When it comes right down to it, the question should be asked, who would you rather spend time with, the know-it-all or the comedian?
Israel
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Not so pretentious
Randall Silvis masterfully engages the reader through humor and simple prose to drive valuable writing techniques. It's reminded me very much of the first piece we first blogged on, George Orwell's Politics and the English Language. Both often such wonderful advice for budding and even experienced writers. Both present equally important advices, however, what is noticeably different is the tone in which they engage the reader. While Orwell's overall tone can come off as a bit pretentious, Silvis' voice is very humorous.
"10 Easy Steps..." by Randall Silvis
This article was a great read, especially for aspiring writers. It gave valid and logical suggestions, while presenting them in a light and easy to read way. I love writing, I'll never stop whether I ever get published or not. There is something to it that soothes and heals me, much like Silvis said. Of course, if I never get published, I'll never get paid either, which is why I would like to pursue a teaching career. Silvis advised against it, but I've always seen myself as a teacher, I like the idea of it. Hopefully I will like the reality of it some day as well. I also love reading. It may be cliche but I love the fact that I can loose myself and all of my problems for just a little while, when reading a good book. If reading will make me a better writer like Silvis says, then there is all the more reason for me to enjoy it. Overall, I liked Silvis' article, it was humorous and honest.
I want be writer - Sheldon Benjamin
I really like this article. It actually reminded me a lot of the book I read The Sense of An Ending because a lot of the book dealt with having an ordinary life. The boys in the story were jealous of the one boy who came from a broken home because his life had narrative pull. Their lives were boring and not worth of story telling because if literature had taught them anything, it's that things worth writing down were extraordinary. Many times we complain about our abnormalities or our disconnect from society and the "norm" but according to this, that which makes us different, makes us worth talking about and gives us a story to tell. He brings us an interesting point about always writing things down and being a "human tape recorder." His honesty in step 5 is appreciated but most writers or aspiring writers go into the field recognizing the lack of stability in the profession. BUT he provides a solution. The practical escape is through another profession. Overall, I really enjoyed this article and the writer gives some wonderful advice that really applies to many different aspects of life, not just writing.
Blog 10 by Ruthie Heavrin
There is a sense of regret and pain in Randall Silvis' article, "10 Easy Steps to Becoming a Writer." The first paragraph tells about a student who complained of his teaching methods and claimed that Silvis was withholding the secrets of being published. This article feels like more of a rebuttal than a reaction paper as it makes the writer into a genre of their own - an elite per-say. Also, the author shows pain in step 3. This step suggests that a person must experience the world before they can write and even hints that no one under 25 could be at that level. Perhaps he felt that student has yet to experience a little more outside of himself and the university.
The voice's sense of regret comes through the suggestions he makes and even says that he learned the hard way for many of the steps. Step five, which is to Embrace Poverty, says that academia is the worst place for a writer to thrive, yet Silvis is a professor himself.
With the emotions and back story to the side, the steps are surprisingly true. A reader can tell if the writer knows what their talking about or if they have passion for their characters and/or topic. As most readers know, an author's life and experiences affects almost everything about their writing. That's why a person who lives life, falls in love, works with interesting people all day,and notices the absurdities of life will write more intriguing books despite the topic of genre. There are plenty of scientific and mathematical books that have been written in charming, creative, and entertaining ways.
According to Silvis, writing boils down to one thing: life. So just write it.
More Advice for Writers
Out of all the advice articles I've read in the various writing classes I've taken, Silvis' list was the most entertaining and brought several I had never heard before.
Step one made me laugh because I realized it has to be true. Everyone has some degree of strangeness to them or abnormality, writers just need to be more aware of it in themselves and in others. Those quirks are what make good stories, whether in a fictional or non-fictional setting.
Though he titles step 3, 'Live Life,' I thought his final sentence in it was the real takeaway: Keep your senses ray and your third eye open. It's what writers have to do and is very much related to step 4. We have to put ourselves out there and experience as much as we can as writers and then write it all down or store it in our conscious mind permanently.
It was a little harsh when Silvis' says that "nobody reads anymore." It's sad to think about, but it is true in a general sense. I did appreciate, though, his advice on what other jobs there are for someone who wants to write but needs to pay the bills (and eat). The irony, though, was that he said teaching was the least helpful profession a writer could pursue while Silvis' is, himself, a teacher.
What I liked about the remaining steps was that Silvis wasn't afraid to admit his own mistakes. It made him a reliable source, so when he tells us that teaching is a bad idea and putting writing before love is a worse idea, you want to listen because you know he's learned it the hard way.
And unlike the other articles about writing we've read this quarter, Silvis' tells you to keep dreaming, but stay disciplined and work for it. He isn't nice about the realities of the publishing world, though he reminds us that it's still worth it as long as there's a chance, no matter how small.
Justyne Marin
Step one made me laugh because I realized it has to be true. Everyone has some degree of strangeness to them or abnormality, writers just need to be more aware of it in themselves and in others. Those quirks are what make good stories, whether in a fictional or non-fictional setting.
Though he titles step 3, 'Live Life,' I thought his final sentence in it was the real takeaway: Keep your senses ray and your third eye open. It's what writers have to do and is very much related to step 4. We have to put ourselves out there and experience as much as we can as writers and then write it all down or store it in our conscious mind permanently.
It was a little harsh when Silvis' says that "nobody reads anymore." It's sad to think about, but it is true in a general sense. I did appreciate, though, his advice on what other jobs there are for someone who wants to write but needs to pay the bills (and eat). The irony, though, was that he said teaching was the least helpful profession a writer could pursue while Silvis' is, himself, a teacher.
What I liked about the remaining steps was that Silvis wasn't afraid to admit his own mistakes. It made him a reliable source, so when he tells us that teaching is a bad idea and putting writing before love is a worse idea, you want to listen because you know he's learned it the hard way.
And unlike the other articles about writing we've read this quarter, Silvis' tells you to keep dreaming, but stay disciplined and work for it. He isn't nice about the realities of the publishing world, though he reminds us that it's still worth it as long as there's a chance, no matter how small.
Justyne Marin
10 Easy Steps to Becoming a Writer
I think out of all the readings that we had this quarter, this one (apart from Sedaris because he is a comedic writer) was the funniest one. Each of the 10 steps were funnier than the last, and at the same time something to really live by if you have plans of becoming a writer.
The first step dealt with being born strange. To my family, having a thirst for knowledge and school is something abnormal, especially since none of them ever went to college. Plus, there is also the fact that I have no ideas of marriage and such, which they consider very weird that I am still single without any children. To society, I may be a normal human being, a girl with middle child syndrome. But to my parents and family, I am a freak.
Step two: Read everything. I keep hearing too much of this, which is making me glad that I made me a summer reading list. That way, I can keep up with authors that are successfully published.
Step three: Live Life. If I could, I would. I would explore every aspect of the world, travel everywhere taste everything! Unfortunately, I have monetary limitations, and my parents disapprove of my departures when I do not return that same night. Not to mention I have no real love life.
Step four: Become a human tape recorder. I may not be much for paying attention to people, but I have every disney movie recorded internally in my memory. If anyone needed a line from a disney movie, I'm the girl they should call up.
Step five: Embrace Poverty. It's one of those things that makes me say, "why yes I am an author," to my parents in which they just look at me as though I wasted four years in school majoring in something that will not help me in the long run. I know I need another job other than being a writer. And looking into it through grad schools and such.
Step six: Learn as much as you can, which is good because I want to go into graduate schools with teaching internships. Fingers crossed.
Step seven: Cultivate discipline. I thought the intimacy of how he sacrificed love for another love was interesting, and made me wonder whether or not that predicament of choosing someone or something. But it was good advice to take discipline. Whether or not he regrets taking one choice over the other is unclear.
Step eight: Remain aware of your imperfection. I am a woman with red cheeks, overweight, and knee problems. Imperfection has plagued me since day one!
Step nine: Wake up and dream. I remain hopeful that I can publish both a novel for adults as well as young adults. I will try as many times as J.K. Rowling herself if I have to!
Step ten: stay hungry. At first, I thought that this was meant in a literal sense, you know the whole starving artist cliche. But to hunger for writing, a metaphorical sense. Truly, it is great advice, because without that desire, where will we be?
Kathy Zinzun
The first step dealt with being born strange. To my family, having a thirst for knowledge and school is something abnormal, especially since none of them ever went to college. Plus, there is also the fact that I have no ideas of marriage and such, which they consider very weird that I am still single without any children. To society, I may be a normal human being, a girl with middle child syndrome. But to my parents and family, I am a freak.
Step two: Read everything. I keep hearing too much of this, which is making me glad that I made me a summer reading list. That way, I can keep up with authors that are successfully published.
Step three: Live Life. If I could, I would. I would explore every aspect of the world, travel everywhere taste everything! Unfortunately, I have monetary limitations, and my parents disapprove of my departures when I do not return that same night. Not to mention I have no real love life.
Step four: Become a human tape recorder. I may not be much for paying attention to people, but I have every disney movie recorded internally in my memory. If anyone needed a line from a disney movie, I'm the girl they should call up.
Step five: Embrace Poverty. It's one of those things that makes me say, "why yes I am an author," to my parents in which they just look at me as though I wasted four years in school majoring in something that will not help me in the long run. I know I need another job other than being a writer. And looking into it through grad schools and such.
Step six: Learn as much as you can, which is good because I want to go into graduate schools with teaching internships. Fingers crossed.
Step seven: Cultivate discipline. I thought the intimacy of how he sacrificed love for another love was interesting, and made me wonder whether or not that predicament of choosing someone or something. But it was good advice to take discipline. Whether or not he regrets taking one choice over the other is unclear.
Step eight: Remain aware of your imperfection. I am a woman with red cheeks, overweight, and knee problems. Imperfection has plagued me since day one!
Step nine: Wake up and dream. I remain hopeful that I can publish both a novel for adults as well as young adults. I will try as many times as J.K. Rowling herself if I have to!
Step ten: stay hungry. At first, I thought that this was meant in a literal sense, you know the whole starving artist cliche. But to hunger for writing, a metaphorical sense. Truly, it is great advice, because without that desire, where will we be?
Kathy Zinzun
Yet Another List
Randall Silvis brings us yet another list, a "10 Easy Steps to Becoming a Writer." If we compiled all of theses and similar lists, we'd have a few thousand "simple steps" to writing. That doesn't sound so easy to me.
