Paris to the Moon, Adam Gopnik

"Paris, on the other hand, looked exactly as it was supposed to look. It wore its heart on its sleeve, and the strange thing was that the heart it wore so openly was in other ways so closed—mysterious, uninviting" (7).

This description of Paris is inherently paradoxical, and further more, Gopnik is aware of this, admitting that it is "strange" to describe something as both open and closed, emotional yet enigmatic. In what way is this sense of paradox reflected in Gopnik's essays, as well as in the other texts we have explored throughout the semester? Do the relationships and character developments within these works mirror this enigma, and how can an exploration of the dynamics of Paris illuminate our analysis?

Gopnik's main draw towards Paris is an idealized one, and in this way his perspective on the city is colored by romanticism. Is it this romanticism that creates the personification of someone "wearing their heart on their sleeve," or does Paris indeed lend itself to that type of characterization? How can we use our prior readings to discover the true nature of Paris, and of the American experience within that sphere?

Dreaming in French, Alice Kaplan

"France gave each of these women a deep and lasting confidence, confirmed their spirit of adventure and guaranteed their freedom from home constraints."

Dreaming in French is principally an exploration of what Kaplan calls the "fantasy" of France. What is it about France, and Paris in particular, that is so fantastical to the expatriates that were (and continue to be) drawn there?  For the three women discussed in this text, what is in about France and French culture that cultivates this "confidence" and "freedom," and how does it contrast so starkly against the culture they leave behind in America? In the same way, how does learning and speaking French create dimensions within the lives of each woman? Jacqueline Bouvier emphasizes the "Frenchness" of her name in much the same way that her ancestors romanticized their origins. For Sontag, "much of her own power and prestige in the United States — her aura — was connected to what she learned, then learned to transmit, from France." 

What are the implications of this American romanticization of Paris (something that Baldwin discusses in his essays in Notes of a Native Son), and what can it reveal about the individuals presented as well as the disparate cultures of each place?

Giovanni's Room, James Baldwin

"I'm sort of queer for girls myself." (Part I, Ch. 2)

What are the implications of David referring to his attraction to women as "queer," particularly in the context of Guilluame's bar? Virtually all of the men in the novel are homosexual, which creates an interesting backdrop and distorts society's (as well as David's) adherence to heteronormativity. In this sphere, a man's interest in women is queer, while an interest in other men is standard and accepted behavior.

Queer is not a synonym for gay; rather, it represents the idea that sexual/gender identities are not fixed and do not determine who we are. In this way, David's inversion of normative sexuality in this statement makes sense. Yet there are certain implications of choosing to subvert typical definitions of "queerness" that seem to contradict David's denial and repression of his sexuality for a large portion of the text. Is he merely playing along in order to fit in with the scene at the gay bar? What are his motivations for ascribing to a non-heteronormative perspective in this scene, and how do they affect the novel's perspective as a whole?