End of Class Shindig on Thursday, 4/25!!

We will be having an end-of-class shindig/soiree/party/201 extravaganza for our last class!

In order to figure out what food/drinks everyone should bring, I'd like ALL of you to comment on this blog post. Please explain, in the comment section:

1. Which snacks/drinks you'd like to have at the party, so I or others can buy them, and/or  

2. Which snacks/drinks YOU, personally, can bring to class for everyone to enjoy. 

This way, we won't have any redundancy in snacks and we can be sure we have enough for everyone. 

I'd like to see everyone's thoughts by Tuesday, April 23rd so people have time to shop/cook accordingly. Thanks in advance. 

Casper Mulholland & Azia Walker on Reg Saner's "Technically Sweet"

Casper Mulholland:

Saner's “Technically Sweet” was a very entertaining read for me. I love the way Saner uses repetition and rhythmic language to illustrate what he’s seeing. The beauty of the language serves to mirror the beauty of the landscape, which is very effective at drawing the reader into the essay. Read this passage to yourself, then read it aloud, trying to feel the ebb and flow of the language:

“In the luminous dusk of their canyon I sit doing nothing: savoring the strange pleasures of tired legs, watching the light go, watching white-bellied swallows catch damselflies, watching sunset fade from the spiderlike limbs of cholla cactus. An evening hush makes the light quiet, makes me want to give up the day as slowly as possible.”

Can you hear how easily Saner slips into an almost-entrancing rhythm? “watching, watching, watching...makes, makes.” In this passage, it shows how he's trying to hold onto the moment, as if by repeating the words in him mind he can inscribe it into him memory forever. She does inscribe it into memory, but not just him own; rathim, he gives the experience to him readers, using him language and structure to imprint it into our minds. It is a very powerful thing, to be able to communicate so clearly and vividly that it makes the reader sit up and take notice.

Another very impressive thing about the piece is how well Saner creates tension. She juxtaposes Robert Oppenheimer's life in the essay's past with the beauty of the New Mexican desert he is exploring in the essay's present. The very beginning of the piece starts us off by talking about how Oppenheimer was bullied as a child, and how he swore revenge. It doesn't do anything melodramatic; it doesn't imply that Oppenheimer created the bomb for the feeling of power, or to get back at his childhood tormentors by saving the day. In fact, it doesn't even tell us that this child is Robert Oppenheimer until a section or two later. What it does is get us instantly inside Oppenheimer's life. Who wouldn't sympathize with a child who, having issued very little observable provocation, found himself the subject of bullying and humiliation from his peers? It also, however, portrays Oppenheimer as a little strange and not quite fully identifiable to the reader.

The rest of the essay moves back and forth between the beautiful landscape of the “Land of Enchantment,” as Saner puts it, and facts from Oppenheimer's life and the lives of Americans during the last phase of World War Two. This serves to build tension because the two strands are so contrasted, yet ultimately intertwined, both being about people; about civilizations and cultures, how they interacted with nature, and how many members of them are now gone from what was once their home. Using this tension, Saner goes back and forth and develops the conflict, using it to express his viewpoint on nuclear weapons—and Robert Oppenheimer's decision to create them—without directly stating it.  

******  
Azia Walker:

The second half of Reg Saners essay Technically Sweet was very interesting. It brought up issues and places that I am not familiar with and I was intrigued. For me, the language Saner used was very difficult to follow. I read this essay several times and even out loud in hope of trying to better comprehend what was going on. By doing so, I was able to find a better incite of the essay but things were still muddle. However, I was able to draw a conclusion and find out what I felt Saner was trying to get across to the reader.

Right from the start (page 12) Saner made it clear that he was going to be sharing with the reader his perception and memories of being in the military, and information and his feelings about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. "On a morning bright with sea haze and vapor still rising from dark ripples near shore, my troop ship eases toward its berth past cargo vessels riding at anchor off Yokohama." Saner immediately introduces us to a greatly detailed setting answering both the where and what question. I obviously cannot relate to this experience but this scene was easy for me to envision. I really appreciated as a reader the vivid detail throughout the essay.

Technically Sweet is loaded with names (people and places) that also made it confusing for me to follow. I think the many subjects is what got to me the most. I didn’t understand how certain memories tied into each other but then that might not have been his point. Saner uses many themes that showed how credible and experienced of a writer he is. I learned from him the true meaning of how much detail can enhance my writing and make the reader feel comfortable, willing, and connected. Also the importance of observing the world around me and concentration it takes to be good. Since writing is what I want to do and I wish to improve a great deal this is what has to be done. My thoughts before writing future papers will definitely be a much longer process than it has been in the past. I want to become better and more thorough and less worrisome about something I enjoy doing.

Overall, I think Reg Saner was trying to get the reader to appreciate the power of life and the people who have died trying to help our country. In Technically Sweet he states, "we ought to welcome that curse as a left-handed blessing. It will signal that an intelligent posterity exists." I think by this quote he called life first, a curse because we can't control how up and down day to day life is, and then a left handed blessing because we each were the cell that made it for a reason. It gave me even more a sense of purpose. Saner was very affective in tying in future generations with his experiences throughout his essay and it was enjoyable.

Lisa Heisterberg on John D'Agata's About a Mountain

John D’Agata’s About A Mountain was a very interesting read for me. Throughout the entire book I was “hooked” and had the feeling that I just wanted to keep reading to find out what was going to happen. I enjoyed the book. However, once I got to class and found out about some of D’Agata’s questionable facts, I found myself sincerely questioning everything that I had read.