What makes lists like these valuable is that they're not absolute, and that they're not completely right. These lists are anecdotes, mere collections of "here's what worked for me." If writing were a science and had a foolproof checklist one could go through and mark off, it wouldn't be an art.
Because of that very fallibility of lists for writing, I like them. They are more helpful, I'd say, than something I know to be completely empirical and fact-based.
Silvis' first rule of advice: "Be born strange, weird, abnormal, or any combination of those" is both a humorous and very real and impossible piece of advice. It not only points out some of the avenues that lead to great stories, but it goes a step further and okays our oddities, even indirectly praising them as a sort of black gold of writing.
This list, I must admit, is the best one I've seen. At least when it comes to writing. It's humorous, but true. Helpful, too, I'd bet. Of course, I haven't had enough time with these tips to see any changes in my writing, but I want to keep this one on hand. This would even be fun to list and hang behind your desk, where you can see it while you sip tea, listen to jazz/classical music, and pull out your hair while trying to get that perfect paragraph.
My favorite tip, by far, is step 3: "Live life." This is the mantra that passes through your head and makes you get into that stranger's car, or sit next to that homeless man, or order your food by clucking and mooing because the restaurant owners in that other country don't speak English. This tip isn't just good for writing, either. It's good for education, for experience, for roundness, for being whole. This tip, if you follow it, may not make you rich. But when you start sharing the stories that are important to you, the stories that you chose to live instead of read about, you won't care one bit.
-Alexander Hirata
What makes lists like these valuable is that they're not absolute, and that they're not completely right. These lists are anecdotes, mere collections of "here's what worked for me." If writing were a science and had a foolproof checklist one could go through and mark off, it wouldn't be an art.
Because of that very fallibility of lists for writing, I like them. They are more helpful, I'd say, than something I know to be completely empirical and fact-based.
Silvis' first rule of advice: "Be born strange, weird, abnormal, or any combination of those" is both a humorous and very real and impossible piece of advice. It not only points out some of the avenues that lead to great stories, but it goes a step further and okays our oddities, even indirectly praising them as a sort of black gold of writing.
This list, I must admit, is the best one I've seen. At least when it comes to writing. It's humorous, but true. Helpful, too, I'd bet. Of course, I haven't had enough time with these tips to see any changes in my writing, but I want to keep this one on hand. This would even be fun to list and hang behind your desk, where you can see it while you sip tea, listen to jazz/classical music, and pull out your hair while trying to get that perfect paragraph.
My favorite tip, by far, is step 3: "Live life." This is the mantra that passes through your head and makes you get into that stranger's car, or sit next to that homeless man, or order your food by clucking and mooing because the restaurant owners in that other country don't speak English. This tip isn't just good for writing, either. It's good for education, for experience, for roundness, for being whole. This tip, if you follow it, may not make you rich. But when you start sharing the stories that are important to you, the stories that you chose to live instead of read about, you won't care one bit.
-Alexander Hirata
Monday, June 11, 2012
Randall Silvis: Reflection
I like this work. It outlines some simple steps that sound hard to do, but that make sense for all writers to follow. The first four steps could be summed up: We have to go out into the world to experience, learn, and then write about it. From there, he goes on to explain different aspects of the writer's career that I haven't thought about before. Each step is carefully explained to include creativity and open-mindedness, the arts of poverty and breaking rules, and humility among others. It's a very useful piece of work that I'd like to keep somewhere I can glance at each morning, just to remind myself of the things I should be doing but for some reason am not.
Idida Z. Casado
I have most of these criteria already.
I will make it short. My dad always tells me that I am crazy. Then he compares me to one of the most successful writers of Korea, saying that I will be like him someday. Should I consider this as a compliment or criticism? Well, after reading this piece, I decided to take it as a compliment.
Surprisingly, I have most of these characteristics already. My life was an epic roller coaster with little money, I started reading when I was 2, mastered Korean reading at age 5 and always used my crazy memory to remember and recreate things for my world of stories in my head. I daydream for at least 12 hours a day and am always hungry. I just need to graduate, get a job and live my life. Am I not ready to become a real writer?
Hae-Lim Lee
Surprisingly, I have most of these characteristics already. My life was an epic roller coaster with little money, I started reading when I was 2, mastered Korean reading at age 5 and always used my crazy memory to remember and recreate things for my world of stories in my head. I daydream for at least 12 hours a day and am always hungry. I just need to graduate, get a job and live my life. Am I not ready to become a real writer?
Hae-Lim Lee
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Writing is not just about the writing
When I tell people my major I get one of 2 reactions.
1. Oh, so you’re going to teach?
OR
2. Oh, that sounds so easy.
Thank you, Randall Silvis, for pointing out that writing is not easy. Just because it doesn’t require the same skill sets for writing as it does for studying science or playing music doesn’t mean that writing isn’t difficult. If it was easy we wouldn’t have a dwindling literary market and everyone would be an author. Creative, intriguing plot lines and characters are challenging enough—forget about the spirit breaking requirement of revising! Writing is not just about writing—it’s about inspiration, connection, commitment, and having something to say.
I really connected with this piece because Silvis was giving good advice, but incorporating humor and a light tone. Steps 1, 3, and 4 were my favorite. Step 1—Bestrange? Check. Who wants to read about a boring, perfect normal family? (what is “normal” anyway?) People want the drama, the gossip, and the emotion. My favorite novels are the ones that make me cry. If a book can make me show physical emotion—tears or laughter, it’s a good book. Step 3 about living life made me laugh. While Silvis obviously didn’t literally mean standing in traffic, I appreciated his advice about going out and getting experience to write about things. I’m always inspired when I go on trips. I bring writing material with me because for some reason, that’s when the magic happens. Sometimes it’s not even about the place I am or the people I’m with, it’s just outside my comfort zone and I feel inspired. Step 4 is a recent favorite of mine. I’ll hear or notice something and just know that I need to write it down. I have no idea what I’ll use these quotes for, if anything, but it’s nice to know I have an idea base when I’m in the mood to write.
Step 5 also stood out to me because up until 2 weeks ago, I thought I wanted to go into academe—into teaching, but I discovered that’s not where my heart is. I would be miserable and my students would suffer. So I’ve opted to go the route of editing and publishing (hopefully), so it was nice to hear affirmation that there isn’t only one path to go down as a writer. Overall a delightfully funny and helpful read. And after step 10…I’m hungry. I hear a Popsicle calling my name. Hmm….that gives me an idea for a story…
-Katie Huffman
-Katie Huffman
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Best Writing Tips I've Seen So Far...
I love these steps. One of my favorite things Silvis says is "...do all this without resorting to palliatives. They will numb you to the soul-knitting potential of life's blows. Rehab is for actors, not writers" (2). YES! There is so much out in the world--so much joy and pain to experience! In my short life I've learned that experiences make stories, whether the experiences are funny, sad, awful, etc. Happy experiences make stories, too, but sometimes one comes to a happy conclusion after a bad moment. I like those kinds of stories. I also love the step "Read everything you can get your hands on" (1). SO many writers say this, and it's so important. I love to read, and have been reading books since I was five. If I hadn't started so early or enjoyed it so much, I would have no clue how to write!
There are so many great steps here! I agree with Silvis's advice about not allowing oneself to marry writing. He says love is still important, that "there is nothing more creative than loving somebody" (2). I heartily agree! I'm definitely going to keep this page of writing tips. It is short, the formatting welcomes the eye, and it packs a lot of meaning and advice into four pages.
---Laura Strawn Ojeda
There are so many great steps here! I agree with Silvis's advice about not allowing oneself to marry writing. He says love is still important, that "there is nothing more creative than loving somebody" (2). I heartily agree! I'm definitely going to keep this page of writing tips. It is short, the formatting welcomes the eye, and it packs a lot of meaning and advice into four pages.
---Laura Strawn Ojeda
10 Easy Steps
Silvis' piece was a great way to end the quarter. It incorporated many aspects of writing we have discussed throughout our classes together. Right away I noticed, a list! We tied in one of our first conversations to one of our last. I enjoyed his writing style. Advice was well taken and after reading I wanted to find all the ways I fit into his category of a writer. His humor was well placed. Right from his introduction he set up that contract with me, he made me laugh. I was excited to read his advice.
I thought his advice on living life was fun. Many of us haven't experienced a lot. Now, we pretend to visit the world or fall in love by escaping our lives and watching films or fooling ourselves into thinking we have many friendships when all we do is chat on Facebook. How can we describe a sunset if we haven't seen one with our own eyes? I think this is great advice for our generation, as well as the upcoming generation. Although I like to think I'm lucky because I have travel a number of places, I wonder now if I gained the knowledge I should have from my experiences. If I truly opened up to the world the way I could have.
I laughed to see that my choice of profession was the "worst possible choice" (2) for writers to escape poverty. I never thought of myself as a writer first, so maybe I'm off the hook. :) One of my favorite pieces of advice was on page 3. He writes, "There is nothing more creative than loving somebody. And nothing will make you a better writer." We need to be vulnerable to life. Experience it. Loving someone can be bigger than a boyfriend of girlfriend. Love those around you. Love by spending time with the elderly. Love by cooking with an aunt. Love by traveling with a roommate. Love by writing letters to an old friend. Love by playing hide-and-go-seek with kids. Make moments. By allowing ourselves as humans to interact with one another and being vulnerable to the idea of creating relationships, we will grow in knowledge and experiences. I adored that advice and hopefully can act on it.
-Angela Payaban
One of the most moving segments and I think the the point where I felt the author's meaning most, was the obituary of 42 year old Brian Doyle from Oregon. The author's reaction to this obit was haunting. "What Brian died of, the article does not say. Nor does it say who he was,. It doesn't say who or how he loved. It doesnt report the color of his eyes. It doesn't show the shape of his ambition." Very strong words. We live our lives to have them summarized in an obituary that can list our accomplishments and aspirations, but the only way to know someone, to know why they wanted to live, to know what made them love the people they loved, is to connect with them.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
"Being Brians" Reflection
“Being Brians” was different from what I normally read. The author was pretty bold to send the
questions out online to all the different people sharing his name and expecting
the real Brian Doyles to answer. It
looks like it’s just a survey and the results of such, some results turning out
to be legit and others being duds and dead ends. I guess all the other Brians were told that
their words would be published. I don’t
think I’d like my personal stories spread to the world by anyone other than
myself. Then again, the author does find
his name again in the obituaries and notes how unimportant this Doyle’s life
seemed to the paper, after listing some Brians who answered the questions with important facts about themselves…
Personally, I guess I just enjoy “Brian Doyle on Being Brians” more than the article
itself. The article doesn’t seem to have
an actual point, just that this author decided to find out just how many Brian
Doyles there were and how many of them would be willing to talk about their
personal lives. I guess I just prefer
pieces, articles, or cut parts that have an actual point to them. If it’s a true story that gets the emotions
running, I’m behind it. If it has a
moral or another kind of lesson to learn, I’ll read it. If there’s a thesis and the author proves his
or her point strongly enough for people to believe it, I’ll give the author a
chance. This just didn’t seem to have an
actual point to me, is all. Still, I can see the passion that went into this and how others would like it. It's just a little too different for me, is all.
