To explore Ben Lerner’s blurring of fictional and non-fictional elements in 10:04, and to reflect on the ways in which the text might be expecting or even challenging readers to google information from the novel, we’re compiling a list of possible (hyper)links to “reality.” Comment below!
Copied from Morgan: “I researched the Park Slope Food Coop and the New York Times “exposé about certain members sending their nannies to do their shifts” (96). It’s real. Here is the link to the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/nyregion/18coop.html?mcubz=3. There were also a slew of responses, such as this one from a former Coop member: https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/praise-from-afar-for-the-park-slope-food-co-op/?mcubz=3 – check out the comments at the bottom, too.
Both pieces discuss the ethical issues surrounding the Coop that Lerner contemplates in the novel. The woman talking about her son’s education performs the elitism the Times criticizes, and also introduces “a new biopolitical vocabulary for expressing racial and class anxiety” (97). This might be useful in our Big Question concerning new conceptions of Americanness, identity, and morality in a globalized world.”
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https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/08/hurricane-irene/100138/ I found this article interesting because it shows what “the author”, and possibly Ben Lerner himself, were experiencing while writing The Golden Vanity and even gives actual images to previously mentioned events and scenes, such as when the grocery store shelves were empty.
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https://www.thespermbankofca.org/content/discussing-donor-conception-your-child-0
This link is from a state sperm bank trying to help donors with the conversation between them and their offspring. Ben Lerner has a mock, imaginary conversation between himself and his unborn daughter on pages 91 through 94. I found this passage particularly interesting and began to wonder if other men struggle telling their children the means by which they were born. This attached page gives tips and helpful resources on how to make this difficult conversation easier for you and the child.
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