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Some interesting quotes

• To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance. —Oscar Wilde

• Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get.

—George Bernard Shaw

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Unit Two

Text II Gossip

Francine Prose

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• Group presentation

• Detailed study of the text

• Discussion

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Another novel, The Glorious Ones, has been adapted into a musical of the same name by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, which ran at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre at Lincoln Center in New York City in the Fall of 2007. Her latest novel, Golden grove, was published in Sept2008. She is the president of PEN American Center. She lives in New York City.

Francine Prose is the author of many bestselling books of fiction, including A Changed Man and Blue Angel, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and the nonfiction New York Times bestseller Reading Like a Writer. Her novel, Household Saints, was adapted for a movie by Nancy Savoca.

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• How do you understand the word “gossip”?

• Do you like gossiping? Have you been gossiped about?

• If people gossip about you, how do you respond?

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• Siam /sai′æm/ : 暹罗，泰国旧称• Siamese twins: 连体婴，暹罗双胎• More about the Siamese conjoined twins

Chang and Eng (know as the Chinese twins in Siam, now called Thailand):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang_and_Eng_Bunker

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Textual development

• I. Introduction: Paras 1-2 (1) announces the central topic (2) stimulates the reader’s interest

• II. Body: Paras 3 – 9 (1) para 3-7 gossip—social communication # gossip not properly recognized # gossip vs. exchanging information # the author’s definition of gossip # gossip: a synonym for connection (2) para 8 gossip—a tool of understanding (3) para 9 gossip—part of human nature

• III. Conclusion: Para 10 —an echo to the major point

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Questions for discussion

• 1. Why does the author begin her essay

with the small town’s reaction to the

domestic arrangements of a pair of

Siamese twins?

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• Answer for reference

Prose identifies gossip with the community in which it is carried out; it is part of the community, contributing to linking all its members into a whole. The domestic arrangements of the Siamese twins, though an event sensational enough to arouse much town talk, was in the woman’s opinion, incomparable to what had been happening in the town itself. Note that in the quotation of the woman, the words “nothing” and “before” are made prominent by being italicized.

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• 2. How is Prose’s thesis echoed in the concluding paragraph?

• Gossip makes her feel close to those places where she had once lived. What she wants to emphasize is the strength of gossip as the heritage, as the legacy of a certain community.

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• 3. Most people make a distinction between gossiping and exchanging information as Prose’s mother does. Does Prose herself agree to such a distinction? (para. 4)

• No, she doesn’t, although sometimes she seems to be following the trend and making such a distinction. (refer to para.4) Yet the truth is that she is doing so out of the pressure imposed by social strain or simply out of courtesy.

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• 4. What point does Prose want to make by tracing the origin of the word “gossip” in para.6?

• To show that gossip is a synonym for connection, for community. It thus should not be regarded as a word with negative connotations.

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• 5. Why does Prose think gossip’s analytical component is more important?

• To examine why somebody does something contributes to one’s moral development.

• 6. What negative aspect of gossip does Prose touch on near the end of the essay?

• Nosiness. But this is unavoidable for we were all born to be curious.

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What is gossip?• Get the good gossip on any little mountain town, scratch the

surface and you’ll find a snake pit!• Gossip, the juicier the better…• Gossip must be nearly as old as language itself.• …gossip has rarely received its due, its very name connotes

idleness, time-wasting, frivolity and worse. • Gossip is the unacknowledged poor relative of civilized

conversation…• Gossip… predominantly scurrilous, mean-spirited.• I heard my voice distorted by that same false note that

sometimes creeps into it when social strain and some misguided notion of amiability make me assent to opinions I don’t really share.

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What is gossip?• I don’t, … mean rumor-mongering, outright slander,

willful fabrication meant to damage and undermine. • …ordinary gossip, incidents from and analyses of th

e lives of our heroes and heroines, our relatives, acquaintances and friends.

• Paring away its less flattering modern connotations, we discover a kind of synonym for connection, for community, … primary function of gossip.

• … calling it “oral tradition”• …gossip may be the way that most of us learn to tell

stories.

