Maps to Anywhere Pt. 2

Que Sera’ Sera’

This chapter was the first to stand out to me as memorable.  A chapter that was more than just a recount of my own similar memories, like chapters had been before.  I like this chapter because it tells the truth of how people feel about the past, present, and future.  Everyone always seems to say they want to live more for the present and enjoy every minute their lives throw at them.  Yet we find our selves too often living in the past and dreaming of the future.  Living in the “now” was put in perspective for the author when his piano teacher said she would just sing Que Sera’ Sera’ and wait for the end. I think that in hearing her answer to a question that could be so difficult for many to answer, was a uplifting revelation into what living in the “now” should be to him. I liked this chapter because it reminds you not to take anything for granted, even those minutes you wish would fly by.

ARK

I liked this chapter for the detail and imagery used.  His explanation of the zoo and the show cased animals made you feel as if you were there as an on looker.  It seems to me that by this point in the book he is describing less about his life, and more about general experiences.  He almost puts himself and his family out of the story for a while, and tells only of things he likes or recounts as interesting.  This goes on for a few chapters. I notice that he does rarely mention his mother and father, as if they are still married in the stories he is now telling.  I also see a somewhat gloomy outlook on the stories he is telling in these chapters as well.  He seems to have a damper look on things and that portrays in his writings. 

The chapter titled the House of the Future seems to go back to the happy reminiscing you see in the beginning of the book. He talks of seeing this house that reminds him of how the future would be.  He becomes slightly obsessed for a short time with how the future would be. How he describes his version of the future, reminds me of how most people see the future.  Flying cars, super sized foods, and elaborate architecture. All these things seem common in peoples views of the future and what it has in store for us. It seems as if not matter what era you live in, these things will always be in the future for you, or your future family. He also brings his brother back into the picture in this chapter, which shows you the earlier part of this chapter is a recount of his earlier past. I like how he talks of a happy moment between him and his brother, where he is telling him of the future house and all it had to offer. It is a nice glimpse into the life of his brother, beyond him being sick.  

Overall I enjoyed the second half of this book.  I was a nice wrap up to the previous chapters read.  I liked the book as a whole in the way it told short stories of only what the author saw important for the reader to hear. It shows just how much you can learn about someones life, in the short stories they decide to tell you. I see this true in our daily lives where we spend most of our time with the people we work with, versus the people we live with. I think I probably know more about the people I work with, than the ones I’m related to these days.  That is sad to say, but I feel like this book shows that to become true. (in the fact that you learned so much from the short stories he told.)

Maps to Anywhere

In reading this book, I at first had a hard time getting into it.  I was feverishly tired and could only think of sleeping.  But after pushing through a few pages, I found the spark to continue on.  Firstly I must talk about the beginning quote in the book.

“Sometimes I breathe harder and all of a sudden, with the aid of my continual absent-mindedness, the world rises and falls with my chest. Perhaps not Africa, but the big stuff.”

-Henri Michaux

This is a great quote to begin this book with.  I see it to be true that in times of solitude, when all you are left with is your thoughts and the sound of silence, you begin to realize the bigger picture of life and the things you are enduring.  I see that in this quote. In the busy bustle of your life, you rarely stop to “smell the roses” and enjoy the little things in life.  When you finally get that moment of peace, you begin to feel the greatness or depth of what is going on around you. Sometimes you feel that in every breath you take.  Especially those big breaths of “sigh” or relief.

Moving into the first chapter, or leg of this story, I enjoyed reading “Beacons Burning down.”  This story evolved into a place I did not think it would go.  First he begins talking about his name, and how he somewhat despised that he didn’t have a name that was easy to remember. He talks of going to the hardware store and picking out paint samples, and taking names from them and the lessons he learns in class.  This leads into him speaking of his father and the work he did as a lawyer.  Then it got interesting.  This chapter if you will, turned to talking about something I didn’t see coming.  The headless rooster.  This was kind of out there, but seemed to fit into the story perfectly.  I laughed at the thought of them not knowing that a chicken or rooster lives several hours even days after having its head cut off, but then to find out she was still feeding it was crazy.  I found myself trying to picture how this was happening.  I still don’t see how. But even further to find that it lived for a month after its return.  I’ve never heard of that long of a life span after decapitation before. It was quite interesting. 