Idida Z. Casado
Being Brians
What does it mean to be a Brian Doyle? I suppose this is the question that the author, Brian Doyle, asked himself when he started working on this piece. It must have taken him months to even prepare to write the first draft. He had, assuming he tried to contact all of them, 215 letters to send out and receive replies for. That would take some time and effort but, I imagine, the end result would be worth it. I think it would be very interesting to find out what other Kayla Santos' are like. I went to the website mentioned in the piece and searched for my name. Surprisingly there are only seven of us in the nation, according to the site. I wonder if they have a life anything like mine, if they have any traits like mine. I think that Doyle must have wondered the same. It was interesting reading how Brian Doyle related to the stories of the other Brians. He chose some intriguing, though sometimes simple, replies. He was able to round out his story by using Brians who were very different from each other. I suppose it just shows how, though we are different, we still have a connection to one another, be it our names or simply that we are human.
Kayla Santos
Kayla Santos
Blog 9 by Ruthie Heavrin
Our family phone number was one digit away from Blockbuster's number. People would call us and ask if we had Little Mermaid in stock or if Man of the House has come out on VHS yet. Sometimes, I would actually go and look at our personal collection of DVDs and VHSs to see if we did indeed have a copy of Die Hard 3. "Yes, yes we do," I would tell the person on the other line. Although this has nothing to do with sharing the same name as a million other people, it did get me thinking about who else shared our number. After one such Blockbuster mis-dial, I gave in to my curiosity and called 335-8686 from a variety of area codes.
"Is this (706) 335-8686? Really? Cool, I'm, (909) 335-8686. Does anyone call you and ask for Blockbuster? No? Well that's weird because - hello? Hello?" Apparently, none of the other 335-8686'ers were as ecstatic about having our fairly easy to memorize phone number. When FB started, I added all the Ruth Heavrins. There were none so I added none of them. One man named Michael Heavrin tried to add me, but since I had never met him before, I told him, "Sorry, I only add people I know." He protested and said that we might be related. Might wasn't strong enough for me. I guess my need for connection slipped away after my phone number rejection.
After reading "Being Brian," I realized that I had gone about my 335-8686 project all wrong. I needed connector questions like Brian Doyle. He asked them about real life and real issues. He brought together not just Brians, but a larger group of humanity searching for human connections. That's the irony of his piece. Everyone knows it would be ridiculous to assume that these people are connected by just their name. They are connected by being people, not Brian. They (and we) are connected by suffering from poverty or watching the world slip on the seven o'clock news. What we could all learn from Doyle as writers is to connect our readers in unusual, new, and interesting ways.
The Strength of Nonfiction
"There are 215 Brian Doyle's in the United States, according to a World Wide Web site called 'Switchboard'" (163). Doyle's opening line is simple and factual. I would believe if you told me it was taken from a research paper. So why is it so intriguing? Why would a sentence so basic be a hook?
Simply put, nonfiction is an oft-undervalued form of writing.
While Being Brians is true and relatively straightforward in its delivery and writing style, I'd go as far as to label it "creative nonfiction." Why? Because if I tried to write the very same piece in the same way, no one would want to read it. It took skill and craft, and a basic understanding of human nature to put together an essay like this. I think the greatest strength he played off of was his interest in the matter.
Doyle was interested enough in whom he shared his name with to look them up in the first place. He didn't stop there, though, and wrote them and asked for responses. I'm sure his interest was only piqued more when he received the first replies, and whatever it kindled in him must have been fun. Lots of fun. I think Doyle used interest in two ways. The first way he used it was simple. If he thought this was interesting, others must find it interesting, too. The second way he used this fascination was as a drive. If someone is passionate about a social issue, he or she is going to know a lot about it. They will also want to share it with everyone and at every time. This project of Doyle's may not have been so strong as to be a passion, but he sure used his curiosity as a motivation to share, too.
He doesn't spend more than a page introducing the topic of his essay before presenting us with quotes, the actual responses he received. In an exercise of wise conservation, he trusts those replies to carry their own importance, giving simple introductions to many of them, such as "Brian, the undergraduate at the University of Kansas:" (165) or "Brian of Red Hook, New York, eighteen years old:" (165).
The result was that I found myself interested, I found myself caring about these responses. Even though I don't know a single Brian Doyle, and even though it wasn't people sharing my name that were sharing about their lives, I wanted more, grammar errors and all.
I was led briefly down a path of imagination, one in which every "Brian Doyle" in the piece was instead an "Alexander Hirata." How fun that would be.
The interest, the imagination, the subsequent visit to Switchboard–all of it because the real life, the nonfiction is interesting in itself.
-Alexander Hirata
Simply put, nonfiction is an oft-undervalued form of writing.
While Being Brians is true and relatively straightforward in its delivery and writing style, I'd go as far as to label it "creative nonfiction." Why? Because if I tried to write the very same piece in the same way, no one would want to read it. It took skill and craft, and a basic understanding of human nature to put together an essay like this. I think the greatest strength he played off of was his interest in the matter.
Doyle was interested enough in whom he shared his name with to look them up in the first place. He didn't stop there, though, and wrote them and asked for responses. I'm sure his interest was only piqued more when he received the first replies, and whatever it kindled in him must have been fun. Lots of fun. I think Doyle used interest in two ways. The first way he used it was simple. If he thought this was interesting, others must find it interesting, too. The second way he used this fascination was as a drive. If someone is passionate about a social issue, he or she is going to know a lot about it. They will also want to share it with everyone and at every time. This project of Doyle's may not have been so strong as to be a passion, but he sure used his curiosity as a motivation to share, too.
He doesn't spend more than a page introducing the topic of his essay before presenting us with quotes, the actual responses he received. In an exercise of wise conservation, he trusts those replies to carry their own importance, giving simple introductions to many of them, such as "Brian, the undergraduate at the University of Kansas:" (165) or "Brian of Red Hook, New York, eighteen years old:" (165).
The result was that I found myself interested, I found myself caring about these responses. Even though I don't know a single Brian Doyle, and even though it wasn't people sharing my name that were sharing about their lives, I wanted more, grammar errors and all.
I was led briefly down a path of imagination, one in which every "Brian Doyle" in the piece was instead an "Alexander Hirata." How fun that would be.
The interest, the imagination, the subsequent visit to Switchboard–all of it because the real life, the nonfiction is interesting in itself.
-Alexander Hirata
Names and Relationships
I thought this piece was a fun read. I mean, who isn't curious about other people that hold the same exact name as us? I've searched for my name on google and I saw that there are others from the same cultural background as me but their name is always spelled differently from mine. But it's crazy, because you almost want to know a little bit about them. Who are they? Where do they come from? Do they have similar interests? I have yet to know and or meet someone with the name Felicia Tonga but I'm sure that if I did I would be very curious of who they are.
Although Brian Doyle does not know who these people are personally you can almost sense a connection between him and the people that hold the same names as him. On page 169 Brian wakes up to find a number of returned envelopes. Doyle says, "Where are those Brian Doyle's? The lost Brian Doyle's?" It's almost as if his name creates a relationship between him and the other Brians. It's weird but a lot of people create relationships with other people just based off of their name. For instance, my sister has 6 kids, each are named after a family member from her husbands side. In return, each child is spoiled by their namesake. This is solely based on their name and nothing else. Pretty funny when I think about it but it's true... Names really do have a way of creating relationships.
-Felicia Tonga
Monday, June 4, 2012
Have you ever searched your name?
I have searched my name on a Korea search engine before. The most prominent person who kept showing up was a news anchor with my name, but the reason was she fainted during a live news and people were keep searching about her. I checked the video of her passing out during the news and got awestruck. It was weird to have someone who has same name as mine being on the web as a top search. But since my name is not a very common one even in Korea, I have not seen that many Hae-Lims in my life.
Brian Doyle sure did a lot of research for this piece. All those other Brians who wrote back to him must have felt some kind of empathy toward him. He uses details on each Brians' life and his life to imply that even though the Brians around the United states share something but also they are all different individuals.
Name is a part of a person's identity. Even though there are people with same name all the time, it is not difficult to remember one certain person if that person is a friend or family. But finding someone who shares the name on purpose--well, how many people actually do that? This piece had its own unique purpose and it serves well.
Hae-Lim Lee
Brian Doyle sure did a lot of research for this piece. All those other Brians who wrote back to him must have felt some kind of empathy toward him. He uses details on each Brians' life and his life to imply that even though the Brians around the United states share something but also they are all different individuals.
Name is a part of a person's identity. Even though there are people with same name all the time, it is not difficult to remember one certain person if that person is a friend or family. But finding someone who shares the name on purpose--well, how many people actually do that? This piece had its own unique purpose and it serves well.
Hae-Lim Lee
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Being Brians
I thought it was brave of Doyle to write to all of those other Brians, and was quite surprised to hear that there were so many. Even though we don't hear a lot from our Brian Doyle, he balances his and the voices of the other Brians very well. We don't get lost in them and they are organized in a way that ties them all together. Each piece of the letters we hear from also does its job showing the reader the humanity and realness of each Brian. We get to read about their wives, children, careers, achievements and more just from those excerpts. I think some admiration goes to our Doyle here for combing through each letter and choosing the most poignant aspects of each one. I'm sure there was so much more that he could have included in this piece, but he uses just enough to engage the reader and make them want to know more.
Just as others have mentioned in their blog posts, I couldn't resist googling my name as well. I didn't expect there to be any other JustYne's... and there were none (but plenty of Justins and a few Justines). The results that came up were Facebook, OrgSync, gmail, and even this blog. Still, it was interesting to see for myself the electronic footprint I have left in the World Wide Web.
