DWC - Some Resources

I just started reading yesterday, so I've a bit of catching up to do. I did start by doing a bit of exploring. Here are some sites you may enjoy looking at.

World's Columbian Exposition of 1893: Digital History Collection
This site has photos and other images. If you click on The Dream City you can look at the Fair buildings, art and sculpture and more. The Highlights link also has a variety of interesting materials, like photos of the construction and destruction of the Fair.

The World's Columbian Exposition: Idea, Experience, Aftermath
This is a hypertext exploration of the Fair.

Here are two sites for learning more about the author and the book.
NPR Interview with Scott Simon
Interview with the Author (Answers to questions on the book's web site).

I read a bit of the conversation in the comments about the classification of the book. This is what I would call creative nonfiction. It reminds me a bit of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt. It is written to read like fiction, but is thoroughly researched.

Devil in White City Questions

Burnham


Sketches of Holmes ->

1. In what ways is this nonfiction book like a novel? Is it more satisfying to read fiction or nonfiction?

I find fiction more satisfying because there is a story, a plot, with action that I need to imagine in order to understand and enjoy. With non-fiction I need a visual report of the actual people and places, so with this book I have done a lot of googling for images of the Chicago fair.

2. What have you found out so far about Chicago, the Fair, and the two men: Burnham and Holmes? I have found daguerotypes of photos of the fairgrounds. I also am looking for pictures of the people involved in the building of the fair. This picture is landscape architect Fredrich Olmsted.

DWC-DQ ~ Part I ~ Frozen Music

We're really just getting started, and the discussion questions I've found online mostly ask us to look at the whole book. Too soon for that, so here's a broad question ... or two. Before you answer the first question, you may want to see (in the comments section below) what Shelley and Mary and I have been talking about.

1. In what ways is this nonfiction book like a novel? Is it more satisfying to read fiction or nonfiction?

2. What have you found out so far about Chicago, the Fair, and the two men: Burnham and Holmes?

DWC ~ getting to know Burnham & Root

Daniel Burnham and his partner John Root "were Chicago's leading architects" (p. 14). I enjoyed a couple of paragraphs on page 27, one about Root and the other about how they operated their business. I think I would have liked these fellows:

Root played the organ every Sunday morning at the First Presbyterian Church. ... He had a sly sense of humor. One Sunday morning he played the organ with a particular gravity. It was a while before anyone noticed he was playing "Shoo, Fly."

Each man recognized and respected the other's skills. The resultant harmony was reflected in the operation of their office ... Burnham also created an office culture that anticipated that of businesses that would not appear for another century. He installed a gym. During lunch hour employees played handball. Burnham gave fencing lessons. Root played impromptu recitals on a rented piano. "The office was full of a rush of work ... but the spirit of the place was delightfully free and easy and human in comparison with other offices..."

I wonder what they would have thought of our Essencia Island. Ha! As you can see, I haven't gotten very far into the book, but I thought I'd share what I'd found.

Windfalls Art Tie-In

In the Spring 2008 issue of Ms. is an article about artist Barbara Carrasco whose art work deals with skin color and oppression most specifically as it has impacted the Chicana community. One of her featured works is her 1978 "Pregnant Woman in a Ball of Yarn". I tried to Google this to include a link to the work, but had no luck. The lithograph is of a naked pregnant woman entrapped in a ball of yarn with a knitted baby bootie shown as well as an ominous knitting needle. The article descibes the work stating that the artist: "tackles the issue of unwanted pregnancy and the inevitable invisibility, entrapment and social isolation of young unwed mothers. One of her most renowned and haunting images, it captures the economic immobilization experienced by young, poor women of color who find themselves pregnant with no, or very little, emotional support. At the same time, it flies in the face of the sanctification of motherhood by Mexican and Chicana/o culture."

Both the lithograph and the description of it reminded me of Windfalls. Although both of the women in the book were probably white, many of the issues were the same. However, neither faced the "sanctification of motherhood" in their culture nor the religious issue of abortion except Cherise's connection through the clinic. Our discussions really never hit with much depth on the pregnancy decisions nor on how these issues impact different cultural groups.

A little late for the book's discussion, but the article especially this artwork was more meaningful to me because I had read Windfalls.

I figured out how to do a new post!

Question...off to the right of the blog down to the bottom it says a list of "Our Participants" and for me it says Loren, Lori. They are not underlined. Also, I wondered how Loren (that is my name but I do not think I entered it anywhere) got there. Then below that it says "Our Profiles" and my "Lj" is there with a link line there. I wondered how I can get the top area to have a link line!

Did that make sense?

Thanx!
Lj

Windfalls "Into the Flux" Discussion Questions

What depressing things have you picked up in the book? What positive things?

Depressing things I noticed once I'd finished this section are Anna having to consider aborting a baby that she really wants because her husband has lost his job and the family might have to move and Cerise having a troublesome teenage while in school with a toddler at home and not very much money.

Positive things I noticed are Anna's love for her husband, daughter, the place where they live, and her photographs--she sees beauty in a lot of things, and Cerise's love for her children and her hopes for a better future for all of them--she won't give up.

What do you think will come of this fight between Cerise and Melody about the battery?

I think that Melody, being the contrary teenage she is and loving her little brother, will take the battery from the fire alarm to replace the one in his toy, forgetting or choosing not to put a new battery in the fire alarm afterwards. This seems to foreshadow the possibility of a fire in the trailer which they won't be warned about, perhaps leading to dire consequences.