The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
Thursday, January 312008 - 3B
'Sweet Valley,'
but better
When the CW's "Gossip
Girl" first came out,
refused towatchit- not
because I thought a TV program
about Upper
East Side teen-
agers' sex lives
was trashy, but
becauseIloved
the books too
much.
I love Cecily
von Ziegesar's
book series, KIMIBERLY
I do. A friend CHOU
bought books
two and three (titled "You Know
You Love Me" and "All I Want Is
Everything," respectively) for
a birthday when I was in high
school. After those two - and a
couple more, all devoured on a
train en route to a high school
band conference - I was hooked.
From the Blair-Serena-Nate love
triangle and lemon yogurts for
lunch, to prep school uniforms and
sleeping with Ivy League lacrosse
recruiters - it was like literary
crack, age-(in)appropriate antics
packaged by a classier publisher
than Harlequin, no offense to
dime-store romances. Would the
pages of "Gossip Girl" be my life if
my social and economic standing
were bumped up by a hotel/oilfield
fortune and a dash of Anglo-Saxon
blood?
I certainly didn't believe it, but
I still loved the books. It turns
out a lot of other readers have felt
similarly entranced - and not all of
them teenagers. This month, Radar
magazine's Paige Ferrari writes
about the surging popularity of this
new, sluttier strain of whatcthe pub-
lishing industry calls "young adult"
fiction. After perusing tawdry teen
read ("Lust") on the subway, spe-
cifically a scene where the new girl
in town seduces the high school
stud, Ferrari reports, "The woman
next to me, Economist magazine in
hand, was undeniably reading over
my shoulder."
According to the Book Industry
Study Group, book sales in the 12-
and-over age group have gone up
drastically since 1999 compared to
adult sales.
Maybe this popularity is due to
the fact that the period of young
* adulthood is one we've either been
through and suffered through
(if you say you loved high school,
you're either lying or you were
part of student government), or
it's one you're still waiting for (I
know reading "Sweet Valley High"
and watching "Saved By the Bell"
at eight years old totally skewed
my expectations). High school age
- the true teenage years - is the
peak time for novelists to docu-
ment. Tom Wolfe tried and just
missed the mark with his attempt
at channeling kids one life stage
up in "I am Charlotte Simmons."
But maybe that had more to do
with Tom Wolfe being 70 and not
so much about college girls being
difficult to get down on paper,
though I hear we are. Ferrari gets
author Nick Hornby's ("About A
Boy") thoughts on the young adult
genre: He thinks "in a way," all
books should be teen books. "I can
read them quickly without getting
bogged down, and feel I've read
something that was meant in the
way literature's supposed to be,"
Ferrari said.
Against book series like "Gossip
Girl,"its spin-off"The ItGirl,""The
Clique" and "The A-list" (more or
less Blair and Serena gone Hol-
lywood), the "Sweet Valley High"
novels of yore seem tame in com-
parison. There's sex in Bergdorf's
changing rooms, sex in high-rise
lofts and sex with the aforemen-
tioned Ivy League lacrosse recruit-
er. But in these girl-clique tomes,
there's also awhole lot more money
being thrown around, to the point
that it's ridiculous really, if you
remember these characters are 14
to 17-years-old.
Marquez and
"Gossip Girls"
have a little in
common
For the non-prep-school-bred
college co-ed, or winsome preteen,
or yes, working woman on the sub-
way, it's just as good escapist liter-
ature as anything. Borges's theory
on magical realism in so-called
Third World literature explains
that the magic enables the stan-
dard Western reader to access the
fiction-form of a place otherwise
too "different" for the readers to
comfortably embrace. The magic
makes it at once more accessible
while still maintaining a distance.
Manhattan socialite life is far
from Third World, but for most
people, it's just as foreign.
"We need these fictional lenses,
otherwise we cannot see," said
Junot Diaz, explaining the phan-
tasmagorical influence in "The
Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar
Wao," his first novel. "Oscar Wao"
tells the story of a nerdy Domini-
can teen, as well as that of his
family under dictatorial rule in
the Dominican Republic, fleshed
out with talking mongooses and
"Akira" references.
"Gossip Girl" may not have all
of that, but the trust funds and
school gossip do have some sort
of mystifying power. Authors like
Cecily Von Ziegesar or Lisi Harri-
son ("The Clique") probably won't
move you the way Gabriel Garcia
Marquez will, but they'll provide a
convenient, well-dressed escape.
- Chousis in for a 20-hour
flight. Suggest your favorite teen
books: kimberch@umich.edu.
A school
dances
together
A multifaceted dance
performance consummates
deep dedication and study
ByABIGAIL B. COLODNER
Daily Fine Arts Editor
The evening begins with satin-clothed vil-
lagers ducking between trees, then moves on to
a woman's cathartic duet with a vacuum clean-
er and ends with ritual sacrifice.
The entire class of under-
graduates and graduates in
the School of Music, Theatre,
and Dance's dance depart-
ment performs in their
annual Power Center perfor-
mances, beginning tonight
and continuing through the
weekend. The five pieces pre-
sented are new or developing
works by faculty and guest
choreographers, worked out
with about 60 dancers over
the course of the Fall semes-
Stravinsky
Revisited
At the Power
Center
Today at 7:38 p.m.,
tomorrow and
Saturdayat 18p.m.,
Sunday at 2 p.m.
