Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Reading Response 5: Ted Kooser and John Donne

     The readings about poetry we've had thus far have been illuminating for me.

     First, I'd like to compare The Poetry Home Repair Manual to Bird by Bird. I would say that they are similar, but in a sense that they are more than both just broad introductory books. A lot of the "action through inaction" principles in Lamott's book resonate with the "A poet needs to write essential details, nothing more. No spare parts" (Kooser 27) mentality of Kooser's.

     Second, I'd like to comment on how effectively Burroway analyzed and wrote about many of the core techniques of poetry. It was specific, getting as in-depth as to discuss the role of "...English as an 'onomatopoeic' language" (p298) while later reintroducing readers to basic elements such as alliteration and assonance. I would call Imaginative Writing's section on poetry an even briefer version of The Poetry Home Repair Manual.


     Lastly, I want to discuss Holy Sonnets: Death, be not proud by John Donne. I chose this poem not only because it forced me to finally look up the differences between "thou", "thy", "thine", "thee", and "ye" (I always thought one of those meant "me", and it was always a different one each time), but also because it was one of the only poems so far that I've been able to mostly grasp. The rhyme scheme was "ABBA ABBA ABBA CC", the "CC" being the couplet in the end to drive it home. The conflict in the poem seems to be John Donne listing disputing death's ultimately morbid role by providing his perspective. 
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness 
     Just an example of how Donne achieves this effect. Simply by framing death, the reader has the ability to see death from a different point of view. Death is reliant on the fate and chance, meaning that it is unchanging and unpredictable. Death also depends on the actions of people, it is not autonomous entity. Death is affiliated with bad things such as poison, war, and sickness. Death is weak.
One short sleep past, we wake eternally
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
     Reference to an afterlife; after a "short sleep", death is obsolete.

Reading Response 5

I have always been hesitant in analyzing poems out of the fear of being fundamentally wrong in my approach. This was NOT the case with William Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud". This poem was easy to follow, understandable and almost impossible to misinterpret. The ABABAA rhyme scheme made it sound pleasant and the imagery further enhanced the overall artistic value of the poem.
The poem starts by introducing a man who is "lonely as a cloud", when all of the sudden he encounters a "crowd , a host of golden daffodils." Right away, it becomes clear that Wordsworth is going to personify the daffodils to convey his message. In the stanza's that follow, the man is captivated by the daffodils as they toss their heads in "sprightly dance" and put on a spectacular show for him. He is enriched by the show and no longer feels alone because nature has brought him out of his solitude.
The use of personification in this poem serves to eradicate the feeling of loneliness; it almost seems like the man is surrounded by some sort of street parade! The use of vivid imagery further solidifies this point and helps bring the situation to life, so to speak. Ultimately, the last stanza summarizes the message of the poem: one can feel happy even when he is alone as long as he stays positive and recounts pleasant experiences.

Reading Response 5: Poetry, Kooser and Shakespeare

Shakespeare’s “My Mistress’ Eyes…” sonnet is one of his most well know and beloved sonnets. Not only is this because Shakespeare is, in the words of one of my former professors “a god-like genius”, but also because Sonnet 130 is, at its heart, a good poem. I believe this is what Ted Kooser was trying to convey in Chapter Four (‘Don’t Worry about the Rules’) of The Poetry Home Repair Manual.

Kooser makes the case that poetry should be first and foremost about substance (i.e. the point/plot/meaning) with style growing out of that substance. He gives the example of the haiku, traditionally 17 syllables, and yet that restriction does not always have to be enforced, if the resulting balance is a much stronger and more meaningful poem. He even goes so far to state that he believes along with the critic John Berger that: “Every successful sonnet is a good poem first and a good sonnet second” (Kooser 28). And this is what makes Shakespeare’s poems so enduring: people react to them first on an emotional/intuitive level before they look into the effort Shakespeare must have put in to craft the sonnet form.

Reading Response - Chapman's Homer

In John Keats’ dedication to George Chapman, Keats uses his rhyming scheme strategically to guide the reader through his own experience. For example, he begins with the line “Much have I travell’d in the realms of gold”, and leaves it by itself, orphaned at the beginning of the piece. Three lines later, he brings it together with “Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.”, effectively finishing the thought of the phrase. He uses this technique again, with the same rhyme pattern, to encapsulate between ‘told’ and ‘bold’, effectively creating three segments of the poem.

The first segment elucidates an idea. The “stanza” is riddled with phrases evoking royalty, but some decidedly cliched phrases by our time (they may not have been so in his time, but I suspect they were common). “Realms of gold”, “goodly states and kingdoms”, and “fealty to Apollo” all ring of nobility and wealth and beauty, but are more general in nature. This is a poetic faux pas, according to Kooser, but I believe in Keats poem, the rules are intentionally broken to make a point (which I'll explain as it comes). In a sense, Keats builds a generic (but beautiful) throne with words.

In the second “stanza”, he proceeds to place Homer on the throne he’d just finished creating, but lets him rule for only one part of a sentence, before knocking him off and replacing him with Chapman, who loudly and boldly presents the classic Homer tales in his own elegant way, of which Keats clearly approves.

Finally, to finish, and taking the entire next six lines of the poem, Keats re-describes (now) Chapman’s kingdom. He casts aside the general descriptions in favor of more specific or original images (most of which couldn’t have occurred to Homer due to them not being discovered or recognized until well after his death). A kingdom becomes a planet to a watcher of the skies, Cortez makes an appearance, that seeker of gold, who in the process of his search conquered a new world (not coincidentally only 40 years prior to George Chapman's own birth). He leaves us with a sensation of that secret and shared understanding between conquerors, that we have discovered something new and beautiful in an old world.