The next chapter I liked enough to point out was the one titled “On the Air.” Though short, it was a true testament of how people seem to view the future. It seems people will always view the future as a great advancement in technology and living styles. With flying cars, living in space, and robots doing your work for you.  This chapter proves that over the course of history, society has always had the same high hopes for the future.  This I feel is worthy of pointing out.

The story “How to Draw” was a quite sad and somber story of the authors brother dying.  I don’t have much to say on this chapter, because in short, how brother dies, but it was what he said at the end of the story that lingers with me. “Days later that sketch was torn off, tossed away, the sheet beneath it embossed with abundance: objects that seemed to be molded from snow, vague symbols rimmed in shadow. Impressions. Perimeters. Ghostly. Gone.”

This paragraph to me tells the utter truth of what happens when someone dies.  The objects molded in snow, seem to represent the memories left after one dies.  The things they had done in their life become the “vague symbols rimmed in shadow.” and leave and impression on the ones left behind.  This paragraph is also telling us that his brother died then. And left behind these images and memories with his family.  The only things they were to have left from him were the impressions he made on them.

As a whole I really liked this book.  When you look at each story individually it seems as if they have nothing to do with one another. However, when you look at the book as a whole, you see that each of the stories are put together to explain the important events that transpired throughout the authors life.  Each story was a significant enough point in this mans life to recognize it in a book.  Though it may seem unimportant to some, these stories are what make this man who he is.  I enjoyed the fact that you get a sense of who this man is, without reading every single detail of his life. It is interesting to see how much you learn about a person, from the short stories you hear from them. I find this true not only in this story, but on a daily basis talking to people.  You don’t have to tell someone the entirety of your life in order for them to understand you.  Great book to read.

 

Essay packet/Essay Introductions

When I first began reading the introduction to essays I was slightly set aback by all the large unfamiliar words in which the author found themselves using frequently. I though I was going to need a dictionary just to read the intro, but in reading further I found it to be quite easy in understanding. In reading the Essay Introductions, I found great peace in reading that stories can be great, and yet short in nature. Sometimes it is difficult to extend the length of your story just because you feel it should be long.  I like that the author states that it is important to add immense detail if you are writing a short story, and to captivate your readers with the detail to the point of not needing more in the text.  The part about the parade and the Clydesdale horses stands out to me the most from this.  The author didn’t elaborate on this, but I could imagine the scene the author of that piece laid out in a few short words. I also enjoyed when Dillard stated that they did not always intend to be a writer, and that they struggled in the beginning to find what to write about.  Dillard did not want to be the writer that wrote about their experiences, but in the midst of their friends and known associates dieing from AIDS, they found their inspiration to write about what they knew and what then inspired them.  I enjoy writing about what I know or have experienced, so I related to this.

RED: An Invocation

The barest gesture we know a thing by, and by which, in a breath, it is gone.

This is one of the most true sentences I have ever read.  It sums up a whole life’s thought and meaning in 17 words.  It is the truest statement in which you never know what you have, or exactly what something is until it is gone. So many times we take things for granted because we do not know just what we have until it disappears. To me this essay embodies that exact thought. The narrator is talking about seeing a fox the night before as it stands in the road ahead of his shining headlights.  The story then fast forwards to the next day in which he is walking his daughter to school.  He see the same fox from the night before, but it is unrecognizable to him now.  He recognizes the red color of the fox, but there is now hawk involved.  The hawk embodies some of the red of the fox that the fox was known for.  As the hawk flies onto the tree branch, it takes the red of the fox with it.  The narrator says that the fox disappears into the brush of the alley. I think this last description of the fox is on in which the fox is dead and the hawk is feasting of the dead, now somewhat unrecognizable carcass of the fox. When the hawk flies away it takes some of the blood of the the fox with it, which is the red that reminded him of the fox as it once was, before he killed it with his car. 

