Feeling good, and I'm getting close to the end of treatments.

Oh, that's so good to read.

As for me, well, technically, I'm safe and there's practically no danger here. But Israel is so tiny, it's impossible not to know people who live in the north, soldiers in either mandatory or reserve duty, or both. So things are stressed and difficult and all sorts of words that look strange around posts about dark chocolate and cartoons and even bacon. Thanks for the thoughts. We could use every bit we could get.

I'm teaching two new classes this year

Which classes?

Last year I taught Freshman and Sophomore English. This year, I'm teaching Freshman and Senior English, and an elective -- Appreciation of Literature.

Wasn't it a father-child relationship in Nemo?

Yeah, that's what I mean. There are a lot of father-son relationships in animated films, but mother-child not so much. I'm just pondering this. Wondering if the mother-child narrative is so culturally set that it doesn't allow as much freedom for the creators? Or just too many guys in the cultural production biz?

Sleeping Beauty has the most archetypal fucked-up stepmother-child relationship, but I'm thinking that's not exactly what you meant, Hec.

Heh. I was looking for positive mother-child narratives. Or at least not overtly negative. But again the stepmother-child recurrence suggests that mother-child narratives are somewhat closed.

Certainly you see a lot of mother-child dynamics in recurring series (Joyce and Buffy!) and in serious literature and I'd guess chick lit type novels. But in kids movies/animation, it seems less common.

Or possibly I'm just not thinking of any.

and an elective -- Appreciation of Literature.

Well that's kind of narrow.

Nilly, I would be a terrible Jew. I have tattoos, and I like bacon too much.

Hey! That's the kind of terrible Jew I am!

Hee. Yeah, I know. We're going to read Oedipus Rex, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirely Jackson, The House of the Spirits -- Isabel Allende, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Bastard OUt of Carolina by Dorothy Allison, and The Great Gatsby.

I love all of these books, so I'm looking forward to this class.

Bad Jew, Allyson! BAD JEW!

Mmm. Bacon.

Appreciation of Literature

Um, sorry for the dumb question, but - what does that mean? I mean, I saw the list of the books, but what makes this class something with that name, and not just a general lit class?

Allyson, with all the charity you've coordinated, you can't really be that bad a Jew, tattoos and bacon and all. At least, to my opinion.

Um, sorry for the dumb question, but - what does that mean? I mean, I saw the list of the books, but what makes this class something with that name, and not just a general lit class?

It means nothing, Nilly. I was given a list of classes I could teach as electives, and I picked this one BECAUSE it meant nothing, and therefore, I could make it into whatever I wanted.

And I want to teach these books, and write about them, and do projects based on them. And with TWO new classes this year, I really need to teach books I've read over and over again, so I will be able to actually SLEEP now and again during the school year!

Brad Bird's movies, The Iron Giant and The Incredibles have good mother-child dynamics.