore and history, in the telling of Issac's story.
Another aspect of the interview that intrigued me was Tim's experience telling a story about the Trail of Tears at a storytelling festival and folks walking out. "It just shook my back teeth. But they walked out because I had started off by talking about the distribution of smallpox blankets to reduce the population of the people on the Trail of Tears." He later reshaped the story by opening it with a first-person perspective of a ten-year-old boy and focusing on the story with his p.o.v. "Then the soldiers come and the houses are burned. By the time you're swept up into the history part of the story, you really care about these people." If author Tingle takes part in this discussion, I'd like to hear more about the shaping of the book, particularly the storytelling incident.
Rob Reid University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
From: Merri Lindgren [mailto:mlindgren_at_education.wisc.edu] Sent: Monday, February 17, 2014 11:44 AM To: ccbc-net ccbc-net Subject: Re: [ccbc-net] Up for Discussion: How I Became a Ghost
Like KT, I was struck by the way that spiritual or supernatural elements of this story were presented with an accepting and matter-of-fact tone. Ghosts of friends and family being able to communicate to the living, or a boy transforming into a panther, were important but not surprising to the rest of the characters. That tone fascinated me and kept me glued to the page just as much as wanting to see how Isaac's story would play out. It didn't decrease the dramatic tension at all, but it did provide a sense of comfort and continuity during a time of such upheaval and horror.
Merri
Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2014 18:09:20 +0000
I was just re-reading Nick Glass's interview with Tim Tingle in the April 2012 issue of LibrarySparks. Tingle mentioned that aspiring authors need to fill in their writing time gaps with reading. Go back to Chaucer and Shakespeare. "How much Western civilization and writing that comes from it come from Shakespeare? We need to know that even as American Indian people." And then Tingle goes on to add, "Within our tribal cultures, we need to go back to the old people and listen to their stories as closely as possible." Thinking back, I can see some of the supernatural aspects of Shakespeare (the veil between the living and the supernatural world), as well as Shakespearean themes, along with American Indian folklore and history, in the telling of Issac's story.
Another aspect of the interview that intrigued me was Tim's experience telling a story about the Trail of Tears at a storytelling festival and folks walking out. "It just shook my back teeth. But they walked out because I had started off by talking about the distribution of smallpox blankets to reduce the population of the people on the Trail of Tears." He later reshaped the story by opening it with a first-person perspective of a ten-year-old boy and focusing on the story with his p.o.v. "Then the soldiers come and the houses are burned. By the time you're swept up into the history part of the story, you really care about these people." If author Tingle takes part in this discussion, I'd like to hear more about the shaping of the book, particularly the storytelling incident.
Rob Reid University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
From: Merri Lindgren [mailto:mlindgren_at_education.wisc.edu] Sent: Monday, February 17, 2014 11:44 AM To: ccbc-net ccbc-net Subject: Re: [ccbc-net] Up for Discussion: How I Became a Ghost
Like KT, I was struck by the way that spiritual or supernatural elements of this story were presented with an accepting and matter-of-fact tone. Ghosts of friends and family being able to communicate to the living, or a boy transforming into a panther, were important but not surprising to the rest of the characters. That tone fascinated me and kept me glued to the page just as much as wanting to see how Isaac's story would play out. It didn't decrease the dramatic tension at all, but it did provide a sense of comfort and continuity during a time of such upheaval and horror.
Merri
-- Merri Lindgren, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) School of Education / UW-Madison 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 N. Park Street Madison, WI 53706 608-263-3930 You are currently subscribed to ccbc-net as: reidra_at_uwec.edu<mailto:reidra_at_uwec.edu>. To post to the list, send message to... ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu<mailto:ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu> To receive messages in digest format, send a message to... ccbc-net-request_at_lists.wisc.edu<mailto:ccbc-net-request_at_lists.wisc.edu> ...and include only this command in the body of the message... set ccbc-net digest CCBC-Net Archives The CCBC-Net archives are available to all CCBC-Net listserv members. The archives are organized by month and year. A list of discussion topics (including month/year) is available at... http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/ccbcnet/archives.asp To access the archives, go to... http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/ccbc-net ...and enter the following when prompted... username: ccbc-net password: Look4Posts --- You are currently subscribed to ccbc-net as: ccbc-archive_at_post.education.wisc.edu. To post to the list, send message to: ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu To receive messages in digest format, send a message to... ccbc-net-request_at_lists.wisc.edu ...and include only this command in the body of the message: set ccbc-net digest CCBC-Net Archives The CCBC-Net archives are available to all CCBC-Net listserv members. The archives are organized by month and year. A list of discussion topics (including month/year) is available at http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/ccbcnet/archives.asp To access the archives, go to: http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/ccbc-net and enter the following: username: ccbc-net password: Look4PostsReceived on Mon 17 Feb 2014 12:10:13 PM CST