The tension is between Keats and an imaginary crowd who proclaim Homer as the greatest storyteller of the Greek myths. Keats begins the journey as a believer, someone who understood the same truth which everyone else believed. He makes the transition when he experiences Chapman’s work to believing that perhaps what he was told was a lie. This is the pivotal moment as the central conflict resolves into the falling action, a moment of serenity atop the mountain of Darien.

Poetry Reading Response

As poetry and I have always had a rocky relationship, I approached this week’s reading from a skeptical standpoint. That being I said, I took a lot from Burroway’s technical outlook of the writing of poetry. There was a point when I figured that prose, broken into many lines, would magically become free verse poetry. Perhaps a part of me still does, to a degree, but I found Burroway’s lessons on sound helpful helpful.
Specifically, I found the use of alliteration and connotation to be helpful reminders on what can be done with the form of the English language. There is subtlety in message, and then subtlety in form, and even though I’ve been aware of such technical knowledge before, it’s faded over time. So, the idea of using sounds throughout a line to tie the line together internally and with surrounding other lines was a fresh reminder of what can be done with the work. As I’ve attempted to write free form poetry in the past, these are probably lessons I’ll use most.
Additionally, I wish they had used Sylvia Plath’s “Metaphors” instead of “Stillborn”. While it has more form than “Stillborn”, “Metaphors” shows the power of the density mentioned by Burroway, as well as keeping to symbolic nine syllables for each of the nine lines.

Poetry, Burroway

I found that Burroway's chapter on poetry was really helpful. I always enjoy reading poetry but have never considered myself capable to write poetry. After learning so much about ways to improve my creative writing, I still can't grasp the idea that I can do the same with the poetry I'll have to write; it seems like a concept that would only come naturally and seem fake and insincere if I did not have that type of natural ability to write poetry, which I don't. Burroway's light touch on poetic voice, coubleness, and poetic action were aspects of writing poetry that I had never considered because I am so used to reading and analyzing poetry rather than writing. An obvious concept in creative writing is that as a writer, you must think of how you want your work to come across to you audience. That concept does not really click with me when considering why I would want to write poetry, but there are definitely other ways to think about figurative language and crafts of writing when writing poetry that don't come to mind when you read poetry. Burroway does a great way of explaining that in poetry, as a poet, you cannot be selfish with your work. Indirectly she explains this with her in-depth descriptions of ways to improve your work. Poetry is something that is shared with others, like writing, and what I think will help me when I must write poetry is the idea that I have to think about others when writing, not entirely, but in the sense that although poetry has very few guidelines, there are still rules to follow. Burroway even describes free verse as not being free at all. You can be abstract with your ideas when writing poetry, but there still must be a beginning, middle, and end, and an overall purpose to your poem. If not, you have not achieved what is considered to be a good poem. With an abstract or even simple idea, your actual writing must still be structured whether you are writing formal or free-verrse poetry. Like all other forms of creative writing, you must have an underlying message, the only difference with poetry, in my opinion, is that your craft of writing differs than it would if say you were writing a novel in order to get that message across. Burroway explains these crafts of writings spot-on in her chapter.

Reading Response: Week 5

Poetry… I can without a doubt say that I was not looking forward to this week. Poetry has always been hard for me to understand and let’s not forget boring. When you’re reading something you don’t understand it always seems more boring. However poetry is a form of creative writing so I just got to get you used to it, right? So for this week, I chose the poem by John Donne, “Death, be not proud”. I can say that I do not fully understand it but I understood it more than the other poems. In this poem death is personified. It is something that is alive because it should “be not proud.” Death is not as powerful as it appears. Death does not decide but it is other things like fate, kings, poison, war, and so on that decide whether someone is to die or not. And even after this the person can still awake and live again but eternally or heaven. Perhaps I could have this poem totally wrong. However, I do find that it is encouragement to someone who may have lost someone. During the time when this poem was written, people died from all sorts of things which have become a nuisance today. Perhaps this poem had greater significance during Donne’s time but nonetheless still applicable today. People continue to die every day, it’s a part of life but it is good to know that they will live on forever where death doesn’t exist.

Poetry Home Repair Manual - Kooser

Yet another guide to writing, but this time for poems. Kooser begins his book in a similar way to Lamott by putting out there that you shouldn't write to get published or to make money, but write for yourself and for your audience. I think that is one of the most important points that Kooser makes, is that you always have to think about who you're writing for.

I really liked this guide, primarily because Kooser concentrates on providing examples of modern poetry, poetry of the "now," as he refers to it. I also was very enthusiastic about reading this as he did write the poem on the tattoo and I really enjoyed that poem, as it had so much to say and be interpreted. Kooser emphasizes on starting out simple, not trying to be too obscure when approaching poems and being clear about what you are trying to say, while still using certain techniques while still accomplishing the whole idea of "showing without telling." For a writer, not only aiming towards poetry, but any writer, I think it is important that someone else can read your work and also get something out of it, because if you're the only person who understands it, then how do you expect any interpretation or someone else to relate in one way or another?

