Reading Response – 4/2/15

In The Maps to Anywhere, there is a particular passage that I enjoy. Entitled “The Herald,” it is Bernard talking about religion, cathedrals, and a TV hostess that he knew was a liar. It begins with him describing how he once read a copy of Life magazine in which there where pictures of beautiful cathedrals from all over Europe. Unlike what most people would likely think, Bernard thought that the pictures were dull and lifeless looking, bitter like the ink he could taste from licking his finger.

He continued on to say that he did not believe in certain aspects of religions, like how a man could translate a scripture from looking through a breastplate. He clearly does not buy into many of the things that religion calls “miracles” even though he says he wishes that he could believe.

He finishes off by talking about a television show he used to watch as a kid, and how the hostess used to claim that she could see the children watching her through the screen. She would call out several, random names, but since she never called out his name, a name as unique as “Bernard,” he knew she was lying. In this same way, he was able to call religions out on what they called their “miracles.”

Reading Response – 3/26/15

The Essay packet is a very interesting read. It includes various short stories/poetry pieces from a number of authors. They do not connect with one another in any way, nor do they seem to share a message or meaning. Rather, they all stand alone and live in their own worlds.

Some of these stories, such as The Blues Merchant, and Suspended are slightly confusing to me. I understand them, but, for The Blues Merchant, I can’t help but ask, why did they write this? As far as Suspended goes, I understand both the story and I believe that I also understand the message behind this one, but the title does not match up with the story at all, which leads me to question why it is entitled so.

The short, An Unspoken Hunger, is rather funny to me since it is literally just a story about someone cutting up an avocado and other vegetables for lunch, but it is worded so to make it sound as dramatic as possible. Quite frankly, I could have seen that be one of our classroom exercises.

The short/poem Three Voices is much more intriguing to me. It depicts each of the voices and has a mysterious sort of feel to it, which is funny, because it, too, started off describing mostly just food. These voices that begin speaking sound a bit crazy but also they sound confident in a strange way.

Reading Response – 3/19/15

Dawn Lundy Martin’s poems are both well versed and have vivid imagery without giving the reader information that is very direct. Two of her poems are written in the first person narrative, which puts the reader in the head of the narrator. The second poem which is not in the first person, is a descriptive poem that is almost made up of riddles.

In the second poem, Violent Rooms, it is fairly easy to assume what is happening even though nothing concrete is ever stated in the poem. Martin does a very good job in making the reader realize what happened in this room and does a very good job making it sound every bit as creepy and mysterious as it should. She also makes the poem disturbed and haunting. It is as confusing to us as it would be to the girl that this happened to.

The first poem is untitled, which was very purposefully done as she wanted to keep it open to interpretation. In this poem, a girl is trying to write her father’s life story at the end of his life. She recalls various details, but the most prominent thing to her is a picture of her father from when he was in the army. She depicts the image clearly before recalling that her father never spoke about the war.

The in last poem, The Morning Hour, the narrator is the child of a maid. This story is about racism and has undertones of the unequal jobs that people of color had to have in retrospect to the jobs that white people had. The narrator talks about their mother affectionately but also recalls how hard of a worker she is and how firm she was with her parenting.

Reading Response – 3/12/15

In Edwidge Danticat’s chapter “Night Women” he tells the story of a day in the life of a prostitute. This woman has a son, the father of whom was one of her clients, who is never given a clear age range but it is fair to assume that he is fairly young, my guess would be ten or younger. She also has a hole in her roof, which she is always trying to get her clients to fix for her when they come over.

She gives little details of her life away but gives them in metaphors and similes. There also appears to be some sort of Oedipus complex between her and her son. The way she describes him and the memories that she recalls seem to show an unusually close relationship between the two of them, one that is almost sexual in nature.

Dandicat’s writing is very well done, albeit a little weird. The story has a sort of creepy undertone to it, but it works well. He does a good job with giving the reader a mental image of where they live and what she and her son look like without giving any substantial descriptions. He makes her come across as vague but intriguing and mysterious.