The style D’Agata used was very casual, lyrical, and choppy. He often jumped from one thought to the next. For example on page 145-146, D’Agata begins talking about Ron Flud and how he hadn’t explained how Levi’s sneakers got knocked off his feet during the fall; “…were knocked off at the moment his body hit the ground, even though his sneakers looked unscuffed in the photo, unstained, still laced, even double- knotted. I suppose Ron knew that there are facts that do not matter,” and then abruptly begins recalling his trip with the students to Yucca Mountain, “Okay, kids,” Blair said, when our bus came to a stop. “I want you to show your school identifications to the soldier.”  This shift had me wondering what was going on for a second since I had forgotten who Blair was. I happened to like this style of writing though. It helped keep me focused on the content of the book and made for an exciting read.

Another aspect of D’Agata’s style that was very prominent throughout the piece was his use of long lists. This can be seen especially on page 125 when D’Agata lists the 200 words the linguist Swadesh came up with to trace the roots of languages; “all, animal, ashes, back, bark, belly, berry, big, bird, bite, blood, bone, breast, brother , burn, child…” These lists, for me, helped to solidify some topics that D’Agata wanted to get across, such as the absurdity of some ideas or facts, and the vast extensiveness of some topics.

D’Agata seems to keep his own personal opinions and beliefs out of his writing. Instead he writes as if he is a journalist just presenting the facts in an objective and unbiased manner. This way of writing made me inherently trust what D’Agata was writing; even though I had no clue about any of the real facts. Learning that the author altered some facts, such as the day that Levi had committed suicide, the number of strip clubs in Vegas, how he had melded some characters and days together into one made me wonder about all the other “facts” that were presented. This revelation forces me to question whether a piece can remain nonfiction even though some facts are changed (no matter how minutely). Furthermore, it makes me wonder what the genre of nonfiction really is. Is it still nonfiction if some of the facts are altered?

There were many themes running through this book such as the escalation of events, risk taking, and the questioning of reality. D’Agata though doesn’t say any of these explicitly though; instead of skirts around them by talking about other topics like Yucca Mountain and suicide. I thought this was a very neat way to write, especially since I am used to stating what I want the reader to upfront.

Reading this book introduced me to a style that I would like to try incorporating into my own writing. The lyric style seems like it would be difficult to get the hang of, but I really liked the way D’Agata used it in About A Mountain. I hope to be able to work more with it in the future to make my writing have better flow and emphasis on my internal thoughts.

Samantha Sanchez on Dinty Moore's "Son of Mr. Green Jeans"

   Dinty W. Moore’s piece “Son of Mr. Green Jeans” was a refreshing examination on the role of fathers and fatherhood. Upon first read-through, I disliked the piece. However I have come to appreciate it more after a closer look during a second perusal. 

Stylistically, Moore took a non-traditional approach in the telling of his story. The majority of the story was not told like a narrative, but rather it was told through a series of vignettes and seemingly unrelated events about father figures. Moore’s approach, though atypical, allowed for the reader to become an investigator forced to find meaning and connectivity among many fragmented vignettes. 

In the entire piece, the only real “hard facts” that Moore gives about his father to the reader comes in just two lines, when he says, “My own Irish father was a newspaperman, owned a popular nightclub, ran for mayor, and smuggled run in a speedboat during Prohibition. He smoked, drank, ate nothing but red meat, and died of a heart attack in 1938” (pg 391). Besides this, the reader must decipher Moore’s feelings on fathers and fatherhood by themselves. 

The piece was interesting because it required the reader to go back and take a second look to really understand what was being said. However, I felt that on the whole, the speaker’s message was muddled under so many vignettes. Furthermore, it was hard to relate to the topic in the first place, but it became even more difficult to connect to it because of all of the side stories. I felt it needed more of a plotline, or a more enforced roadmap, to help guide the reader through to the speaker’s main point. 

Of all the vignettes that Moore displays, the most poignant one arose under the heading “Natural Selection”. Moore writes, “When my wife, Renita, confessed to me her desire to have children, the very first words out of my mouth were ‘You must be crazy’” (pg 392). I loved this scene because of its simplicity, but also because it offered a direct look at the author, his feelings on being a father, and a glimpse at his relationship with his wife. While the fragmented scenes throughout the piece are interesting in their ambiguity, as a reader I felt more appreciative of the moments where I got to see the speaker completely uncloaked.

There were some similarities between “Safekeeping” and “Son of Mr. Green Jeans”. Both of them explored their topics in a non-traditional way. Both of them relied heavily on fragmented ideas and sentences to convey meaning. However “Son of Mr. Green Jeans” differs from every text we have read this semester in the way it examined the theme of fatherhood. The theme was explored first in a short anecdote on Tim Allen, and then by talking about the parental habits of the male Japanese carp, and then by talking about emperor penguins and T.V. personalities. This piece was unique in that each scene was different, though connected through the underlying theme of fatherhood.

Perry Kantor on Lia Purpura's "Autopsy Report"

Opening the Body

            Lia Purpura's “Autopsy Report” was a visceral and detailed recounting of her first experience watching a human body dissected.

The first page is rife with details of the state in which the bodies are found. Details like  “Drowned men, bound with ropes and diesel-slicked. Their ears sludge-filled. Their legs mud-smeared... their lashes white with river silt,” set the tone of the piece very quickly and efficiently. Purpura also doesn't waste time with certain conjunctions or prepositional phrases, which gives the piece a very condensed and fully-packed feel. On the first page every paragraph also starts with the phrase “I shall,” which instantly helps set the tone for who the speaker is.

As I began I wondered what direction the piece would take, as so many morbid details so clinically discussed began to make me wonder if perhaps it was about murder, or something truly sinister. It progresses on to recount the actual visit to what I imagine is either a medical examiners office or the morgue. I think at this point my fears that it was going to be something more gruesome (than it already was) were assuaged but I wasn't fully confident the speaker wouldn't turn to be a serial killer or something of the sort.

