I really liked the writing of Giovanni’s room, but it did make me very deeply sad. Some of the lines were so poignant and true, which is always bittersweet. Our discussions were interesting as well, there is so much that can be analyzed in this book that it is hard to focus on any one thing. That’s why I’m writing my second essay on it, because it seems so open for interpretation.
Giovanni’s Room was a book that really stuck with me. This was the first book in a really long time that stuck with me like that. Within about two chapters, I was crying and overall I just felt very connected to this book. It feels so real and raw and sad, it just made me so sad. It felt like it went beyond a story, it was a connection to historical trauma on the LGBTQ community that went through so many layers and I feel very glad to have read this book.
My takeaway from this week is understanding David as a main character. I had never thought about how his narration would be unreliable and I was interested in where the conversation was headed when this subject was brought up. It is also interesting to think about how much David ruined Giovanni, yet through David’s narration this is not obvious at first glance. I am glad that, as a class, we read through some parts of the book. It can be easy to miss important details the first time you read a book. Overall, I have enjoyed reading Giovanni’s Room and it has been my favorite book we’ve read this semester.
I enjoyed the ability to do some read-aloud of “Giovanni’s Room.” When I first read it, I was so deeply sucked into the story that I read it in two settings, so hearing it as spoken dialogue helped me sink deeper into some of the more complex prose.
I also enjoyed the discussion we had about David as an unreliable narrator, and am interested in exploring that more.
Something that really stuck out to me this week was our discussion about what kind of a protagonist David is, and more to the fact that he isn’t a good person. He is a good character, and in many ways, he reminds me of Jay Gatsby in his inability to accept his faults and the way he hides behind a character he has invented. I think that novels where it’s unclear if you should even want to root for the main character are really thought-provoking in terms of thinking about the kinds of characters we tend to latch on to. It’s hard to know when reading if a character is someone worth following, and I think David is a perfect example of wanting a character to find some sort of goodness but realizing he is unable to escape his faults.
I really enjoyed reading everyone’s responses to Giovanni’s Room this week and noticing the trends in the words we picked out to represent the novel as a whole. I thought the themes that arose of shame, escape, and uncertainty were both dark and telling of the story, and I had a fun time in my creative writing exercise of trying to flip all of our chosen words to a positive light. This is my favorite book that we’ve read so far, so I can’t wait to discuss it further next week as I’m sure it will make me like it even more. It is making me like David as a character less, however, than I did upon my independent read. As a side note, I am noticing an increase in the energy and fun banter that we have at the beginning of class, and it is a wholesome experience that I’m grateful to have. I like that we can be silly and distracted and switch into having meaningful and academic discussions within the same hour.
I really enjoyed the creative writing exercise in which we incorporated all of the words we chose as most important to “Giovanni’s Room” as a whole. I found that this exercise really helped me understand the essence of the novel and forced me to write in a very emotionally vulnerable way. I’m still thinking about what the piece I wrote says about me, and I look forward to possibly expanding it in the future.
I enjoyed our discussion of Giovanni’s Room this week because although the first read of a book is special in its own way, it was really interesting to start looking at it a second time, hearing different people’s perspectives on the characters, the setting, the plot, etc. and revisiting how Baldwin set up the whole novel in that first chapter. I thought it was so cool when we discussed the passages where David’s narration changes from discussing something personal to something more universal and how that subtly highlighted David’s insecurities as a character. I didn’t pick up on that at all during my first read, so I’m excited to hear all of the cool insights that people will share in future discussions!
The physical act of writing out metaphors and seeing them on the white board was extremely helpful for me. Being able to group the ideas in such a tangible form allowed me to comprehend and organize them in a way that generated more ideas– I began to recognize patterns and thematic elements of the novel in a new light. This week, I felt that we really bounced off of each other and were able to have complex discussions because of this. I am looking forward to next week!
I found our discussion on Giovanni’s room really helpful to changing my attitude towards the characters in the book. When I was reading, I honestly was a bit disinterested in David and wished that we got to see more of Giovanni and the supporting characters. The discussion in class made David more interesting to me and I thought about him and his actions in a deeper way than when I did my initial read. I think David’s self-interest is really persuasive in how he interacts with other characters. I’m really glad I got to learn from my peers this week, because it helped me appreciate the book in a new way.
Our discussion in class really helped me see David in a completely different light that I did while reading Giovanni’s Room. During my read, I felt so invested in his life and felt so deeply bad for him that he was struggling with feeling disgusting in his queerness. I felt I understood the time period and the insecurity that came with being queer and that made me excuse his actions in a way I now realize I don’t think that he deserves. While that didn’t click for me originally, our class discussion made me recognize all of the selfish ways in which David acted and how, even if he was struggling, that doesn’t excuse his disregard for others. It was so clear during class and I’m glad I was able to come to that understanding.
My takeaway this week is how similar all of the books we read were (Fun Home, We the Animals, and Giovanni’s room). While reading them they felt so different between mediums of works of art, stylistically, historically; and even though all those remain true, they all feel connected (other than their theme obviously). They all almost feel frozen in time, where the characters are living through their memories. Where there isn’t much growth in the characters, and how they all feel stuck in the past.
Comparing our discussions between all of these books is also really interesting. Mainly, from the contrast in takeaways we got from each discussion.
This is turning more into an appreciation post, but I really enjoyed all of the books we read! Thank you!