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What is gossip?• … the sole aim of gossip is to criticize, to condemn

(or, frequently, to titillate, to bask in the aura of scandal…

• …gossip as a tool of understanding… the beginning of moral inquiry, first steps toward a moral education. It has always seemed peculiar that a pastime so conducive to the moral life should be considered faintly immoral.

• I don’t mean to deny the role of plain nosiness in all this….

• …it’s part of human nature, of the human community. … it’s that community that is being affirmed.

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What can you infer from the text, particularly the lines above,

regarding Prose’ attitude towards gossip as well as her writing

process?

Prose holds a positive attitude towards gossip, which goes against the grain of the conventional understanding of it. Her writing process reveals

a gradual neutralization of the term ‘gossip’. And this is achieved through conducting a

negotiation with the social convention. She responds to the conventional interpretation 6 times and each time reason her definition of

gossip.

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Negotiating an alternative interpretation

Prose illustrates positive interpretation of gossip in relation to four aspects of social life, what are these four aspects?

Gossip & its etymology or origins Gossip & child developmentGossip & moral education Gossip & community construction

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Gossip & its etymology

‘godsibbe’~ god-parent, relative

what one does with one’s cronies (gossip)

Friends, cronies

Synonym for connection, community

Map our ties, shape our values, and help us get a sense of the world.

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Gossip & child development

PacingTone

Clarityauthenticity

training

techniques

Descriptive component

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Gossip & moral education

Analytical component

A tool of understanding; Moral inquiry about choices, consequences, responsibility & will

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Gossip & community construction

Fulfill the desire for socialization

Social function

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gossip ： vi ， n.

• 1. 流言蜚语，道听途说，内幕，小道，闲言碎语的题材 (rumors about other people ， informal conversation, often about other people's private affair )

# give rise to gossip, market place ...( 街谈巷议） # His infidelities were common gossip… ( 成了人们飞短

流长的题材 ) # (vi) She is above gossiping about her neighbors. ( 不会

在背后议论她的邻居 )

• 2 ．闲聊；漫谈社会新闻（或他人隐私）的文章 (conversation about other people ； talk informally, especially about other people or local events )

# Have a good gossip with a neighbor over the garden fence （和邻居闲聊一番）

# A gossip writer 社会新闻作家 # (vi) I don’t intend to gossip about my sickness. ( 不想随

便谈… )• 3. 爱说长道短的人， a gossip

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• Other uses of gossip

• Gossip column ( 漫谈栏，闲话栏 ) 社会新闻、花絮等

• Gossip columnist = gossipiest

• Gossip monger 散布流言蜚语的人

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• Research work

• Elaboration and comparison

• Some descriptions of gossip in small town's life:

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• L. Beall from http://www.helium.com/items/

361302-thoughts-on-small-town-gossip

• Small town gossip is something that every small town has whether the residents realize it or not. Avoiding gossip when you live in a small town is not possible. The occupants of these towns have very little to do outside of work due to the fact that small towns are just that small with little opportunity for activities outside of the homes. The stores (expect for larger chain stores) usually close early in the evening and there are usually not very many actives to keep the kids occupied.

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• By Jennifer Hall

• I live in a very small town. The population is under a thousand people. I love my hometown. But, I must say the gossip in a small town can be a bit overwhelming at times. I know first hand about stories in the gossip mill ( 磨坊，制造厂 ).

• You see, in a small town everyone knows who you are. This sounds great to some people, but, trust me it really is not. You don't really have a lot of privacy, living in a small town. The gossip mill in my town also only focus on the bad things that happen to you. For some reason, they never tell the good stuff that you have done. It's always bad. Everyone wants to hear a story about someone doing something nice for others, but this rarely happens where I live.

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• by Nadie Gehring• Small towns are the reason for gossip. Just to

o much time on their hands with absolutely nothing better to do then stick their nose in everyone’s business and spread it around like whipped cream.

• They don't only whisper what they heard from Harry who heard it from Gerry who heard it from what’s his face over there. ...you know...they talked about him yesterday, remember? They have to say it loud as to let everyone know who's mouth it came from so they get recognition for having told you the juiciest news of the day.