The part that seemed most honest to me was when the speaker tells us that the first time she sees a body opened up her reaction is to laugh. I find this honest because I highly doubt that would be most peoples first reaction and it also seems borderline inappropriate, which makes it all the more believable that it actually happened. But the key to the essay is the speaker's admission that to her the entire process of human dissection felt almost as if it were natural knowledge to her, as if she had always known that things would happen the way they did, “Of course blood pooled each blue-burnt circumference. Of course, I remember thinking.”

I think as a reader it made me consider visual detail in a different way, because I had never had things so vividly recounted in such a gory yet dispassionate way, as if it were a textbook describing viscera. It made me consider tone in a whole new light as well, and how even things normally very intense can be reduced. Her pithy writing also made it much easier to simply take in, there was no fluff to distract the reader from the story or the details and I think I could incorporate more of this technique into my own work. I liked that I didn't have to re-read a single line to understand what she meant by it, everything was as plain as it could be. 

As a writer I want to experiment more with tone and detail as a result of this piece. I want to see if I can achieve the same density of detail without compromising the tone I’m trying to work with. Purpura seems to accomplish this balance perfectly. She manages to combine her accurate and almost poetic recounting with very truthful comparisons: “The bladder, hidden, but pulled into view for my sake and cupped in hand like a water balloon,” while still maintaining an easily believable, almost objective, viewpoint. More of these obvious and easily identifiable analogies might also be something worth exploring in my own work.

Tam Dinh on David Foster Wallace's "Consider the Lobster"

I chose this reading based entirely on the title, that being “Consider the Lobster”. Other than shrimp, I do not eat any seafood. However I am absolutely fascinated with marine life and I love watching cooking/traveling shows that are about the sea and sea life, thus seafood. This text written by David Foster Wallace, someone who I’ve never heard of. He is apparently relatively famous today, however this piece was written back in 2003.

Wallace is sent, as a correspondent, to the annual Maine Lobster Festival. He starts off by listing all the honors and titles and sponsors that the event has garnered (I have heard of Food and Wine Magazine. Hell, I have a subscription). He does so to either build up hype or to poke fun at how serious this event has become. I suspect it is the latter. Throughout the piece he gives specific figure amounts and numbers. That helps build his credibility as well as helps the reader to really visualize and get some sense of the scale of things, such as when he says that “over twenty-five thousand pounds of fresh caught Main lobster are consumed” (526) or that  over “100,000” people attended the event, and in the footnotes there was a detail about how the U.S. produces 80 million lbs of lobster per year (530).

I like how Wallace incorporates a little bit of history and science within this piece, as opposed to only exploring lobster in the culinary world. I have heard that lobster was considered a low class food item in other centuries, however I did not know that “some colonies had laws against feeding lobsters to inmates more than once a week because it was thought to be cruel and unusual, like making people eat rats” (527). That was a really interesting detail to me.

After Wallace sets up the stage of the event, he veers the article in the direction of the ethics/morality of killing and eating lobster. There was a smooth transition. He described the different tents and the general layout of the event; and, then he mentions the PETA picketers. It was around this point in the reading that I thought of foie gras (duck liver), which is something I am completely against. While chefs utilize the whole duck, the main purpose for the deaths of some is purely for harvesting their livers and making pates’ and such hoity toity entrees. The argument with lobster primarily lies with how they are killed (while the foie gras ducks, are purposely fattened throughout their lives so that their livers would be bigger and richer in flavor). As Wallace explains, lobsters can be 1. boiled alive 2. boiled in salt water, starting off with a low temperature and slowly raising it higher 3. stab it between the eyes quickly and sharply before cooking it (536-537). His description evokes emotion from the reader, which is of course the intention. His use of imagery and auditory senses (?) were very powerful, such as when he describes how the lobster claws clank against the pots and the whistling sounds that occur when boiling them. I felt as though I was in the room.

Wallace goes on to talk about pain and the science of what the lobster may or may not be feeling. This instantly reminded me of a reading I had in a past class regarding morality of animals. This is my attempt to paraphrase it (for further reading, refer to Carl Cohen’s “Do Animals Have Rights”)…it was about whether or not animals really have rights, if they cannot understand what morality is…how can they have rights?

This proved to be a real thought provoking article. I was scared that “Consider the Lobster” might not be about seafood but instead a metaphor for something, which would’ve been disappointing to me. At first I was skeptical about the author’s tone, I felt this cynicism from him about the festival; but I was surprised at how balanced the piece was overall. In the second to last paragraph, he explains that he is simply confused and really just wants the reader to “consider” the points he presented. I feel this text has definitely achieved that. I will never look at lobster the same way. I wonder how someone who does eat lobster feels after reading this…again, I don’t eat seafood and I’ve never tried lobster, so I read this with a clear conscious!

Overall, this was an interesting article and I enjoyed reading it. It had many facets: history, science, philosophy, culinary facts, etc. That is something I’m going to try to incorporate in my own writing… the various aspects that one topic is comprised of.  

Charles Jennings on Charles Bowden's "Torch Song"

             The story “Torch Song” by Charles Bowden centers on a Tucsonan newspaper writer who spirals into depravity while working a beat that revolves around the cities numerous violent sex crimes. One tactic that Bowden employs in relating this disturbing story is a gradual slide in character from a relatively normal writer in a conservative marriage to a young man with demons who cycles through women as often as he cycles through his clothing. The voice is definitely that of a writer, with punctuated quips and witty lines that allow the reader to be drawn in to the story completely. The piece is especially relatable to other writers who understand the toll such serious and destructive subject matter as rape and murder can have on your psyche if you spend too much time wallowing in them.

One aspect of the essay that I found compelling and deserving of analysis is the author’s constant struggle with categorizing sexuality and understanding what motivations drive people to commit sexual crimes. The author expresses these feeling in a way when he writes; “We all share a biology and deep drives, and what we have created- civilization, courtesy, decency- is a mesh that comes from these drives and also contains and tames them” (Bowden, p. 71). I found it very interesting that even as he delves into the scum of the city and the most disturbing and violent crime that as malicious a city as Tucson can offer, he still is able to find commonality that binds the perpetrators and the victims together under a banner of humanity.