Another interesting part of Kooser's manual is the terms he uses and how he goes around defining and giving examples for them. In contrast to Burroway, I really like how he takes either his own poems, or poems from other author's and allows us to see what he is trying to point out. All in all, I think the book is very helpful and I liked it. I think it flows nicely between the chapters, and Kooser gives short yet concise advice and suggestions which I think I will take a lot from in order to become a better writer.

Reading Response 5: To A Mouse

Since “To A Mouse” by Robert Burns is written in mouse “speech” it was kind of difficult to understand, but I pretty much got the gist of it. He’s talking to a mouse about how much he wants it dead. He regards it as a little beast. The poem roughly rhymes and its translations aren’t exact. This was a very difficult piece to analyze, but since I like to challenge myself I felt this was the poem to do it. With him using phrases like “Wee, sleeket, cowran, tim’rous beastie; O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!” you have to muster out the translation to understand what he’s saying to the mouse. Although I’m still not exactly sure at what he’s saying, what I get from this is that he’s calling the mouse a beast and thinks it’s panicking because he has found it.

The conflict in the poem is that he’s trying to kill the mouse and is taunting it in its own language so it can understand how much he doesn’t like it. He later on switches over to talk about how its life as a mouse truly isn’t that bad because their problems are only temporary. He goes on to say “But Mousie, thou art no thy lane; In proving foresight may be vain:” meaning that he’s not alone in proving foresight may be vain.

His imagery of how the mouse will suffer on winter days with no home was clear and concise. He says “Now thou's turned out, for a' thy trouble; But house or hald; To thole the winter's sleety dribble; An' cranreuch cauld.” He was very cruel with talking to the mouse, but also comforting at the same time. It was a bittersweet tone he set for this poem which is why he’s constantly back and forth on his feelings for the mouse.

Although this poem was kind of confusing, I’m happy I chose to analyze because it helped me to expand my horizons in regards to writing styles. He chose to take on an entirely new language in which he created himself. I like the fact that even though he knew it would be hard work for others to get, he still did it anyways. His style is very different from mine, but I could learn a lot from him.

Week 5 Response: Burroway on Poetry & Wordsworth’s “Daffodils”

Burroway says that there are two things that poetry is supposed to do: be heard and be remembered (294). “Daffodils,” by William Wordsworth does just that. The language is simple, so as you read it, you don’t have to go back and spend time interpreting all of the possibilities. The rhyme scheme is a melodic ABABCC, and it’s enjoyable to read. The simplicity of the rhyme scheme, the words and the imagery created by Wordsworth is pleasant in a way that allows you to experience what his speaker is seeing and feel just as good as he does while looking at the daffodils.

In terms of language manipulation, as Burroway refers to it, Wordsworth uses personification and (I ‘m not sure of the technical name) reverse-personification to get his message across. The speaker feels connected to nature via these gorgeous daffodils, and whenever he feels anxious or like something is missing, he drifts back to that memory of stumbling upon them. I see this poem as an expression of the fundamental connection humans have with nature. What Wordsworth does to exemplify this connection through language, is he speaks of the flowers as if they are sentient beings with the ability to perform human actions: they “host,” they “flutter,” “dance” and are very sociable; on the other hand, the speaker is de-personified, in that Wordsworth writes about him as a nonliving, yet organic aspect of nature: a cloud. The flowers and the man are on the same level of existence, and when the beauty of the flowers awaken the speaker to this realization, a shift occurs in which he is no longer lonely, but rather filled with happiness because of the connection he feels to the flowers.

I’d like to know what Wordsworth was trying to do with certain word choices because as I was reading his poem out loud, a few of the words kind of messed up the flow of the poem: fluttering, continuous, and “ten thousand.” Why wouldn’t he have just made it “a million,” so the reader could pronounce it “amill-yun” which sounds smoother?

Imagery and the Poems Presented

Having read the poems by Wordsworth, Keats, Donne, Burns, and Shakespeare, I have to say that the techniques used to create imagery were insanely breathtaking. During the period of Romanticism, imagery, personification, and relating nature to value of life were constantly experimented with. One poem that really stuck to me was John Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn". I admire Keats' work immensely and this poem, I feel, explains the type poet that he was. At one point, I only focused on the word choice and I noticed that the use of certain words, which normally would be complete opposites in meaning and feel, come together to describe the ancient feel of the grecian urn with the delicate feel of Keats meaning and style. In the first stanza, there is the line " Sylvan historian, who canst thus express a flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme". The words "Sylvan historian" hints at somethings that is solid, ancient, an old myth that stands the tests of time. Also the words" flowery tale" and "sweetly" hint at not only the design on the urn but also the flow and feel of the poem as a whole.

In a very romanticist way, Keats changes from describing the urn to talking about youth and life. There is a shift in the middle of the first and second stanza because he ends with questioning what scene is being described on the Grecian urn. What song is being played on the pipes for these ancient dieties? This leads to the pondering of silent pipes filled with unheard "melodies" or sensations of being young and in love.

The imagery is incredible in this poem, as it is with the others as well. Personification and metaphor is greatly used to create a mental picture so the reader can understand the meaning being conveyed within the poem. Shakespeare's "My Mistress' Eyes" is filled with metaphorical references comparing the beauty of his mistress to the more radiant beauty of the Earth. Also in John Donne's "Death be not Proud", Death is given human qualities-representing this mighty being who every one must answer to, but if only death could die itself. After reading and analying these poems, I find myself more aware of imagery and how I can use it in my own poems.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

3-2-1 Response-Martha Collins

One of the poets at the “Fall for the Book” event I attended was Martha Collins. She was an older White woman who has been writing for years. She’s been praised for her wit, political, creative and personal work. She did a couple of readings from her new book “Bluefront” which is named after a restaurant that her father worked at when he was 5. Collins wrote a book length poem about her father witnessing a lynching of a Black man accused of rape and murder of a White woman. She talks about the significance of her being a White woman poet in today’s society and how it connects through her poetry. She really showed her connections and they were clear and precise. She showed us how to make clear connections that were easy for others to follow and understand how they were connected.

