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Attached you will find my best attempt at the Essay for The Source...
I will be excusing myself from class for any further discussion of this book and hope to submit an alternate review/extra credit in lieu of attending the Q&A with Ms. Ross. Please outline details of what you will accept in it's place.
Please look at the links below and consider the effect of your choices of material. The past 48 hours for me have been HELL. After 10 years and thorough therapy, I spent yesterday in a wash of emotions and physical reactions that I have not experienced in years. My family and current boyfriend did NOT need to watch that or be the targets of my emotions...
I won't be sharing or discussing this in class, nor do I need to give you any more detail. Just letting you know I will quietly excuse myself in the event of further discussions of this nature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_post-traumatic_stress_disorder
http://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/pages/complex-ptsd.asp
Also, I will invite you to look at why this is a topic or a book you thought was so great. You laugh that this was not your intention to make this class a "women's studies" class, and that this just happens to be what is out there right now. I would suggest that this plays into the current rape culture, and is NOT constructive in the debate over womens rights.
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here's what I wrote, 2 paragraphs of a 3 page assignment...with link to the CDC report on Sexual Violence
What is ‘The source of All Things’…? According to this author I am not sure. Is it Nature? Is it Creator? Is it Forgiveness? Is it her Father? I am sure somewhere in this book there was an actual explanation of what this statement means, but honestly, the subject matter overshadowed the point. Just because a topic is uncomfortable or shocking doesn’t mean it is worthy of being called Literature.
Sure, there were little ‘writers tricks’ that match what we are talking about in class throughout the book. But why is this considered to be a literary advancement? There are plenty of these examples in other modern and older writings. This author really has nothing more going for her than the fact that these topics SELL and that we live in a Rape and Sex crazed culture and are culturally desensitized to these horrors on a regular basis. Therefore, she can share these intimate issues, and be applauded for her honesty, when really the material is just more of the same desensitization. How many rapes, assaults, molestations, and domestic violence occurences is the basic prime time TV watcher exposed to? The CDC published the statistics of how many women and men have been victimized sexually in great detail:
http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/pdf/NISVS_Report2010-a.pdf
As a result of attempting to re-read this book, and subsequent articles handed out with similar storylines, I have spent the past 48 hours in a very scary emotional and physical place (Please see attached PTSD links). This class is not a “Women’s Studies” class and is not described as such in the catalog. I find it very reckless to assume this subject matter is acceptable to ALL adults without some pre-screening. While I understand that many writers and editors will say that discomfort can be a great well of material, it is not safe to assume that all writers WANT to go there…
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