Assignment Due Thursday 4/3/2014

Mint Snowball

I loved this story. Like the little girl hanging around her grandfather's shop as a child I too was raised as a child mainly by my grandparents. I think time, irreversible, is tempting to anyone who has not experienced something. In this time technology and speed consumes our society, and this becomes truer with each passing generation; I think what we sometimes crave is simplicity. The old fashioned store with a shiny counter, hearing nickels clink, milkshakes being sold along with other old fashioned, once enjoyable, now forgotten, treats (like cherry cokes). We are always on the go-go-go. 

Very rarely do we experience things like this. We hear about our grandfathers, great-grandfathers, even parents lives; and how drastically ours have changed in what seems like no time at all to everyone else. Sometimes a treasured, simple, irreplaceable, lost family tradition is craved so deeply by us. We have never and will never get to experience certain lost treasures. This made me think of my bachi's home cooking. Bachi (in polish) is grandmother and Jodge is grandfather. My Bachi used to make THE BEST home made stuffed peppers (with home made tomato sauce of course) that my mother still raves about to this day, no polish restaurant even comes close to the taste that once was created by my Bachi. At the time, it seemed like something so small and meaningless; but nothing will bring it back and it is dearly missed. This story reminded me of just that. Some things of a quite meaningless value to the rest of the world, but enjoyed by family and friends or even a community, once lost and known to never be coming back, we just wish we could try it one time. It's like these things are artificially deep-rooted within our history and existence even though we have no idea, essentially, what they are. I have no idea what my Bachi's home made stuffed peppers with sauce taste like-but I have had amazing ones elsewhere and if my mother says they don't even begin to compare; they don't. 

"The crisp flush of cities makes me weep, Strip centers, Poodle grooming and Take-out Thai. I am angry over lost department stores, wistful for something I have never tasted or seen". This is the essence of that craving for something lost and for simpler, slower, times. 

Assignment Due Thursday 03/27/2014

Maps To Anywhere; Capiche?

I enjoyed reading this section of the book, it is in the first half on page 18/19 in the "Atlantis" section of the book. The tone starts out smooth and slightly sarcastic. It is placing a false sense of superiority on Italy and Italy's animals compared to America's. For example, it says "In Italy; the dogs say "bow-bow" instead of "bow-wow"". And when informed that roosters here say "cocka-doodle-doo" the Italian laughs until she bursts into tears. Details are also very prevalent in this section. For example, the writer is contrasting Italy with America, from the types of animals each of the countries bear, to the setting in the restaurant (which personally reminds me of something very Italian and rustic). The tone and setting then moves into something romantic, telling how a woman and man met each other in a restaurant in Italy. It then cuts off to tell how none of this ever happened and how everything just written was a lie. It contrasts reality with an illusion or story. The tone becomes full of imagery after the lie is confessed. In contrast with the rest of the book, Capiche is emphasizing the fact that anything can be interesting. The writer has removed themselves from the story and has come forth and told you the purpose. 

Assignment Due Thursday 03/20/14

Writing Down the Bones

"Claim Your Writing"

I enjoyed this chapter because it seems to be very true that we, ourselves, are/can be our own worst critics and not recognize our own greatness. This stems from the problem that we compare ourselves to other people's work or some type of imaginary standard society has set. Goldberg explains we do not need to be modern day Shakespeare's to write great work, we simply just need our own self. To write a great work is as simple as being honest about our own life experiences, truths, views, and using our own true writing voice. My favorite part of this chapter that really gets the point across would be when Goldberg says; "We have trouble connecting with our own confident writing voice that is inside all of us, and even when we do connect and write well, we don't claim it". (pg 164).

"I Don't Want to Die"

This chapter was interpreted by me as getting the message across that personal energy very much plays into writing. As writers, we need to sometimes just write honestly. No matter how excited we may be about a new idea or concept for our writing, we need to write calmly through our creative bustle and explosions of ideas in our mind. It sort of reminded me of meditating among fireworks or gun shots, if we want to successfully write something, our minds and energy must be relaxed and focused. The section that spoke most to me was as follows; "So while we are busy writing, all the burning life we are eager to express should come out of a place of peace. This will help us and keep us from jumping around excitedly in the middle of a story and never quite getting back to our desk to finish it". (pg 177/178). 

Assignment due Thursday March 13, 2014

Gryphon by Charles Baxter

I enjoyed reading this fiction story, it was not at all what I originally expected. I was not sure what the word gryphon even meant, I had never heard of it. Farther into the story on page 40 the substitute was telling a little bit about her background, a short synapse of her life. She had went on to tell how her mother had played in concerts for important people. Looking up gryphon I noticed that it related to instruments, string instruments.

