Dialectic Notebooks Reveal Connections New and Old

Dialectic notebooks have quickly skyrocketed to be one of my favorite forms of English discussion. Writing sideways on lined paper is something like a guilty pleasure for me, and the columns were a fun way to see everyone's opinion on a topic. There was plenty of material open for discussion: David Brooks's article, Wendy Wasserstein's introduction, Daisy Miller, and The Age of Innocence. The group I was in was able to talk about points from every single one of these works, often on each notebook. This activity was also great because of the freedom to shoot off in any direction. A question posed about the humanity in Frist killing adopted pets turned into musing over Newland Archer's tragic flaw. Speaking of which, no conclusion was reached on that matter - anyone have an opinion? Another connection the class discussed was how Belle Meade is very similar, almost a modern update, of the old New York that Wharton wrote about. Wasserstein too pointed out the ways old New York society is still relevant. One of my favorite topics to dive into was MBA. Brooks's evaluation of it was interesting to compare to our own perceptions of our brother school. Overall, I enjoyed learning about the multitude of connections, opinions, perspectives, and discussions that can come from these works, whether or not our group actually answered each other's posed questions or went off in a new direction.