Maps to Anywhere..

One of the only parts of this book that I can relate to is the various parts where Bernard talks about his brother's disease and his brothers death. Although I have never had to deal with losing a sibling or going through a life threatening disease with my brother, I know what it's like to lose someone that you're close to.

On pg. 101 it says "It rained the evening my brother died. As we drove home from the hospital, another city was reflected in the pavement." I liked that passage because it helps paint a picture in your head. You can see the sadness that was felt within the family for their loss through the weather. I'm sure many people can relate to that. It always seems like the sad days like that are when the weather is depressing...or at least that's how it has been with my experience.

Another passage that I really liked was on pg 123. "Home from B.J.'s, Gary complained of a pain in his chest. Martin and my mother tended him til midnight. I sat with my father and Anna in the living room. To spare me from worry, they spoke in euphemisms, but I knew the passing, the peace, the rest they mentioned was a frightful and final thing. For a year now, all references to death had been banished from the family's conversation , and phrases which had once been common...." I liked this passage because I can also relate to it. When times got tough with my grandpa, and even know with things getting tough my with grandma, my family shut out all talks about death and sickness because they didn't want everyone to know how bad it all really is. I feel like that's a typical reaction for people when they realize it's getting close to the end.

The parts of the book where it talked about the brother's illness and his death, was one of the only parts I was able to be interested in and relate to. I feel like many people are able to relate to that part of the book as well and that helps people stay interested in the story they are reading.

Mint Snowball

Out of all of the essays we've read so far, the one that I enjoyed the most is "Mint Snowball." I like that it's an essay based on one of the things that this person remembers their great-grandfather by. Coming from someone who has lost their grandfather, it's nice to have something to remember them by; although my memory is that he just sat in front of the tv for as long as I can remember and it was a big deal if he allowed you to change the channel or sit in his chair.

In the second paragraph of this story, the author gives a nice description of what that Mint Snowball is and how it's made. It starts with "First, he stirred fresh mint leaves with sugar and secret ingredients in a small pot...." and it continues to the bottom of the page on page 94. I like how much description the author uses because even if you didn't really take the time to look at this essay in great detail or if you only read that much of the story, you have an idea of what they are talking about. You can picture it all in your mind because of that description.

I also like how on pg 95 it talks about how her great-grandfather sold the recipe to someone in town instead of passing down the recipe in their family. She talked about how her grandfather's feelings were hurt and how her mother has tried to recreate it and came close once but lost the paper she wrote the ingredients down on. I liked this part of the story as well because it showed how much the family really enjoyed the Mint Snowballs that their great-grandfather created because they kept trying to recreate it and they were hurt that he didn't pass it down. I can think of recipes that my mom talks about that she wishes would've been shared with her by people in her family, so I can relate to this story.

Goldberg Packet

So, as I read through this packet, I started to wonder if my writing sucks because I don't take the time to do the stuff Goldberg suggests doing to help you with your writing. I have never in my life had to write stories before. Well, maybe back when I was in elementary school. But all throughout middle school and high school, and even the two semesters of college I had already previously taken, I never wrote any stories. I always had to write papers to inform people or persuade people or something like that. So it seems like, for me, I may be able to come up with a semi decent story in my head but when I put it down on paper, it truly just sucks.

One thing that Goldberg mentioned that I never take the time to do is to try something unusual to help you get ideas to write. The example given was if you're a nonsmoker, just stick a cigarette in your mouth (even if it's not lit). It was said that when you do this it's a way to pretty much get your creative juices flowing because you're almost put into a different character. I don't think it was meant as you specifically have to try that one example, but you just have to do something different in order to help you with your writing. For me, I never do anything different. Most times I'm sitting in my pjs with my laptop on my bed or at my desk and I just look at what it is I'm supposed to write and I just start attempting to write from there. I do that every time. So maybe if I do change up my writing process, maybe...just maybe, I'll have some better luck with writing and being creative.

Another thing that was mentioned that I never take the time to do is to wait a while before I read what I wrote. Goldberg says to do this because time allows for distance and objectivity. For me, when I write, I'm trying to fit it in during the busy life of a college student who works pretty much full time and goes to school full time.....so..... I write whatever it is I have to write and try to go back afterwards and edit it without allowing any real time in between. Maybe on occasion there is a day break or so between my writing and reading of my writing, but that doesn't happen very often.