The Henry Louise Jr Sunday essay was my favorite.  It was but all of a page and a half of text, yet because of the description and detail given, I feel as if I know the Coleman family. Not to mention I was hungry after reading it.  I liked that it had all of the detail needed to put you right at the family table, yet not too much to string out the story onto more pages. It also had an element of humor to it.  I could imagine sitting at the table as the black individual of that era stated that last sentence. “White people just can’t cook, Aunt Marguerite used to say; that’s why they need to hire us.” I could imagine the whole family erupting with laughter at the thought of how true it was. Southern cooking is the best, and it is often said that you don’t experience true southern soul food until you experience that of a black woman’s.  It must be true after reading this.

My second favorite was the essay titled Mint Snow Ball.  The thought that this man was completely out of place in life from missing out on a dessert called the Mint Snow Ball is completely crazy sounding.  But I get it.  The way he described the scene in which his mother used to sit and spin on the stools in her fathers store, and the candies and sodas he used to sell.  It makes me think of a 50’s diner where it seems to me all of life should resonate.  I always felt it would be one of the best things to experience living in a different era.  The 50’s clicks with me.  I do not know much about the 50’s, but from pictures, stories, and movies of how it is depicted, I want to be there, and feel sad and somewhat empty that I’ve missed that.  This narrator hits those points perfectly.  I understand how he is sad and lost for missing out on something that was such a big influence on the reason he is here.  The imagery was amazing in this essay, and makes me wish I was there.

The rest of the essays were great, and had some good description and detail in each. These however were my favorites.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fiction packet

I liked the fiction packet we had to read.  It had a lot of good stories with good imagery in them,  The first story about the singing fish was very relateable. It reminded me of when I was a child and would love to play in the rain.  I feel as if this story was written from the perspective of a child. Not an adult recounting the events of his childhood.  It seems somewhat illiterate in its writing and too vivid for it to be a recount of a past memory,  When I say illiterate, it may be that the child does not yet have the words to describe what he is experiencing.  He repeats the same phrases over and over; for example, “These girls other than Girl, these other girls-these girls are Girl’s sisters.” I had to read this specific chunk of the paragraph several times to try to understand what he was saying. I pretty much got that he was saying there were several mud girls they built, the first one being “Girl” and the next ones being her sisters. The imagery used was great in the way they explained the inside of the caves the boys were exploring.  It made me feel as if I was looking at the very things they were discovering,  I could almost feel the mud and the carvings in the walls as he described what he felt. This story though hard to read, was great in detail. I particularly liked the ending when he was talking about their mother telling them not to come into the house all muddy, but them ignoring her and hearing come on in, the muddier the better. It reminds me of all children that ignore their mothers warning about entering the door as dirty as they are, but the joy is still so present from the fun adventure they had that they don’t care,

 

The next story The Falling Girl made me somewhat sad to read, but also intrigued.  I find it interesting that I can be forced into such emotions by a simple story. Obviously this story is about a girl that is committing suicide.  It confuses me however to why it takes her so long to fall.  When I began reading it I was in somewhat of a denial that this is what this story was about. I found my self trying to find reasons for her jumping off the building, like she was skydiving, or parachuting. However after accepting that she was indeed committing suicide, I moved on from these thoughts and wondered why. I think that Marta was a sad sole that felt as if there was nothing left in life to live for.l  As she is falling down the many stories and seeing the life that she will be missing out on when she dies, she begins to regret her choice.  It says she interacts with people that are trying to save her, and that she ignores their offers of help. Once she gets closer to the ground however, she receives less and less offers of help, until finally everyone goes away.  I think this to be true in life.  When you try to help someone overcome something in life, not just the depression that leads to suicide, but hard things in general, you eventually give up when they continue to refuse help.  One must help them selves to accept the help from others.  Marta did not want the help in the beginning of her fall, but then changed her mind after she started feeling cold and it was too late.  The detail they describe in the story about other girls falling an d falling faster than Marta makes me think the other girls were ready to die, and Marta’s apprehensions towards her suicide slowed her down.  Once she hits the end of the building she is an old woman because she struggled so much on the way down that it aged her greatly.  It was like a fast forward of her life.  I liked this story, but not the reason for it. 