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• by Debra Herring• • Living in a small rural community has a lot of be

nefits. Privacy, however, is NOT one of them. We lived on a farm, out in the country, one mile from our nearest neighbor. You would think this situation would afford us a certain degree of privacy, but this was not the case.

• That neighbor who lived about a mile away had a back porch(门廊，走廊 ) from which they had a birds-eye view of our farm. The husband didn't seem to be too concerned about our comings and goings, but watching us seemed to be the wife's favorite pastime. She even used binoculars to get a closer look.

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• by Linda L Kinyon• • If you are living in a large city you don't know w

hat you are missing. The pace of life living in a small town is scaled back compared to that of a large city. There is no hustle and bustle of people as you pass each other along the street. Living in a small town is a totally different experience. In a small town everyone knows everyone. Everyone knows everyone's business. Nothing is private. Nothing is confidential and nothing remains a secret for any great length of time. It may take some getting used to that everyone knows everything about you, but in a way I have learned to find it as a comfort not as a nuisance. Besides, what is gossip today will die down tomorrow as it will be someone else's turn in this small town.

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• by Timothy D Heard

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• Thoughts on small town gossip

• Gossip is not always directly related to population size. In small towns, gossip is spread by the spoken word. In the city, it is spread by the written word. Some city newspapers and magazines carry a larger percentage of gossip than any small town could ever conceive. But whether it be a big city or small town, there will always be gossip.

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• Having lived most of my life in the suburbs of a metropolis, I have had the benefit of ano΄nymity to some extent. But gossip still exists; it is just on a larger scale and usually involving more prominent figures of our society. Everything from the city mayor‘s wife being arrested for shoplifting to the story of an unknown local accused of animal cruelty, the big city does have its share of gossip. And I must point out a very important fact ： gossip can be true. It is the fact that there are people discussing and spreading someone else's business that makes it gossip.

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Gertrude Stein• 1874–1946, American author and patron of the arts. A celebr

ated personality, she encouraged, aided, and influenced—through her patronage as well as through her writing—many literary and artistic figures. After attending (1893–97) Radcliffe where she was a student of William James, she began premedical work at Johns Hopkins. In 1902, relinquishing her studies, she went abroad and from 1903 until her death lived chiefly in Paris. For many years her secretary and lover was Alice B. Toklas. In Paris, Stein became interested in modern art movements; she encouraged and purchased the work of many new painters, including Picasso and Matisse.

★(Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was the coordinate college for Harvard University. )

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• During the 1920s, she was the leader of a cultural salon that included such writers as Hemingway, Sherwood Anderson, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, all of whose works she influenced. It was she who first coined the phrase “lost generation” for those post–World War I expatriates. During World War II she remained in France, and after the war her Paris home became a meeting place for American soldiers.

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• Stein’s own innovative writing emphasizes the sounds and rhythms rather than the sense of words. By departing from conventional meaning, grammar, and syntax, she attempted to capture “moments of consciousness,” independent of time and memory. Her first published work was Three Lives (completed 1905, pub. 1909), short stories in which she explored the mental processes of three women. But her most characteristic and probably most difficult narrative is The Making of Americans (completed 1911, pub. 1925). The famous Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933), a linear narrative written in relatively ordinary language, is the story of her own life presented as that of her companion. Stein’s critical essays were published as Composition as Explanation (1926), How to Write (1931), Narration (1935), and Lectures in America (1935).

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Reviewing Questions

• 1. What is suggested by what the woman said(para.1) and by the author’s comment(para.2)?

• 2. What kind of reputation does “gossip” receive? (para.3)

• 3. What’s the author’s attitude towards gossip? Where does she state her argument for the first time?

• 4. What’s the etymology of the word “gossip”?

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• 5. What, according to Gertrude Stein, is the relationship between gossip and literature?

• 6. what’s the author’s view on the analytical component of gossip?

• 7. what are the negative roles of gossip? And what about gossip irritate people?

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Assignment

• 1. Share your book report with others on the blog.

• 2. Compare the two texts in this unit and tell which one do you prefer, supporting your argument with reasons.