In Ntozake Shange’s work, “Indigo,”he writes the story of a little girl named Indigo who likes to play the violin. She isn’t good at playing the violin, and her mother and neighbors beg her to stop and get lessons, but she doesn’t care what they think, she just does want she likes. She either has a very active imagination or has hallucinations, because the moon comes into her bedroom to hug her, she dolls seem to come to life and speak to her.

Later on in the story, the plot line shifts when she meets two boys, Spats and Crunch. They claim to be Junior Geechee Captains. This really impresses Indigo and she begins hanging out with them. Through them she meets Spats’ older brother Pretty Man and he is pretty taken by Indigo and how she plays her violin. He lets her start playing in a club/bar, and she does really well there, the patrons seem to like her and her playing in contrast with her neighbors.

This story is weird to say the least. At first, Indigo seems like a young girl who is bad at violin and has an overactive imagination, then she joins these boys in their group and begins playing in a club that is much too mature for someone her age. Also, it is confusing how she couldn’t play at first, but these club patrons seem to enjoy her playing even though she hasn’t changed her style.

Shange’s writing form is unique, much like his story. He keeps the reader guessing, keeps them on their toes, and it is hard to tell how the different parts of his story add up. There is a guess that this story could have a parallel or symbolism to racism, considering that Indigo is colored and there are undertones of racism in the story, but the true meaning is quite mysterious to me.

Reading Response – 3/5/15

“The Girl with the Blackened Eye” is a very horrifying story because it can actually, and has actually, happened to many women and girls all around the world. My mother had three daughters. She raised each one of us to be very cautious, very paranoid of strangers who approach us when we are alone. This she did because stories such as this one are sadly not always fiction. Some of the survivor stories you hear are heartbreaking and eye-opening.

The writing in the story, however, is very well done. It gives incredible detail and imagery for a story that gives the least amount of detail possible. It also depicts the thoughts and actions of a captive very well. She was a victim, just like the others, and even when he put trust in her she still couldn’t find it in her to betray him. This story is very, very well written and touches upon one’s emotions.

I won’t lie, I’m slightly confused and slightly disturbed by the story “Night Women.” At first it seems as though there is sexual tension between the mother and her son. Her view of him shifts very quickly and periodically throughout the story; from sexual to maternal in an instant.

From what is written, and written well, you can tell she is a lower class women with a young son and many lovers who visit her at night without her son’s knowledge most of the time. these lovers of hers are a way of escaping for a brief time, maybe even to pretend that she is of a higher class and that she and her son want for nothing. But, in reality, these suitors that she brings home won’t even help her fix a hole in her roof.

I am even more confused, however, by “From Sassafras, Cypress, and Indigo.” It is a story that makes little to no sense, but I feel as though it has hidden meaning that I just am not understanding. At first, I thought it was some sort of symbolic reference that she left her window open so the moon could enter, but then her dolls and fiddle started talking and, as it turns out, she doesn’t even know how to play the violin. I quickly became worried over the girl’s mental state.

To go with the theme of the rest of these fictions, I was especially worried when the two boys should up that she might be sexually assaulted or raped. I had no idea of what anyone was talking about throughout the story, but I feel intrigued by it, so something must have been done right.

Reading Response – 2/19/15

In truth, I’m not too sure on what to say about the shorts given that there are so many of them and they are all of different stories and writing styles. Many of them are very detailed in nature, like “The Colonel” by Carolyn Forche, which gives even the unimportant facts, from why his daughter and son aren’t there to the colonel telling his parrot to shut up from the terrace. Then, there’s “Survivors” by Kim Addonizio, which mentions even the obscure toys that the partners have in their apartment.

Some of the other shorts make no sense, like the “Mystery Stories” by Sharon Krinsky. Her stories range from should poems be held in plastic or china cups, to talking cats, to paying for imaginary people’s dinners. Along these lines are also “But What Was Her Name?” by Dawn Raffel which seems to talk about the life and death of a woman in a twisted and confusing way.

This, twisted and confusing, however, seems to be the language used by most of these shorts. Most of them are riddled with words and phrases that seem to hold little other purpose then to confuse the reader and make them second-guess what they are reading. The writing styles are lend to this as well. Given that these stories are so short, you don’t have much information or much time to process what you have just read before you are thrown into another, completely unrelated short.