I am also going to take a stab at the fact that this story may be about stereotypes or judging a book by its cover, or even to expect the unexpected. It could even go as far to say that we should not have prejudices based on society's norms. The children believed all substitute teachers were boring and did not know how to teach the lesson, so when they found their teacher to be coming down with something, the class automatically assumed that they would have a very easy day to follow with a sub. Expecting an ordinary substitute teacher, in walks a strange woman wearing things they described as being from "Mars". 

She was not in the least ordinary. She picked up on the lesson right away, and from first walking into the room disciplined the children. 

I think the moral of the story is that you never know how people are going to be, you never know who may walk through a door in your life. If you assume things in your head and fill yourself with false beliefs, you may never be open to meeting anyone interesting or different.

Assignment Due Thursday March 6 2014

The Girl With The Blackened Eye

With this fiction story there are an infinite number of places to begin reflecting from. The tone, the location and scenery, the feelings that it evokes in it's readers, what the girl is describing. It is all very vivid, and to me personally there was not one dull moment in the story. It was extremely interesting, disturbing, and made cause for a little self reflection and questioning. "How can he do that to her? What would I do if that were to happen to me? How is she alive?". 

The detail and imagery in this story was gruesome, ugly, and very real. Telling about her gums being infected and bleeding, causing her to gag. She had been abducted at the age of 15. To most of us in college, knowing she was so young making us think about ourselves when we were that age, and it seems like it was so long ago. It is heartbreaking and disturbing, and to think how her husband and children do not know of what happened to her.

The part about this story that disturbed me the most was not her wounds, was not the physical abuse, was not even the witnessing of the abduction of another woman, but how she ended up feeling about this disgusting man. It evokes rage in me knowing that she could say at some point in the story that she was envious of the fact that this greasy disgusting man was looking at another woman and not her. The way she described her jealous feelings, even the excitement she felt being able to ride in the car in public with him. The fact that when she was able to see him, she analyzed him. Who would want to know anything about a person as despicable as him?

Assignment due Thursday 2/13/14

But What Was Her name?
Dawn Raffel

While reading this fiction story I was very saddened at the end. In the beginning, it starts out by telling the story of what sounds like a small town. It leads into describing that this woman was a miracle child, a still born revived to life. After that stating she married late and had children.

Reading further into the story, it sounds like the cry of a suppressed woman stuck in an unhappy marriage. It says "She holds her breath. Years pass" It sounds like she is holding back her true feelings in an unhappy marriage and allows for years to pass without leaving or voicing how unhappy she truly is or how she truly feels. The impression I get from the remainder of the story is that she murdered her husband. That she was born innocent and her heart took a hold of her and destroyed her in the end. "She was white in the bed of her birth. The past had taken hold of her- the heart's last sleight".

I enjoyed reading this fictional story, the language and words used to describe and paint a picture of the scenery were a bit odd and difficult to understand. I don't have any substitutions that come to mind immediately but I think the fictional story could have been improved in the descriptive sense by using a better suited choice of words or words that are easier to understand. The tone set the story and allows the reader to get a true sense of the writers intent and emotion.

Assignment due Thursday 2/6/14

When reading the City Eclogue, the poem "Cowry She" stood out more so than some of the other poems I had been scanning through. When I first saw the word "Cowry She" I didn't have any idea as to what a Cowry was/what the word meant. Researching further, I found out cowry was a shell used as a currency dating back to the dawn of the Chinese. When Roberson says "The spirit of a many old cracked lips laughing" Maybe Roberson was referring to an ancient civilization that has died out, hence the "old cracked lips" making me envision a person of elderly age. When Roberson goes further into the poem saying "The boards of the counting game" I found that cowry shells were also used in India for board game purposes. Roberson goes further into imagery, comparing cowry shells to gulls. Roberson says the gulls can't stop moving and the cowry can't cease its movement in order to be counted. It felt like Roberson was saying that cowry shells, like money, were used all over the world for various purposes, and when used for money (which people are likely to take very quickly) it's hard to stop and count the money. "The grabbers can't imagine being let make it to the ground" may be a simile for the fact that the takers or users of money, cowry shells, cowry counting games, etc. cannot imagine the fall of the cowry shell or the end of its usefulness. Maybe this is a message to the greedy American culture and trying to say that a shell is simply a shell, and can only move so fast before falling. The last paragraph of the poem reads "Alchemy of handling, its still a shell, and shells have their voices" Alchemy was an interesting choice of word to me because it is a scientific word, used to describe the transformation of certain things like metal; gold. This led me to reason that the cowry shell is just a shell, as money is just money, and we cannot make it turn to gold or something of sheer significant value because it is not, it is just "dirty thrown around paper" as Roberson previously states in the poem.