 

The Borges story August 25, 1983 is also about suicide.  I feel however that is is about an attempted suicide or the thoughts of suicide rather than the act itself.  This is how I see the story. The man Jorge Luis Borges, is going to this hotel to commit suicide.  Upon entering the room he falls asleep and dreams of seeing him self at age eighty-four.  He tells his aged self of his plans, which in turn makes the old man tell him of some things he has to look forward to in his life. He says that unfortunate things will continue to happen to him, but that things actually do happen to him. I believe that in having this dream it made young Jorge realize that he has much more to live for and not to commit suicide. I think that this story did a good job at distinguishing between the old Jorge and young, and didn’t make you feel confused like it easily could have.  

The last story was all about cockroaches, I think the only reason this story was written was because the author was having an infestation problem and this was all he could think about.  It was said in one of our previous readings that writers write about their obsessions. This is this authors obsession at the moment,  The story is short but gives multiple ways that he encounters and kills the cockroaches. In the end the cockroaches always die, but the beginning of each story starts the same.  I like that there were five short stories in the bulk of the story,  It was an interesting way to write a longer version of what he wanted to say.  This method allowed him to repeat his obsession for the cockroaches, without overdoing it.

 

Kearney and Bryant

Let me start out by saying it would have been beneficial to go to the reading to see how the authors meant the writing to be read.  It probably would have been more clear and concise and made more enjoyable.  I unfortunately could not attend either of the readings because of work and other classes.  

However in reading the passages by Kearney and Bryant it made me think about the style in which they wrote and conveyed their messages. For example, the Kearney passage titled Negro was very interesting.  I liked this style a lot in how it used each letter to form different sentences, which in turn told the story,  I also liked the Tallahatchie Lullabye, Baby.  I liked that it had a great flow, and rhyme to it which made it easy to read.  I feel like this follows the his previous pattern of writing about the Negro culture, or an individual. He states “we will slip the knot not slip will we?” I feel this is talking about hanging someone.  It also says “whose a bruise to blue hue”.  I feel like this conveys the abuse which was put upon blacks just for being a different skin color. Over all I think this was my favorite just because of how well it flowed. I noticed most of his work had a great flow to it which made them easy and quick to read.  This i enjoy in reading other peoples work.

Bryant was a tad confusing in the way it was set up on the aspect of printing, as for what the sections were titled, I am not sure, but I did enjoy reading this as well.  I particularly enjoyed the story, which I believe is titled “Darling.”  The way this story opens reminds me of an old television show in black and white, which is what I believe Bryant was trying to convey. The character, Julie Christie, reminds me of Marilin Monroe and her  journey to stardom.  The way they describe her as a blonde, beautiful woman whom everyone adores, is the exact same way people viewed Marilin Monroe.  The star does what ever she needs to do to make it to the top.  My favorite part is when the black man puts on a blonde wig and pretends to be DIana Scott.  The reaction to his dress and how he looks made me laugh.  “Why Diana Scott how you’ve changed.”, It’s certainty because I’ve had too much sundry.” I laughed forever about this.  The rest of this paragraph is like stand up comedy where he continues to make fun of her in a seemingly harmless way. I enjoyed this paragraph and story the most.

Overall I enjoyed both of these readings the best so far in what we have read.  I did like Bryant more because her passages were more in short story form vs Kearney which was more of a poetry form to me. However they were both equally clear and understandable.

 

 

Burroway, Lamott, and Goldberg

“The final absence of feeling is death. But feeling can also be dangerous, and it is deadly.” Burroway pg. 77

This is one of the very first sentences in the writing, and one of which struck me hard.  Burroway continues on to describe how individuals become numb to feelings so to not be hurt by those feelings. I found this to be so true and such a captivating statement that I couldn’t wait to read on.  I enjoyed in this almost “guide” to writing, with many useful points in which to pay attention to. Burroway gives great examples of how to give detail and keep your reader interested, without going overboard and tangential. Burroway states that with adding detail, it may leghten your writing, but when done so correctly it can also shorten it. You can give the reader more information about a character or setting in one  paragraph of hard detail, than you may do in several paragraphs describing the same situation. Those style of writing, and those described further in the reading put the reader into the story and give them a sort of first account of the events that have transpired.

