The Pleasure of Letting Go

There were several points from Kyoko Mori’s essay that I really enjoyed. First of all, I was quite interested in the topic. As soon as she began running through the steps of feeding and nurturing the birds I was reminded of helping my friend, Jessie, take care of foster puppies from the humane society. I thought she was able to easily and accurately convey the joy of taking care of other beings and also the bittersweet moments of release. It’s an interesting and satisfying feeling to have people or animals rely on you. The tone of her essay made me feel like she was a teacher.  She even referenced it in the second to last paragraph when she said the trick to raising birds was a balance of compassion and authority. I also liked when she mentioned that along with writing, raising birds has given her pleasure in letting go. I also feel optimistic when I hand in a story and there’s definitely an air of excitement and hope that accompanies writing. I thought at times this story was a bit like reading an instruction manual because she focused so much on the process of taking care of the birds. But at the end I felt content with the message and thought it was a good and accessible story. 

The Pleasure of Letting Go

The Pleasure of Letting Go drove some points home for me regarding the idea of personal essays. I've struggled putting one together for the class, chiefly on the point of trying to find something meaningful to convey from a story about something which has happened to me. For example, my first attempt was about losing my best friend in middle school to a drunk driver - but what meaningful could one take away from that? Don't drink and drive, perhaps - it seemed very cliche. I settled for a story involving stitches, East Texas, and a claw hammer, but interpreting something meaningful from what seemed to me like basically self-indulgence has been difficult (and I still wonder if I've gotten too close to nostalgic dribble). I think Kyoko Mori demonstrated with her subject that maybe my problem was that I was focusing too much on me, and not enough on telling a story. She writes about herself, mostly, but also about an experience. Raising birds is not a singular event, but a transition in her life on which we as readers get to embark. We begin our journey with the young, barely able to fend for themselves, and follow the development of our feathery children until they are ready to be successful at life. By itself, the story had everything anyone could read. On the first layer, it was an interesting story involving generally what it takes to raise birds. On another layer, it was a story about the struggle of a very specific bird, and how it made it into the wild. Finally, She brought the story home to rest, solidly focusing on writing, and how writing was like raising birds, and releasing them into the wild.

After reading her work, I really feel that I need to go back, scrap my story about a hot Texas summer, and focus instead perhaps on the story of Sorrow, a tiny Guinea Pig which didn't make it to adult hood, but worked so hard to stay in the world. Maybe his story, like his namesake's in Tess of the D'Urbervilles, could convey the pains of class struggle - a far loftier idea than don't stand under a ladder while you throw a hammer up to an unfinished second floor.

Reading Response: The Pleasure of Letting Go

At first, I thought that Kyoko Mori's essay would be about a child or a family member so I was surprised to learn that it was about her hobby of raising baby birds. I found her style very easy to read, smooth, and coherent. unlike many essayists, she doesn't go off wild tangents but rather sticks to the main topic which really helps the readers focus solely on what's being said. I love her use of imagery when describing her birds' feeding rituals and how they slowly transitioned from the infancy stage of their lives to that of adulthood.

In addition, I found that Kyoko's essay really had a sense of closure to it. She started off by talking about one particular summer in Wisconsin and managed to create a very broad message towards the end of her essay. I think it's crucial for a writer to leave the readers reflecting on their own lives after reading what they have written and Mori has done that brilliantly.

"The Pleasure of Letting Go"-Reading Response

"The Pleasure of Letting Go" is definitely one of those sweet, feel good stories. The passion and devotion to the caretaking of these birds really shines through in the writing. When a writer can go heavily into detail and share their knowledge on a topic, that's when you'll see how in love they are. Also personal experience probably helps because unless someone is truly exposed to a certain thing, they won't completely know how it feels. Sure, you could get any writer to write about orphaned songbirds, but it would probably be through research. But if you read the writing of someone who experienced the beauty of taking care of them, like Kyoko Mori, then you will get the knowledge as well as this emotional understanding.
Also, I always like it when I can read a story, relate to it, and get a life lesson out of it. The lesson is in the title itself, "The Pleasure of Letting Go". Most of us have trouble with letting things go, especially if we truly love it. We become attached and it's been in our lives for so long, we can't imagine parting from it. But for Kyoko Mori, letting go of something she loves is fine because, this is how it should be. Taking care of the songbirds can not last forever, and she knows this. Mori knows that there is a better life for them beyond the sanctuary, and finds pleasure in seeing them fly into the world, now able to take care of themselves.