This being said, frustration as reading this was at points, I did find them entertaining and even moving to a certain degree. One that struck me pretty hard was the very first short, “Survivors” which I spoke about earlier. Knowing that you and the person you love are both dying and one of the things filling your mind in these last few days or weeks is who will go through our things once we are gone? What will they think when they see this or that? It seems so trivial since he will be dead, but it is such a surreal thought because we all have possessions we wouldn’t want outsiders to see. And thinking of your pet, wondering what will happen to it once you aren’t there to take care of it. Finally, of course, thinking about how you truly hope you die first because you don’t want to experience the pain of losing the one you love, especially when you are about to die yourself. All in all, that short was my favorite because of the surrealism and how easily one might relate to this sort of thinking before death.

Reading Response – 2/12/15

The story that Lamott is saying about Polaroids reminds me of what we discussed in class. We talked a lot about the importance of detail and how everything is important by itself let alone when it is apart of a big picture or plot. When Lamott compares writing to a Polaroid picture, he says that the idea you are writing off of  starts off hazy, just like a Polaroid, but that it slowly comes to life with time. Each detail contributes to a part of the story, from the flowers in the corner of the picture that you didn’t notice were there to the family that stood behind the boy who was the subject of your photograph. The little details of a photo help build the scene and the details of a story are no different.

Just like a Polaroid slowly revealing itself to you, so do your characters. Even though you are creating them, it takes time for you to get to know them, who they are and how they would act in each situation you are planning to put them through. It’s like starting off a new friendship, you need to build in confidence with that relationship in order to fully understand them. Lamott brings up an interesting point, you are going to love some characters and hate others, but for the same reason: that they contain some aspect of yourself. In this way, writing your characters and getting to know them can help you to better know yourself, because your characters truly are a part of who you are.

As a writer, I know that plot is very important to any story. Lamott, on the other hand, is of a surprisingly different opinion. He says that you should instead focus on your characters and simply write about them. Write their loves out and the plot is bound to come to you, to happen on its own. This is a different way of looking at plot for me, as I have always considered plot as one of the most important things to have a sturdy grasp on. Lamott disagrees, says that characters should not serve as pawns for a plot, because then you will hit more blocks that way. Instead, write about your characters, about who they are and the plot will follow.

Dialogue is a huge part of character development. If you spend so much time discovering who a character is and how they will act, you should never disregard or neglect thinking of how they will respond, how they will confess, and how they will challenge. If what you have your characters say doesn’t match up with how you have portrayed them, then the entire emotion of the piece is off. Dialogue is important because it is how a character relays themselves to one another and to the readers.

Reading Response – 1/29/15

I like how in the beginning, Tocqueville speaks about the region as something wild and untamed and beautiful, then goes on to mention that it’s destiny is meant to be the United States of America. Soon after, he begins to describe how the settlers and the colonies took that same, beautiful region and he described how they began to kill it off slowly, unintentionally, trying to force it to serve them and meet their needs.

Contrary to the settlers, Tocqueville mentions the Native Americans and speaks about how they all have similar languages, how they respect the nature that surrounds them, and how they haven’t fallen into barbarism even though they aren’t considered to be “civilized.”However gentle they were with nature and with the settlers during a peaceful time, the Native Americans were ferocious in battle and would not hesitate to kill a man with his bare hands if need be.

Finally, Tocqueville says that most of the culture of the Natives has been lost throughout time and that not even their descendants could give a proper retelling of the ways of their people back then.  The language has since been lost, but that he believes some of that can be justified if you consider that “the whole continent, in short, seemed prepared to be the abode of a great nation yet unborn.”

One of the poems I read from Khaled Mattawa was entitled “Ecclesiastes.” It is a poem that I found most interesting as it speaks to people in a way that seems cunning and conniving, but all people have done it before, so they understand. This poem talks about the “rules” and “tricks,” presumably of life.

He gives an example of a rule of a specific situation, such as being late, and then gives a counter trick to turn the situation more or less in your favor and win the favor of the person mentioned in the rule. The trick for someone arriving late, then, would be to pretend that you’re willing to make an exception for them and only them, thus getting on their good side quickly.

