Summer Reading Program

LAA Commons - Honky by Dalton Conley

Character, Civic Life, Critique, & Creativity
in Dalton Conley’s Honky

Each of the LAA commons courses asks questions about human experience that can be seen at work in Dalton Conley’s Honky.  As you read the novel, think about how Conley’s book answers some of the questions raised in the commons courses you will take in the coming years at Mars Hill College.

LAA 121–Character:
What is human nature? What makes good character? How much are we all more alike than we are different? Underneath individual character differences and cultural differences, how alike are we? What are we like? What makes us tick? How much are we determined by our genes, by our families or culture, by outside forces, and how much freedom do we have? (freshman year)

How do you think Conley would answer the age-old, nature versus nurture, question about human character?  Specifically as it pertains to where racism comes from?
How much freedom does Conley see people having in the choices they make about where to live, what to do with their lives, etc.?  How do race and class impact that?
What are some of the things you see driving Conley’s choices as a child?  What seems to drive some of the choices of his peers, neighbors, and friends?  To what degree are they personal choices, and how are they culturally determined?
How are Conley and his sister alike and different?  What might account for some of these differences?
List five major points you think Conley’s memoir makes about human nature.

LAA 221–Civic Life:
How do societies work? What makes a good society? How have human beings across time and cultures organized their lives together? How do geography, religion, politics, athletics, and the arts shape communities? How does this society work? What makes for a good society? (sophomore year―fall)

Describe the neighborhood community in which Conley lived as a child. 
How does the location, the physical geography, of that community affect the lives of the people living there?
What role does religion play in the neighborhood in which Conley lives?
Conley describes some of the athletic & artistic experiences that shaped his childhood.  Choose one (or more) and speculate on how it affected the community in which Conley lived.
What sort of hierarchies do you see at work in this community?
Looking at the memoir as a whole, think about how Conley might answer the question, “what makes for a good society?”

LAA 231–Critique, Faith & Reason:
How do we know what is real, true, important? How does this tradition wrestle with scientific and religious questions about the nature of reality, knowledge, and value? (sophomore year―spring)

What traditions do you see influencing the community in which Conley lived?
What attitudes about education do you see impacting his life as a child (both community attitudes and family attitudes)?
As a child, how would Conley have answered the question, “how do we know what is real, true, and important?”  How might the narrator of the memoir (Conley’s older self) answer the question differently?  What accounts for that difference, if you think there is one?
What different things do the different communities in this memoir seem to value? (e.g., Conley’s neighbors on Avenue D versus his more affluent school friends).  Where do those value systems seem to come from?
Describe two different worldviews you see at work in Conley’s memoir. 

LAA 321–Creativity:
What is creativity? How do we nurture it in life and work? What is universal about creativity? How can each person bring creative energy, processes, and products into their lives? (junior or senior year)

Find three examples in the memoir that illustrate the creativity of one or more individuals.  Make sure to find examples that are not from “traditionally” creative areas, such as music or art.
There are several examples of “creative problem solving” as well.  How does the creative environment (outside influences on the creative individual, e.g., money, resources, geography, etc.) affect those acts of creative problem solving?
How is the memoir itself an example of creative problem solving?  How do you see it as creative, and what problem do you think is being solved?

Both of Conley’s parents are creative individuals.  How do you see that affecting his own creativity?

 

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