The Enchanted Readers Guides

The Enchanted

AGENDA:

Read Ch. 1 and post a response to Q. 1

http://www.readinggroupguides.com/reviews/the-enchanted/excerpt

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18090147-the-enchanted

http://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/13-fiction/9694-enchanted-denfeld 




1. The novel opens with the line, "This is an enchanted place. Others don't see it but I do." The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word "enchant" as, "to attract and hold the attention of (someone) by being interesting, pretty, etc.; to put a magic spell on (someone or something)." Why does the narrator call this place enchanted? What beauty does he find in his surroundings that others do not? What does this tell us about the narrator?

2. Talk about the main characters: the narrator, the lady, the priest, and York, the prisoner on death row at the center of the story. How are these characters' lives and their fates intrinsically connected? What do we learn about the lady and the priest from the narrator?

3. Why does York want to die and why does the lady want to save him? Is he worth saving? How does she go about gathering evidence to understand his case, knowledge that might prevent his execution? What propels her choice at the novel's end?

4. Think about York. What were your first impressions about him when he's introduced? As you discovered more about his story, did your outlook towards him change? How does the experience of investigating York's past affect the lady and her outlook towards York? How does it shape how she sees her own life?

5. What draws the lady and the priest to one another? Why do you think each chose the career they pursued? How do their callings sustain them emotionally? Are they good at what they do—even if the priest is himself fallen from grace?

6. What has being locked inside done to the narrator—and for him? What about some of the other prisoners he watches? Do you believe in rehabilitation? Do you think our prison system today encourages rehabilitation? Is there something else we can do besides imprison those who commit crimes?

7. One of the Ten Commandments is "thou shalt not kill." Isn't executing someone—even someone who committed a heinous crime such as taking another's life—going against morality? Why is the death penalty still used in the United States compared to most other modern democracies?

8. Do you believe that we are products of our circumstances? How much can free will mitigate terrible damage that inflicted in a person's youth, when he or she is most vulnerable and impressionable? Why do people do such terrible things to each other and to innocent children? "There is too much pain in the world, that's the problem," the lady tells the priest. What causes so much of the world's pain and can we, both individually and as a society, do to help alleviate this suffering? How much responsibility do we carry for our fellow men and women?

9. What do you think is the worst punishment that the prisoners in the novel face being locked away? "It is meaning that drives most people forward into time and it is meaning that reminds them of the past, so they know where they are in the universe. But what about men like me? For us time doesn't exist." Think about time in your life and in the narrator's. How do you respond to him? What can give a life that is not measured by the events of time real meaning? How is such a life measured? Think about not being able to touch someone or see the sky. How would that affect you for a day? A week? A year? A lifetime?

10. What happens to people when they are incarcerated? How can we make the prison system more humane? Should it be humane or do convicts, regardless of the level of their crimes, "deserve what they get"? As a society, do we see prison more as punishment or as retribution? How can we save people from having failed lives? Is it possible to save someone?

11. Do you think that death offers release for men like York and the narrator? Did they find peace?

12. Like the lady, Rene Denfeld is a fact investigator in death penalty cases. How do you think her work shaped the story? Did reading The Enchanted alter your view of prison?

13. Rene Denfeld touches on many issues and themes: Mental illness, justice, time, kindness, remorse, forgiveness, the need for love and connection, life and death itself. Choose one or two and trace them through the novel, using examples from the novel to enrich your analysis.

14. Why did you choose to read this novel? Did the novel surprise you in any way? Explain why or why not. What did you take away from reading The Enchanted?
(Questions published by the publisher.)

Writers and Books Discussion Points

http://wab.org/rr-2017-the-enchanted-discussion-points/

The Enchanted interview/ Book Talk with Rene Denfeld

The Enchanted interview

Book Talk with Rene Denfeld

By Fiona Ortiz

(Reuters) - Non-fiction writer Rene Denfeld draws on her work as a death penalty investigator in her first novel, "The Enchanted", the story of a prisoner who invents a horrible, liberating beauty deep underground.

Although he doesn't even have a window in his cell, the first-person narrator imagines life on the outside, especially that of a character known as "the lady" who works to redeem death-row prisoners, much as Denfeld does in real life.

In the end all of the characters in "The Enchanted" turn out to be prisoners in one way or another. Perhaps the freest of all is the walled-in narrator, whose disturbed fantasy life leads to a poetic sort of justice.

As a licensed investigator since 2008 Denfeld has interviewed prisoners, on and off death row, and traveled to "the worst parts of the country and the worst streets and homes" to find friends, relatives and teachers who might help her clients avoid or overturn a death sentence.

"The Enchanted" comes after Denfeld's non-fiction books including "The New Victorians", about victimism in the women's movement, and female aggression and violence in "Kill the Body, the Head Will Fall".

Denfeld, from Portland, Oregon, lived on the streets when she was 15, sang in local punk bands, worked as a bartender and journalist, has done amateur boxing and is a mother to three children she adopted from foster care.

Denfeld spoke to Reuters by phone from her home in Portland, about her new book, released in March by HarperCollins.

Q: I learned a lot about prisons from "The Enchanted", much of it disturbing. But it is also a very poetic book. How did you achieve a blend of lyrical and didactic?

A: I wasn't expecting to write a novel, the story came about. I had written non-fiction books and started doing this work as an investigator. The work existed in this magic, special place because I knew I couldn't write about it in a non-fiction way, because it is confidential and privileged. By using the narrator's voice I was able to tell the truth of his prison and of these people, and to do it in a way that captured his particular love of language and this gorgeous poetry flowed out of him. It wasn't that I set out to blend the two, but it happened in a way that felt very authentic.

Q: Is the novel now feeding back into your work as an investigator in some way?