However, when I checked the Switchboard site Doyle says he used, apparently I don't exist... hmmm.
Justyne Marin
Just as others have mentioned in their blog posts, I couldn't resist googling my name as well. I didn't expect there to be any other JustYne's... and there were none (but plenty of Justins and a few Justines). The results that came up were Facebook, OrgSync, gmail, and even this blog. Still, it was interesting to see for myself the electronic footprint I have left in the World Wide Web.
However, when I checked the Switchboard site Doyle says he used, apparently I don't exist... hmmm.
Justyne Marin
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Larger Connection
The Brian's won me over. I enjoyed this week's piece Being Brians. I have thought about how many Angela Mae Payabans there are in the world. I'm positive I am the only one though. Automatically, I was excited for the author Brian, who was searching for all the other Brian Doyles. One section that stood out was page 171. The obituary made this piece more real. It reminded me that the was more to just the fun of figuring out how many same named people there were, but these were really people. They all have the same name, they are all linked in that way.
My favorite part comes after the obituary. The author writes, "It doesn't show the shape of his ambition, the tenor of his mind, the color of his sadness, the bark of his laugh. It doesn't say with what grace or gracelessness he bore his name, how he was carved by it, how his character and personality and the bounce in his step were shaped and molded by its ten letters, how he learned slowly and painstakingly to write BRIAN DOYLE..." This whole section was touching, especially learning how to write his name. I never thought about people learning to write their name. A name is so personal. When you're little, that name is solely yours. Imagine, someone else claiming that name as their own, writing that name.
I was surprised that the other Brian Doyles were good writers too. I loved reading their life stories and seeing how different each Brian Doyle was. It just showed me how we can make many connections throughout life. We can connect through schools, churches, by being in the same shoe size, or by having the same name. Yet, at the same time we are different. In our differences we have connections in other ways with other people, making a larger world-wide connection. It's quite amazing.
I liked his reflection. The line that stood out was, "so we have essayettes in our mouths all day long, and trade them like kisses." We need to tell stories. We need to tell what is true. We just need to start. :)
Angela Payaban
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
That Article by What's His Name
I was about to start on other homework and was just glancing at Brain Doyle’s Being Brians article…but then I couldn’t stop reading it. I was fascinated. I even looked up my name, and with such a unique spelling (KathArine instead of KathErine—people love to misspell that too. All the time. Even on official letters) there were only 8 records, all in their 40s or above, and scattered through Texas, New York (x2), Florida, Illinois, DC, Tennessee, and Georgia.
I thought this project was so much fun. I never would have thought to contact the people who shared my name and see what their lives were like or see if we had any shared background or commonalities (like the Brain Doyle who was a year behind our author in college).
I was surprised that this piece was able to hold my attention all the way through. How can compiling other people’s information make for an enjoyable article? Because our Doyle adds his own comments and thoughts and he has such a wide variety.
My favorite Brian was the one from Baton Rouge, Louisiana because of his humor and honesty. “I, like most Brian Doyles, am extremely important and in constant demand,” I love that. Then he continues on to talk about how he is a successfully recovering alcoholic and got married; “She was an actress; I was an actor; we were both drunks; what else could we do but get married?” He has such a positive view on life now, and things are always easier to laugh about once there is some time to heal.
I really appreciated the novelty of this project. And his rules. I don’t know how many words I can type in a minute. I never learned how to type properly, so I just hustle away with my two index fingers (I’m actually pretty fast, but I’ve heard it looks funny). I think his advice to write something every day is interesting—I’m usually writing papers for class or sticky notes to myself, I wonder if that counts. Learning to listen is not one often recommended to writers, but I’ve come to realize that I love to write dialogue and I can’t do that if I never hear anyone speak. The way they phrase things or hedge their speech. And lastly, getting a job to pay the bills—funny and relevant. We’d all love to be writers, but sometimes that’s just not enough.
-Katie Huffman
Post 9--Being Brians
There are a lot of Laura Ojedas in the world, too, and most of them are Latino. I think it'd be fun to write them letters and hear their life stories, because to me that was the most interesting part about Brian Doyle's essay. I like how, towards the beginning, he says "one of us is nearly finished with his doctorate in theology; one of us is a nine-year-old girl"--I definitely did not expect that, and it made me laugh out loud! Doyle then goes on to record all the little anecdotes sent to him by the other Brian Doyles, and how they told this Brian Doyle their hobbies, their family histories (I love family histories!), etc. Each little story told us what that particular Brian Doyle was like.
I appreciated how Doyle used an obituary notice to show the differences between personal writing and very objective writing. Obituaries are so much more interesting when we know about the person's personality, not about his life achievements. I've always thought graveyards were incredibly scary but also intriguing, because I wanted to know the stories behind the people whose names were on the gravestones. I love old photos, I love learning about my own ancestry, and I love hearing other peoples', so I really enjoyed this piece's appreciation for these things.
I don't know if we were supposed to comment on Brian's 'afterword' sort of thing, but I will anyway: I thought his writing tips were okay, but I think they missed something huge: READ! You have to read in order to know how to write! It's important nowadays to be able to type quickly, but one can also write by hand. It's important to write every day, but I think it's more important to read every day, to "read like a wolf eats" (in Gary Paulsen's words). I've seen wolves eat. They eat all day long, the same carcass. I saw this at Yellowstone in January. We saw the wolves in the morning; and when we left the park in the evening, we saw them still eating that same poor dead elk.
Regardless of my problems with the writing tips, I love the care this piece has for personalities and histories, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
--Laura Strawn Ojeda
I appreciated how Doyle used an obituary notice to show the differences between personal writing and very objective writing. Obituaries are so much more interesting when we know about the person's personality, not about his life achievements. I've always thought graveyards were incredibly scary but also intriguing, because I wanted to know the stories behind the people whose names were on the gravestones. I love old photos, I love learning about my own ancestry, and I love hearing other peoples', so I really enjoyed this piece's appreciation for these things.
I don't know if we were supposed to comment on Brian's 'afterword' sort of thing, but I will anyway: I thought his writing tips were okay, but I think they missed something huge: READ! You have to read in order to know how to write! It's important nowadays to be able to type quickly, but one can also write by hand. It's important to write every day, but I think it's more important to read every day, to "read like a wolf eats" (in Gary Paulsen's words). I've seen wolves eat. They eat all day long, the same carcass. I saw this at Yellowstone in January. We saw the wolves in the morning; and when we left the park in the evening, we saw them still eating that same poor dead elk.
Regardless of my problems with the writing tips, I love the care this piece has for personalities and histories, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
--Laura Strawn Ojeda
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
The Drama Bug Reading Reflection
I could not find a written part of this thing and instead found a podcast. I had to listen to this a second time. Actually, there is a lot of humor and truth in this. I think most of this comes from the details he throws in. He could just say, "I once wanted to be a mime, like the one on the corner," but instead talks about what the mime did and how he himself acted inside the house with a fake baby. He could just say, "I was once in a class and became obsessed with Shakespeare," but went for all sorts of details, from adding words into his language to sulking in order to get a book of the playwright's complete works. When talking about the "Drama Bug" of the title ("This wasn't a bug, but a full-fledged virus...") I see the things this man has actually written are funny but tragic. He reminds me a bit of my sister, gaining interest in many things but losing it quickly enough, only his focus is in acting, drama, and the problems that come with such work.
The second part of Act 1 shows him finally joining an acting troupe with his friend Lois, who quickly becomes the diva of the group, while Sedaris falls farther and farther from the spotlight until he is asked to work the spotlights. I get this feeling when the leader of the group is described as a far-too-bright and far-too-loud man. I think my favorite part of this part of the reading is the irony of Sedaris's mother: He first says he thought she knew nothing about acting but, at the very end, he congratulates her for being the best actor he could have possibly known, while the real actors kept trying too hard to bring the attention to themselves (the director, for example). I am a major fan of details in stories, so I think I may have found a somewhat new favorite author. Now if only I knew what this David Sedaris wrote...
Idida Z. Casado
The second part of Act 1 shows him finally joining an acting troupe with his friend Lois, who quickly becomes the diva of the group, while Sedaris falls farther and farther from the spotlight until he is asked to work the spotlights. I get this feeling when the leader of the group is described as a far-too-bright and far-too-loud man. I think my favorite part of this part of the reading is the irony of Sedaris's mother: He first says he thought she knew nothing about acting but, at the very end, he congratulates her for being the best actor he could have possibly known, while the real actors kept trying too hard to bring the attention to themselves (the director, for example). I am a major fan of details in stories, so I think I may have found a somewhat new favorite author. Now if only I knew what this David Sedaris wrote...
Idida Z. Casado
Damn "!!!!"
You know, maybe it's the newspaper editor in me, but for the life of me, I could not get over Sedaris' (to me) over use of exclamation points. Call me a nick-picky, but the use of exclamation points even once, in my opinion is already too many times.
In all my years of learning the craft of writing, I've been taught that the frequent use of exclamation points were to be considered poor writing skills. I just can't seem to find the justification for using exclamation points four times in once piece no matter what the circumstances.
Some might consider me stuck in folly thinking. That may be the case.
But I don't care!!!!
Heh.
-Israel Carreón
In all my years of learning the craft of writing, I've been taught that the frequent use of exclamation points were to be considered poor writing skills. I just can't seem to find the justification for using exclamation points four times in once piece no matter what the circumstances.
Some might consider me stuck in folly thinking. That may be the case.
But I don't care!!!!
Heh.
-Israel Carreón
I've always loved the open voice he has in his writing. Although I wasn't quite rolling as with some of his other writings, this was still brilliant. His Shakespearean monologue to his mother as he cleaned was awesome.I always appreciate the little journeys he takes us on in his narration. The pictures he creates in his description. The way he described the mime in the beginning and the way he was so intrigued and interested right into the way his mother shut the whole operation down so quickly felt so real. It's odd to be so entertained by someones disappointment but I feel like that was his message throughout that he still learned something.
Sheldon
Sheldon
Blog 8 by Ruthie Heavrin
Mimes are scary. I'm really surprised Sedaris found such inspiration in one, but at least it fulfilled him for a time and introduced him to a world of tights and makeup. The best thing about this piece is humor Sedaris points at himself. By showing how ridiculous he was, the reader understands how ridiculous they can be as well. The drama bug became an obsession, but once Sedaris saw the drama culture for what it actually is, he learned not to worship or idolize something without seeing the full picture first.