Reading Response 13: "The Pleasure of Letting Go"

"The Pleasure of Letting Go" by Kyoko Mori was truly an enjoyable read. When I first heard the title, I imagined this story was going to be about loss and grief, rather like "I'm Just Getting to the Disturbing Part" by Steven Church. So I was happily surprised to learn that the "letting go" in Mori's short story really was supposed to be a "pleasure". I love the way she spoke of raising the birds; carefully tending each little one, slowly raising it and training it until it could look after itself. Her whole job was to get the little birds to the point where she could let them go, just as a parent raises a child (or an author writes a book) with the expectation that they will one day leave. It's sad and hard, but at the same time one of the most worthwhile jobs in the world.

The way Mori compares saving lives and raising birds to writing was a brilliant analogy. While bird watching was poetry, raising the babies she considered prose, a job full of "effort" and "discipline". And that seems to resonate with Anne Lamott's "Bird by Bird" where she suggests writing a little bit each day, faithfully. If one doesn't sit down and make an effort, than neither bird nor book will ever get off the ground and thrive, and I think that is one of the most important things for any writer to remember. Writing takes work, but in the end when your books are out there, flying through others thoughts, "becom[ing] what they were always meant to be", then that is one of the most fulfilling experiences in the world, worth everything you've put into those little winged words (Mori 169).

Reading Response: The Pleasure of Letting Go

This was a delightfully written essay and a pleasure to read. The passion that Mori had while writing about her interaction with the birds she nurtured was heightened by her compassion for their well-being. She had a deep connection with these animals. The title of this essay is parallel to her experience as a bird care-taker. It shows how much she embedded herself in caring for these animals in teaching them from the basics. This essay was about more than just the birds and their actions; it was about her feeling of acceptance and accomplishment.

In the paragraphs towards the end of the essay, Mori talks about how vigorous it is to take care of birds. She explains in great detail throughout the essay all of the aspects that went into helping the birds develop basic skills that are easier developed in their natural environment. She talks about her feelings of competence when she successfully forces open a bird’s beak to feed them. In the end, she says how nothing has ever given her the pleasure of letting go as it did when she released the birds into the wild. To me this symbolizes her need to make a difference. Mori explains how it took “effort and optimism” to care for the birds so it took more than just the job title. This was something that truly made her happy and made her feel of importance. The fact that nothing else has made her feel the same way, means that she’d grew an attachment to working with birds. It was a healthy attachment and I feel that this essay her way of feeling complete.

Reading Response: Once More to the Lake

The repetition of “no years” was very powerful in this piece. It represented the similarities between the two occasions and how it seemed as if “no years” had passed. It felt the same, but it was different. He was his father and his son was him from previous years. His confusion of whose rod he was truly behind while fishing was surreal. He couldn’t believe that he was in the act of being his father; at times finding himself repeating the same actions and phrases. His examples of these incidents created a sense of parallelism between the two experiences. It was almost as if there were no differences between the past and present as he went on to explain what had and was occurring.

One thing in particular that reminded him things weren’t truly the same was when the camp received new boats. He spoke about the old boats making “a sleepy sound across the lake” while the new boats “made a petulant, irritable sound”. He talked about missing the purrs of the old two-cylinder boats and how they concocted the sounds of summer.

His descriptive language and use of parallelisms helped to create a feeling of nostalgia. He was very specific in describing his feelings about re-visiting the lake. He had no problem with expressing his confusion of which role he played at certain points in time. He explained things as if time stood still and he was recapping what he had seen. This reading was very refreshing in respect to the construction of short stories. It was an interesting piece.

Response to Steven Church's Essay

In his essay, I’m Just Getting to the Disturbing Part, Steven Church does a masterful job of relaying a profound, and yes disturbing, event through mental spirals.  He starts with what Janet Burroway calls a “close up” and describes the oppressive heat which triggers the trip to Horsetooth Reservoir.  Then, we get a long shot that is temporal in nature when he describes the move to his apartment to the sweltering Front Range of Colorado.  And, the way that he describes how hot it was in the new place is amazing with visceral descriptions such as “heat that burns when you inhale,” and “heat that makes you see things funny—watery mirages…”  Then, Church zooms back to the eventful day when he and his friends decide to go to the reservoir.  But, before progressing to the next sequential event, Church flashes to the future in which he has a three year old son and a profound fear of water.  Through this sort of temporal travel, we peel back the layers of what happened that eventful day and the significance of those events.  The manner in which Church unveils the story is mysterious, suspenseful and mesmerizing.  We get bits and pieces from the past, present and future that are revealed artfully and in a sequence that allows us to understand the shocking truth of what happened in a very dramatic fashion.