Overall, Goldberg did give me different ideas of what I could try to do to help me with my writing, but for now...those two that I mentioned seem like the ones that I'll most likely have the time to try. I suppose that we'll see how it goes and hopefully my writing will improve.

fiction packet 3

Okay so since this is finally letting me post it....here's what I thought about fiction packet 3. First off, it's really strange. The stories I mean. They weren't what I expected at all.
So since we already had class Tuesday and my blog wouldn't let me post until now....I'll do post about what I thought about the stories and also a little bit of what my group talked about.

The story I chose to really look at, and also my group chose to look at was "When It Rains Its Rains A River." The first thing I noticed was that there was a sense of rhythm to the story. It kind of reminded me of a poem. The second thing that I noticed was that there was a lot of repetition throughout the story. The words that I noticed that were repeated a lot were "Us Brothers," "mud," "rain," "fish," and also "Girl." There were a few other words but those were the main ones. This short story kind of reminded me of a poem more than a short story because of all the repetition.

Next, there were a few passages that really made me think. My group had also talked about theses passages. The first one is "When the  rain stops drumming down, us brothers, we drop down onto our hands and knees, down in mud, and we begin to eat. We eat until our bellies are big with mud." I found that passage to be really interesting. You could take it one of two ways. First, I took it as the literal meaning that they were actually eating mud. Which really grossed me out and I was like why would someone write about this?? Then, my group pointed out that you could take it as a metaphor because mud is essentially dirt which is the building  block for life itself.

Another passage that I found to be interesting was "When we dive inside each f these moons, each moon shatters into a billion pieces. Each chunk becomes a star." I found that to be interesting because it makes me think of relationships. My group also talked about this and we talked about how it's a way of explaining that sometimes in a relationship you an dive right in or be deep and really committed in a relationship and still you will get your heart broken.

One other passage we looked at and discussed, and even I sat there and thought about before lass on Tuesday, was "Watch us borthers reach out to these buring fish fires with our hands mittened with mud. We stick our hands, unfisted, into this fire." I found that to be interesting because it's like when you reach out for help. If you are seen with closed fists it's like you're closed off and don't want to reieve help. But, if you reach out with an open hand, it shows that you're open to receiving help.

Fiction Post: Juice

When I first picked up this book I was actually excited to start reading it. I have enjoyed most the fiction stories as is in this class. I thought I'd finally be able to comprehend a story instead of feeling like the words were just going in one ear and out the other. Well, I clearly was mistaken about that. This book confuses me like no other.

For instance, all throughout this book it talks about a crisis or whatever that happened so now there is no one left in the city. What exactly is this crisis? I'm almost done with the book, maybe have like 5 or 6 pages left, and I still have no idea what this crisis is. The person in the book, I'm unsure whether it's a boy or girl, talks about (on pg 13) about how when they eat they hope that the towns people will return. They don't care if they return and are happy or angry because they just want the townspeople back. But what does it matter if you eat the food that's there? The townspeople are gone so they clearly aren't going to be eating it.

Overall the book does display a theme of loneliness. This person in the book left the town they grew up in, for whatever reason I'm still unsure of, and ended up coming back to find that there is no one in that town anymore. The thing I really don't understand is the importance of the signs that are being talked about. It's obvious that this person isn't to their hometown yet because there are people are that they can talk to and look at the signs with, but I don't understand why the signs are so important. On pg 39, it talks about how "the feelings that anchored me the other day to the sign, Slow to Bridge, were not feelings as much as they were remembrances." Are the signs just a way for this person to connect with their sister that makes the signs? Like a way to remember her? I honestly have no clue.

Well, I'm pretty confused on this book overall. Almost as confused as I was all throughout the time that we were learning about poetry and reading it. I miss the days where books seemed to make sense to me....short stories too. Oh well.

Microficiton

So far I like fiction writing soooooo much more than poetry. My favorite story so far has to be Internal. I like how when you read it there are two different possibilities that run through your mind. The first one is that there is only one intern and they are sent on 2 different assignments. But then when you really look into the details you can see that there are 2 interns. I like that it makes you have to think about the reading but at the same time the concept isn't too far fetched to where you can't understand it. I can understand this so much easier than poetry, even though I still do struggle with fiction sometimes.

I like that on pg 68-69 of the reading the second intern thinks about the possibility that Kagen's brother could possibly be writing about him. I think that in this short story this was the first time that the intern really does think about the possibility that he is being watched too. On pg 69 I also found it interesting that he copied a page of notes onto a sheet of paper and gave it to Kagen's brother. I still don't really get why he'd do that since I thought that the intent was to not let the brother know that he is being watched. That seems like a pretty hard thing to do though considering there are holes in the wall that are pretty clear from both sides so each person knows they are being watched.