Dissapointment is a reality for everyone. Sedaris' mother felt disappointment in her son's choice of hobbies, Hamlet's imagined mother imaginarily felt disappointment in her son's career, and Sedaris felt disappointment in his dreams as they came stumbling and drunk onto stage or easily swooned into bed. Sedaris so proudly spoke in King James English to show how cultured he had become. He saw that same foolish pride in Hamlet.
Instead of writing about this serious topic in a dredgerous tone, he instead uses humor to portray the rawness and foils of humanity. Satire is stronger than serious tones just as laughter is stronger than crying. Sedaris still utilizes ethos, but he leaves the reader smiling and thoughtful, not sappy and melancholy. This is a trait that we, as writers, should take into consideration. Using specific details, building unique characters, and paralleling themes with syntax together work as a full production to send the reader with a memorable story.
Did I Catch the Drama Bug?
This piece was really enjoyable. I can imagine the "drama bug" infecting people like a contagious disease. A friend of mine, who is an aspiring actor, reminds me a lot of this character. He spends a good amount of money paying for acting classes, taking head shots and going to auditions just to find himself gaining small parts on commercials that are constantly being cancelled. As a friend I always thought it as my duty to allow him to explore his dreams but I remember him coming home one day and telling me, "You know, I realized that there are a lot of aspiring actors and actresses in Hollywood but majority of them suck! Like, I wonder who in the world allows them to continue in this competitive business. I'm so glad that I don't fall into that category." Well, as I read this piece that was assigned for the blog I thought to myself, "my good friend has caught the 'drama bug.'"
Perhaps one of my favorite parts in this story is when the mother believes that her son is on drugs and spends her time going through his things trying to find something that would explain his bizarre behavior. When her son realizes that his stuff has been messed with he writes a note saying, "The thing that ye search for so desperately... Resideth not in mine well ordered chamber, but in the questionable content of thine own character." As I read the words of his note I couldn't stop laughing. The humor of the author is so clever that I could imagine an obsessed Shakespearean writing a note to his mother.
The ending of this piece was another favorite part of mine. There is a subtle truth in this part that I thought was well put. "Acting is different than posing or pretending. When done with precision, it bears a striking resemblance to lying. Stripped of the costumes and grand gestures, it presents itself as an unquestionable truth." How often do we find ourselves, like the mother, acting without knowing? As for myself, I too have probably mastered this type of art. Every time my friend would ask me to run lines with him and afterwards I'd always turn to him and smile saying, "great job!"
Maybe I'm the one who has caught the "drama bug."
- Felicia Tonga
Drama Bug
What always pops out in Sedaris' writing is the way he builds up characters. Using specific and colorful details we get a clear idea of what these people are like without Sedaris ever having to tell us directly. In this case, however, he did. Once. Sedaris says outright that the actor was really just a loser, but it didn't feel out of place. Sedaris' younger self is straightening out these thoughts in his own mind and I could see that.
And even though the mother was not best role model, I found myself warming up to her. I liked how mean she was, it added that honesty that Sedaris never fails to weave in and that also adds so much humor to his pieces. Someone else might have taken a mother like that negatively and written books about how troubled their childhood was because of their less-than-perfect mother, but I admire how Sedaris turns it around and uses it as a supportive bit of powerful writing and then makes her the highlight of the entire piece at the very end.
Though this piece wasn't as funny as others written by Sedaris, I still liked it and it is still an excellent example of good writing.
Justyne Marin
And even though the mother was not best role model, I found myself warming up to her. I liked how mean she was, it added that honesty that Sedaris never fails to weave in and that also adds so much humor to his pieces. Someone else might have taken a mother like that negatively and written books about how troubled their childhood was because of their less-than-perfect mother, but I admire how Sedaris turns it around and uses it as a supportive bit of powerful writing and then makes her the highlight of the entire piece at the very end.
Though this piece wasn't as funny as others written by Sedaris, I still liked it and it is still an excellent example of good writing.
Justyne Marin
Sedaris is a fun performer
David Sedaris is always a funny character because how he presents himself. In this scenario of his childhood, he is enchanted by a man that drives him into drama productions and helps him land one in Hamlet with only one line. He didn't really let himself be as bare as other times when I would read him. I expected him to be more open with his drama rehearsals, but in the end I had him be a little more simplistic, which I thoroughly enjoyed either way because his small instances of humor is never boring.
I liked the fact that he went into detail with the drama man and ultimately, he felt blindsided. I think many people believe in that idolatry that people have for others, making them (those they idolize) stand on a pedestal. In the end, he had his drama "glasses" lifted to realize that he was a horrible actor in the first place. I also admired his sudden change into speaking Old English because of his admiration in reading Shakespeare. I have to admit, if I read more Shakespeare, I would have done the same thing. Who doesn't like speaking with an Old English accent? Of course, working in Shakespeare and reading him for a while can be a bit tedious.
I had to admire the mom in this piece, because Sedaris labels her as a better actor than he is. And by acting, he means that she is a better liar than he ever will be. That's something I think every child can understand and have to disagree. I will believe that my mother keeps secrets from me because they hold no relevance to me. I think that everybody lies to keep other people's feelings from being hurt. And I believe that is what Sedaris's mother did.
In short, this was a sweeter side to Sedaris, compared to his other works.
Kathy Zinzun
I liked the fact that he went into detail with the drama man and ultimately, he felt blindsided. I think many people believe in that idolatry that people have for others, making them (those they idolize) stand on a pedestal. In the end, he had his drama "glasses" lifted to realize that he was a horrible actor in the first place. I also admired his sudden change into speaking Old English because of his admiration in reading Shakespeare. I have to admit, if I read more Shakespeare, I would have done the same thing. Who doesn't like speaking with an Old English accent? Of course, working in Shakespeare and reading him for a while can be a bit tedious.
I had to admire the mom in this piece, because Sedaris labels her as a better actor than he is. And by acting, he means that she is a better liar than he ever will be. That's something I think every child can understand and have to disagree. I will believe that my mother keeps secrets from me because they hold no relevance to me. I think that everybody lies to keep other people's feelings from being hurt. And I believe that is what Sedaris's mother did.
In short, this was a sweeter side to Sedaris, compared to his other works.
Kathy Zinzun
I have been bitten by the same bug.
Acting did not spark my interest until much later in my life, but I enjoy doing it and try to audition whenever I can. David Sedaris seemed to be at this stage and his obsession paid off for giving him an acting experience. He tells the story of him becoming a real actor from just a kid who wanted to sound nice by mimicking Elizabethan language. His humor in this piece has a rather quiet tone compared to other pieces of him I have read, which have sharper sense of humor. He focuses on how the passion grew and developed into real thing. Most of the time if there is something I grew passionate about, I would pursue it depending on my situation, such as if I can do it during my school. David Sedaris uses slightly metaphorical language--not too direct, but not too metaphorical either--with a mix of Elizabethan style dialogue to turn himself into a believable yet not so common character.
Probably his mother is another notable character. She was angry at first because he used his brother to perform something, which turned out to be risky. Then she had to control his impulse to speak in Elizabethan language all the time. Later she became an audience for his play. One strong supportive character can enhance the quality of the narrative pull, and this piece succeeded on it for sure.
Hae-Lim Lee
Probably his mother is another notable character. She was angry at first because he used his brother to perform something, which turned out to be risky. Then she had to control his impulse to speak in Elizabethan language all the time. Later she became an audience for his play. One strong supportive character can enhance the quality of the narrative pull, and this piece succeeded on it for sure.
Hae-Lim Lee
The Drama Bug
I really enjoyed this piece. I have read and listened to a few of David Sedaris' pieces before and I absolutely love him. He describes situations in fresh and interesting new ways, but I always feel that I can relate to his portrayals. I'm never thinking, "that's not what it's like at all." I like that he doesn't just make me laugh but he gives a look into what life is like for him. I can walk away with more than just a chuckle.
I think my favorite part of this piece is when Sedaris starts using Elizabethan English. I'm assuming he was in high school, since Lois was sleeping with the cast members, and I can just see this teenage boy acting so ridiculous. I especially liked his insults to his mother, they were hilarious. I think I enjoyed it the most because it reminded me of my mother. The two of us quote Jane Austen to each other in regular conversation. Anyone would think we were crazy if they didn't know what we were talking about, but it always makes sense. Sedaris always made sense even though his family didn't understand him.
Kayla Santos
I think my favorite part of this piece is when Sedaris starts using Elizabethan English. I'm assuming he was in high school, since Lois was sleeping with the cast members, and I can just see this teenage boy acting so ridiculous. I especially liked his insults to his mother, they were hilarious. I think I enjoyed it the most because it reminded me of my mother. The two of us quote Jane Austen to each other in regular conversation. Anyone would think we were crazy if they didn't know what we were talking about, but it always makes sense. Sedaris always made sense even though his family didn't understand him.
Kayla Santos
Monday, May 28, 2012
Humor and Hyperbole
"The Drama Bug" is not my first exposure to David Sedaris. A friend and I bought one of his books together before we left the country. When You are Engulfed Flames. I thought it was brilliant. Easy to read, simple, and hilarious. Sedaris has the incredible ability to write about everyday occurrences yet make them flat funny. I think what makes him a bite better than other humor authors is that we can still learn something, still see small insights into life and humanity in his work. It's not only humor, but humor with substance. That's how I feel, at least.
I'm not a humor writer myself, so I see it more objectively, I feel, than others who are familiar with the craft. Reading "The Drama Bug" more critically, I picked up a few things about humor writing. For one, I can't imagine it in the third person. No, first person makes it conversational, in the moment, and personal. I'm sure third-person humor is out there, but it's sure not Sedaris' style.
The second thing I noticed was that it's not about what you write, but how you write it. A mime visiting school–this isn't such a big event. Somehow, though, Sedaris writes about it and it's funny. It's worth reading. I'd bet he could make me want to read about his daily tooth-brushing routine, or perhaps his commute to work. The mundane isn't so in the hands of a humor writer. It's not about what, but how.
