hedgehog

__The Elegance of the Hedgehog__  Group Members Carlie Cattelona Jen Cook Katherine Riley Cassie Beck __**Week One:**__ Food: Cassie Questions: Carlie Summary: Katherine (absent) Discussion Leader: Jen

Questions: 1) Do you think the writing style adds to the story? The two perspective is nice, because it shows similarities in their though process. 2) Do you have a preference to either Renee or Paloma as a narrator? If so, why? I like the girl, but she seems to be very dark. I like her story, but I don't really like her character. 3) Is Paloma's reason for committing suicide valid? No, because she makes it seem like just a simple thing. She's submitting herself in to a bad category, and she doesn't realize it yet. 4) What do you think Renee's reason is for hiding her hunger for art? She feels that she has a specific way she has to present herself to society 5) When did Renee consider herself "born into consciousness?" When she was five, when someone called her name during school.

Summary: Cassie brought in chocolate coconut bars (which were delicious), and we discussed the first 50-60 pages of the book. Carlie wrote the questions, and Jen was the discussion leader. Katherine wasn't here, so Carlie wrote the summary as well. We agreed that although it's sometimes hard to read, Renee's narration has a charming wit that Paloma lacks. We're going to read up to page 130 for next week.

Food: Jenny Questions: Cassie Summary: Katherine Carlie: Discussion Leader
 * __Week Two__ **__:__

Questions: 1) Did you notice a relevance between the dog incident and Renee's thoughts about phenomenology/transcendentalism? 1) Yes, I did not before but after Cassie explained Paloma's observations in relation to Renee's views on perception 2) Did you believe that Renee captured the essence of tea-drinking wonderfully/accurately? 2) Yes! Carlie and Cassie read aloud the lines that they liked. 3) Although Paloma states that she thinks Colombe has no emotion, do you think that Paloma lacks emotion? Especially when she suggests that Colombe would set fire to the apartment because she 'just wanted to feel something.' 3) We think that Paloma was projecting onto someone else and being hypocritical. 4) Do you think that Paloma is hoping to find a valid reason not to commit suicide or that she keeps coming up with excuses to still go along with it, that no reason is valid? 4) Yes, she seems to be declaring that all of her profound thoughts are not significant enough. 5) Reading Paloma's thoughts, do you find them to be impersonal at all? Does she seem to focus more on the world around her rather than who she is? 5) Yes, its rather annoying how she thinks that she is special and in the right, while really she is narrow-minded.

Summary: Cassie, Jen, Carlie and I enjoyed delicious homemade brownies from Jen! They were gooey and yummy. Afterwards we discussed the book, how pretentious Paloma is and how we don't think she really wants to kill herself but she wants attention. We all agree Paloma's entries are impersonal and that she is very narrow-minded and arrogant Cassie and Carlie discussed the connection of the dog scene to the phenomenology section of the book. While I enjoy reading Paloma's entries more, Carlie and Jen enjoy reading Renee's entries more. Cassie likes both. We all agree the vocabulary is difficult to understand, but if you're too lazy to pick up a dictionary you can always figure out the meaning behind the words using context clues.

__**Wee**__ __**k Three: **__ Everyone but Cassie is at Teen Arts today so Cassie is answering the question. Today's question is "What is the mood and tone of the book?" The book is formatted by rotating first person, so each character's section has a different tone from the other. Paloma's sections are very negative and have a tangible emptiness to them while Renee's are warmer with negative points but certainly many happy sections as well.

__**Week Four**__ Food: Carlie Summary: Cassie Jen: Questions Discussion Leader: Katherine

Questions 1.Whose story did you like more, Paloma’s or Rene’s? I still like Rene's more 2. Would you recommend this book to anyone? Yes I already have but i think that the reader needs to have an interest in philosophy 3. Did the philosophies discussed in the book teach you anything new about life? Yes it taught me many things about life. It teaches you something new on every page. It gives you things to think about. 4. Do you like the way this book I written? Y es. At first we were all little unsure about it but we really like it 5. Did the things discussed in the book give you a new perspective on parts of life? I wouldn't say that but it definitely taught us something new.