note to self

[go_gentle]

academic quasi-essays in the form of reading responses are not a suitable venue for snarking on the assigned reading. The sentence "That audience will see that people living in poverty are in fact not lazy or stupid. After all, if an educated white woman can't make it, who can, right?" should be removed post-haste. And you should not call the author rude names, either.

(I'm pretty sure when I read Nickel and Dimed in high school, it didn't make me want to smack anyone, which I think was a major failing on my teenie's self's part.)

ETA: I really want to compare Ehrenreich to Nelly Bly, but I can't figure out how to construct the metaphor to give the right amount of offense. (So far, I have "When wondering how the working poor do it, she and her editor decide the best way of doing so is for Ehrenreich to try it out for herself, placing herself in a fine tradition of investigative journalism. Just as Nelly Bly allowed herself to be committed to an asylum to understand the conditions under which the mentally ill lived, Ehrenreich commits herself to minimum wage jobs, sketchy motels, and long hours, all in the name of understanding how anyone could live this way." but it trails off at the end and it doesn't manage to get across the sort of epic eyeroll that happens in my head. I shall keep working on it.)

Comments

[olivia-circe.livejournal.com]

I HATE THAT BOOK.

That sentence is pretty awesome, though.

[go-gentle.livejournal.com]

I didn't expect to hate it this much! The premise I knew was sort of sketchtastic and poorly conceived, but Ehrenreich just keeps going with all the "I want to understand the poor!" schtick without actually talking to real live poor people, and then there's all this stuff about "I will bring them a union! Or make them understand that Jesus was one of them!" savior bullshit and fatphobia and snobbery and UGH.

[olivia-circe.livejournal.com]

I sort of hoped she would redeem herself for the sketchtastic premise by not being totally horrible! And then she was horrible.

Also, I totally blame Ehrenreich for causing my fall-out with my sophomore year college roommate. She thought Nickel and Dimed was wonderful, which turned out to be symptomatic of many problems in our relationship.

I like your Nelly Bly comparison!

[eleanor-lavish.livejournal.com]

I think it wold end with something like "however, like Bly, Ehernreich looks at her poor subjects with pity, not empathy, thanking her lucky stars she would never truly be counted among their ranks."

Also, pffffft.