The third thing I noticed was the hyperbole. I can't believe that Sedaris wrote one hundred percent fact. That's okay with me, though. It's expected, even. The funniest part was when young David was running around, practicing his Elizabethan English. That was the part I felt was least true to fact, though. From the start, I doubt that he could remember the exact sentences he said. He might, though, and even if he doesn't, if he is only guessing or paraphrasing, that's totally fine. I don't see that as being at all dishonest. I did question whether he really did speak like that to that extent. Was he really that clever and witty at that age? Perhaps. But again, it doesn't matter. It was hyperbole, expected and used well.
So when is hyperbole okay? To what extent? To be honest, if other authors tried to pull it off, I'd be critical. Perhaps it's okay if you can pull it off, if you can get away with it by doing it well. Perhaps it's okay in humor writing only. Maybe both. To accept creative writing, you have to accept creative license. How to define and judge that, though, might just come down to who you are.
It would be interesting to learn to write humor, like David Sedaris. The best way of course, is to read it and write it.
-Alexander Hirata
I'm not a humor writer myself, so I see it more objectively, I feel, than others who are familiar with the craft. Reading "The Drama Bug" more critically, I picked up a few things about humor writing. For one, I can't imagine it in the third person. No, first person makes it conversational, in the moment, and personal. I'm sure third-person humor is out there, but it's sure not Sedaris' style.
The second thing I noticed was that it's not about what you write, but how you write it. A mime visiting school–this isn't such a big event. Somehow, though, Sedaris writes about it and it's funny. It's worth reading. I'd bet he could make me want to read about his daily tooth-brushing routine, or perhaps his commute to work. The mundane isn't so in the hands of a humor writer. It's not about what, but how.
The third thing I noticed was the hyperbole. I can't believe that Sedaris wrote one hundred percent fact. That's okay with me, though. It's expected, even. The funniest part was when young David was running around, practicing his Elizabethan English. That was the part I felt was least true to fact, though. From the start, I doubt that he could remember the exact sentences he said. He might, though, and even if he doesn't, if he is only guessing or paraphrasing, that's totally fine. I don't see that as being at all dishonest. I did question whether he really did speak like that to that extent. Was he really that clever and witty at that age? Perhaps. But again, it doesn't matter. It was hyperbole, expected and used well.
So when is hyperbole okay? To what extent? To be honest, if other authors tried to pull it off, I'd be critical. Perhaps it's okay if you can pull it off, if you can get away with it by doing it well. Perhaps it's okay in humor writing only. Maybe both. To accept creative writing, you have to accept creative license. How to define and judge that, though, might just come down to who you are.
It would be interesting to learn to write humor, like David Sedaris. The best way of course, is to read it and write it.
-Alexander Hirata
Friday, May 25, 2012
Humor Is Hard
Humor is not my strength. I don't think I've ever tried writing a humor piece. I'm not witty or clever. So, when I read humor pieces, it is something I am unfamiliar with. Sometimes I think things are funny, but I'm not sure if that's supposed to be the funny part. With all of that said, there were many parts of Sedaris piece I enjoyed. I loved the fact that he was pretending to be a Shakespearian character. It was easy for me to imagine a theatrical kid acting like this the whole day. I have a friend who I instantly thought of when I read this section of the article. Throughout all of his ridiculous comments, I couldn't help but smile.
The section with Lois and David acting on stage was my least favorite. For some reason I lost a lot of interest when I read Lois becoming the favorite of the workers. She did nothing, no work. Still, she was the beloved and David was still the "weird" kid. I think I disliked it because I hope I don't become that kind of teacher. To not notice a student for all the hard work they put into an assignment, play, song, etc. Everything about this section felt unfair.
One aspect that was disheartening for me was his mother's character. She was so negative towards her son, from beginning to the end. I know mother's get tired and I'm sure if and when I become a mother, I will be rash at times. Still, it was hard for me to connect to her and that made truly enjoying the piece more difficult.
I did find humor in the piece. He enabled me to feel like the younger him. I wanted to speak like Hamlet and act like a mime. Still, when I hear the name David Sedaris I expect to be laughing continually. I hope to read another work of his and fall in love with it, more than I did with this. All of it made me realize how difficult humor is. What if I think a situation is hilarious, but no one else does. I commend humor writers. I feel bad critiquing that skill because it is one I know I lack.
Angela Payaban
The section with Lois and David acting on stage was my least favorite. For some reason I lost a lot of interest when I read Lois becoming the favorite of the workers. She did nothing, no work. Still, she was the beloved and David was still the "weird" kid. I think I disliked it because I hope I don't become that kind of teacher. To not notice a student for all the hard work they put into an assignment, play, song, etc. Everything about this section felt unfair.
One aspect that was disheartening for me was his mother's character. She was so negative towards her son, from beginning to the end. I know mother's get tired and I'm sure if and when I become a mother, I will be rash at times. Still, it was hard for me to connect to her and that made truly enjoying the piece more difficult.
I did find humor in the piece. He enabled me to feel like the younger him. I wanted to speak like Hamlet and act like a mime. Still, when I hear the name David Sedaris I expect to be laughing continually. I hope to read another work of his and fall in love with it, more than I did with this. All of it made me realize how difficult humor is. What if I think a situation is hilarious, but no one else does. I commend humor writers. I feel bad critiquing that skill because it is one I know I lack.
Angela Payaban
This Drama Kind of Bugs
Though I’d heard of David Sedaris before, The Drama Bug was the first piece of his that I’d read, and I have to admit I was a little disappointed. I enjoyed his style of writing; his similes (“watching him was like opening the door to a singing telegram: you know it’s supposed to be entertain gin, but you can’t get beyond the sad fact that this person actually thinks he’s bringing some joy into your life”) and humor. I even enjoyed the reality of his piece, how things aren’t always fair in life. But I just didn’t care for the story itself.
Maybe it is the message I didn’t like. I agree that life isn’t fair, but I hate seeing undeserving people getting opportunities ahead of the people who work hard and follow the rules. I also didn’t connect with any of the characters. I didn’t like the mom because she was so harsh in the beginning about Sedaris’ imitation of a clown. I certainly didn’t like Louis because she was lazy and unworthy of the attention she received. But I also didn’t like the narrator. His use of Elizabethan language seemed annoying and pretentious and I just wanted him to stop. He may well have said all those things to people in that manner, but was it necessary to write it all down word for word?
I think I just expected more. Though I did find bits funny, and he has received a number of awards for his humor, I just assumed by the title that there would be more focus on acting than on the friendship. This piece reminds me of my article for Insight about graduation. Sedaris’ quoting of his speeches in Elizabethan language seemed similar to my inclusion of parts of my graduation speech—true to the moment, but not necessary to include in their entirety. Also the titles of both pieces need fleshing out in the work. I like both titles, but they are a little misleading for the direction of the works. I guess I’ll have to read something else of Sedaris’ to see how I truly feel about his writing.
-Katie Huffman
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Week 8's Blog on Sedaris
I've still never seen a mime. I guess that means I was raised in a small town! Which is true, but trust me--it wasn't the smallest town in the state. It was one of the biggest. Sedaris's mother sounds awful at the beginning of the piece: one of those parents who doesn't accept her children for the way they are. I like how he alludes to the end of T.S. Eliot's poem, The Hollow Men (This is the way the world ends/ Not with a bang but a whimper), with his line "I did as I was told, ending my career in mime with a whimper rather than the silent bang I had hoped for."
His giant paragraph on Elizabethan English cracked me up--especially the scarcely disguised insults he directed at his mother! I think she deserved it! I also love the part where, right after he says this to her, she looks at him strangely and then searches his drawers for drugs without telling him (but he knows), and he uses a mix of regular and Elizabethan English to show his funny anger: "My mother had been granted forgiveness on several previous occasions, but mess with mine drawers and ye have just made thyself an enemy for life."
Later on, when Sedaris reveals his mother's conclusion that he'd been bit by 'the drama bug,' I laughed when he said she expected him to get over the bug, just like he'd gotten over "the guitar and [his] private detective agency." This reminds me of my childhood! I always wanted to have a secret detective agency and solve mysteries day in and day out. I searched endlessly for a good mystery, but never found one.
Sedaris is full of humorous lines, but he uses fresh imagery, too:"A person could wrench more emotion out of a sneeze than all my dialogue put together"is one I've never heard before! Sedaris reveals many insights in this essay, but the biggest one I got was don't follow people--don't let them be your idols. People you idolize are actors, and when they're stripped down, they're far below what you thought they were. Stay true to yourself and to what you want out of life. In the end, Sedaris's mother actually wasn't so bad (even though she missed his scene in his very first performance)--I wonder what she thinks of her son now. Is he a clown? In a way, but it's deeper than that. In this story I felt bad for him because the mime/Hamlet/director completely ignored him, and David had worshipped this man. I think something like this happens to everyone, though, and eventually everyone realizes who really supports them and who will tell them good, encouraging things at the end of the day.
--Laura Strawn Ojeda
His giant paragraph on Elizabethan English cracked me up--especially the scarcely disguised insults he directed at his mother! I think she deserved it! I also love the part where, right after he says this to her, she looks at him strangely and then searches his drawers for drugs without telling him (but he knows), and he uses a mix of regular and Elizabethan English to show his funny anger: "My mother had been granted forgiveness on several previous occasions, but mess with mine drawers and ye have just made thyself an enemy for life."
Later on, when Sedaris reveals his mother's conclusion that he'd been bit by 'the drama bug,' I laughed when he said she expected him to get over the bug, just like he'd gotten over "the guitar and [his] private detective agency." This reminds me of my childhood! I always wanted to have a secret detective agency and solve mysteries day in and day out. I searched endlessly for a good mystery, but never found one.
Sedaris is full of humorous lines, but he uses fresh imagery, too:"A person could wrench more emotion out of a sneeze than all my dialogue put together"is one I've never heard before! Sedaris reveals many insights in this essay, but the biggest one I got was don't follow people--don't let them be your idols. People you idolize are actors, and when they're stripped down, they're far below what you thought they were. Stay true to yourself and to what you want out of life. In the end, Sedaris's mother actually wasn't so bad (even though she missed his scene in his very first performance)--I wonder what she thinks of her son now. Is he a clown? In a way, but it's deeper than that. In this story I felt bad for him because the mime/Hamlet/director completely ignored him, and David had worshipped this man. I think something like this happens to everyone, though, and eventually everyone realizes who really supports them and who will tell them good, encouraging things at the end of the day.
