Ugly and weird. My first impression of Joyce Carol Oates. Not very nice, huh? Although my judgement was definitely clouded by a rather awful picture of her, Oates began to capture my attention the minute my eyes scanned the lines of her biography. Several questions came to mind immediately that made me want to learn more about her: What happened in her life that made her switch her religious views from Catholic to atheist? Why is violence a recurring theme throughout her written work? Did something traumatic happen to her? How did Oates have the inner-drive to graduate college as valedictorian when she alone was the first in her family to even finish high school?
Joyce Carol Oates was born on June 16, 1938, and ever since, she grew up with a passion for reading and writing. She graduated Syracuse University as valedictorian in 1960, and pursued careers in teaching and in writing. Oates married Raymond J. Smith in 1961 and described their relationship as “a very collaborative and imaginative marriage” because they shared a love for reading and often discussed their books during mealtimes. After I had more of a sense of who Oates was based on reading about her rather than just looking at her picture (which is never a good idea), I gained the sense of a woman who was used to working hard on the family farm as a child, and who then carried that hard working drive over to her academic and written work. She is bold in her writing topics of rural poverty, sexual abuse, class tensions, desire for power, female childhood and adolescence, and occasionally the supernatural. I am interested to see how exactly Oates portrays violence throughout her work because it is a theme for which she is best known for.
There are a few novels that I would love to try to read of hers this semester, but if I were to choose one, it would be Them. This novel is considered to be Oates’s best work and quite honestly, I would much rather read a story that is considered her best work than her worst. If I did have time for two novels, my second choice would be Blonde. Oates recommends both of these books as her favorites and the best ones to start out with, so I am going to follow her advice. My next planned step is to read Oates’s essay, “Why Is Your Writing So Violent?” to help me understand if there is an underlying cause to the violence in her work, and then I would like to check the novel, Them, out of a library to begin reading next week so that I might have time to read Blonde as well.
Laura, this is a great first post. I love that you framed your study of Oates with so many questions - and they're great questions. We'll read a couple of short stories by Oates during the semester, so feel free to talk about those in your blog, too. Both fit well within the "violence" theme that you're studying.
ReplyDeleteFrom what you said about Oates, I'm even interested to read where her theme of violence comes from! Most writers write about what they know, so I assume that has something to do with it, whether it was direct or indirectly. It's also really cool to see anyone who's made a name for themselves and know that they lived in this area or state.
ReplyDeleteHey Laura! I really liked your first post and I think you are really going to enjoy looking at this author. I almost also selected Oates as my author but didn't. I liked how you said she talks about real issues being things like poverty and sexual abuse. I really like that in an author because these are the issues that we face in American on an everyday basics. She is very similar to Alice Walker in that way! Enjoy! Can't wait to read more.
ReplyDeleteHeya Laura! I can see exactly what you were thinking when you first saw the picture of Oates. My first thought was Adams Family for some reason! Anyway I was just wondering if you found out her reasoning behind becoming an atheist? And does the reasoning behind this link into the violent themes in her work?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback guys! Alan- the Adams Family? Really? That cracked me up! I was wondering the same questions, but I haven't found anything yet on her reasoning behind becoming an atheist. However, I'm noticing some of her characters in the book, Them, don't believe in God and that she portrays religion in a negative way (I'll go into specifics in another blog).
ReplyDeleteI really like JCO... i dont know hwy.. it might just because she has one of those cool names where you HAVE to say the whole thing. Like if i knew her, i wouldnt just call her joyce or joy or jc.. i'd call her joyce carol oates. I know that had nothing to do with anything but whatever lol. Im glad that you came to like her, she seems pretty cool.
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