In a lot of ways, I think the work devours the speaker of the narrative, even though it allows him great insight into human nature and the base reasons behind sexual deviance. Although he does discover some truths, the process by which they are discovered tears his personal life apart and restructures it completely. Bowden writes; “I do not want to leave my work at the office. I do not want to leave my work at all. I have entered a world that is black, sordid, vicious. And actual. And I do not care what price I must pay to be in this world” (Bowden, p.64). The speaker shows a complete lack of worry about the state of his personal life, but rather expresses a desire to live for his work. His passion for the work consumes him and nearly derails his personal life completely before he is finally compelled to stop writing these stories and leave the newspaper. 

In his essay “Torch Song”, Charles Bowden creates a portrait of a tormented young writer on a savage news beat that drives him into sexual deviance. I thought this essay revealed a lot about the speaker, and created an extremely relatable protagonist who the reader roots for in his darkest hours in sunny Tucson, Arizona. Although it does relate a lot about the character, I’m not entirely sure I believe this story in its entirety. Writers have a tendency to exaggerate and manipulate, which is fine and expected, but it also shook my faith in the reliability of the narrative.

Rosa Wolf on Barbara Kingsolver’s “High Tide in Tucson”

    Successful, engaging nature writing such as “High Tide in Tucson” must find a very precarious balance between observation of the natural and observation of the unnatural.  It must also avoid sounding condescending or preachy.  Kingsolver does this by pointing out the human race’s missteps without unnecessary judgement.  The reader, as a result, is interested rather than insulted.  We are not made to feel like parasites or criminals, but like misguided members of a large ecological family.

     The hermit crab is used as the foremost metaphor in the essay, portraying a natural being who has had an unnatural situation thrust upon it.  We see the hermit crab vacillating between times of  disturbingly languid behavior and times of extreme busyness.  Humorously linking the hermit crab’s mysterious behavior to the often mysterious behavior of humans, Kingsolver says that “Buster was manic-depressive” (267).   This kind of personification is sometimes frowned upon by animal behaviorists and defined as anthropomorphism.  However, the great thing about creative non-fiction is that Kingsolver’s job is not to accurately and scientifically represent animal behavior.  Her job is to present the information in a way that will strike a chord in her readers, that will flow out like poetry.  Though she presents scientific facts and anecdotes, she is free to wrap them in a gauzy layer of metaphor and figurative language.  She is free to anthropomorphize a hermit crab to her heart’s delight.  She is allowed to use science as a jumping-off point for her beautiful prose.

     One of my favorite quotes in the essay is this: “We carry around these big brains of ours like the crown jewels, but mostly I find that millions of years of evolution have prepared me for one thing only: to follow internal rhythms” (269).  Not only is this beautiful and truthful, but I think that it holds the key to the heart of the entire essay.  By observing and analyzing both the environment and the creatures in it, Kingsolver comes to the conclusion that the human race would benefit from getting in touch with their natural instincts.  This is suggested as a remedy both for struggling individuals and the entire human race.     

     Another element that makes the essay successful is the introduction of fascinating but little-known facts.  The information about the moon and tides was both new to me and extremely relevant to her main idea about the need for humans to reconnect with their instincts and natural desires.  Though not everyone is going to find the same things interesting, the same can be said of any statement or subject matter. 

     I may be biased because I have read and enjoyed nearly all of Barbara Kingsolver’s books and short stories, but I never fail to be enchanted by her writing. She is a beautiful writer with a deep talent for connecting the natural world with the unnatural world, consequently creating a simultaneously philosophical and poetic essay with “High Tide in Tucson”. 

Joshua Morrison on Barry Lopez's "Flight"

Starting out, I found myself a bit beleaguered wading through the mountain of technical jargon that permeates the piece. At first I believed the specifics were to merely lend some credibility to the narrator but as the story continued and the terminology pushed on perpetually, I came to believe that the language serves a more interactive purpose. Reading the technical material made me tired (I actually fell asleep for a while) and I believe the author wanted the audience to be weighed down with it. For a time I tried to keep up with it, attempting to learn everything I could about the aircraft and how everything functioned on and in it but very quickly I was overwhelmed, as was the narrator in traveling so much.

One thing that immediately struck me was the disconnect from nature and man’s need to not only conquer nature but to use it unnaturally to feed the desires of man. How ridiculous a thing is it to have “a fresh strawberry on a winter morning in Toronto” (309). The business like, calculating and financial language throughout the piece further distances the reader from the natural world while a sense of longing is continually expressed as the narrator looks down on the beauty of the world from above in this aircraft that could be seen as a symbol for man’s ridiculous and unnatural state; “the Boeing 747 is the one airplane every national airline strives to include in its fleet as confirmation of its place in modem commerce, and it’s tempting to see it as the ultimate embodiment of what our age stands for” (310).

The initial “PENGUINS AND LIPSTICK, STRAWBERRIES AND GOLD” (308) grabbed me and I sat for a while trying to find an immediate connection between them all. It wasn’t until I got to the very end, to the last sentence that I felt I understood, “I think the of the penguins two decks below, standing up on their toes and slamming flippers that once were wings against the walls of their pens” (333). The author states that the freighting industry is driven by three things, one of which is “…frequent changes in fashion and in the design of basic products.” Throughout the piece, exhaustive lists of cargo are ceaselessly shoveled to the reader, most of which being either basic consumer goods or money. I feel the sentence starting the story is a simply summery of the disconnection between man and nature as viewed by the narrator and attempts to illustrate how humanity has not only separated itself from the natural but also has taken advantage of the natural, placing everything (including those employed in the freighting industry) in a state of limbo, without time, and breaking everything and everyone down to a bare practical, numerical equation. I believe the “Gold” represents greed and a need to have more, probably the ultimate driving force behind the whole predicament. The “strawberries” illustrating man’s need to feed their own desire, no matter how ridiculous those desires may be. The “Lipstick” as a symbol of commercial and cultural influence, a show of the western world pushing needless objects on the world as a whole, destroying foreign cultures by homogenizing everything. Finally the “Penguins”, like humans they cannot fly and have been taken out of their natural habitat for nothing more than the desire of humans.