Response to "I'm Just Getting to the Disturbing Part"

Steven Church's "I'm Just Getting to the Disturbing Part," ties together the drowning he once witnessed with the death of his brother and ponders the impact the incident might have on his own child. Tying all of this together the author gets informs us of what these tragedies mean to him on a larger scale. When he includes the little inserts like "Let me tell you what I don't know..." and "Here is what I haven't told you..." I think a few things are accomplished. He makes the essay more personal by speaking to the reader directly. He also plays with the chronology of the story and doing so makes the story richer and more dynamic. Jumping around in time also shows us that he is reflecting and wants us to do the same, so that we know that we are supposed to be taking what he is telling us in and processing it with a bigger picture in mind. In terms of that bigger picture, I feel like he is describing the way a past experience will have unknown effects on the future and also that because he is aware of this, he wants to ensure that his own child will not be affected by what torments his own psyche. The message I found in the story is related to the fine line between life and death and the conflict the author is dealing with in trying to reconcile his feelings about it so that he can infuse his son with a healthy excitement for life.

RR: I'm just getting to the disturbing part

If I were to tack on a label to this nonfiction essay, I would call it cerebral. Entirely dealing with death and fear of death, the author recounts an instance where he and his friends attempted to save a drowning person's life, and managed to connect this with the past (the passing of the author's brother) and the future (the author's paternal wariness of water, especially when it comes to his son).
     I really enjoyed this essay. One thing I've personally noticed about nonfiction creative essays is that once I start reading one, it's hard for me to stop. Such is not the case with fiction, or other types of creative writing. In fact, I almost never find it difficult to stick through a creative nonfiction essay. But it wasn't the fact that it was a nonfiction essay that made this piece so good.
     This essay was incredibly revealing on a personal level. What started out as a story about a hot summer day ended as remembrance to the author's late brother, with a traumatic, neurosis-inducing incident in between. The author masterfully weaved through layers of introspection and scene, allowing the reader to observe the effects of what happened on the author's psyche.

Reading response, The Pleasure of Letting Go

I really liked this essay. One because it was written very well, and two because I’m a fan of just about anything that involves animals. I admire that the writer managed to write about something that would expectedly be unexciting and make it interesting and informative as well. While reading this piece I really felt the connection and fascination he had with the birds, and I think that was part of the reason it worked well.

I couldn’t help but think that this might be about more than just birds. I have a tendency to overanalyze so this may be off base, but while reading I took some of the descriptions of bird as a sort of metaphor/ commentary on different types of peoples, and different societies on a broader level. I wonder if this was his intention, or if it was another meaning or entirely, or was this really just written to document the author’s experience with birds? If so, what was the purpose? Was it a self-reflective piece, or an article for a journal?

Regardless, it was still very enjoyable. I think that something like this would be easy to do from a writer’s perspective, because when you are passionate about something you generally have a lot to say.

Readings for Friday, 12/2

Steven Church, "I'm Just Getting to the Disturbing Part"

Kyoko Mori, "The Pleasure of Letting Go"

Reading Response - Once More To The Lake

Throughout the first paragraph, he paints the past with broad strokes, and sets a scene in 1904 and putting forward a picture which we can use to reference back and share in his nostalgic moments. He then stretches out the timescale a little more in the next paragraph, discernible by the time he takes to relay other bits of information, filling out the summary a little more with the smell of lumber and emphasizing the serenity of the place with a reference to the nearby cathedral. From there, he wades heavily through scene after scene, and uses summary more sparingly for general observations about American life.

E.B.White weaves his observations throughout his narrative in such a manner that sometimes it's difficult to distinguish between the nostalgia he feels for his own experience and the nostalgia that he feels for American life altogether. He's very frank about tying these two things together. In fact, he spends an entire paragraph just on the American life celebration ("summertime, oh summertime..."). For my own taste, it was a little too prominent, but he does ease the reader into and out of the exuberance of the passage (in fact, the paragraph was about halfway through the piece).

