Day 21  April 2, 2002

 

1. Names. Handout on what’s coming up. Th., Ruth Moyer on urban issues in NYC and work with pieces you’ll bring. Check the web site if you want to search for something. Also, time to think about poster presentations.

 

2. On with Honky. Lots of interesting observations in responses, and I’d like to use them to focus our discussion today.

 

A. From Angel:

The web site I found was http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/04/05/black_wealth/  This

web page is an article written by Dalton Conley about estate tax and how eliminating it would widen the gap between white and black wealth. He talks of assets and net worth, much that I have heard in social science class, but has some great ideas on how to decrease the financial gap between the races.  But hey, you are going to hear me say this again, we are never going to get anywhere with our government.  I hate to be so pessimistic, but woman and minorities are screwed.  Until we have equal representation in our government the white male will indeed make laws to benefit his own.  And all the while, I have to look at him on the television, read about him in the paper, perhaps even work for him and listen to a copious amount of shit fly from his mouth about how he longs to make it better for the minorities and women of America.  I am ever so amazed at how I was an upper middle class American last year, and now upon leaving my husband I am poor.  He is not mind you, but I am.  The only nice thing I have is a leased car that I cannot even afford, but it has a bumper-to-bumper warranty and is reliable.  I will probably be living in it by summer with the three kids.  After reading this book, I will take some strength from Dalton’s mother.  Poor or not, my children and I will succeed.                 

Quote from Conley on “equity inequity”:This equity inequity is, in part, the result of the head start that whites have enjoyed in accumulating and passing on assets. Simply put, it takes money to make money. Whites not only earn more now, they have always earned more than African-Americans -- a lot more. Wealth differences, in turn, feed upon these long-term income differences. Some researchers estimate that up to 80 percent of lifetime wealth accumulation results from family gifts in one form or another passed down from generation to generation.

“These gifts range from a down payment on a first home to a free college education to a bequest upon the death of a parent. Over the long run, small initial differences in wealth holdings spin out of control. Estate and gift taxes are about the only social policies left that act as a small restraint on the runaway train of wealth inequality. Doing away with the estate tax would widen, not narrow, the gap between blacks and whites.”

This seems crucial to me: How much “equity inequity” have many of us inherited? I know that my parents made sure I got through school, helped us buy cars and houses, made loans that they later forgave. They’re still healthy, but I stand to inherit good farmland someday . . .

Some of these inheritances are tangible, some intangible. My kids have grown up with a sense that many things are available to them. They could choose to play sports, take music lessons, play instruments, go to camp. They could wander the town without much sense of danger. They had access to books and computers and libraries, and help when they needed to find or make something. . . . we worry about them getting into car crashes or making bad decisions, but we don’t worry about them catching stray bullets on the street.

B. from Magda:

What is more, I found some of the issues raised by the author very shocking or, at least, surprising. I wouldn’t think that he might be ashamed of his neighborhood, as it wasn’t his racial or ethnical environment. That is why, according to me, he shouldn’t have felt responsible for its vulgarity, dirt and violence. Furthermore, I was wondering how he could put up with the thought of the possibility of being mugged just on the daily basis. Surprisingly, keeping money sticked to his insole was treated by him as part of a daily routine, not a sad reminder of great sudden danger.

 

Shame, class, and strange dynamics, 90-91.

 

C. Scott:

This book shows how important chidhood really is. The choices we make at those ages really are the most important ones. It is funny who the author finds a positive out of having a knife put to his throat, who knew that rejection from a group would help him in the future.
Honky does give an answers to the reasons why things are the way they are, it shows how it is. In the end it is a personal choice, I really believe that. It is a responsiblity we must take upon ourselves. It is the trail least traveled.

“Sesame Street” 113-119: the encounter with Sean. What about this? Does Conley agree that it’s just personal responsibility that makes the difference? Why does he see this event as a turning point? 119.

 

D. Rachel Mack:

One of the things that jumped out at me was at the end of Chapter 9.  The passage read, “This is the privilege of the middle and upper classes in America---the right to make up the reasons things turn out the way they do, to construct our own narratives rather than having the media and society do it for us” (Conley 110).  I was just struck by this statement because I really do believe it is true.  In this book, Dalton has this privilege because of his being white and going to a good school.  We also can see it when he started feeling above his neighbors in the prospects and also when he talked about them being responsible for being poor and the situation they are in.

 

 

E. Lisa L.:

I could relate to Dalton’s experience in Pennsylvania.  It reminds me of the contrast between Greater Cleveland and Bluffton.  I understood exactly what he meant when he says, “we had no idea how to react when people we didn’t know waved to us…we didn’t know what to say when someone on the dirt road that ran behind our cottage asked how we were.  Such friendliness was not part of our America. (115).”  It shocked me when I first came here to have strangers saying “hi” to me.  I was used to being ignored or having insult hurled at me if I walked down the street.  I’m still amazed by how naive people here seem to be.  I always have to yell at my friends to make sure the car door is locked behind them.  People are still shocked if I tell them how everyone I know smokes pot.  On the other hand I’m surprised when people tell me how at their high school everyone got along, never fought or did drugs, and everyone belonged to the same youth group.  It makes me feel as if I grew up in another world. 

             I did a search for Dalton Conley on the internet.  I found at article at http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2000/12/14/conley/, where Conley, Phillip Lopate, and Jonathon Lethem discuss Honky. 