In her poetry she makes really good connections from beginning to end. She begins speaking about where her father lived when he was younger. He lived in Cairo, Illinois next to Missouri and Kentucky, the two most prominent slave states in 1901. He lived in a town of 10,000 people and those 10,000 people all came out to witness the lynching. The Black man was hung, shot and then burned. She describes how she was appalled at her father being a witness to this when he was only 5, but he also had a job when he was 5 so he was a witness to many things. Collins goes on to talk about how everyone would come out to see him make “change” by selling fruit and ushering people into the store. She spoke with such passion and emotion which made her voice seem authentic and made me believe in what she was saying. I could really take some speech tips from her. She used metaphors like “flowing rivers meeting with blue and brown” to show the unity yet separation of people. She talks about how her father saw men in white sheets who were the KKK and how there were many injustices dealing with crime. Collins explained through her work how rape/murder cases were premeditated and blamed on Black men simply because they could do it.

Her next section talked about when her father was 17. Her transition into the new subject was smooth and if she was actually speaking as she wrote it. Her father was still working at the convenience store and he opened and closed the store every day. She showed his maturity through metaphors of growth and she talked about trees. She said that the trees were innocent victims as was the man being lynched. They did nothing. He did nothing. She conveyed the passion of the lynching scene using a lot of imagery. She ends saying how her father was against slavery and that before he died he asked if she could help to make change; help him make some “change”.

I love how she ended with a paradox of the beginning when he was working outside of the convenience store making “change”. It was clever and reminded me of my own writing style. Something I feel as though could’ve been furthered in explaining was the actual significance of being a White woman poet in today’s society. She says she talks about it in one of her books, but she doesn’t elaborate on it too much. Also, I would’ve liked for her to talk more about her father’s character as a person in the Jim Crow South back then. It would’ve been more interesting to know some inside thoughts of her father while he was going through everything. One question I do have for Collins is if she felt the same way as her father about slavery and if this is her way of helping to make “change”. Overall I enjoyed her segment.

Reading response: Death, be not proud

I loved the idea of this poem. Often, when the subject is death, the poet seeks to honor or respect it, and in that respect Donne is refreshingly original. I wonder if he wrote this out of pure defiance, or recent loss, or for some other reason. I also wonder if he was religious or not, because the poem can definitely be interpreted that way, especially in the line "... we wake eternally", which can arguably be in support of an afterlife.
I also liked this poem because it is I think it is an example of the power poetry wields. In a short space, with precise verse and careful delivery, Donne conveyed a great and deep idea, without having to resort to probably lengthy description and clarification in prose the same idea would demand. Delivered in this way, the idea is also not only conveyed, but also made memorable, which Burroway addresses as a vice of poetry in this weeks reading. Because of the style and beauty of the poem, the message stays longer and impresses more.
In this way, I also agree that poetry is like a painting. To describe a landscape, an observer can use descriptive prose, and can do so quite effectively, but it is nearly impossible to match the effectiveness of taking a snapshot of it, and this can be done with painting or with poetry; I suppose what I am trying to say is poetry is like a painting which is like a snapshot of a scene or idea or historical event, and there are many things you can analyze about a snapshot that can tell you as much, or more, than lengthy description.

Reading Response on Prose Poems

Help!  I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.  After having read Ted Kooser’s The Poetry Home Repair Manual the line between poetry and prose has blurred for me.  What is the difference between poetry and prose?  It appears that poetry can be written like prose and prose can be written like poetry.  I am so confused.
            Of course the poetry that I am talking about is not your regular ballad or sestina.  I am talking about the prose poem.  It doesn’t obviously have the shape and look of a regular poem.  Let’s take David Ray’s At the Train Station in Pamplona as an example.  It describes a scene between two lovers in which the girl leaves her lover and boards a train.  The “poem” contains delicious, specific details, such as a man “with his hands hopelessly in his pockets,” and a girl “toying with the green umbrella.”  I did enjoy this “poem” and could easily visualize the scene between the girl and the man because of the details that Ray includes.  However, this “poem” could easily have been a scene in a chapter of a story.  Perhaps it is something that our hero witnesses while waiting for his train in Pamplona.
            So, let’s say that I have a story that includes a car.  I can write “The yellow Rabbit was parked on the side of the road,” or I can write “There is my car standing lonely and proud.”  Is the second description poetry?
            In my struggle to understand, distinguish and define poetry and prose, I have resorted to an analogy.  Perhaps a poem is like a photograph or painting and prose is like a movie.  The movie can contain poetic images, but it is bigger, longer and more complex.  The photograph or painting is more limited, but can invite us to dig deeper into the moment of time it has captured or depicted.  Maybe, the movie/prose provides us the macro view and the photograph/poem invites us into the micro world.

