Haunted Houses/Bone Black

I found this such an interesting thematic grouping for these stories, which involve families. Are all our houses haunted in some way? I adore the quote from The Ice Storm which provides the paradox of family life:

Your family is the void you emerge from and the place you return to when you die. And that is the paradox; the closer you're drawn back in, the deeper into the void you go."

I haven't read the book by Rick Moody, but the film The Ice Storm, directed by Ang Lee, was indeed haunting as I remember it. It's about families falling apart in the 1970s. Certainly all families find themselves is various states of conflict. We'll explore this the different kinds of conflicts that may arise. We'll also explore the different roles that family members take on and what the roles tell us about the family unit itself. Many of us have certain expectations about how a mother or a father should act. We also have ideas about how siblings act with each other and their parents. Our expectations are often thwarted in the face of reality which causes disappointment and disillusionment. Will there be any "happy" stories about families? Just remember, that a story without conflict is no story that we probably want to read.

We'll also read about actual or perceived hauntings. How does our imagination shape our understanding of relationships. When we have certain ideals about family can we conjure up fantasies that are ultimately self-destructive?

We began this section with African American feminist writer bell hooks (notice lack of capitalization) and her story "Bone Black." I had never read this before, but saw her speak at VCU and was intrigued. Some of you mentioned the interesting use of pronouns which seemed to create distance between "she," her family, and the audience. The ending was most interesting and seems to reinforce the idea that no one really knows what happens in a family. We often think we grasp a family dynamic, but often the dynamic is so complex, we must be a part of it to fully understand the motivations of different individuals.

An idea for Essay #2:
In the excerpt from Bone Black, hooks observes that "the silent agreement that the man is right" is operative in the marriage of her parents. How are the dynamics of marital relationships governed by social conditioning? How have gender (and thus marital roles) changed over time? What are the social consequences of these changes?