Taken Identity CHAPTER THREE I finish grading the essays Friday morning (topic: critique some aspect of American culture that you find absurd). Later, in class, I read excerpts from the best ones aloud, then start handing all of them back, calling out the various names: Napoleon Dynamite, Beyoncé, Joe the Plumber… (No, really, those are the names on them: I make everyone use an alias so I won’t let my impression of a student color my reading of an essay, especially if said student has, oh, I don’t know, a habit of wearing obnoxious T-shirts; plus, when they have a mask to hide behind, they’re not so inhibited and self-conscious.) As each Borat and Kelly Kapowski comes forward to claim a paper, I finally get to see who wrote what and write the grade in my book, next to the student’s real name. When I call out Dr. Ruth, there’s snickering—everyone got a kick out of that one, the best of the bunch by far, a wicked, sly, edgy piece about sex, the rules of attraction, and the American diet.
What do You think about Ms. Taken Identity (2009)?
