Nonfiction Matters

November 8, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

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I'm reading a fascinating book professor Mary Carruthers called The Book of Memory tinyurl.com/yk8d2au This is a study of what memory meant in the middle ages, and the techniques people used  to store, retrieve, and combine information they held in their brains. The most famous example of this is the "memory palace of Matteo Ricci" (described in a book of that name by Jonathan Spence, www.riccistreet.net/riccigreen/patron/palace.htm). In effect, scholars trained their minds to function as databases, creating visual icons in their minds that allowed them to store and shuffle vast amounts  of information. The parallel to modern computing is self evident. But even as I am learning and comparing eras, Carruthers keeps giving me extra...Read More

November 5, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (5)

Some Books On My Shelf

Did you all catch the article in the Times about new views of the Battle of Agincourt? tinyurl.com/ykg235l If you, or your school, teaches Henry V part one this is a great article to circ, because the whole "Band of Brothers" image of the vastly outnumbered plucky English against the arrogant, aristocratic, French has come under question. I'm no Early Modern or military history expert, and the article makes clear that there are competing views, some still see the battle as Shakespeare did. But what is wonderful about this piece is it shows how our views of the past are changing. In this case, because of detailed archival work -- instead of building up a sense of the past only, or mainly, from written accounts (thus generally by men attached in some way to power -- the church, the nobilit...Read More

November 3, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (10)

The HF Seminar Clarified Something For Me -- And I Hope For You -- About K-12 Nonfiction

As we discussed historical fiction, I suddenly came to understand the fundamental problem with nonfiction, especially for upper middle grade and high school aged readers. Lets divide up our audience and look at what each segment wants out of NF and thus what criteria they use to evaluate it.

Readers

Utility
Many young readers of NF want information -- for reports, hobbies, job or college prospects, to help with some physical, psychological, biological, issue, etc. The more a book presents clear, useful, well organized information in a language and design that speaks effectively to the reader without either patronizing or overwhelming her, the better. 
Story
Some readers want to page-turning accounts of heroes, role mo...Read More

November 2, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (3)

Both

I selected the passages from March because I see in them examples of what I treasure as well as what I dislike in HF. Oddly enough the same book, even the same paragraph epitomized both ends of the HF spectrum -- to my eyes. Like Mary, I found that whole first excerpt up through the word "shards" to be a marvel. It exemplified what Greenblatt said of Mantell. Brooks combined visual description with such a deep sense of time that the supposed moment of writing was not only reflected in word choices ("slough," "obelisk") but in the very character of the world the narrator was seeing and describing. Perhaps Brooks had some period photo or engraving to use as reference, but she was not merely describing it with a few period terms like a reenacter wearing a costume, she was inhabiting that world, seeing it with the worn, dashed-id...Read More

October 30, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Some Links, Courtesy of Monica

My Travels With Alice -- talk she gave at a conference we both attended

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