I enjoyed reading this novel, I kind of do enjoy reading a set of letters and seeing the characteristics of characters through their writing.
I believe that Elliot and Elliotville is definately a creative way of Benjamin to express himself, and he is definately misunderstood but at the same time I do think he is losing a sense of reality because he is a 12 year old boy who is depending his life on a fiction world. A lot of the elders in this novel such as the doctor and Bejamin's parents look at Benjamin as he is sick and needs help, which is really just inabling him because Elliot can definately be helpful and a tool because it seems this doll is really the only way he does express himself, as in the begining part Benjamin is constantly described as quite and that he likes to be to himself. I believe that a lot of these pyschological issues brought up in class or seen in the novel have a lot to do with his lifestyle at home and his relationship with the parents and I think this can have a really big impact on some of the issues we are discussing, so I do wish this novel had some more information and we could maybe be able to see the real issues. None the less Benjamin is not the wierdest boy just as said in class, there are many other weird children at camp. He does have some knowledge about what is going on about him and does participate in camp and ends up liking it. It is funny how everything his parents forced upon him he really does not like to do, such as swimming.
I believe that the fact that Elliot is a girl is also interesting because like I mentioned in class, and like Freud says that usually children are known to be closer with the parent of the same gender and internalize their behaviors. Clearly the father does not really participate in Benjamin's life and far as I can tell he doesn't really have the son he wants. And I believe that this can cause a lot of the reasons for why Benjamin can not express himself and has relied on Elliot to talk to which is a female.
I definately enjoy getting the different perspectives of everyone rather than just one narrative.
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It is interesting to "read" Benjamin for ourselves, rather than having the book read him for us, no? I think you bring up a very interesting point here and that is the role that fiction plays in all our lives, not just Benjamin's. If I don't get around to bringing this up in class, will you remind me too? You might also want to think more about this for your next paper...
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