A: I think the novel helped me crystallise and understand the things I witness; it helped me clarify where my own heart was in my work and the nature of my work and I feel blessed to do this work, it gives me a lot of insight. People honor me with their stories and their truth, I get to bear witness to a lot of things.

Q: Can you describe your transition to fiction?

A: What happened was I was leaving the prison in Oregon that has a death row. It's like an ancient stone fortress. It was a beautiful day, and I was walking out to my car after visiting a client on the row. I heard a voice tell me: "This is an enchanted place." And I very slowly followed the voice into the novel. I felt the narrator was telling me the story and I had to transcribe it. The transition felt so completely natural to me. I felt the act of telling fiction allowed me to tell a deeper and more complex set of truths than I've been able to tell in non-fiction. I was able to set aside my ego and opinions and thoughts and tell the story.

Q: Do you hope to inspire prison reform with the novel?

A: The entire time I was writing the novel I didn't tell anyone I was doing it. I didn't give a thought to anyone reading it. I didn't actually give any thought to that. It wasn't meant to be an advocacy book, it was meant to tell the truth of the narrator. The issue of the corrupt guard and what he does to the character called the white-haired boy, that happens and that is the truth.

Q: Is the prison in the novel based on a particular prison? You describe something called the Dugdemona Cage where death row inmates are chained for visits with lawyers and investigators. Does that exist?

A: The narrator is based on all the clients I've had and the prison is based on all the prisons and jails I've visited. One thing that is common is the cage that was described. It's a cage that looks like something out of "Silence of the Lambs".

Q: Why are some characters named and others are not?

A: The men on the row are all named, most of the inmates are named, but the people that work outside, the lady, the warden, the priest, they are largely unnamed. For the narrator, they are like mythical creatures. They live lives that he can only imagine. The usual construct in our society is that prisoners are nameless, but inside a prison that's their world and the people outside are the nameless ones. I've noticed we tend to make these people invisible. Thousands of people go into these places and effectively disappear.

Q: Books are a salvation for the narrator. Have you seen that really happen to prisoners?

A: A lot of people are illiterate when they go in. It's not until they do a terrible thing that they start learning to read. It's heartbreaking because through books they realize they had other choices, there were other possibilities, other lives they could have lived. They discover all this too late.

(Editing by Michael Roddy)

Twenty Little Poetry Projects (Jim Simmermann Exercise)

AGENDA:

Work on 20 Little Poetry Projects

https://allpoetry.com/contest/2487937-Twenty-Little-Poetry-Projects---an-exercise

https://margoroby.com/tag/twenty-little-poetry-projects/




Finish 15 Sentence Portrait Poem

CONTESTS:

SOKOL:      http://www3.libraryweb.org/ffrpl/programs.aspx?id=494591

GANNON:  http://www.gannon.edu/Academic-Offerings/Humanities-Education-and-Social-Sciences/Undergraduate/English/Poetry-Contest/

MLK Jr. Essay Contest:

http://www.rcsdk12.org/cms/lib04/NY01001156/Centricity/domain/1/bulletin%20board/MLK%20ESSAY%20CONTEST.pdf

HMWK: Read to pg. 37 The Enchanted

Fifteen Sentence Poem

AGENDA:
Continue to work on short stories, Scholastic entries, Sokol and Gannon.

Study Guides due!


The Fifteen-Sentence Portrait

This assignment will generate descriptive writing. It is purposefully guided. So, begin by choosing a person to describe. Then follow the directions. It can be turned into a poem.

1. Picture in your mind a person you have strong feelings for. The subject may not be a "love" interest, but should be someone you feel strongly about. The person can be living or dead but should be someone you know or knew rather than a famous character.
2. For a title, choose an emotion or a color that represents this person to you. You will not mention the individual’s name in the writing.
3. For a first-line starter, choose one of the following and complete the sentence:

1. You stand there . . .
2. No one is here . . .
3. In this (memory, photograph, dream, etc.), you are . . .
4. I think sometimes . . .
5. The face is . . .
6. We had been . . .

1. Following your first sentence, build a portrait of this individual, writing the sentences according to these directions:

1. Sentence 2: Write a sentence with a color in it.
2. Sentence 3: Write a sentence with a part of the body in it.
3. Sentence 4: Write a sentence with a simile (a comparison using like or as).
4. Sentence 5: Write a sentence of over 25 words.
5. Sentence 6: Write a sentence under 8 words.
6. Sentence 7: Write a sentence with a piece of clothing in it.
7. Sentence 8: Write a sentence with a wish in it.
8. Sentence 9: Write a sentence with an animal in it.
9. Sentence 10: Write a sentence in which three or more words alliterate; that is, they begin with the same initial consonant: she has be left, lately, with less and less time to think . . .
10. Sentence 11: Write a sentence with two commas.
11. Sentence 12: Write a sentence with a smell and a color in it.
12. Sentence 13: Write a sentence with a simile (a comparison using like or as).
13. Sentence 14: Write a sentence that could carry an exclamation point (but do not use the exclamation point).
14. Sentence 15: Write a sentence to end this portrait that uses the word or words you chose for a title.

1. Next, read the portrait. Underline sentences in which you discovered new things about this individual or your feelings and attitudes toward him or her.
2. Now, use this portrait as a starting point for a poem or prose portrait or simply revise what you have. (Be sure to keep a copy of the original, so that you can examine the changes between original and revised piece.) Do anything you need to make this a piece of writing that you like. Choose a new title, use the person’s real name, and so on.

Rattlebone/Scholastic

AGENDA:

Bellwork:  http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=runons-comma-splices-fragments

Work on Rattlebone stories.  FINISH Rattlebone study guide.

Enter Scholastic contest (check with Ms. Gamzon first).

Go to Sejal Shah blog:

https://sejal-shah.com/