popularity contest

I just met with a student who says that her favorite writer in the course so far is Nathaniel Hawthorne. This surprises me; I was expecting that students would find his writing stuffy and slow. The House of the Seven Gables certainly isn't a page turner like Oroonoko, or as action-packed as Moll Flanders (I think she marries someone new every 20 pages). The student even preferred it to The Bluest Eye, which is a sad book but, I think, a very poignant and moving one.

Well, I guess it's good that she (and, most likely, some other students as well) like Hawthorne. Maybe this will improve class discussions!

In terms of the overall popularity contest for the quarter, however, Hawthorne shouldn't hold his breath. We're reading Jane Eyre next.