Reading Response- "Once More to the Lake"

E.B. White’s essay “Once More to the Lake” is an excellent
example of creative non-fiction. Mr.
White captures the essence of his trip, but does so using strong diction,
connotation, and symbolism to not only give a depth of sensation about his
trip, but also a deeper meaning than a mere vacation. Instead, it is a perfect foiling of his own
trip as a boy to the lake, where he can connect to the role of the youngster
and the elder guardian, mimicking his father’s own behaviors during his trip
with his son. That being said, he also
touches upon the passage of time, as he often remarks about the changing
landscape. In doing so, Mr. White uses
excellent imagery and summary to capture the importance those memories had for
him and why the disappearance of a trail option matters, as opposed to saying, “There
used to be a horse trail here, but it’s no longer present”. By tying in past and present relationships into
his vacation location, Mr. White is able to create a connection between facts
and his emotions. Creating that
emotional connection is important to further draw the reader in, and make him
or her care about the story. I find
myself wanting to visit the lake now that I’ve read this story.

3-2-1 Response 2: Carolyn Parkhurst

For my second 3-2-1 response paper I chose to attend a reading by Carolyn Parkhurst on Thursday, November 8, 2011 at the Research Hall room (163) on George Mason Campus at 7:00pm. Ms. Parkhurst read from her most recent novel Nobodies Album. The novel centers on a writer, Octavia, who is trying to excise any personal passages from her original (successful) novels. She is also dealing with the arrest of her estranged son, who is charged with murder, and her own tragedy that has warped her from an idealist to an inveterate cynic. The novel, and by necessity the narrator, is very meta and deals with writing about writing, and what (if anything) is too personal to write about. This meta-cognitive aspect to the work is fascinating, and certainly a very unique thing to write about: writing about writing about writing, and so on.

In addition to the meta aspect of the novel, I felt that the narrator’s voice and the idea of writing as a living thing were two very important pieces of the novel. Octavia the narrator is wonderfully “prickly”, as Parkhurst describes her. She feels compelled to write stories that are bitter and linger in readers minds like the poisoned seeds of some terrible idea. Her own worldview has become warped by tragedy, and so she seems to pass on that way of viewing life through her own works. And that is where the final aspect of the novel comes into play, the idea that words, that writing, is a living thing. Once you put something down on paper that thought escapes to grow in the minds of others, who in turn cultivate it in still other people. There is no way to contain an idea or a thought, and so that is why what Olivia is trying to do is so unusual; if she re-writes her stories’ endings, can she in some way kill the original idea?

There were one or two ideas that I would have liked Ms. Parkhurst to expand on; for instance, what are her own views on what is too personal to write about? Does she feel that any experience is fair game, or does she prefer to limit what she writes about family and friends (unlike David Sedaris in his short story “Repeat After Me”). Additionally, does she view writing as a living thing? And if so, when does it become alive? Is it alive once the thought has entered her mind, or does writing only live when it is shared and allowed to plant ideas in the soil of others’ minds?

I suppose the best way to end this response would be to ask the same question Octavia’s publishers ask her as she sets out on her journey to correct her novel: who would want to read revised endings of successful stories? Would you, or would you, as readers, feel a proprietary interest in the story and reject any executive meddling after the fact—that is, after publishing?

Reading Response: Goodbye to All That

I think Joan Didion does a great job of capturing the readers early on and bringing her experience to life. She crafts a story that is easy to relate to since many people have lived through similar experiences and have dealt with similar issues in the past. She starts out by describing her arrival at New York, the scenes, the atmosphere, and some of the difficulties that she faced. After falling ill shortly after moving to New York, she doesn't even visit a doctor because she doesn't know any. As the essay progresses, despite a rocky start, it becomes very clear that Joan loves New York not because of her comfortable life, but rather because of her newly gained independence. When she is low on cash, she refuses to ask her father for financial aid, demonstrating her desire to be self-sufficient. She also mentions that living seemed like a "game" to her with arbitrary but quite inflexible rules.

Ultimately, I discerned from Didion's essay that when you are young, your perception of a situation can differ greatly from when you retrospectively revisit that same situation. While Joan was younger, she was mesmerized by the glamour and romanticism of New York, but when she looks back at her past experience,her perception changes dramatically. From an outside perspective, she can have a better grasp of the objective facts of her life.

Reading Response 12

Goodbye to All That

I liked this nonfiction piece. It reminded me of myself and my ambitions to go to NYC for school. I agree with author: New York is for the young and not the old or faint of heart for that matter.

This piece definitely falls into the category of creative nonfiction. The author is so vivid with her descriptions, especially smells.  The smells of NYC are what help her to remember the moments during that time of her life.