Paying close attention to things I have read this semester as well as “Flight” I have slowly begun to recognize patterns, or rather techniques, in writing. Not just in nonfiction but for writing in general which help illustrate points through context. These techniques may not be constrained to nonfiction but I feel that they are easily visible in it. I enjoy the way Mr. Lopez used his knowledge of planes and the freighting industry to wear down the audience so that they experience some of what he went through. Although tiring my reader may not be something I wish to do, it is a technique that I feel can be very effective. I also feel that taking these normal items (penguins, lipstick, gold and strawberries) and enlarging their environment and exposing the influence they have globally to demonstrate a greater human fault is another great technique I can utilize in my own writing.

Makenzie Thiel on William Harrison's "Present Tense Africa"

            William Harrison’s “Present Tense Africa” is a personal account of Harrison’s time spent in Africa.  He uses vivid imagery to make the readers feel just like they are in the story and know what is happening, just as Harrison in the essay.  Harrison then goes into describing different situations that he faced while in Africa, and the way he writes is so wonderful that it makes you feel like you are there as well. 

            Harrison also used some really strong wording; strong in terms that the wording evokes such feeling and thought and other meanings that not every author is able to provoke through their writing.  One example is from the beginning of the story when Harrison writes, “We’ve talked about what to do if the van breaks down out here, how we’ll stay close to the vehicle because, as we know, we’re the slowest beasts on the landscape.”  I found this sentence alone to be so strong because although it is a simple realization, Harrison also uses the word “beasts” very carefully.  He was able to truly show that he is in Africa, because in other parts of the world, such as the United States, we do not think of staying close so that we are not attacked beasts.  As for the word beasts, I think that also says something about the human race and how we can be as vicious and malicious as the wild animals that roam around Africa. 

            Another part of the essay where Harrison used strong and thought provoking wording was when he wrote,

“Africa is in the present tense.  Like most Americans, I live in the future or past, planning ahead most of the time, thinking what job I ought to do next, considering the calendar, or thinking and sometimes writing about where I’ve gone, what I’ve seen, and who I am because of all that.  But here one is in the moment.  A peculiar African Zen: time becomes itself, not a thing pulling us forward or a psychological thing pushing us back.  Journeys, often because they’re so difficult, tend to make destinations of little consequences, even foolish.”

            This paragraph is nothing more than the truth, showing us that the time Harrison spent in Africa had opened his mind and slowed it at the same time.  He is right, we take the moment that we are currently living for granted.  The differences in culture and lifestyle are obvious in this story, even showing that we might need to make a change and live a more Zen life.  This strong wording show me that it possible for an author to make a strong point without having to use big words, and that simple is sometimes better- such as this case. 

            Overall, I really enjoyed this piece by Harrison because it was both strong and wonderfully written.  Other than that, I also learned how to add in description without being overbearing, because I have always had a problem in doing so, and Harrison made it sound so beautiful together. 

Stella Ruvalcaba on Phillip Lopate's "Portrait of My Body"

Reading Phillip Lopates “Portrait of My Body” made me realize how at times we become too harsh with ourselves in terms of appearance. Lopates begins his interpretation of his body and begins with his posture, which I thought was very odd. I had to reread the line various times, “I am a man who tilts,” it’s simplicity caught my attention immediately. He’s very critical of himself almost over analytical. But I respect his honesty and the fact that he decided to share so much about himself. I feel that in order to begin writing about our own sensitive information or quirk we must be willing to reach out to an audience with our imperfections and create a connection. This piece made me realize that in order to be a writer we must be dedicated to art and expose ourselves, imperfections, desires and oddities. You’re no longer writing for yourself create a web of connections with others.

             I didn’t expect the piece to swerve into a more personal direction but I did expect a twist of some sort. I just didn’t think it would involve his penis. I didn’t know 2 pee holes were even possible. I also appreciate writers that set themselves apart by creating unique pieces, like Lopate with “Portrait of My Body”. I had never read a piece that involved an issue so personal and sensitive as the one mentioned in Lopate’s. I appreciate the fact that he’s so honest with the reader, picking out physical aspects of himself that make him uncomfortable. For example, when he mentions his sister telling him he’s gotten “flabby”. Talk about brutally honest. This even made me feel uncomfortable.

            Just as he writes of his imperfections, Lopate also mentions his appreciation for exquisite backs and other characteristics of himself. He compares this with his own back affected by his time spent writing. I noticed there’s an implication that he’s going through a mid-life crisis. He doesn’t feel his age but younger. His mind not catching up with his body. At the same time he seems to describe it, comparing himself then and now. But ends with a final note on his appreciation for his fingers and noting a peculiarity with his right middle finger, broken after a ball game. Throughout the piece he’s sarcastic and too critical of himself and ending with this made me realize the piece has a tone of admiration and underlying pride for himself as a writer.  

            So far, and including this piece, creative non-fiction has showed me that it’s ever expanding in topics and peculiarity. Coming from a poetry concentration, non-fiction has helped me use more description that poetry seems to condense or omit. It’s refreshing to read a detailed piece that guides the reader through peculiarities that makes us all feel unique in a positive way, not shameful or alone. After reading Lopate’s piece I’m realizing there’s no limit to what you can write about. Whatever it is, can be expressed truthfully as “Portrait of My Body” has.

