Zu viele Katharinas? · 24. August 2015

Ein Projekt der Klasse 9d im Englischunterricht, angeregt durch den Roman „An Abundance of Katherines“ von John Green

Colin scheint ein Wunderkind zu sein. Er kann bereits lesen, bevor andere Kinder richtig sprechen können. In Windeseile bildet er Anagramme aus allen möglichen Wörtern und versucht, sich das Leben durch von ihm entworfene Formeln zu erklären.
Nur wenige Menschen haben Zugang zu seiner Welt. Deswegen hat er in der Schule kaum Freunde, um genau zu sein, nur einen.
Hassan ist das Gegenteil von Colin, nicht nur äußerlich. Eigentlich könnte Hassan schon auf ein College gehen, aber er sitzt lieber zu Hause herum und schaut sich “Judge Judy” im Fernsehen an. Zum Leidwesen seiner Eltern ist er zu bequem.

Wider Erwarten scheint Colin mit Mädchen keine Probleme zu haben. Freundinnen hat er genügend. Ihr Aussehen ist nicht so wichtig, ihren Charakter wird er später kennenlernen, nur Katherine müssen sie heißen!

Das Problem ist allerdings, dass diese Katherines nicht bei Colin bleiben. Als Nummer 19 ihn abserviert, hat Colin das Gefühl, dass es reicht. Auf Hassans Vorschlag unternehmen Hassan und Colin einen „Road Trip“, der allerdings anders als erwartet verläuft.
Ausgerechnet im winzigen Gutshot, Tennessee endet ihre Reise – Colins Leben verändert sich entscheidend, ohne dass er es zunächst bemerkt.

Auch wenn Colins Matheformeln und Herleitungen zur Ergründung von funktionierenden und nicht-funktionierenden Beziehungen im Roman zunächst kompliziert schienen, so ließen sich die Schülerinnen der 9d dennoch nicht abschrecken, den immerhin 230-seitigen Roman in Originalsprache zu lesen und kreativ zu werden.

Sie entwarfen Plakate zu einer möglichen Verfilmung des Romans.

Sie schrieben Hassans Tagebucheinträge.

HASSAN’S DIARY
Dear Diary…
I never thought that hunting could be sooooo strenuous and that it involved so much walking through the forest. If it just were walking it could be okay, but we did a thing between running and walking for a while. I felt so tired and I wished I could put my ass on a couch and could watch Jude Judy. So me and Colin asked TOC’s dad if we could take a break and slow down. But he didn’t agree. It was too much sport for me. So he left us behind him. We sat down, which was very good because now I could relax.
————When I woke up I couldn’t believe that I really felt asleep while hunting the feral pig in the middle oft he forest. One moment I felt panicked. Then I wasn‘t tired any longer, but I was hungry, I really needed something to eat. However, I was a lucky boy because Colin had some turkey sandwiches in his pockets. Colin had done the thing he always did. While I had been sleeping he had worked at his theorem, but I also saw that this fugging boy had anagramed, the only thing I thought was ‚‘‘dingelberries“. He told me about k-3, the only girl who didn’t work according to his theorem. I noticed surprisedly that I also knew that girl, because she was homeschooled like me, I remembered. We always went to the homeschooling events together. To ask Kathrine a few questions, Colin needed for his theorem, he called her.
Only to remember we sat on the floor between thousands of high trees, but I always thought we were a little bit special. The idea of Colin’s theorem drove me crazy, because in my opinion love and relationship are parts of life and life isn’t mathematical. They often happened unexpectedly in our life, so how could you make a theorem of your love with another person? I thought if you created this theorem you couldn’t ever feel love, but Colin felt love because he got hurt so badly because of loving. And when we learned that Colin dumped K-3, I really was shocked. I couldn’t believe that he also was a dumper, why didn’t he know that? He always said that he was a dumpee. But by the way now his theorem worked. I really couldn’t understand how somebody couldn’t remember dumping a person you loved. But there was no time to think about it , because suddenly I stood eye to eye with a feral pig. It was a shock I couldn’t move. I did what Colin said I should do. I really hoped that he knew something about a situation like this. But then he told me that this was a way you should handle if you came across with a grizzly bear. I didn’t think that this was a good idea. We stood up … the reason to do this was that the wild pig should realize that we were the bigger ones. We took slowly a step backward, but the feral pig moved one step toward us.
I really was startled … the feral pig looked like a monster. Oh my god! The pig started running …… towards me and Colin and we ran , too. Then Colin said calmly that that had been odd?? Who was calm if a satan pig took of running at you??:“Shoot it !“ WHAT. I shouted in a panicky way that I didn’t know how to shoot. So Colin shot but not at the feral pig he only wanted it to run away, which it did. I thought I could take a breath but when one problem had been tackled the next came.
A group of hornets flew towards us. When Colin shot into the hornets‘ nest, we were running down the hill as if the living hell was behind us. I only heard Colin’s breath in my neck and the BRUM of the hornets, which seemed really near. Then I fell face-first in a brambly bush. It hurt. I was out of breath, really out of breath. My stings hurt that much. Ohh my fugging god what was wrong today?? Everything was too crazy.