 

What is “America” anyway? How can we talk about it as a single unit, the way we always do, when it means Avenue D to some people and Lawn Avenue to others?

 

F. Jill Kerlin:

Throughout the novel, Conley, in an attempt to distinguish his place in society, relates himself with both the upper crust white elitists, and the poverty-stricken minority.  In this passage, following the assembly in which whites dominate the music controversy, he relates himself to the minority: "Our confidence gave way to a sense of cultural defeat, an unspoken presumption that the white kids would always be right, even about things we thought belonged to us.  Our image of ourselves as makers and beneficiaries of a cultural renaissance disappeared for the time being" (p.147).  (162 in my text).

 

This is the “Disco Sucks” chapter, a curious and kind of funny one, yes? Trying to define identity through music. The white kids and the kids of color. DC kind of between . . .

 

G. “Symmetry”: Jerome his best friend gets shot. The result, for DC’s family, is that they finally move out of the projects, into Greenwich Village, with the aid of a govt. program to help artists. DC develops obsessive compulsive disorder, which Lori thinks can’t have just been the result of trauma. . . .

 

H. “Fire”: Why is what Dalton “learns” from the fire enough, while his neighbor ends up with 25 years of hard time? 200: “The chance to work problems out informally. . . .” while others are targeted for criminal enforcement.

 

I. “Cultural Capital”: they can move because they’re artists. I’ve gotten thousands of dollars from the state of Ohio to write poems, for which I’m surely grateful, though if the truth be told much of that money has gone to buy refrigerators and pay college bills for the kids and other such middle-class things, while I keep working and getting my paychecks  every month.

 

J. DC’s still “socially awkward.” Is that his special circumstances, or something many of us can relate to?

Jennifer Peterson

Honky is an excellent book that maps out all the feelings and memories of this boy. I thought that this was wonderfully depicted story of how everyone feels growing up. Only Dalton had very specific reasons for feeling out of place. Many of us growing up in Bluffton and places like it don't have that benefit. Most of us, including me have had to wait many years in order to understand why we felt so out of place and so alone in a room full of people.

 

K. The Epilogue: those who escaped, those who didn’t. The projects as warehouses for “people of color who don’t fit into the new America.” (225)

 

Why was it possible for him to get out, get educated, get a good job? Does he think it’s just his personal pluck and good qualities? No. “The invisible contours of inequality start to take form” 227.

 

Exchange, Angel, DC and JG:

 

Dear Mr. Dalton- 

For my Issues in Modern America class I was “forced” to read your book.  I am happy to say that I enjoyed it very much.  We recently had an author of another book we were “forced” to read come to our class and he told us how very much it meant to him when someone read and enjoyed his work.  I wanted you to know how very much I enjoyed yours.  In this world I know one thing to be true, we all tend to focus on what is wrong and what we hate, but we forget how wonderful it feels to be complemented on the good we have done, on our positives.  Funny.  Anyhow, here is my response to your book below for my prof.

 

Angel Lombardo-Edwards [Angel’s response is below in the “student responses” section.]

 

Dear Angel,

 

Thanks for your message and compliments about the book. I also

appreciate you sharing your own story.  I hope that things work out

better financially through your divorce so that what you predict for

summer will not come to pass.  anyway, strength to you and best wishes,

DC

p.s. don't worry about the 'mr. dalton' that you mentioned in your other

message. it happens all the time, even from my own kids!

 

 

At 02:16 PM 4/1/2002 -0500, you wrote:

>Say, Mr. Dalton Conley--

>

>Since Angel was so bold as to write, I should at least say hello too. I'm

>indeed the guy who assigned my "Issues in Modern America" class to read your

>book. I teach English (and some general ed. classes, like this one) here at

>Bluffton College in northwest Ohio.

>

>I discovered your book when I got a review copy, and after the usual delays

>and hesitations I'm pleased to tell you that my review of _Honky_ and

>several other books will be in _Georgia Review_--either the fall or winter

>issue, if I remember right. That may be so long after its publication that

>it seems barely to matter, but I did enjoy the book a lot and the review

>reflects that. I'm especially impressed by your managing to write something

>that's so clearly informed by your academic training yet not written in that

>dread sociological style. Really a nice balance between personal narrative

>and social observation.

>

>We're just getting started talking about the book in class, but so far the

>students have found it engaging and interesting. I'm looking forward to more

>discussion next week. And I appreciate your forgiving Angel for her "Mr.

>Dalton" slip and giving her some encouragement. She was really embarrassed,

>but she's also a real sweetheart.

>

>Best--

>

>Jeff Gundy

 

Dear Jeff,

 

Thanks for assigning the book.  I really am touched when students who had

similar experiences get in touch with me.  I am also grateful for your

review.  Which issue will it run in?  Are you a regular reviewer for the

Georgia Review?

I visited your webpage and enjoyed your posted poems very much --

particularly "How the Boy Jesus Resisted Taking Out the Trash."  Just as I

am touched when readers who grew up with a similar experience get in touch,

i am also moved by people who are coming from very different backgrounds

(like your Flanagan farm experience) also relate to the book -- I guess

that i really hope to capture some universality across childhoods that will

humanize the lives of inner city residents.

Anyway, thanks for your encouragement,

DC