Ella Wilcox on Lucy Grealy's "Mirrorings"

While reading this personal essay, I was initially captivated by the fact that this woman avoided her own reflection for an entire year. You do not know why this is. It is intriguing and now you are committed.

The part where she describes her chemotherapy is the part that I felt she made the best connection to the reader, because everyone is affected by cancer. Personally you may not be affected by cancer but chances are, you know someone with cancer. The detail that she put into describing her symptoms was incredible. It made me experience what she was experiencing.

I found it inspiring that in order to cope with being bullied and being an outcast at school, she found her savior in being around horses. I know from personal experience that being around horses makes you feel graceful and you can even find beauty in yourself. They are kind creatures and as cheesy as it sounds, they accept you for who you are. They don’t care what you look like they only care about how you make them feel. If you are kind to them they will return the same kindness. This is not always the same case with humans.

I really enjoyed the parts of the essay where she talked about how she felt lucky to know the real truth about life, while everyone else walked around thinking that they have things so bad. Through this, it was clear that she started to count her own blessings instead of those of other people. Although, throughout the entire essay she explains that she wasn’t always this way. She was constantly teased and bullied in school and even later on in her work place. It was a bit heartbreaking to know that this woman had to go through all these experiences and that she couldn’t even say she was depressed because all she felt was ugly. That was the only sensation she knew.

A quote from the essay that I thought really summed up her feelings was;

“On one level I understood that the image of my face was merely that, an image, a surface that was not directly related to any true, deep definition of the self. But I also knew that it is only through appearance that we experience and make decisions about the everyday world, and I was not always able to gather the strength to prefer the deeper world to the shallow one.”

This quote really expresses that even though she found a deeper meaning to life and that she was lucky to have discovered it, it was sometimes really exhausting to keep that up. She would get tired of keeping it up and just want to “fit in” for a change.

Towards the end of the essay, there was a sense that she was starting to become more comfortable being who she was. She even had a sense of humor about all the surgeries that she had to endure. “The one good thing about a tissue expander is that you look so bad with it in that no matter what you looked like once it was finally removed, your face has to look better.”

I believe that this essay did impact the way I look at creative nonfiction writing a and just writing in general. I particularly liked the way she described things that others may experience what she experienced. I hope to be able to achieve that one-day.

Shelby Marra on Brenda Miller's "The Date"

       The day we signed up for these blog posts, I chose this essay based on the title. Hearing about someone’s personal dating life and dating experiences is always entertaining and taps into our own social interactions. When I first started reading Brenda Miller’s “The Date”, I made a predetermined guess that the essay would actually describe the date between the author and a man. But after reading, it has deeper meaning and background. I feel that the author shows through this writing that she has a void in her life and is trying to fit into the same mold as her siblings. She has had troubles maintaining relationships, is unsure with herself and has not exactly lived up to the standards of getting married and having children like her brothers.

            In this essay, Miller thoroughly describes her process of getting ready for a dinner date with a man she likes. She speaks about rearranging the pictures on her refrigerator so that she comes off a certain way to the man. I felt a sense of connection to this part because I feel like we all convey ourselves in ways that we feel are suitable. We carefully arrange the way we speak, dress, act, think and interact with others to display who we are or who we want people to think we are. Miller writes of the photos, “…I know this collage exist only for others, a constructed persona for the few people who make it this far…” Consciously or subconsciously, we “construct” our lives the way we want to be seen. I find this interesting because it relates to what I studied last semester in my previous English class, about the difference between sex and gender. Sex is described by biology, male or female but gender is an achieved status, something we build through social and cultural means. I may be getting a little off track, but I enjoyed the build up of preparing herself for this date because I could use the reading to make a deeper connection to something I already know and have knowledge about. This section and many others of the essay show Miller performing her gender.

            While reading, I also liked her detailed description of each little story within the essay. She made it easy to see and imagine what was going on, as every good writer should. Her style of sensory detail has inspired me to be more attentive to detail as I am starting to write my manuscript. One description that I liked was, “…I realize that I’ve never really dated before. I’ve always been transparent: approach me and you see inside. Touch me and I will open, like a door made of rice paper, light and careless.” Personally, I always find it easiest to describe anything using metaphors. I also liked the overall mood of the essay; it was very melancholy, calm and collected even though getting ready for a date can be hectic and a bit unsettling.

I feel like this topic is relatable to a variety of people. I think it is safe to say that we have all experienced the nervousness of preparing for a date with a man or woman we like, hoping that the feeling is reciprocated and hoping that our “constructed persona” worked in our benefit. I think the essay did a good job of letting us see her inner thoughts and emotions and experiencing them with her as she tells her story. I would have liked to see what happened next but I feel like cutting it short was a technique she used to entice the reader and keep us guessing. Extending the essay and recounting the actual date would have made it less mysterious and suspenseful.

Victoria Farrar on David Sedaris’s “Repeat After Me”

            When I saw David Sedaris’s name on the roster, I jumped on the opportunity to analyze one of the icons of humorous non-fiction.  As a writer, Sedaris is famously funny, and “Repeat After Me” stands as a clear example of his talent.    However, this essay sits apart in that it not only cleverly shapes the details so as to be entertaining, but also reveals deeper insight on the tension of portraying one’s life, an issue currently relevant to this class.   

            A few blog posts ago, Pilar delved into the issue of how to portray the real people of our lives as quasi-characters in writing in Mary Doty’s “Return to Sender”.  How honest should we be, or conversely, how much should we elaborate, zooming in on details we want to exaggerate until the person on the page is no longer recognizable? All writers sit on this teetering balance, and Sedaris gives his take on this subject through the objects (the same subject-object connection brought up in class) of the upcoming movie and the parrot, Henry.  As we discussed, he transplants the associations of those themes in his life with the greater, general meaning that the reader access.