We had discussed this in class on Thursday but I still find this one part really interesting. On pg 70 it says "There, through the pen's casing: eight last dim drops of ink. Soon I will only have blank pages as well." When we talked about it we had discussed how it represents his sanity. So when the intern runs out of "ink" really he will have lost his sanity. I think that it's really interesting to represent your sanity by the amount of ink you have left. When you read it you don't necessarily think about it meaning someone is going to lose their sanity but when you really think about it and what it means you end up figuring out that that's what it represents. I thought it was a really good way of using description and it represented the use of microfiction.

Fiction Packet #2: Internal

One of the stories in the fiction packet that really caught my attention was the first story called Internal. This was by Brian Evensan fro Contagion. I thought it was interesting to read for a couple reasons.
First off, it was a story about a guy who was given the job to pretty much spy on one of the doctor's brothers. It was interesting to me because he didn't know much about this doctor as is and then he was given the task to spy on a the guy's brother whom he didn't know much about either. It was strange that when the guy went to go spy on the brother, he wasn't given much instruction. He had no idea which apartment out of the two the brother lived in or what he looked at. He went into this not knowing much. If it was me, I don't think I'd be very comfortable with that. The fact that all the apartments had pretty much nothing in it was interesting to me too,
The second reason this story interested me was because of how the guy who was doing the spying seemed to have gone crazy while he was on his assignment. When he finally did find the brother to spy on, the brother almost seemed to be observing the original observer. With how the guy reacts, it seems as though he is going crazy. Especially with how he sees an eye in one of the holes in the wall and now he wants to make sure that he isn't able to be observed. He sleeps next to the holes and even thinks of a way to make sure that the brother isn't able to observe him; such as poking his eye with a pen (but the brother might do the same thing back to him so he decides not to).
Overall this story sort of humored me. I thought it was interesting how this guy seemed to lose his sense of self and start to become crazy and paranoid during his observation. I do wonder, though, if the brother was really sent there to observe the guy who thought he was sent there to observe the brother. Confusing, I know. But it makes me wonder what the true intent was for this whole observation process.

Fiction...Much better than Poetry

First off let me start by saying that reading fiction is much much better than reading poetry. I can actually understand what's being said, well for the most part. I'm still a very logical thinker so it makes it harder for me to think of what the author is trying to say if they don't actually come out and say it.

I found these short stories to be interesting though. The short story Survivors caught my interest because the writing seemed to be raw; like the author didn't feel the need to censor their thought. I liked that it talked about same sex relationships which seems to be a very controversial topic. Whether you agree with it or not, it allowed you to see that even the family of those who are in the relationship don't always agree with it. You were able to see that with how the first partner wanted to die first that way they didn't have to deal with the rude remarks of the other partner's family, or deal with their disapproval of the place the two of them shared.

Another short story that really interest me was Walking the Baby to the Liquor Store. I found it interesting just by the title. My first thought was who in the world would walk their baby to the liquor store? I thought that maybe going into it there would be some twist to the story to where the baby really wasn't a baby. But no, the father really did walk the baby to the liquor store. Although I find that really strange, I find it interesting that in the same story the father talked about how he'd put off work because he wanted to spend time with his child. He mentioned how there is no novel more interesting then the 4 words the baby knows; mommy, daddy, banana, and doggy. I found all it to be interesting because everything he did, even walking the baby to the liquor store, was to make the baby happy.

Overall I find fiction to actually be interesting. Much MUCH better than reading poetry. I like all the details that get put into such a short story. And I like being able to understand the story.

2nd half of City Eclogue....Still Lost

After reading the second half of City Eclogue, I am still completely confused on what to think. The poems still seem like the author just wrote some random words, put in random spacing, and decided to call it a book of poems. The class discussion that we had on Tuesday did help me a little bit with reading the poems but I'm still pretty lost with this whole poetry thing.

One poem that I sort of understood was on pg 121-122 called Escape Training: Instructor's Flying Rappel. This poem was actually pretty easy for me to read and understand. I think that since it was written almost like a story it helped me to be able to comprehend it. The poem did have some spacing throughout it that helped make the poem more dramatic; for example, when it says "you run out of breath     you run." Due to the spacing it causes you to see how dramatic that line can be. It really helps you to visualize running out of breath.

This poem used a lot of imagery. I could picture the majority of the poem in my mind, just like if you were to watch a movie. I could see someone preparing to jump off the cliff; taking the first step, then another, and finally taking the plunge off the face of the cliff. The line "ninety feet below it takes seconds the rope sings" helped me to picture how little time it takes to actually reach the bottom. I could also visualize the rope "singing" as it was being stretched out to the bottom.

