ClassicNote on A Streetcar Named Desire

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• 1. No idea.
  2. Now that I think about it, no idea. I was probably getting ready to teach this play, and I did a quick online search so I'd be able to recognize when a student who hadn't read the text was quoting from the first plot summary that Google threw their way.

• Just happened to come across this post and was in a state of shock when I discovered the exegesis was about a "cliff notes" type website.

  1. Why are these people defending this site?

  and

  2. Why do you bother to criticize this site?

  This is vaguely remeniscent of the whole "Democrats attacking Wal-Mart" situation. Attacking Cliff Notes - or in this case, ClassicNotes - seems to have done little persuasion. (Just like attacking Wal-Mart for its policies did not help the Democrats). I think the most convincing argument for stopping to rely on these resources would be a flattering remark like "You are perfectly capable and competent of reading an entire book and picking out the nuances without any outside aid."

  Like blue-collar America interpreted the Wal-Mart attacks as a cultural phenomenon (Who are you rich people to tell me how to live my life with your high-fallutin'...), I think this was interpreted culturally as a privileged intellectual patronizing people who depend on these resources (perhaps just to graduate).

  But, it's good that people are talking about these issues. I've found that you have to pry it out of people. Usually saying something outrageous or controversial is a good way of getting people to open up.

• Thanks for your comment, Phil. I'm glad to hear that you agree with my general point.

  I think it's good blogging practice to give credit to the source of all quotations that I blog, whether I blog them in order to praise them or disagree with them.

  Perhaps Borey is a great writer of summaries, but I do stand by my opinion that it's a distortion of the plot -- though I wouldn't go so far as to call it bizarre -- to write that Blanche's husband was in bed with "someone else" rather than the more specific "another man." If, let's say, I had attended a Bible belt community theatre production of this play, and found the scene altered so that the gender of the person in bed with Blanche's husband was not specificed, I would object to the bowdlerization of the text.

  Another poster has already noted that that website has a biography page that does mention Williams's sexual orientation, so I stand corrected on that point. Williams was writing at a time when the audience would have expected Blanche to feel guilty and inadequate for sexually failing her husband, and while that may not be politically correct in the 21st century, and while Williams himself might not have felt that way, I do think this detail is too important to be overlooked.

  Still, I'm not so sure I'd agree that it's unfair for me to critique a published document and to cite the author of that document by name, and I'm not so sure that the critique I offer is the same thing as an attack.

  Nevertheless, Phil, thanks for weighing in on something that matters to you. The world would be a better place if everyone who disagreed with someone else did so with respect and tact, as you have done here.

• I just felt like chiming in, after discovering this thread by accident. Dennis, having read many of this writer's synopses, I've gotta hand it to you-- you seem to have chosen the most literate and sensitive summarist on the planet as the object of your criticism.

  That said, while your overall point is well taken (students should not rely on "guides" to cheat in school), your post has two serious problems:
  1. You unfairly accuse a writer (by name, no less) of doing a bad job, when in fact his research was impeccable and his writing was nuanced.
  2. You suggest--bizarrely--that an author's sexual orientation should be included in the plot summary of a work.

  I'd like to add, having enjoyed your Weblog, that I think this is atypical for you.

• Thanks for your opinion, Jake. My general point, that relying on a cheater's website is not going to help your grade much, still stands.

  There will be a day when you have to read something that doesn't have Classic Notes written for it -- maybe because the work is brand new, and hasn't been recognized as a classic. If you rely on someone else's ability to summarize the plot, your own ability to take notes will be stunted.

  If you have actually read the play, then these sites can be somewhat useful. My warnings are really for students who read the summaries instead of the texts. And most of those students won't bother to read the Classic Notes as thoroughly as you have done, Jake.

• This is in reference to the Streetcar Named Desire classicnote. Actually, you're totally wrong about the summary. The bio section of Williams mentions his homosexuality and how it relates to his work. And the study guide writer was fastiduous in the summary section, saying what his version of the play wrote and nothing more - in the analysis section, he goes deeper into it:

  "Depending on the version o the play you have, the homosexuality of Blanche's husband is either insinuated or said outright. In some editions of the play, Blanche speaks of finding her husband in bed with someone, but the gender is never explicitly stated; in other versions, she tells Mitch that she found him in bed with an older man, a longtime friend."

  Before you accuse someone of doing a bad summary job, you should do a better reading job! And if you read the whole classicnote, it's actually a fair job at being a study guide for the play. I've used this writer's notes a whole bunch, and he tends to be cursory in his summaries, probably because he hopes that you've read the actual book! The summary's supposed to be to help you remember, not substitute for reading! Analysis sections follow these immediately, and then he gets more in depth. I showed this writer's notes on antony and cleopatra to a professor, and she said it was great writing.

  -- Jake , on 28 Nov 2005

• You're right, Susan. Of course, casual cheating is much easier to catch nowadays. I caught a plagiarist last week... the person was crying in my office, worried about losing a scholarship. I hate to sound cruel, but boo hoo hoo, you shoulda thought about that while you were fabricating a source.
   
   (Okay, that felt good to write... but I was actually rather kind to this person, who 'fessed up pretty easily and had no chance of passing the class anyway... I'm more interested in seeing that this person gets counseling and help for the pressures that drove this person to think that cheating was the best option... simply punishing offenders when they are caught isn't really going to solve problems people face before they feel so backed into the corner that cheating seems the best solution.)

• Kind of you to point this out, with the hope that those who do resort to these sites might see these posts and think twice. I worry just as much about weblog essays and reviews being taken as anything other than interpretation and opinion.
   
   I do trust the instructors, however, as this situation develops, to quickly spot the obvious in the papers being turned in. It just makes your job that much harder, and faces you with the additional necessity of teaching morals as well as subject.