            In the essay, an upcoming movie being made about Sedaris’ recent book provides an underlying tension between him and his family, a tension that also defines that line an author straddles between blunt fact and flattering fiction. Like all film adaptations, the movie represents a sudden awareness of an audience that most of us feel at some point in the writing process.  Sedaris and his sister wonder, “Who will play me? How will they represent my life, how will I come out as the hero?”  We can choose to glamorize and show only the “best of” highlights of a true life experience in our work, just like a movie.  But dramatization (either negative or positive) is dishonest. It no longer shows reality, it’s no longer nonfiction. Biopics are “based on true stories”, but they don’t take true stories and speak through them. That is the job of non-fiction. Sedaris notes this when he considers, “[…T]he director might get me and my family wrong, but [… W]hat if he gets us right?” The honest truth is more emotional and difficult to depict, but in the end, its reality will resonate more.  

            Henry the parrot, on the other hand, offers the less-serious, but still reflective, side to portraying our lives. Nobody takes what Henry says particularly seriously on its own. As a writer, Sedaris implies that he too is granted innocence (so to speak) for what he says about his family. The writer, like Henry, only mimics what they hear and see, reforming it into their own personal combination of “You can do it!” and “Where are the keys?”, which shows what they find important as much as it accurately reflects the situation. Yet, Sedaris ends the essay stating that he “has something important to say”, but “[f]rom his own mouth the words are meaningless”. So he repeats his plea for forgiveness to the parrot, trying to say something deeper and heartfelt through the repeated words of a mimicker.  In this metaphor, the humble writer of non-fiction does not claim the glamorized, poignant director’s chair.  Only through the mouth of the unassuming, observing parrot can he touch upon something meaningful -- the truth.

Luke Holland on Abigail Thomas's Safekeeping

             Abigail Thomas’s book, Safekeeping, follows the life of the author as she struggles to support her family and find love.  Thomas uses a form of “flash non-fiction” in which she writes short chapters about specific instances from her life.  The order of these snippets of her life at times seem random but also flows like a novel.  I found Thomas’s book to be a very interesting read due to the unique style that she implements and the way it flows from chapter to chapter.

            Thomas begins the book by describing her life before meeting one of her husbands.  She uses short, descriptive sentences to convey the feelings that she is remembering.  She changes her point of view from first to third person and at times even uses second person.  Since this is a work of non-fiction, the change in point of view may allow her to be truthful without revealing too much about her personal life, while also keeping the reader interested.  Thomas’s use of description and simile really jumped out to me when she describes a memory she had of her second husband, “A deity at breakfast, talking with his mouth full, and the crumbs shooting forth became the stars and galaxies.”  By describing her second husband’s mannerisms in such a way, the creative side of Thomas’s memories becomes apparent.  The fact that she associated something as complex as stars and the galaxies with such a mundane act like chewing with your mouth open portrays the authors deeper insight into her experiences.  Thomas’s descriptive writing continues as she begins to tell the story of her life.   

            As the book continues, the story reads more like a novel as the author begins to describe her various marriages and how her life unfolds.  She gives in depth description into the culture of the mid to late twentieth century and further portrays her change from a naïve girl to an “experienced” adult.  Her story unfolds slowly through her emotional depictions of numerous events in her life.  In my opinion, the epitome of her emotions occurs after her father’s death when she receives his stone collection, “She couldn’t open them.  She wanted the moment to be right; she didn’t want to do this just any-time; she was waiting to feel in the exact center of something.”  By expressing her emotions through this one experience in her past, the author effectively appeals to her audience.  The idea of sentimental value gives Thomas a sense of meaning and leads to self-reflection.  However, she unceremoniously opens the stones in the next paragraph, which shows her humanity. 

            I thoroughly enjoyed Safekeeping because the author adequately appealed to my emotions through her memoirs.  The purpose of non-fiction is to give something to your audience and Thomas does so through her use of honesty and self-expression.  She utilized a unique style, which was hard to follow at times but ultimately leads to a thoughtful and enjoyable story.          

Justin Richards on Levy's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking"

Life’s a Recipe

By Justin Richards

            E.J Levy’s "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" is something that took me off guard at first, believing it to be a story about maybe his journey in French cooking. Yet it has nothing to do with him and French cooking at all, it is more of him recalling his mother cooking eloquent meals from her copy Julia Child’s cookbook Art of Mastering French Cooking as a boy. Interpreting it even further, it seems as though it he is describing his life, relationships, and even family as a recipe.

            He first starts to talk about how he would remember on the nights that his dad was home his mom would make these delicious French cuisines, such as Boeuf bourguignon, Bouillabaisse and Mousseline au chocolat. He says that this was one of his mother’s favorite things to do, to be able to cook these recipes from her copy of Julia Child’s cookbook. Later on he soon found out that his mother almost found a companionship with her cookbook, “Julia Child was the only reliable companion my mother had in those years, other than the woman who came once a week to clean the house”. This was because his father was rarely ever home and he himself stated he was not suitable for the part.

            Later in the story he makes a reference to how his parents’ marriage was something of a mixed marriage, recalling that it sounded like “mixed greens, mixed vegetables, “mix carefully two cups sifted flour with . . . .” As if marriage were a form of sentimental cookery”.  This mix of a man and a woman would eventually come together and make something more delectable as a whole. Taking this into account we can see that a relationship such as a man and a woman have to mix together nicely, their personalities, their likes, their dislikes, fears and a numerous of other things need to be taken into careful account when deciding to mix. If not taken carefully we can up with something that is bitter or distasteful or in the matter of marriage a divorce. Throughout his life he seems to relate things with food such as, the way feels toward a woman, his parent’s relationship, and just life in general. Yet he seems that instead of his parent’s mixing together they were more melted together as such with a melting pot, “the melting pot is supposed to inspire amity not love”. Although they were not completely happy they stayed together because his mother liked his father and that was enough to keep them together.