Dear Diary…
I really wondered that Lindsey’s mom Hollis knew the TV show which Colin took part in. She really was excited to know him, so that she wanted to cook for us at her home. Hollis drove a pink pickup truck, which was very special. But Lindsey, Colin and me followed in the Hearse. I liked Lindsey Lee Wells, I thought I could laugh with her. At that moment they spoke about Colin and that he was a child-prodigy. She was interested in the things he liked to learn, like the languages. Hollis thought that maybe Lindsey could learn something from Colin. Then they spoke in another language: I believed it was German, but I didn’t know, but I wasn’t interested in it either. So I began to relax and to think about my great idea to go on a road trip. Then they spoke about a factory which was in the middle of the town. I looked out of the window. Yes, there was a factory. Now I also wanted to know what was made in the factory. Lindsey didn’t want to tell us what they made in the factory, it had to be something really odd or embarrassing. Colin swore not to laugh, but I didn’t. If there was something funny I had to laugh. So we got to know that tampon strings were made in this factory. I really had to laugh, I never knew that there were factories which produced tampon strings. And by the way, the factory belonged to Hollis!!
The house was the biggest house I had ever seen, only for two people. It was impressive. So I hoped that there was a big couch where I could watch Judge Judy on a big screen, maybe they had a home cinema. I really had to say that Hollis was so nice and hospitable. Inside the house we looked at a photo, with a girl on it who looked like Lindsey, but the way she was dressed wasn’t the way Lindsey did. But she told us that she was the girl at the photo in eighth grade, which shocked me really. Also, it was really impressing, because we thought it could be a sister of hers and she heard the things we said about the photo. But now she looked really self-confident having changed her looks.
Then we ate, a really good idea, because I was hungry, I knew I was always hungry, but now I was really hungry. We ate birdshot which was really the tastiest meaI had ever eaten so far.
Then something happened which I really was happy about on the one hand, but on the other hand it wasn’t the thing that I had preferred to do this summer. She told us that she started a project and we should work the whole summer here for that. I thought it could be really interesting and I would earn money and I could stay away from home as long as I wanted, what was really important, because I needed this trip to get more freedom. However, it really would have been easier if I had stayed at home. Although there I would have been annoyed by my parents and I wouldn’t have had anything to do there.
It was hard but I decided to work the summer here in Gutshot. I really thought it would be fine and exciting. We would get 500 dollars a week, so now I really decided to work. We played scrabble, which Colin won, of course. He was too good at finding words … A nice evening with really nice people.

Sie rezensierten den Roman – „Reviews“.

Book review: An Abundance of Katherines
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green is about the child prodigy Colin, who wants to be a genius. In his life he has ever dated girls nmed Katherine and he thinks each of the Katherines dumped him. After he was dumped by his 19th Katherine Colin’s best friend Hassan plans a road trip, which should help Katherine to get trough Katherine. During the road trip Colin tries to create a theorem, which should show, weather a relationship will work out.
The somewhat different way by John Green while telling a story is haunting and rousing, because of that you don’t want to stop reading. Especially Colin’s friend Hassan makes the book very funny, because he is always saying an amusing slogan. Only the end of the story, when Colin learns, that he don’t need Katherine the 19th or his theorem to be happy, is very predictable.
All in all the book An Abundance of Katherine is a book, that can make you smile, but if you want a book, that surprise you in the end you should read another one.

Our review about the film: “An abundance of Katherines“
Colin Singleton, a prodigy always gets dumped by Katherines – exactly nineteen times. By trying to forget his last girlfriend, Colin and his undated arabic friend Hassan start an amazing adventure trip far away from their home. On his way, Colin meets a pretty girl named Lindsey who lives in Gutshot,Tennessee. ?Does he start to have feelings for her??And does Hassan get his first kiss?

In our opinion, the storyline of the book by John Green is well transmitted, but don’t worry, you can also understand the film easily without having read the book. It must be said that the actors did a very good job, especially the main character Nat Wolff as Colin. Above his boring and mostly unclearly mathematic forms, which he created to see the future of his relationships, Colin represents a funny type of a prodigy. We think the plot isn’t really exciting, but in all scenes the actors show their feelings in a distinctive way and we are sure, one or more surprises are waiting for you. With the awesome view of the nature of Tennessee, which is also included, the film is not as boring as it seems.
Enjoy it !

Sie suchten eine „Playlist“ von Liedern, die in einer möglichen Verfilmung gespielt werden könnten.

In einer Karte stellten sie wichtige Handlungsorte dar.

Sie suchten wichtige Symbole, die für den Roman prägend sind.

Projektleiterin: A. Niklas-Wirth