This poem uses cleverly worded sentences and situations to get the point across, but the language used is very understandable and relatable. It also gives one the image of how relived the person in the rule must be when you use the trick to flip the tables and win the favor of someone without their knowledge that you did it on purpose. It’s a strange poem, but it is surprisingly likable and you can imagine it easily.

Blog Response 1/22/15 – Julia Cameron

I particularly love this reading of Cameron because it states what seems like it should be obvious but most of us don’t tend to think about. Julia talks a lot of the joy of writing and how writing is not a burden or even very hard as many people think, but can be fun and healthy for you. Expressing your feelings and creativity is good and a lot more fun than many people think it is. Some people use the excuse “oh I can’t write” or “I don’t know how to express myself” but if they just sat down and started, wrote down words just as they thought them, they would see that it isn’t hard to do.

There is no such thing as a “writer’s life” or “real writing.” Any kind of writing is important and real. History makes writing seem like it is a big deal, like a burden, but writing is just an expression of your creativity, of what’s going on inside of your head. Much like Julia, I love it when I write something and feel like I have written it well, but, more importantly, I loved it even more when I write just to write.

If you are writing and you don’t think that the reader will understand what you are saying, it is not the reader that needs to “get it,” it is you that needs to reword what you said. It is the responsibility of the writer to make sure that they’re comprehensible to their audience, or at least to their target audience. Changing how you have said something doesn’t make you any less of a writer, it only makes what you were trying to say more apparent.

Not being able to find the time to write is an excuse I am guilty of using myself from time to time, but I am always proud of myself when I do sit down and write out even just another paragraph, another page. Making excuses for not writing is pointless, however, as if you can find time to watch TV or go on the computer, you already have time to write, you just aren’t using it for writing. The key is to force yourself to sit down and pound out any idea that crosses your mind. It may be difficult at first, but it would be worth it in the end.

Reading Response #1

Skills for Students on Reading and Writing:

This was a particularly interesting read for me because I intend to become an author one day. The information on the first page about remembering to always write everything down is helpful to me because I forget things rather easily, so I always keep some sort of planner at hand when it comes to school.

Being a successful student is made up of the seven aspects that Stephen Covey wrote his book about. Making sure that you are participating, on time, do your work, and work well with the teacher ad your fellow students are some of the most important things you can do while in school.

Reading is truly something that aids in writing because you find more often than not that you tend to expand your vocabulary by reading and even the style of the writer. As stated, however, it is important to eventually develop your own voice and style of writing instead of always trying to copy the same style of those before you, something I have been guilty of doing before. Your style of talking is also key for how you will write. The types of words you use, the way in which you verbally tell a story, how much detail you add in or leave out, it all is very similar to the way that you write. This is because we often write in our own voices.

Julia Cameron does a very good job in describing how writing evolves from something we can claim and learn to something that can be either helpful or debilitating once school has started and taken its toll. Writing naturally can be easy when you don’t over-think it and just let the words flow. Though writing in and of itself comes fairly easy to me, i am not good at free-writing, or writing with no filter. I am the kind of person who needs to think the words through before I put anything on page because I am almost always thinking, “And where do I want this story to go? Will this help me to get there?” However, I agree with her on many points, writing is an art that everyone knows how to do and, just like with art, everyone does it in their own style.

Poetry Packet:

I feel as though these many poetic pieces show only what Julia Cameron was trying to tell us, that many people have different styles of writing and that everyone writes about different things. Some of these pieces can be considered to be written “better” than others by scholars and schools, but they are all writings that convey some sort of emotion that ties into the author and how they were thinking and feeling.

Poetry and sonnets are harder to write in my opinion than pure stories. Poetry normally has an underlining and hidden meaning in it, sometimes it’s even purely symbolism and the reader is more often than not expected to understand the symbolism or else they will not understand the poem and therefore probably not like it. I love the concept of symbolism and have used and studied it before, however, there was a time that I did not know it existed and I hated many different books and poems and such that were riddled with symbolism and, in truth, relied on symbolism to be cohesive. After I discovered symbolism, I realized that I would have like those pieces so much better if I had gotten the symbolic meaning behind the little actions and moments that confused me so heavily before.