--Laura Strawn Ojeda
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
"I Will Never Know Why" Response
I can empathize with Klebold here. It's hard for some parents to notice when their children are troubled if there's no concrete evidence. I have to appreciate Klebold's writing about her son's past, showing us an innocent kid who might have only started getting into foul play while around a certain person. It's a horrible thing when a person falls into a state of depression but, from this mother and happy family's perspective, it's not something that could have happened to the son who lived a fairly perfect life up to this point. Moreover, because depression could not have overtaken the child who was taught straight morals and values, the son would not have become violent on a whim. This story reminds me of many of the stories I'd heard back in Puerto Rico, in which children with loving families that taught perfect morals, values, and religions fell into depression, heartache, the "wrong crowd," and everything wrong that could only happen to those from broken families somehow made its way into this perfect one. Some of the children were only about to graduate high school, as Klebold's son seemed to be. Others had just passed age 12 when many signs of depression arose. Still, a few of these were close relatives of mine or friends of my relatives. (Don't get me wrong, though; I don't want to send the wrong message.)
I can empathize because I've almost been there and almost seen it a few times. It's never easy for parents to see when their children, raised in perfectly loving homes, are becoming depressed regardless of outside forces. It's not easy to force the truth out of those who say they can help themselves. Sometimes, depressing and sad things happen, and it's easy to forget that these things are probably no one's fault in the heat of the moment. I wish I could say something else, but, thanks to the honesty with which Klebold wrote this piece, I know a little more about a mother's love for her children and can only empathize.
Idida Z. Casado
I can empathize because I've almost been there and almost seen it a few times. It's never easy for parents to see when their children, raised in perfectly loving homes, are becoming depressed regardless of outside forces. It's not easy to force the truth out of those who say they can help themselves. Sometimes, depressing and sad things happen, and it's easy to forget that these things are probably no one's fault in the heat of the moment. I wish I could say something else, but, thanks to the honesty with which Klebold wrote this piece, I know a little more about a mother's love for her children and can only empathize.
Idida Z. Casado
What I Missed...
I remember the Columbine shooting like it was yesterday. I turned on the news to watch the people involved in the attack and thought to myself, "Why would anyone do that?" "Who's kid is this?"
I did not expect to read an article from the mother of one of the shooters. I immediately became interested in what she had to say and her perspective of the story. Perhaps, what really captured my attention were the signs and or signals that the parents did not pick up on. I appreciated the authors honesty and sincerety about it however, it is a huge lesson to parents and friends to pay attention to the subtle things because it could be a cry for help.
Imagine if someone would have just noticed what was going on with Dylan. What a difference that would have been. It is the signs that we all must look out for to avoid situations like this. Susan Klebold's story is a shining example of how we need to pay attention to what is going on with our children.
-Felicia Tonga
I did not expect to read an article from the mother of one of the shooters. I immediately became interested in what she had to say and her perspective of the story. Perhaps, what really captured my attention were the signs and or signals that the parents did not pick up on. I appreciated the authors honesty and sincerety about it however, it is a huge lesson to parents and friends to pay attention to the subtle things because it could be a cry for help.
Imagine if someone would have just noticed what was going on with Dylan. What a difference that would have been. It is the signs that we all must look out for to avoid situations like this. Susan Klebold's story is a shining example of how we need to pay attention to what is going on with our children.
-Felicia Tonga
What a strange side of tragedy to be writing from. I wish this was a fiction piece and the courage that it takes to put this on paper is something I can only wish to have. So many people could blame her for bad parenting but she isn't hiding from what happened. She is reaching out and people seem to respect that. Her writing gives us such an interesting view into humanity. I felt uncomfortable during the beginning as she realized it was her son behind the massacre, but towards the end of the story, I felt as if she had found peace through learning about suicide.
-Sheldon
-Sheldon
Susan Klebold hits her mark. Her article is an anthem for all parents. The train of thought, "Guns don't kill, people do," can also be said about parenting. I feel for Klebold. I really do. While a father and mother play a huge role in the development of a child, they shouldn't be crucified. Parents teach. Parents advise. Parents listen.
Parents cannot not live for a child.
I will never know why response
I will Never Know Why by Susan Klebold is another hard hitting reflection of parents' hard time distinguishing that their children are suffering. I couldn't help but pity Susan as she tries to explain the agony that she went through after the shooting and how she had been labeled as a bad parent because she couldn't see the warning signs. To that I say sometimes the warning signs aren't there. I have a nephew that was expelled for a violent behavior he committed at school, and we never suspected that he would be capable of doing such a thing to another student.
I have to commend Susan for having the duty and responsibility to give her side of the story. I felt as though it was needed versus her hiding behind the curtains. To see that she reflects on something horrible that her son did and feel the grief for others as well as the grief for herself and her loss of her son, I have a feeling that I believe everyone here can agree with me: She is only human, just like her son is only human. Her commitment to her son was the same as any other mother's and to call her a bad parent was just mean and uncalled for. It is a mother's job to root for their child and help them and nurture them, but when the child doesn't want or feel that sense of security and nourishment, where does that leave them? It can be that children just have a hard time living up to people's expectations. Maybe that is what Dylan was feeling.
The fact that she shows her vulnerable side to readers shows that she is just as human as the rest of us, and wants people to understand that this was something that was out of her control as well as something that she could never even begin to suspect. But I am grateful that she is planning to do something about it by helping support suicide prevention. I am glad that she is healing even in the eve of such a tragedy. Because, there is no point in dwelling with the feelings that your son did something as horrific as what her son did. The only way to go is forward, and just changing for the better in what you want in your life as well as what you need to do for your community.
Kathy Zinzun
I have to commend Susan for having the duty and responsibility to give her side of the story. I felt as though it was needed versus her hiding behind the curtains. To see that she reflects on something horrible that her son did and feel the grief for others as well as the grief for herself and her loss of her son, I have a feeling that I believe everyone here can agree with me: She is only human, just like her son is only human. Her commitment to her son was the same as any other mother's and to call her a bad parent was just mean and uncalled for. It is a mother's job to root for their child and help them and nurture them, but when the child doesn't want or feel that sense of security and nourishment, where does that leave them? It can be that children just have a hard time living up to people's expectations. Maybe that is what Dylan was feeling.
The fact that she shows her vulnerable side to readers shows that she is just as human as the rest of us, and wants people to understand that this was something that was out of her control as well as something that she could never even begin to suspect. But I am grateful that she is planning to do something about it by helping support suicide prevention. I am glad that she is healing even in the eve of such a tragedy. Because, there is no point in dwelling with the feelings that your son did something as horrific as what her son did. The only way to go is forward, and just changing for the better in what you want in your life as well as what you need to do for your community.
Kathy Zinzun
Monday, May 21, 2012
Humanity, as Seen Through the Lens of Inhumanity
I am blown away by the honesty of Susan Klebold's "I Will Never Know Why." How easy would it have been to write an article solely to defend yourself from the accusations of many, to say "Look, I was good to him, I didn't know this was going to happen, I did a good job raising him!" While Klebold did say this in portions of her essay, it wasn't the focus. While I can't speak for her, I don't doubt there was a great temptation to write a defense, a justification on her and her husband's end for what happened.
Instead, she wrote an honest account of her experience. She gave a play-by-play of the actual day it happened. She shared what she felt. In a bold move, she doesn't ask for pity or even forgiveness. It's raw. It's open. And again, it's honest.
When I looked up the article, I saw seven pages and was a bit bummed. It wasn't the length, really, that set me back, but that it was all online. It is tiring to read too much on a computer screen. Yet this reading zipped by, and I found myself wanting more. More? Why more?
"I Will Never Know Why" is sad. It's real. It's not at all graphic, but many of us I'm sure can recall images and newscasts, unearthing those shocked and unbelievable feelings from when it happened. What would make me want to read more of something like this?
For starters, I believe that these experiences should be shared. Even if Klebold didn't include statistics and hotlines for things like suicide and depression, we can learn from this account. Different people will read into different things, but such an experience, if presented well–and it was–is a valuable insight into life and, of course, death. But what else? It would be a bit off to say that this piece's value lies in the lessons we learn. That line of thinking comes from too much incorrect schooling and instruction. No, what makes this piece great to me is that it touches its readers. It speaks to the humanity in each one of us, the one that can identify with tragedy, with loss, and with the fact that even if we don't know each other, we are all of one species, and we share this planet.
-Alexander Hirata
Instead, she wrote an honest account of her experience. She gave a play-by-play of the actual day it happened. She shared what she felt. In a bold move, she doesn't ask for pity or even forgiveness. It's raw. It's open. And again, it's honest.
When I looked up the article, I saw seven pages and was a bit bummed. It wasn't the length, really, that set me back, but that it was all online. It is tiring to read too much on a computer screen. Yet this reading zipped by, and I found myself wanting more. More? Why more?
"I Will Never Know Why" is sad. It's real. It's not at all graphic, but many of us I'm sure can recall images and newscasts, unearthing those shocked and unbelievable feelings from when it happened. What would make me want to read more of something like this?
For starters, I believe that these experiences should be shared. Even if Klebold didn't include statistics and hotlines for things like suicide and depression, we can learn from this account. Different people will read into different things, but such an experience, if presented well–and it was–is a valuable insight into life and, of course, death. But what else? It would be a bit off to say that this piece's value lies in the lessons we learn. That line of thinking comes from too much incorrect schooling and instruction. No, what makes this piece great to me is that it touches its readers. It speaks to the humanity in each one of us, the one that can identify with tragedy, with loss, and with the fact that even if we don't know each other, we are all of one species, and we share this planet.
-Alexander Hirata
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Shootings are always hard to deal with.
Probably the shooting massacre familiar to our generation would be the one in Virginia Tech, but I have heard of Columbine massacre as well. Usually the media portrays the stories of the survivors afterwards, but the families of the shooters do not seem to make their ways into the mainstream. Susan Klebold clearly depicts how hurt she was, still is, and how she is trying to heal herself by helping other suicide survivors.
It seems like Dylan Klebold was a misunderstood soul--even Susan Klebold mentions that everyone around her regretted for not being someone better for Dylan. The aftermath is horrible--this is a massacre that is talked about even up to now. Susan shows the process of coping in a dramatic manner--the sentences sound objective, but the tone is dreadful. She did not want to believe, but she had to, and she broke down. the title really speaks for this whole piece. No one can ever know unless they talk to the shooters, but alas, none of them are alive now.
