[As the leaf-peeping begins in earnest (seriously, that’s a thing we do here in New England), this week’s series has focused on some iconic American
images of the loss of innocence that we so often associate with autumn. This
crowd-sourced post is drawn from the responses and nominations of fellow
FallStudiers—add your autumnal reflections in comments, please!]
Responding to Monday’s post on YA lit, blog commenter JaimeLynn88 writes, “I would put A Summer to Die in this category,
although the death at its core is from cancer, not violence. The loss of
innocence is partly at the distressing notions that kids die and grown-ups
can't fix things, but also Meg's realization that she needs to own and make
peace with her resentment of her formerly-perfect, popular sister before it's
too late. It's sad and scary and responsible for my gut-deep belief that all
nosebleeds are harbingers of leukemia.”
Anna Consalvo nominates another work by Robert Cormier, We All Fall Down. And Anna adds, "An oldie but goodie song, Tom Rush's 'Urge for Going.'"
Anna Consalvo nominates another work by Robert Cormier, We All Fall Down. And Anna adds, "An oldie but goodie song, Tom Rush's 'Urge for Going.'"
Responding to Wednesday’s
post on “The Body” and Stand By Me,
Tim
McCaffrey writes, “This is a very interesting
contrast between the two pieces, and I think each piece works well in its own
way. One interesting thing about Stephen King is that he often writes (wrote)
about the fears that are often ignored in works about childhood (a recent
example that comes to mind after seeing IT
is the amount of courage it takes for a child to walk down into a basement
alone).”
Other Fall nominees:
Jeff
Renye goes with John Cheever’s “The
Swimmer,” and Andrea
Grenadier agrees, “Oh, definitely! Loved the film with Burt Lancaster!” Jeff adds, "As for song, here's a good autumnal/Tolkien crossover."
Andrea also writes, “Fall! The magic word! Taking a page
from my American
Studies hero R.W.B. Lewis, I would say all American literature features
loss of innocence, a fall from grace, and sometimes, redemption. So one of my
favorite Melville stories, "Billy
Budd" does exactly that.”
Tamara “Flash”
Verhyen writes, “I think fall I think Halloween
and so Poe is my go-to this time of year. Also Palahniuk's Haunted is really great. It's like
all his books where you don't really know the full story but this one gives you
different perspectives and the concept is an homage to Shelley, Byron, and
Clairmont getting together to write.”
Shayne Simahk nominates, “Two very different works about falls from
innocence... I really enjoy the poem “The
Lanyard” by Billy Collins. And though perhaps
not scholarly but at least timely, Stephen King's IT, which I actually forced myself to plow through years ago.”
Diego
Ubiera goes with La
Chute (The Fall) by Camus.
Paul Coleman
highlights “Something
Wicked This Way Comes, the OG IT.”
Andrew DaSilva writes, “The Berlin Wall by Frederick Taylor; it's fitting cause the wall fell in
the fall if ya like the play on words there.”
And AnneMarie
Donahue notes, “I might be a weirdo on this one but Half
Hanged Mary always reminds me of fall. And a fall from grace... and a very
fortunate fall for Mary. I mean, sort of.”
Next series starts Monday,
Ben
PS. Any other Fall texts or reflections you’d share?
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