As I was reading, I felt lost at times because I didn’t know what the author was talking about with some of names used or descriptions. Nonetheless, I got the general idea. My only question is why wasn’t this story about California rather than NYC? She started out writing the story as if she was still her young self in love with NYC but as we later find out, she’s older and not in love anymore. So why not have written a story in the present about California? It is the place she is originally from and where she currently lives (I believe).

Reading Response 12: Joan Didion

I really enjoyed reading "Goodbye To All That" by Joan Didion. Though more of a personal essay than a longer memoir, her story certainly had a memoir-ish feel, especially since each individual scene she recounts (such as her arrival in New York) all seem to lead up to her inevitable disenchantment with the city. You could really tell Didion had a point she wanted to make, that she was reaching to some message from the very first paragraph of the story. This was not some 'what I did for summer vacation' journal, nor was it a page from a diary. Didion obviously crafted what she experienced into a tale. However, unlike E. B. White's "Once More to the Lake" I really understood what she was trying to explain. Not that White didn't have a point to his narrative, simply that it struck me more as a series of reminisces wrapped around the lake and it's apparent permanence in time. Didion, on the other hand, seemed to really want to make a statement, to talk about being young and optimistic and how that optimism can slowly curdle. It was a sad story, especially as I am the age Didion saw as the time when one is most enamored by the illusions of success. It's scary to think that ones hopes can implode over time. However, Didion, I believe, has managed to make something beautiful out of her sadness, and so maybe her optimism wasn't so misplaced after all.

Joan Didion, "Goodbye to All That"

This was a perfectly crafted nonfiction story. It actually seemed more like fiction because of how lively the narrative was. I loved how distinct Joan’s passion was. She was so driven to be successful, on her own, that she refused to ask her father for food money. Even though she always needed money she didn’t worry about it because she realized how many ways she could earn some if she was really desperate. “I could stay up all night and make mistakes, and none of them would count”(Didion, 2). I think that something cool about her style is that she was able to convey a sense confidence and clarity that balanced out her naivety. The fact that she lived in New York for 8 years, but never settled in, was interesting. It was like she was living in a fantasy world and she knew that one day she would wake up and be an adult.

The imagery in this piece is fantastic. Every moment flows into the next as if She’s sitting with you having a casual conversation. Her style is so natural and accessible. I loved her point about having beginnings practically engraved in your brain, but endings can sometimes sneak up on you. Then you wonder where did the time go? How did I get to this new place and become a new person in such a swift motion? I liked how she conveyed youth a being confusing and innocent. When she arrived in New York she was worried about climate change and tipping people incorrectly. She found even mundane things to be beautiful just because it was New York. I loved how Joan integrated the concept of being at the fair too long to describe the 8-year ordeal. At first everything was exciting and breathtaking, but by the end everyone is tired and needs to go home. Her words brought everything to life without hitting me over the head with detail. I found her situations to be very relatable, and I look forward to reading more of her work.

Reading Respose

"Goodbye To All That" didnt really capture my attention really, maybe because it is non fiction and it all truth so nothing extrodinary happend that made me want to keep reading. However i do comend the author for her hard work writting this, non fiction is a hard area to write because you cant be creative and say whatever you think sounds good here and there, everything has happend you can only choose the best places to put things and hope that people enjoy it. i do like how she starts in the beginning telling how she already knows that her life is not going to be the same, knowing that just from being in an airport terminal. I think if the author would have placed things differents attention would have been grabbed early on and i would have enjoyed it more

once more to the lake reading response

Once more to the lake was one of the most vivid short stories/essays that I have ever read. His use of imagery is breathtaking. The standard presentation of imagery is a collection of words that work well together to give the reader an idea of what the author is intending to create. This was different. His description was nearly as effective as a color picture. This story is the Mona Lisa of imagery.

Now that I’m done making corny comparisons, I would also like to express my appreciation of the intense metaphor in this piece. The symbols of the groin and the lake speak volumes about the father- son relationship, and also, on a broader level, inspects the general human experience of aging and paternity. One of the benefits of using literary devices effectively is that it delivers the intended point or message clearer than a simple, bland statement of them would, and adds plenty of style to boot.

This reading has inspired a new goal for me: write a short story with imagery this great. Since this goal is impossible, however, I am changing it right now to finding more stories to read that are on par with this one, and pretending that I’m going to actually do the first goal along the way.

Thanks for the assignment professor!