LAMOTT Polaroids

I think the Polaroid picture is such a great thing to compare the lead up of a story or character to.  Lamott put such good references into his writing to make you feel as if the story was a picture developing itself.  It is also very true that stories develop like pictures.  We spend so much time prepping ourselves for our pictures and writing alike, in hopes of coming out with a good result.  If we don’t like it, these days that is, we can digitally remove or remaster it to make it a piece of art.  I like the reference to the greyish green murkyness a polaroid picture has and that how you imagine the story.  The further it develops, the more clear the image becomes.  My favorite line in this reading is “Honey? Leave him lay where Jesus flang him.” With this utterance, Lamott shows you that you almost need to let your writing be what it is the first time you put it to paper, and not to think so much into what is supposed to be there.

GOLDBERG Writing Down the Bones

First off, this title is amazing.  I love that it conveys an almost deep rooted love for writing.  Write until you hit bone.  Write until you can no longer.  Write even if it hurts.  I like that Goldberg states that writers write about what they are obsessed with.  I do that in most instances.  The obsessions always change, or grow, as Goldberg also stated, but for me the obsessions I write about take what ever reader I would have had (for my journal I lost) through the perilous journey of love, loss, hurt, and eventually a regaining of self.  The original obsession grows into a piece of work that may not entirely be about that obsession, but otherwise stems from it.  I also like her chapter on using original detail. I feel as well that it is so important to use the original detail.  Not only will it be the easiest to convey, because it’s true, but you can also most times, relate to it better.  If I were to state”The smell of candy was in the air, like the sweet candied apples at the fair” I think most people could relate to that detail.  Almost everyone has been to a fair or carnival of some type, and could probably recognize the very smells they encountered there.  The original detail takes that person to the place you were describing.  It lets them walk in your shoes for a moment in time. The chapter that confused me most about this writing was the syntax chapter.  I thought syntax was making things understandable for the reader to thoroughly understand.  When she was describing the ice cube situation, I was more confused with her elongated version than the original.  Hopefully this will be cleared up in discussing this in class.

 

JUICE

This book was the absolute most confusing book I’ve ever read.  I would start to understand something, and then right as I thought I had the idea understood, the story would change.  I think this in part may be because the writer is not telling you about juice per say, but about something else disguised at juice, or signs, or leaves and sex.  I think this because in the  beginning of the story in the interpretation, the writer states that if they told you the land could not contain the volitle nature.  Why would the world not contain the loss of juice? I think juice is the loss of a loved one, not a juice at all. This is also true for the other references in the story.

Poems VS Short Stories

This post is somewhat of a reiteration of my previous post since the syllabus was missing this day previous to my last post.   

The really big difference I see between the poetry packet and the short story packet would be that the content of each effects you differently. What I mean by this is, the poetry packet is more of a deciphering packet vs the short story which gets you creatively thinking of what the ends of the stories could be. The short story packet also let’s you create your own meaning of the stories VS the poetry packet really only having one meaning. There is less effort in doing the short story packet and it is more enjoyable for me. 

Fiction Packet

I enjoyed reading the fiction packet more than the poems.  I liked that they were in more of a story form than poems are. Not only are they easier to read in this form, but they are easier to interpret and understand.  When things are in story form like this packet is, it is easier for me to imagine what the whole story is, or could be.

My favorite part of the fiction packet was the page by Sharon Krinsky titled “Mystery Stories.” I liked this page the best because as I read each passage, I could foresee how the story would go, or how I would make the story evolve. The one I had the best ideas about was titled “The Indian.” I imagined it would go somewhat like this.