Overall, I know that I'm still pretty lost when it comes to poetry but this one poem helped me to see that I'm slowly starting to understand poetry.

Why Does Poetry Have to Be So Confusing?!

Well, after another week of reading poems from our poetry packets, and also reading the first half of City Eclogue, I'd have to say that I'm more confused then ever about poetry. No matter how many times I go back through and re-read what we went over in class, it just goes in one ear and out the other. I don't know how so many people in the class can understand what the poems are about. To me, it seems like the poets just threw some words together and decided to call it a poem.

I tend to think more in terms of what stuff literally means. I'm not good at being an abstract thinker. There weren't many poems that I understood from the first half of the book. There were, however, a few different lines that when I thought about it I feel like I kind of understood it. I still think that I'm only thinking about it in a literal sense, but at least something stuck with me.

One of the lines was on page 48 where it said "arrested for what they mouthed off against." It makes me think about how people have always had to watch what they say because they can end up getting in trouble for it. Like take school for example, I had a teacher once where if you said something they didn't like, even if it was just you didn't think that their idea of what the author meant by saying something was the only thing the author meant, you'd get in a lot of trouble and be lectured about why you were wrong. That's just one of the many examples where people have to watch what they say.

Another line that I actually somewhat understood what the author was saying is on pg 56 where it says "he woke in a fight for his life in that he went at the alarm clock as if to kill." This made me think of where sometimes people have bad dreams and in the middle of a really bad part of that dream, when your alarm clock goes off, it scares you so you lunge towards the alarm clock because it scared you so bad. Going at the alarm clock like you're going to kill it is a normal response if it scared you that bad.

Overall, I'm still not getting the whole concept of poetry and I'm still struggling greatly to understand it, but I'm happy I was able to take something away from the book even if it was only understanding two or three lines.

My thoughts about Goldberg..

Okay, so first off I would like to point out that I am terrible at writing. After reading through what Goldberg wrote, I found that there were many helpful tips to help anyone with writing; no matter what level you currently are writing at. I thought that reading through the packet helped me learn some very useful skills that I will end up using, especially during this class.

Three major concepts that Goldberg talked about really stuck with me. The first piece of advice that Goldberg gave that I found very useful was when she talked about trusting your own mind when you are writing because you will create confidence in yourself through experience (pg 3). This was one of the major pieces of advice that I really connected with because I have no confidence in my ability to write. Goldberg helps me keep in mind that through my experience with writing, I will become confident in myself and what I end up writing.

The second piece of advice that I found useful was when she said to experiment with writing (pg 6). Goldberg said that you could try typing or speaking into a tape recorder instead of just handwriting. I found this interesting because of the idea of recording yourself and your thoughts. By doing that you are able to let your thoughts flow freely and you don't have a chance to censor what you are thinking or feeling. It can be helpful because sometimes the stuff that you censor would really help your writing but you might find it to be "lame" so you don't want to include it.

The third, and final, piece of advice that really stuck with me was when Goldberg said not to stop at tears, but to go through to the truth (pg 10). I found this piece of advice to be pretty powerful because sometimes when I've had to write I'll end up getting emotional (yes, I will admit to that). Most times it's because I'm frustrated with myself but I feel that if I just kept pushing through those tears I would probably end up writing something that would really be good.

Overall I felt like I took a lot of tips from Goldberg to heart. I feel like I'll be able to improve my writing, or at least I hope I will be able to improve it, by following most of the advice she gave.

Who is Sarah?

Hi guys,

My name is Sarah. I am a freshman at Eastern but I do have a pretty decent head start on my schooling. I graduated high school with my first year of college complete. I'm happy to say that when it comes to my credit level classification, I am considered a sophomore! :)

I'm super excited for college but I'm not looking forward to having even less time during the day since I never seem to have enough time during the day as is. I work at a daycare called The Learning Tree. I am currently an assistant teacher in the toddler room but I'm moving up to being an assistant teacher in preschool. I also am really enjoying working out pretty much everyday. It's the one thing that seems to keep my calm and helps me not get stressed.

I am undecided in what I want to go to school for but I'm hoping that taking a variety of classes and meeting new people and hearing about their majors will help me figure out what exactly I want to do! As much as I enjoy working with children right now, I don't see myself being a teacher for the rest of my life.

I believe that's pretty much it!  Hope ya know a little bit about me now! :)