3-2-1 Response Katherine Russell Rich and Susan McKorkindale

At the Fall for the Book event which I attended, the two memoirists (Katherine Russell Rich and Susan McKorkindale) were presenting some of their recent work (Dreaming in Hindi: Coming Awake in Another Language and 500 Acres and No Place to Hide, respectively). Susan had a flippant, tongue-in-cheek style, and wrote comedically about her adventures as a city girl in farm country. 500 Acres... was her sequel to Confessions of a Counterfeit Farmgirl, covering similar subject matter. Katherine was more serious and deliberate, as would be expected from someone with twenty years of editorial experience, and wrote about her time in India living with a family (for about a year), coupled with scientific information about how the mind deals with learning about language.

The first item of interest which is how integral the writers’ personalities appeared to flow through the literature they were presenting. Upon listening to both of the presenters answer questions, it was clear that they were the only ones who would have, or could have, written what they were reading. Hearing the authors read in the manner in which they undoubtedly expected the text to be read, is a much different experience than reading a book in your own style. I suppose I must have known, but when reading, we impose much more of ourselves into the writing than I had really considered.

I would have to say that second, the use of repetition in comedy is extremely effective. I do try to infuse some humor into what I do (I was told by a friend who also writes that nobody really wants to be tragic for several hundred pages), and repetition get’s me both a higher word count and a laugh. If you take one funny statement, and repeat it a few times in succession, the effect can be compounding. An example of this would be when Susan McKorkindale uses the phrase ‘black slithery’ and ‘black whiskers’ several times in a row. I suspect that some care must be taken not to overuse the technique - and I believe, considering the crowd reaction, that she did it just fine.

Finally, I learned that rambling coherently is a big part of the memoir writing style, if my only exposure to memoirists to date (and mentally categorizing the work) is to be believed. Both went off on tangents in their stories, but the always came back. Not only that, they circled around so that the listener/reader knew they were coming back, and the journey of the rambling eventually seemed to elucidate whatever subject to which they were originally referring. I didn’t write down a good example of this, unfortunately.

I would like to know, however, if the study of Indian culture or the study of the Hindi language was the real motive for Katherine Russell Rich’s publisher-funded journey to India. It seems wonderful to get to go visit a foreign country and get paid to do write about it. I was also unfamiliar with the term ‘glitterata’. I have a basic assumption, and I was afraid of looking stupid, so I didn’t ask. If the internet is to be believed, hand-crafted jewelry is what the term means, of a unique nature. I only wish I could now recall the context.

I would really be interested to know what everyone in my Creative Writing class thinks about memoirists writing? I know that on the class blog, someone clearly has a disdain for it. I would be interested in exploring why, and perhaps learning more about the literary form in the process.

Monday, September 26, 2011

3-2-1 Response – Stephen King

I was able to attend Stephen King’s speech at “Fall for the Book,” on Friday evening. The whole purpose of him being there, apart from being a highly recognized author, was to receive the Mason Award, which I didn’t even know Mason gave. I have to be honest in stating I’m not a huge Stephen King fan, but this was one of the sessions available to me.

I was really intrigued by him being so humoristic during his speech. This was surprising considering his books are mostly in the genres of horror and fantasy, as far as I’m concerned. I really enjoyed though actually listening to him, because I realized that there may be little bits and pieces of him reflected in his writing, but as a person he almost seemed like a comedian. He started his speech by stating recognizing the fact he is highly famous. This made me think back to Bird by Bird, and about how writers die to get published, yet at points it seems that his being famous isn’t what really matters to him. I also really liked how he applied his past experiences, mostly in New York, to his speech. He made himself seem no different from the audience, except when he would mention certain books he wrote, and then you realize, “Oh, wow. He did write that. That’s awesome.” I think one of the most important points he made to the audience was encouraging everyone to keep reading. He literally said to just stop everything, go buy a book and read. I completely agree with this methodology, but of course making time is difficult.

I really wish I had gone maybe having read at least one of his books. I mean, of course I’ve seen Stephen King adapted films, but it’s probably not anything at all like his writing. Maybe then, I would have been able to get more of his speech, which the majority was based on what influenced him to write about certain things. It’s nice when a person has so many experiences, and can take them and write about them, just like Lamott suggests. Now it makes me wonder, how do you finally choose which experiences to write about? We have so many experiences, and Mr. King seemed to take simple little moments and turn them into books, like It and Cujo. Then he stated how he writes some books and doesn’t even remember where they came from. Then I wonder, how one can keep writing continuous pages that turn into an amazing story, based off of the simplest or most insignificant, yet entirely relevant experiences?

321 Response 30 Day Vegan Challenge

I went to see Colleen Patrick- Goudreau speak about her book The 30-Day Vegan Challenge: The Ultimate Guide to Eating Cleaner, Getting Leaner and Living Compassionately, at 4:30 PM at Dewberry Hall North on Friday, September 23, 2011.

Goudreau was very entertaining and informative. She did a spectacular job at presenting her case for veganism by delivering a solid argument. Her speech touched on everything from providing a scientific foundation in favor of veganism, to discussing the social issues related to veganism, and also provided tips for if someone wanting to do so. I was really impressed at how well she sold me on everything she had to say. The end of her speech was very inspirational and motivating, so I’ll start with that as it relates to the question of social values and traditions that Goudreau related to a meat and dairy free diet. According to Goudreau, to not stand up for your vegan values denies one’s own values and other people’s potential transformation.

Goudreau discussed some of the reasons and excuses people use to not adopt a vegan diet, which I, as someone who has tried to avoid meat and milk, have given. Many people say veganism is too time consuming and that they don’t have time to chop vegetables and prepare the meals, her response was, “if you don’t have time to be sick you have time to chop vegetables,” which makes a ton of sense.