$9-$24
of relishing this
all the dance stu
"The grad p
- we come and
thing about this
other."
And dancersp
ly. "Maybe 30da
audition, we get,
the program -1
rehearsal," Take
Takedani's
from Japan) help
nent guest cho
contribution, "H
astounding com
and butoh influe
ter. The Power Center performance showcases ing low to the gr
the department's breadth and versatility - sions that border
both inthe dancers themselves and the creative Kane spokec
minds behind the pieces. structure of this
This year's show derives its theme from the our students ove
department's most enthusiastically received see some of ther
Power Center performance in 1989, "Viva it's so different a
Stravinsky," which focused on the music of the a very new way."
highly influential Russian composer. "Revisit- Video project
ed" re-interprets the composer's contributions ed into a few of
to music for dance. ming the Engli
"Stravinsky made it reputable to work with Amy Chavasse.]
dance," said Angela Kane, who become chair of thought experin
the dance department this fall. "People in the happened durin
music world saw how Stravinsky was opened writing. "I didn't
up, creatively, via dance, and saw: well, maybe into it," Chavass(
there is somethingto dance." She described the his vast body of
way status relationships between composers references to the
and choreographers changed during the 20th lish Channel and
century when Stravinsky was working. amusing in their
In recent years, interdisciplinary collabora- the composer's,
tions have become "a meetingof minds," Kane "It's not mea
said. Faculty member and artistic director Jes- giving people m
sica Fogel developed her piece with Stephen she said. "Whey
Rush, a professor in the music department. something happr
The result is a haunting piece with swells of cinating."
Stravinsky audible under acoustic piano: Her point wos
"As a choreographer, I actually prefer not comes to the de
to work with music first," Fogel said. "Stephen of Surrey, bringi
did piano improvisations while watchingsome administrationv
dance on video, and I chose the one I thought tise in dance his
worked best." 20th-century, hi
It's an effective collaboration, and features from being consi
the magnetic Tomoko Takedani, a second-year porated into thel
MFA student. Takedani is looking forward to "Now, historic
the chance to branch out into professional tional," Kane sai
performance after graduation, but she spoke of how that deve
WE'RE ALWAYS
HIRING.
YOUR APPLICATION AWAITS.
E-MAIL CGAERIG@UMICH.EDU
event since it brings together
dents.
rogram is only two years
we go," she said. "One great
piece is getting to know each
get to know each other quick-
ys after the program starts we
cast, we don't know anyone in
but then we get thrown into
dani said.
background (she's originally
red inspire material for promi-
reographer Rennie Harris's
leaven." The final work is an
bination of hip hop, modern
nces. It has its dancers prowl-
round and laughing in convul-
ron "popping."
of the particularly gratifying
performance. "You see all of
r the first four pieces, then you
m again in Rennie's piece. And
piece - it's stretched them in
ion and props are incorporat-
the pieces, including "Swim-
sh Channel" by dance Prof.
Her eclectic piece began as a
sent on the significant events
ng the years Stravinsky was
t know how else to find my way
e said. "I was overwhelmed by
work." She suggested that her
first woman to cross the Eng-
d the murder of Trotsky, while
r own right, helped her frame
work.
nt to be obvious, but I do like
ore context and background,"
n you know the reasons why
ened, it becomes alot more fas-
uld be supported by Kane, who
partment from the University
ng experience in teaching and
with her - particularly exper-
story. She said that during the
istory as a discipline changed
ddered a science to being incor-
humanities.
ans treat a history book as fic-
d. "We tell stories. The critique
lops - that's the hat I bring."
"Stravinsky Revisited" will be playing through Sunday.
"You have to accept that the arts do enrich
the University," Kane said. "You can't quanti-
fy it, but you can see it." The need to quantify
the value of a discipline can be a struggle for
the department. Recently, the Dance Students
Assembly won one battle, receiving a spe-
cial dance floor supported by springs that can
be placed on hard stage floors. But Chavasse
and her colleagues chafed under infrastruc-
ture inadequacies in recent rehearsals, where
two dancers who had suffered injuries had to
scramble for treatment.
Kane spoke of the expansion of the aca-
demic treatment of dance she hopes to encour-
age. "Some of the faculty have got really great
minds as well as huge expertise in perfor-
mance," she said. "I want them to be able to
disseminate what they know and critique
what they know."
For Takedani, who hopes to teach dance in
the future, the mission is similar. "I feel it's
my calling to spread this wealth to society,"
she said. "We all have a body and we live this
body every day and we don't pay attention to
it."
This habitual disuse of the body's potential
seems apparent after watching performances
as athletic and focused as those happen-
ing tonight. It's a "learning moment," wholly
appropriate for an institution dedicated to
making them.
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The Right to Education: Challenges and Opportunities will take a
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The Center for Afroamerican and
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collective
present a panel discussion on
THE OBAMA PHENOMENON
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Lori Brooks
Jacob Songsore
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Kevin Gaines
Thursday, January 31, 2008
6:30-8:00 p.m.
Hussey Room, Michigan League
Reception to follow
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