            It seems as though life and relationships are a giant cookbook or recipe, each needing its own ingredients and whether they mix or melt together depends on the relationship. Mixing of two people seems the better than having to melt with one, while mixing you can take each quality of the person and create something more amazing. Melting together with someone can still create something amazing, but whether or not in the end the two decide melting was a right choice is something for that couple to figure out. Life is a giant recipe that with the right ingredients can turn out to be something amazing. Even though every now and then we might make something bitter with a choice we make, we always have the chance to whip up something new.

Dominique Delgado on Jo Ann Beard's "The Fourth State of Matter"

As I started reading this essay I had no idea where it was headed. I was under the impression that this writer was writing about her dull, somewhat lonely and sad life. The first thing I noticed was the ways she described certain things, almost in a poetic way. This happens immediately in the second line, “…as I row my boat through a dim, complicated dream”. I think it is lines like this that makes this piece creative non-fiction, opposed to non-fiction. The way the writer draws the reader in by descriptive and stimulating words. She begins her story talking about her helpless, dying dog. There is a part in the second paragraph where she is standing outside in the middle of the night waiting for her dog to pee, and she is describing the night sky in a way only somebody familiar with astronomy could describe it. Looking back, she is foreshadowing a major part of the story.

            Jo Ann Beard has followed the “street-car” rule in a way, when it comes to this non-fiction piece. The essay is very well organized. It starts with the dying dog, the stars, and the night sky. It continues with other main points along the way, but ends with the dying dog, stars and the night sky. It does a perfect loop, yet by the end there is a totally different meaning and feeling.

            As the story progressed, I started to feel bored. She talked about the squirrels in the spare bedroom, her “missing husband” who constantly and pathetically called her, her dull job that she really had no passion for, and then her co-workers. The squirrels and missing husband did have a bit of an interesting storyline, added a bit of kookiness to her otherwise boring life. I liked how she described bits and pieces of those stories because they had interconnectedness. The squirrels were loud and noisy, uninvited, living in the spare bedroom where all of her husband’s belongings were quietly out of the way. Little did I know in the beginning that these miniscule parts of the story would end up having a mighty emotional role in the end of the piece.

            When Beard speaks of her work, she speaks as if she didn’t belong. She was just there because it was a job, but she didn’t have the passion that the others had for physics. She just knew how to put together a journal. She speaks of her co-workers; Some she doesn’t have a close relationship with, but works side by side with them everyday, but seems to know them on a personal level none the less. She has a passionately awful relationship with one person in particular, Bob. They constantly butt-heads, argue, and slam doors. Bob is best friends with the person Beard is closest with, “I spend more time with Chris than I ever did with my husband”. She talks with Chris about everything, her dying dog, her missing husband; and he shares his life with her, his depressed mother, his crazy dog.

            The way Beard eventually explains her co-workers came as a bit of a surprise to me, but was intriguing. She explained each of their personalities in a negative way, through the eyes of a student that worked with them, Gang Lu. The first time reading this piece, I found the way Beard explains Gang Lu’s emotions a bit odd. How did she know what he was thinking? How did she know that “he’s sick of physics and sick of the buffoons who practice it”? Then she starts describing her co-workers through Gang Lu’s eyes, all in a negative connotation. (Little did I know that there were letters that Gang Lu had written, letters I am assuming Beard got the inspiration or information to make these assumptions of Lu’s emotions towards his life and his co-workers).

            Then the turn of events happens. Beard says, “It’s November 1, 1991, the last day of the first part of my life”. As I’m reading I try to figure out what the big event is that is going to change this woman’s life so drastically. Then, she starts to write of the shooting. It kind of comes out of nowhere, but if I would have been paying attention to all the foreshadowing in the previous pages, I probably could have caught on quicker. She explains it in timeline form, describing where each person is sitting when they get shot, where they get shot, the smoke that comes from the gun, the actions of the surrounding people, the next steps Gang Lu, the shooter, takes. The description is fast, like the gunshots. It took twelve minutes to shoot everyone on his list. That is a short amount of time in real life, and only takes about a page in the book to describe the incidents.

            From then on she describes her denial as she starts to hear the news. Describes her numbness, how her mind goes blank, how she tries to convince herself that none of this has happened. She tells herself that Chris is not amongst the dead. But he is, and she is numb.

            The first thing she finds comfort in is her dying dog. It seemed like the reason she kept him alive all this time was for this moment. She needed him, and he was there for her just like she had been throughout his dying days. Next, her husband, who hasn’t shown his face in who knows how long, shows up at the door. He hugs her and tells her he is there for her. The part I found the most emotional was towards the end when she describes standing at the bottom of the stairs waiting to hear the scurrying of the squirrels that she had kicked out of her house shortly before all this. She was waiting to hear them, and sadly she remembered they were gone. “Silence. No matter how much you miss them. They never come back once they’re gone”.
            The essay ends with her lying at night with her arm on her dying dog, propped up so that she can see the night sky and planets through her window.

            This essay was composed in a perfect circle, or route I should say. It started with the dog in the night and the stars in the sky. Went on to talk about her husband, the squirrels, her work and co-workers. Co-workers went to shooting of the co-workers, then back to the husband, the squirrels, the dying dog, and the night sky.
            If I take anything from this essay, it will be Beards amazing yet sly way of foreshadowing. The second time reading the essay, I caught on to the foreshadowing and how it left a sense of eeriness. I also liked how she described people through others eyes, whether it be through Gang Lu’s, Chris’, or her friend Caroline’s. Out of everything, I like how the story ended up interconnecting and making its way back to where it originally started. She tied this essay back up perfectly, in a way that the reader felt a connection with her because she had walked you through it all before.