A regular guy turns into a tribal chief with gold and silver ornaments in his ears. He is also wearing bracelets and a beaded necklace. His father, the elder chief, comes in wearing a headdress and smiling. He tells his son it is time for him to become a man.  As the man and boy leave the tepee, the drums of the tribe thump. BOOM BOOM, BOOM BOOM BOOM… The beaded foot pieces clang as they stomp their feet around the fire.  The language of the tribe is powerful as they shout out to the spirits in ancient tongue. The chief calls upon his son to drink from the sacrificial urn containing the special potion cooked by the elders. As the son drinks the tribe chants louder and LOUDER. It is now time for him to get his coming of age tattoo.  It is to reflect the new name his is to be given describing the warrior he is to be.  His name was drawn from the ancient spirits. He is to be an eagle. His is the strong leader type that fears nothing.  He stands for freedom, as the eagle is free to roam as he pleases.  The Eagle is tattooed on his back with the wings extending out onto his arms.  As he raises his arms to his sided it appears as if he is taking flight.  As the tattooing comes to an end the chanting stops.  The father raises his son from the bed of leaves that were laid for him to lay upon for tattooing.  The chief hands the son his carved necklace, also representing the eagle.  He congratulates his on becoming a man, and the true celebration then begins. 

I think I liked this one the best because I like the history of Indians and the culture they live in seems so relate-able to me. They live off the land and forage for themselves.  If I could get away with this style of life, I would do it in a heartbeat. 
 

The other thing I liked in this packet was titled “Morning News”.  I see this as a story of one last redemption.  A final ha-rah to do all the things they ever wanted to do in life. I relate to this story in a way that I’m sure many others could as well. Often times we take for granted the things in life that we see at unimportant or the things we become comfortable having.  When something bad happens that brings our life into perspective, we then tend to appreciate and see the things we have as special.  Also when the bad things happen, such as someone becoming sick, we want to spend as much time and do as many things we always said we would do as possible.  This makes me think how we should appreciate things more in life and not become so comfortable with what we have; because at any moment, it can be stripped away from us.

 

City Eclogue

Let me start by saying, I DID NOT LIKE THIS BOOK! It was so confusing to me. I understand it is a series of short essays, but the essays in themselves were hard to understand. In reading a book I like there to be a clear point to the book as a whole. I feel like this didn’t have a point. I’m sure the author had reason to write the piece, or series of pieces, but that reason I do not understand.

With that said, there was only one essay that I feel I somewhat understood the meaning of. This one was titled “Not Brought Up”. I feel as of this had some reference to old slave days where African Americans were lunged for their “wrong doings”, and also a day in which the KKK was widely known and feared. I saw this in the statements, “the lynchings each of the thousands of times it happened the whole white town come down.” and “coated in the white”. Often times entire towns would gather to watch the lynchings of the blacks in the town. Notably, the KKK wore coats of white much like a ghost would look.

Overall the book was bad in my opinion, but of what I understood, Roberson used great references in explaining his vision.

Poems Response

I was never a fan of Poems.  I don’t say that to be offensive to the art, but I just never understood them.  I like when the whole story or point of the piece is written out clearly.  Deciphering the work of another person is too complicated, though I like to speak around what I am saying when I write in my own journal.  I understand why they do it.  Maybe to write about something personal to them without coming right out and telling everyone what they mean.  Afraid of who will judge if they know the whole truth, they mask their statement behind a wall of guessing and mystery.  

I can say I was somewhat surprised about the sonnets I did like most in the packet.  Shakespeare’s sonnets had a way of reaching out to me.  I understood what he was saying, and enjoyed that mostly all, if not all, were about love and a hidden happiness. As for Berrigan on the other hand, he really confused me.  I couldn’t really understand his point.  It seemed to me that he was just rambling on and trying to make a point, but the point was too far away.

My absolute favorite poem in the packet was Harryette Mullen’s Dim Lady.  It spoke to me in a comedic way.  It was exactly like Shakespeare’s #130, but with modern day references.  The line where she describes her weight is my favorite. “My scrumptious Twinkie”, makes me laugh every time.  It’s nice to see a poem with a lightheartedness to it. It makes them more relate-able and interesting to read. My hopes for the rest of the semester at this point are to get to write more journal type work.  That is where my best work emerges.