Blogging the glog

First, the Glog. Take a minute to explore, read the quotations, look at the pictures, and listen to the music.

The Big Question: What kind of role do music and dance play in Nella Larsen's Quicksand? How does the nightclub scene (from which the quotations come) relate to the novel as a whole, and how does music and dance illuminate it?

A strategy to help you think about The Big Question:

• Turn to page 53 in your text, and start reading from Chapter 11. When you get through the first paragraph, load the glog. When you open the glog, imagine that you are Helga opening the door to the club. Can you relate to her experience? Read with the music in the background.
• At the second paragraph, start one of the videos toward the bottom of the page. How is this different? How does it inform your reading of the scene? When the music stops for Helga, stop the music on the glog. What is Helga doing? What are the other people doing? Start one of the songs near the top of the glog again. Is this different? Continue reading.
• Imagine how Helga differs from the other people in the club. How does she think she differs from them? How do you think she differs? Hints: What does Helga like or not like about being there? How does Larsen show that through Helga's thoughts and actions?

Some smaller questions to help you think through the scene:

• What is the relationship of music to the community here? What is Helga's relationship with the music? What is Helga's relationship with the community?
  
• What are the the people doing in this scene? What is Helga doing? If you found yourself in her position, what would you be doing?
• Look at the two pictures of people dancing (one at the top, and one at the bottom). How are they different from each other? If you had to match a picture with a song, which picture would go with each song? Which picture do you think Helga fits in? Does she belong in any of them? Does she want to be there?
• What kind of community is in the jazz club? What is it about jazz that brings them there? Who belongs there and who doesn't? Who is dancing and who is not? Who likes the music and who does not? Why?
• What does Helga do right before this scene? What does she do right after? Does the action in the scene inform her previous and subsequent actions?
• Does this scene remind you of any others in the book?

The Assignment: Thinking about The Big Question above (and using the strategy and smaller questions), write a fairly long and detailed reading response to The Big Question. You don't have to answer all of the smaller questions, but just use them to get your thinking started. Your response should be at least four paragraphs long.

The Big Idea: Does the glog tell a story as you scroll from top to bottom, listening to the music, looking at the pictures, and reading the quotations? Does the story the glog tells help students think about the story in Quicksand? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a glog to think about literature?