Also, Goudreau talked about how food is “emotional” and we do what is comfortable and familiar to us; we think of vegetables as side dishes and just don’t feel right about not having meat on our plate. Actually, many non-western cultures don’t think of vegetables as side dishes and meat as a main course.

In addition, Goudreau believes that we have been indoctrinated to think that drinking cow milk is normal and it isn’t. Only 10 percent of the human population can actually properly digest milk (in certain parts of Scandinavia) but after a certain age, even breast milk cannot be digested properly. Why are we drinking cow milk when the thought of drinking milk that our own species produces disgusts us?

In addition, the USDA doesn’t have to report the number of aquatic animals killed for food, but 10 billion land animals are killed annually.

Salmon and other fish contain dangerous heavy metals and get their nutrients from algae. We should skip the “middle animal” and get everything we need the same way animals do without all of the harmful toxins; doing so makes sense ecologically, ethically and physically. We are purposely “un-encouraged” to be aware of these facts in order to maintain the industries. Omega 3 fatty acids come from algae, not fish. Also, one tablespoon of flax seed provides all the benefits of Omega 3s, in addition to reducing Omega 6s (which are bad for us). Her mantra regarding the absurdity of a diet that includes meat and dairy is basically, why go through the middle animal when you can get everything you need from the source without all the bad stuff?

Another interesting fact I learned from Goudreau’s speech is that Hyenas actually have more calcium in their milk than cows, but because cows are herd animals and easier to control, we stick with theirs. We also have become accustomed to drinking cow milk because so many of our ancestors have done so for centuries.

One thing I was extremely curious about and wish she would have explained more was what she referred to as the “China Study,” which she told us to research online. She told us of the “China Study” and how scientists literally created tumors in cells by injecting them with cow milk and removed the tumors by extracting it; she told us that the calcium in cow milk is a definite carcinogen.

The other thing I’d have liked to have a clearer response from the author on relates to the cost of a vegan diet. A guy in the audience asked how people with a small food budget could afford to eat healthier and the author gave a clever answer; she said that there are more costs to consider than just a monetary cost of adopting this diet. However, her response still did not properly answer the question. The cost of produce is much higher than fast food and other over processed cheap foods that contain animals by products and I’d like more information on how to compensate for this.

Goudreau ended her speech on an inspiring note, which I will paraphrase as follows: To not stand up for your vegan values denies one’s own values and other people’s potential transformation. Every action has some type of result and will inevitably affect change, so we all must choose what kind of difference we make.

Class Question:

How do you think one’s personal ideas of veganism are related to our traditional and cultural status quo, and do you think this status quo has prevented you from considering a vegan diet?

3-2-1 Response: Writing Africa Panel

I had the pleasure of going to the Writing Africa Panel last week for Fall for the Book. The panel featured Helon Habila, Susi Wyss, and E.C. Osundu. During the panel there was a reading by each author followed by questions from the audience.
Three: From this book reading, I found out that Helon is actually a professor at George Mason. He teaches creative writing for the master’s program. I learned that he and Osundu fall into the post-nationalist contemporary African writers. Habila actually said this himself which makes sense because they are native Africans and their writings are comparably different from African writers like Chinua Achebe (Things Fall Apart). I went to see Chinua Achebe in 2008 for a book reading at George Mason. His books are more folkloric and have a lesson and contemporary writers like Wyss, Habila, and Osundu have taken a different direction than the latter.  I’m not sure where Susi Wyss would fall into, perhaps post- nationalist mindset also. What I also found interesting was the subject of presenting dialogue in English when the characters are not actually speaking in English. We, as the readers, probably do not realize that they are speaking in a different language. However some authors can choose to interchange by dropping in a few French words or native language in English phonetics. Another interesting point was the discussion of how stories come about. I personally asked the question “Where did you come with the plot?” For some writers there is an elaborate process involved but for the writers it appears that the stories just come to them. There is so much to see; just by looking outside the window, one can find a story. This reminds of Lamott when she said that writing will take you to places you only dreamed of. J
 Two: I really wish the panel was longer because they could have talked about so much more stuff. I would like them to speak more of their personal connections to Africa. For Susi Wyss, she actually grew up there but for Habila and Osundu they are ethnically Africans. I would what it means to them to be African and a writer. They could possible discuss more about the challenges as well as the differences (if known) between themselves and other minority writers. Another thing I would like clarified would be the writing process. They stated that stories just come to them but what happens after that? Do they call their publisher or start writing?
One: What do you know about Africa? I ask this question because I believe that the Western world (and perhaps the world in general) has a very limited view of Africa from the media. It is so important to have writers like Wyss, Habila, and Osundu come to universities to speak about their books to give a different perspective.

