Welcome to Stay Curious 101, an English class taught by me, self-proclaimed bookworm and all-around extraordinaire, Anjali Nayak. The best literature sparks skepticism and questioning between the reader and the world around them. If I were to teach an English class, I would opt to read books that encourage students to think critically about seemingly universal constructs and rules, as well as encourage them to read outside the classroom as well. Here are the five books I would teach in my English class.
- The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
How is it that I have never read a required reading book that included a queer character? As much as I love Bryce Hadley’s theories on the gayness of Iago, or Andy Evans obvious shipping of Henry Clerval and Victor Frankenstein, I think that open, proud, queer literature should be taught in schools. That’s where The Well of Loneliness comes in. Though heavily banned at its initial release, the book provides deep insight into the psychological and societal repercussions queer people face while simply…existing. The book follows Stephen Gordon, an Englishwoman born into an upper-class family in the late 19th century. From a young age, Stephen realizes she feels more comfortable in masculine roles and experiences strong romantic attraction to women. As she grows up, she grapples with navigating a world that is simply not built for her. The society she lives in neither supports nor accepts her for herself. Overall, the novel plays as a candid portrayal of the loneliness of lesbianism, offering awareness into the mental turmoil marginal communities face. Through poignantly powerful diction, Hall perfectly characterizes the never-ending journey of self-actualization and acceptance as hauntingly beautiful. In a glimmer of hope, she advises, “you’re neither unnatural, nor abominable, nor mad; you’re as much a part of what people call nature as anyone else.”
- Keith Haring Journals by Keith Haring
Art separates humans from animals. Keith Haring’s journals provide a lens into the visionary’s message, creative process, and sadly, untimely death. Students will understand the underlying dependence humanity has on art, as well as the power of expression and activism. The book flows through a stream of consciousness reminiscent of Freud’s free association—the icon’s innermost thoughts and emotions are forever immortalized for the analysis of future students and thinkers. As dense as the journal might be, Haring makes time for light-hearted social commentary and trivial jokes; in between psychoanalysis of the apartheid and AIDS epidemic there are grilled cheese recipes and recountings of his newest crush. Just like his art, he perfectly balances cartoonish-kiddish with stoic philosophy. Students will experience the engaging atmosphere of NYC’s pop art scene in the age of cultural turmoil and uproar, as Haring grapples with the everchanging uncertainty of his life with AIDS through drawings. Besides, “Art is life. Life is art. I never separate it. I don’t think one can.”
- Kafka On The Shore by Haruki Murakami
Kafka On The Shore follows two seemingly different characters, as their stories intertwine in mysterious and unexpected ways. Kafka Tamura is a 15-year-old-boy who runs away from home in search of his long-lost sister, and renames himself after his favorite author. He seeks refuge in a library in Takamatsu, where he begins a journey of self-discovery and encounters strange and surreal events. One of the most intricate aspects of Marukami’s writing is the constant references to Western albums, movies, and literature—-Kafka roams the streets of Japan to Bowie, Led Zeppelin, and The Beatles. On the other hand, Nakata is an elderly man left without memory or the ability to read after a mysterious incident during his childhood. Despite his cognitive limitations, Nakata has a unique ability to communicate with cats. Nakata embarks on a quest to find a lost cat, which later leads him to run into Kafka’s journey. As ridiculous as the storyline might be, Murakami effortlessly winds between the two protagonists, making their eventual run-in satisfying, symbolic, and meaningful. This rich and enigmatic novel invites readers to ponder on the implications of duality: reality and imagined, consciousness and unconsciousness, nostalgic and progressive. Constantly, Murakami blurs the boundaries between the real and the imagined, leaving readers with a sense of wonder and contemplation far longer after they have finished the book. Kafka On The Shore displays its brilliance in the very first few pages: “Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because the storm isn’t something that blew in from far away…the storm is you.”
- Mercy Street by Jennifer Haigh
Abortion is mercy. Thus, the fictional abortion clinic Haigh writes about rests on Mercy Street in Boston Massachusetts, run by a 43-year-old Claudia. Claudia lives as the multivoiced novel’s primary character, guiding us through the fraught terrain of the abortion war. For Claudia, danger and shame have been normalized: shooter drills, mysterious packages and suspicious-call reports are part of life. So are the protestors who condemn the clinic’s patients daily, two of them, Anthony and Victor, play as two other narrators. The last is Timmy, the three’s shared weed dealer. Haigh walks a thin, intimate line between each of these unlikely characters—fleshing out each piece of the puzzle while discussing a highly controversial topic. Mercy Street plays as an ode to human connection and relation, readers follow each of the narrator’s hopeless endeavors to find love, luck, and hope in a somewhat lost world. “It’s hard to know, ever, where a story begins. We touch down in a world fully inhabited by others, a drama already in progress. Our arrival is not the beginning; it is a consequence.”
- On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is beautifully immersed in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassionate tenderness. In a series of letters between him and his mother, Vuong exercises the power of telling one’s own story to obliterate the deafening silence of not being heard. Though Vuong loves his mother, he gripes on the struggles against racism, homophobia, and drug use that have been prevalent issues in his Vietnamese-American life. Thus, the book focuses on how his rough upbringing has seeped into how he manages the relationships he has with other people, and the underlying guilt he has for his mother for putting them in this position. The novel delves into themes of love, loss, identity, and the immigrant experience, offering a poignant and lyrical exploration of the human condition. It’s a deeply personal narrative that reveals the intimate struggles and triumphs of a young man coming to terms with his past and forging his own path forward. Vuong reasons that it is important to make amends with one’s past while also forging on a legacy to later leave behind. “Because I am afraid of the word ‘hope’ the way it asks me to bear more than I know, the way it makes me question what I’ve held as truth for so long.”