I really liked the writing of Giovanni’s room, but it did make me very deeply sad. Some of the lines were so poignant and true, which is always bittersweet. Our discussions were interesting as well, there is so much that can be analyzed in this book that it is hard to focus on any one thing. That’s why I’m writing my second essay on it, because it seems so open for interpretation.
Giovanni’s Room was a book that really stuck with me. This was the first book in a really long time that stuck with me like that. Within about two chapters, I was crying and overall I just felt very connected to this book. It feels so real and raw and sad, it just made me so sad. It felt like it went beyond a story, it was a connection to historical trauma on the LGBTQ community that went through so many layers and I feel very glad to have read this book.
My takeaway from this week is understanding David as a main character. I had never thought about how his narration would be unreliable and I was interested in where the conversation was headed when this subject was brought up. It is also interesting to think about how much David ruined Giovanni, yet through David’s narration this is not obvious at first glance. I am glad that, as a class, we read through some parts of the book. It can be easy to miss important details the first time you read a book. Overall, I have enjoyed reading Giovanni’s Room and it has been my favorite book we’ve read this semester.
I enjoyed the ability to do some read-aloud of “Giovanni’s Room.” When I first read it, I was so deeply sucked into the story that I read it in two settings, so hearing it as spoken dialogue helped me sink deeper into some of the more complex prose.
I also enjoyed the discussion we had about David as an unreliable narrator, and am interested in exploring that more.
Something that really stuck out to me this week was our discussion about what kind of a protagonist David is, and more to the fact that he isn’t a good person. He is a good character, and in many ways, he reminds me of Jay Gatsby in his inability to accept his faults and the way he hides behind a character he has invented. I think that novels where it’s unclear if you should even want to root for the main character are really thought-provoking in terms of thinking about the kinds of characters we tend to latch on to. It’s hard to know when reading if a character is someone worth following, and I think David is a perfect example of wanting a character to find some sort of goodness but realizing he is unable to escape his faults.
I really enjoyed reading everyone’s responses to Giovanni’s Room this week and noticing the trends in the words we picked out to represent the novel as a whole. I thought the themes that arose of shame, escape, and uncertainty were both dark and telling of the story, and I had a fun time in my creative writing exercise of trying to flip all of our chosen words to a positive light. This is my favorite book that we’ve read so far, so I can’t wait to discuss it further next week as I’m sure it will make me like it even more. It is making me like David as a character less, however, than I did upon my independent read. As a side note, I am noticing an increase in the energy and fun banter that we have at the beginning of class, and it is a wholesome experience that I’m grateful to have. I like that we can be silly and distracted and switch into having meaningful and academic discussions within the same hour.
I really enjoyed the creative writing exercise in which we incorporated all of the words we chose as most important to “Giovanni’s Room” as a whole. I found that this exercise really helped me understand the essence of the novel and forced me to write in a very emotionally vulnerable way. I’m still thinking about what the piece I wrote says about me, and I look forward to possibly expanding it in the future.
I enjoyed our discussion of Giovanni’s Room this week because although the first read of a book is special in its own way, it was really interesting to start looking at it a second time, hearing different people’s perspectives on the characters, the setting, the plot, etc. and revisiting how Baldwin set up the whole novel in that first chapter. I thought it was so cool when we discussed the passages where David’s narration changes from discussing something personal to something more universal and how that subtly highlighted David’s insecurities as a character. I didn’t pick up on that at all during my first read, so I’m excited to hear all of the cool insights that people will share in future discussions!
The physical act of writing out metaphors and seeing them on the white board was extremely helpful for me. Being able to group the ideas in such a tangible form allowed me to comprehend and organize them in a way that generated more ideas– I began to recognize patterns and thematic elements of the novel in a new light. This week, I felt that we really bounced off of each other and were able to have complex discussions because of this. I am looking forward to next week!
I found our discussion on Giovanni’s room really helpful to changing my attitude towards the characters in the book. When I was reading, I honestly was a bit disinterested in David and wished that we got to see more of Giovanni and the supporting characters. The discussion in class made David more interesting to me and I thought about him and his actions in a deeper way than when I did my initial read. I think David’s self-interest is really persuasive in how he interacts with other characters. I’m really glad I got to learn from my peers this week, because it helped me appreciate the book in a new way.
Our discussion in class really helped me see David in a completely different light that I did while reading Giovanni’s Room. During my read, I felt so invested in his life and felt so deeply bad for him that he was struggling with feeling disgusting in his queerness. I felt I understood the time period and the insecurity that came with being queer and that made me excuse his actions in a way I now realize I don’t think that he deserves. While that didn’t click for me originally, our class discussion made me recognize all of the selfish ways in which David acted and how, even if he was struggling, that doesn’t excuse his disregard for others. It was so clear during class and I’m glad I was able to come to that understanding.
My takeaway this week is how similar all of the books we read were (Fun Home, We the Animals, and Giovanni’s room). While reading them they felt so different between mediums of works of art, stylistically, historically; and even though all those remain true, they all feel connected (other than their theme obviously). They all almost feel frozen in time, where the characters are living through their memories. Where there isn’t much growth in the characters, and how they all feel stuck in the past.
Comparing our discussions between all of these books is also really interesting. Mainly, from the contrast in takeaways we got from each discussion.
This is turning more into an appreciation post, but I really enjoyed all of the books we read! Thank you!