FFTB 3-2-1 Response: Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

I attended a Fall For the Book event for the author Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, who specializes in vegan cooking and baking, and living compassionately and healthfully through veganism. Rather than being bombarded with criticism for m ethical implications of eating meat and animal by-products, she explained through emotion and through ration the reasons why veganism is not only a compassionate way of living but a healthier way of living. I am by no means a vegetarian or vegan, but the points she made were valid and new to me. She made an important argument that we use animals as a "middle man" in terms of justifying our consumption to get the proper nutrients we need. For example, we get calcium from cow's milk; this calcium, however, comes from the minerals cows eat, or the synthetic minerals that 3 of 4 cows are given to produce calcium-enriched milk. The omega-3s we consume through fish like tuna and salmon are in that fish because of the algae, or photo plankton, they consume during their lifetime as well. There are more ways of consuming the nutrients we need without using animals as the middle man. We could very well get our daily calcium needs through deep leafy greens such as collards ad bok choy, and one of the best sources of omega-3s are flax seeds, which can be consumed ground, in oil-form, or whole.
Another important point Patrick-Goudreau made was that many of the diseases we face today like heart disease, high cholesterol, and cancer me from the saturated fats in meat and the casein, the number one carcinogen we consume, from milk. Generally speaking, we give ourselves the sicknesses that lead to our demise through our consumption of meat and meat-based products. We rarely see cases of protein deficiency in the world, or at least in America, because we eat too much of it. There are no health benefits that we get from meat that we cannot get from plants. Many of the people who claim that they love meat too much to give it up don't really crave meat. The author explained that when we see roadkill, our first instinct is to feel disgust, and then sympathy, but we never think "lunch".
The third point I found very intriguing was her explanation of a female cow's life in terms of her ability to provide people with what they want. A cow, like humans, must be pregnant to lactate, and she will take nine months to care for her baby in her womb as humans do as well. Once her calf is born, it is taken away from her, and she is stripped of the milk she produced during her pregnancy. If the calf is a female, she will go through the same process as did her mother; males, however, are put to good use: veal. Either their first day of life, or after 16 weeks, a male calf will be slaughtered for its meat because it cannot provide dairy.
I really enjoyed hearing this author speak, and I was more worried than confused about some of the things she spoke about. In general, she gave no leeway between an omnivorous lifestyle and veganism/vegetarianism. I wish she could have touched on the transition process between the two for those who might need adjustment or reinforcement during the process of eliminating meat from the diet. Another thing I wish she clarified was the biological process of how we stop producing the enzyme that digests lactose after age 7. If so, how do our bodies so well-adjust to our every-day consumption of dairy? and why is lactose-intolerance so much of a rarity than is should be, considering it is technically natural for our bodies to reject dairy after we should be weaned from milk as children.
A question I have for the class is whether or not the decision or the idea of being vegan is more of an ethical implication that affects your moral and conscience, or if it is a biological decision that should be made to improve your health and overall well-being? How do we decide between the two, and are many people put off by veganism because they feel their morals and ethics are being put into question if they do not commit?

Fall for the Book 3-2-1 Response: Laura Ellen Scott

For my Fall for the Book 3-2-1 Response, I chose to attend Laura Ellen Scott’s reading from her debut novel, Death Wishing. This reading took place at the Sandy Spring Bank Tent in the Johnson Center Plaza on Monday, Sept. 19, 2011 at 12:00 pm. Professor Scott described her novel as a “comic fantasy”, and Death Wishing certainly lived up to that promise. It was, in a word, HILARIOUS!

As we have been learning throughout this semester, characterization, voice and setting are crucial to crafting a believable work of fiction. And Professor Scott certainly emphasized all three beautifully in her writing. Her characters, for example, all read as real people. Pebbles is a disappointed stripper who desires above all to sing the blues. She is, unfortunately, not gifted with a particularly good voice. The hero himself is a washed up loser working in his son’s clothing store, desperately trying to get Pebbles to see him as a viable romantic partner—she’s more interested in his son. All of these characters have desires, something to move toward. And in a world where a dying wish might come true, character as desire takes on a whole new meaning. Similarly, the voice and setting also ring true, in spite of the obvious fantasy elements to the tale. Scott admitting to purposefully walking the streets of New Orleans herself in order to ensure that it would be possible for a character to get from one part of the city to the other on foot in a reasonable amount of time. And as for voice, well, I imagine plenty of readers could appreciate the ironic (and yet appropriately believable) element to her hero’s distraught wail, “I’m an atheist for Christ’s sake!” (Scott).

Despite all of the strong elements in Professor Scott’s writing, there were a few things that could have stood further clarification. For instance, how did she dream up the characters? Did they appear fully formed in her imagination, just waiting to be introduced to the world? Or did she have to do some digging to find them? Also, how did she go about laying down the ground rules for her magical elements? At one point in the reading, she mentioned that wishing for immortality would not work in her world. How did she figure out what was feasible and what was not? Did she ever get stuck creating the internal logic on which the plot hinges?

And, though it might seem obvious, I supposed the best way to end this response paper is to reiterate the question all of Professor Scott’s characters find themselves asking one another as the power of death wishing becomes clear: what would you wish for with your last breathes? What would be your legacy to a world that you are no longer a part of? Happy wishing.

3-2-1 Fall for the Book


On Friday I attended the Breakthrough Poets Panel. Brian Barker, Rebecca Dunham, Cynthia Marie Hoffman, Nadine Sabra Meyer, and Sarah Perrier, all of whom are GMU graduates and award winning poets, discussed their lives and journeys to getting published. 

Things I learned:

1.  Read as much poetry as you can. It is important to explore the vast world of poetry to absorb different techniques and structures that can help with your own writing. The more you expose yourself to great poetry the better you will become at recognizing what works and what doesn’t. It will sharpen your senses for when you revise your own work.

2. On average, it takes poets nine years, after they start sending out their manuscripts, to actually get picked up by a publisher. It is a very arduous and expensive process. Perseverance comes with being a writer. Revision is the most important thing. Not one of them ended up publishing the manuscript they first sent out. It took Cynthia 7 years to get her poetry published, and in the mean time she continued writing.

3. You don’t have to have a PhD in creative writing to become a published author. PhD’s are useful if you want to teach creative writing at a collegiate level, but it’s not a publishing necessity. If you want to be published the best thing you can do is enter your poems into contests and send them to any and all publishers without going over budget.

Further clarification

1.     I didn’t hear much about their backgrounds. They mostly discussed their endeavors after college that led up to their current careers. I would like to know what inspired them to first write poetry. Brian mentioned that he didn’t choose the creative writing path until his junior year of college. I would’ve liked to hear about what he had been doing before and why he decided to change ambitions.

2. I wondered whether any of them also wrote short stories. They all studied creative writing, but I didn’t know whether they were focused on poetry as an undergraduate student or whether they waited until graduate or masters to take on a specific path.

Question

1.  How do they choose the themes of their books, and how they figure out the order or structure? Do they decide before hand that they are going to stick to a certain theme or does it evolve naturally? Does the structure contribute to the theme, or are they figured out separately?

3-2-1 Response: James Swanson

This Fall for the Book, I was lucky enough to attend the event hosted by James Swanson. Swanson has written Manhunt and Bloody Crimes; the former details the assassination of Lincoln and the chase for John Wilkes Booth, while the latter covers the attempted escape of Jefferson Davis and Lincoln’s funeral procession. While I have not read either book, I found Swanson to be a lively and thoroughly educated speaker. He opted not to read from his books, instead discussing his writing process and, if he felt the need to reference something, recalling it by memory.
There were three lessons I took away from Swanson’s presentation. The first would be perseverance. He described early on a conversation he had with his editor, where he went through three ideas before finally settling on Manhunt. In the first case, a well known author was already writing a book about the subject. In the second case, three authors were already on the case. And when he suggested the third option, his editor asked him if he really wanted to dedicate a year of his life researching such a dark subject. Eventually, he settled on Lincoln’s assassination, inspired partly by memorabilia passed down through his family. He then went on to talk about his writing style. Whereas some historical books are very good with facts but less so with chronology, Swanson deliberately made sure to keep a strict timeline in Manhunt; at one point, he even describes it as hour-by-hour. This not only keeps the action sensible, it helps to build an atmosphere of suspense so long as the reader allows themselves to suspend previous knowledge. Finally, Swanson emphasized an all encompassing view of his characters and setting. This makes the story more engaging, as readers can connect with both sides of the conflict.
There were some points that Swanson was a little briefer on. For one, he attempted to skirt his disagreements with critics, specifically those proponents of Mary Lincoln. On this, I felt that it was deliberate on his part, as it seemed as if he had locked horns with such partisans more times than he cared to remember. Also, his talk about his research process really struck me as vague. From his description of it, it seemed as disorganized (or haphazardly organized) as it was thorough. I got the feeling that you either got it or you didn’t when it came to his gathering and organization of relevant information.
One question I would pose comes as a result of Swanson’s focus on physical artifacts. He emphasized their high importance in his creative process, and how his initial outlines were typically written long hand. Does the engagement of all five senses during the writing process assists writers in creating better works of literature?

Sunday, September 25, 2011

3-2-1 Response: T.A. Barron

             I went to see T.A. Barron give a presentation for Fall for the Book on September 21, 2011 at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn, Virginia.  Barron is a prolific author of young adult fantasy, including The Lost Years of Merlin epic.  In his presentation, Barron provided an overview of his books and his writing style.
            Barron identified two common elements in all of his writings.  He stated that all of his stories have young heroes who find themselves in a tough spot and must dig deep into themselves to find the courage to address their problems.  All of his stories also take place in a magical place of mystery and danger.
            I was able to pose a question to Barron about his creative process.  I wanted to know if he knew from the onset that his stories would have the two elements he identified above, or if this is something that occurred unconsciously.  He didn’t really answer my question, but instead offered me his three “truths” about writing fantasy.  First, fantasy must be true at the level of the senses.  If the hero washes ashore, the reader better feel wet while reading the scene.  Second, he story must have emotional truth.  If the hero has amnesia, the reader must feel his loneliness.  Lastly, the story must depict the truth of the human spirit.  He doesn’t believe that reading a book should merely be a good time which he likened to eating a candy bar.  Instead, the story should offer the reader the experience of “eating a full meal.”  It should contain a moral ideal woven throughout the story.
            Barron also gave two pieces of advice to prospective writers.  First, he urged writers to “really notice things.”  He elaborated by stating, “Whatever you notice and take in, you will put out in your stories.”  He also counseled his audience to never give up.  He recounted a tale of his first novel which was never published and rejected by 32 publishers.  He wallpapered his bathroom with the rejection letters, but continued to write.  Now, more than twenty books later, one of his books is being made into a movie.
            After having heard Barron speak, I am left with a number of questions.  When it comes to writing fantasy and about places that are not real, how do an author’s observations of real details (images, settings, sounds) of real places help in the writing process?  Also, if you are writing fantasy, does research come into play at all, or is it all in an author’s imagination?  Perhaps the larger question that I have is how our imagination is fueled by reality.  So, if I can liken a story to a painting, we can paint a landscape of something that is real and observable, or we can paint something that comes completely from our imagination.  How can we use what we know and observe about reality to make the unreal real?
            For class discussion, I would like to explore the idea of a “spiritual truth” as a full meal and how it relates to poems and short stories.  How can we offer the full meal experience in writings that are short in nature?