I cannot help but mention Virginia Tech once more. I received some hate racism (one from my high school classmate and one from some random guy driving by) after the incident just for being a Korean. Susan Klebold seemed to be hated by others, and she definitely hated herself and the world. People tend to blame something else for the fault. This may make one feel better, but it does not remove the root of the problem. It is sad that there are so little things that can be done for such tragedies.
Hae-Lim Lee
It seems like Dylan Klebold was a misunderstood soul--even Susan Klebold mentions that everyone around her regretted for not being someone better for Dylan. The aftermath is horrible--this is a massacre that is talked about even up to now. Susan shows the process of coping in a dramatic manner--the sentences sound objective, but the tone is dreadful. She did not want to believe, but she had to, and she broke down. the title really speaks for this whole piece. No one can ever know unless they talk to the shooters, but alas, none of them are alive now.
I cannot help but mention Virginia Tech once more. I received some hate racism (one from my high school classmate and one from some random guy driving by) after the incident just for being a Korean. Susan Klebold seemed to be hated by others, and she definitely hated herself and the world. People tend to blame something else for the fault. This may make one feel better, but it does not remove the root of the problem. It is sad that there are so little things that can be done for such tragedies.
Hae-Lim Lee
Blog 7 by Ruthie Heavrin
During sexual harassment awareness week, La Sierra University has a tradition of writing on plain white t-shirts so that they may be pinned up and shown for the remainder of the week. The shirts usually say things such as “Be Strong Women,” and “Just say no,” as if sexual harassment is a pinch of cocaine. During a campus fair, one of the clubs pestered me until I wrote on a shirt. “Fine,” I said then wrote in bold red lettering, “Rapists are people too.” My shirt is not meant to diminish the terrible tragedy that is rape and/or sexual harassment, but to allow the reader to experience a different point of view. Rape is evil, but that does not mean the rapist is.
Mrs. Klebold is not making an excuse for her son Dylan in her piece, “I Will Never Know Why.” In fact, she is even describes her pain in realizing the fact that her son is justifiably a monster in the eyes of others. She writes, “I was obsessed with thoughts of the innocent children and the teacher who suffered because of Dylan's cruelty.” Klebold admits her son was cruel, but she also admits that he wasn't always that way. Dylan acted like any other teenager. He secluded himself in his room, gave short answers, wore his hair in a sloppy manner, and even made friends with someone the parents really don't trust. Top parenting books suggest to give teens their space and leave them alone. It's really no surprise that Klebold had no idea what thoughts were tracing through Dylan's mind. Since he already had a history of rebelling, storming his room and reading his journals seems like the last thing a mother wants to do.
Klebolds piece is about awareness of suicide and the side effects that come with it. The simplicity of her writing makes this clear. Unlike me, she does not let her reader struggle and think for a meaning. She sets up the story by starting the beginning of her grief. I feel this is a wide choice because it grabs the reader. Just like looky-loos on the freeway, the reader wants to get to the point. Klebold sets the mood of fear and confusion from the beginning and carries that to the end because she still has confusion and fear many years later. Her honesty of not knowing, of experiencing guilt, of mistrusting herself all come clear in the tone.
The point of view Klebold chose to write from is flattering to her style and voice. She could have written a work that excusesd Dylan, but the piece is about her, not Dylan. She also could have given the families of the victims what they wanted and claim that her son is a monster, but that's not her truth. To her, Dylan was her son who she loved and thought she was doing a favor when she left him alone. As writers, we can learn from Klebold to be honest and write what is true to ourselves even if it is not what the popular choice is at the end of the day.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Taking Klebold's Side
I appreciated Klebold's honesty in her story about herself and about her son. I could tell she spent a lot of time trying to word everything carefully. There is not the slightest trace of blame or anger in her writing, at most she sounded subdued or sad. I also thought it was interesting that she chose to write about it rather than do an interview. Somehow, I think this makes Klebold's words timeless, and the thoughtfulness of the writing makes it stronger than if she had sat with Oprah and answered a series of those questions Klebold came to dread.
However, even though Klebold often says that the words "I didn't know," she does so in a way that drives home the truth of that statement without sounding like she is only trying to push away the blame. She confesses that she is responsible to some degree when says that her love for her son was not enough and he must not have loved her back, which is a horrible thought to have as a mother, and for this I was willing to believe her when she said she didn't know.
Mostly I admire Klebold for being able to write about something that hurt her so much, and do so in a way that not only makes you understand, but also makes you want to take her side.
-Justyne Marin
Friday, May 18, 2012
Susan Klebold: An Insider's Perspective on Columbine
I appreciated that Susan Klebold took her time with this article. Ten years in fact. She had many years to process it and her feelings about it. Enough to include a simile; “like staring at one of those computer-generated 3-D pictures when the abstract patterns suddenly comes into focus as a recognizable image.” She is able to look back and notice things that she now interprets as warning signs—the tightness in her son’s voice, his friend (a bad influence) suddenly coming over the house after many months, his ability to hack into the school’s computer system. None of these things alone are signs of a potential murder spree, but they serve as evidence that Dylan was capable of ever worsening crimes.
In situations like these, there is always other evidence—like his notebooks—but these things are usually not discovered until it is too late. No one wants to admit that their friends or family or students are capable of committing the violence they voice on paper. No one wants to jump to conclusions. Psychologists can look at his journal entries and make conclusions, but the problem was that Dylan’s issues were all in his mind and never expressed to his parents. While I’m sure these things were difficult for Klebold to read, using lines from Dylan’s poetry was useful concrete evidence of the issues he was dealing with.
Obviously this story is a terrible tragedy, but the pace of it keeps you going. It keeps you interested in reading because she is addressing questions from an insider’s perspective. I can’t even imagine what this author and her family were going through—it seems like a bad dream or a movie, not something that could happen to your own son, in your own community. Then that community is so quick to turn their back on Klebold and blame her parenting skills.
I also appreciate that Klebold’s tone doesn’t over emphasize the drama of the tragedy. She wasn’t telling me what to feel. I knew that she was trying to be as honest as possible with the facts of what happened—what she was thinking and feeling and doing. When she says she heard his voice for the last time and all he says is “bye,” angrily, my heart broke for her. Writing this article could not have been an easy task. Having to live with your son’s mistake for the rest of your life, you can’t help but have questions, like why and could I have stopped it? But it’s too late to get an answer to those things now.
I did wonder why she chose Oprah’s magazine to write her story. This seems more typical of an article in People, but either way, I’m glad she chose to share the story. It doesn’t provide all the answers—it can’t, nothing ever will—but it humanizes Dylan; shows he was not just a cold blooded killer but obviously had other problems of his own, not that that excuses his actions. Klebold summarizes the events of that day and her process afterward; talks with the police, psychologists, parents of the student’s her son murdered, and her reflections on her son and his choices. She comes to a conclusion as best she can to keep on living her own life. I was happy to see her emphasize and support suicide prevention. She didn’t write this story for money or fame, she wrote it to help those in similar situations, and possibly to help herself, to get her story out on paper—out of her own head for a while.
-Katie Huffman
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Praying for the Bad Guy
The idea that people blamed the incident at Columbine on the parents of the killers bothered me as I read the piece. The blamed their parenting, saying the did not teach Dylan the difference between right and wrong. I can't imagine being a mother and being accused of such things. Susan made her case clear, she was doing what she thought was right. How could she ever know what her son's secrets were, what he did not tell them.
It made me wonder, what exactly can we control? She mentions everyone attached to Dylan started blaming themselves and asking questions of "what if." What if they were better brothers, friends, parents, etc. If they had done something different in their interactions with Dylan, maybe he would not have killed people. But is it even fair to say that? Susan says she did her best. She raised a son in the way she thought was good. Can we blame her for a problem she wasn't aware of? And if she had acted differently, how can we know for sure it would have changed Dylan's mind.
All of the comments made me upset. Those people don't know what their family situation was like. They shouldn't blame the parents, who are already in distress, for being the reason Dylan killed his classmates. To her knowledge, he was a good kid. This also raised questions about how do we trust our kids? She does mention problems Dylan had.
I was in high school when the Virginia Tech shooting occurred. The teachers asked me to lead the prayer during chapel. As I prayed I asked God to be with the victims and their families. Then, it occurred to me, I haven't heard anyone talk about the shooter's family. So, I prayed for him and his family, for God to give them peace. After the prayer, some students came up to me. They were taken aback by my prayer. The didn't know why I prayed for the bad guy. We "don't pray for bad guys."
Reading this story reminded me of that prayer. I realized as I read that of course we need to pray and love the family members of the shooters. As Susan pointed out, she didn't know what she did wrong. She still loved Dylan. She was still a mother. He was still her son. I think we forget about the fact that the shooters had lives too. They are human. They had families. Reading that Susan was blamed for the deaths really hurt me. More than anything, I felt as though this piece was showing us we need to become a community. One that is okay with talking about our feelings.
In this piece, you feel Susan's confusion, her guilt and sadness. Susan was in pain, her family lost a loved one. We should recognize that and love people through their pain, not target them.
Angela Payaban
I was in high school when the Virginia Tech shooting occurred. The teachers asked me to lead the prayer during chapel. As I prayed I asked God to be with the victims and their families. Then, it occurred to me, I haven't heard anyone talk about the shooter's family. So, I prayed for him and his family, for God to give them peace. After the prayer, some students came up to me. They were taken aback by my prayer. The didn't know why I prayed for the bad guy. We "don't pray for bad guys."
Reading this story reminded me of that prayer. I realized as I read that of course we need to pray and love the family members of the shooters. As Susan pointed out, she didn't know what she did wrong. She still loved Dylan. She was still a mother. He was still her son. I think we forget about the fact that the shooters had lives too. They are human. They had families. Reading that Susan was blamed for the deaths really hurt me. More than anything, I felt as though this piece was showing us we need to become a community. One that is okay with talking about our feelings.
In this piece, you feel Susan's confusion, her guilt and sadness. Susan was in pain, her family lost a loved one. We should recognize that and love people through their pain, not target them.
Angela Payaban
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Some Pain is Good
This piece brought tears to my eyes. I always wonder, What if I have kids one day and they turn
out to be rapists or murderers? What
will I do? Such questions make me not want to have kids. Hearing the mother
of a child who committed brutal murder and gory suicide speak about her son is
extremely frightening and discomforting. At first, I thought she was going to
say that her son had seemed like the perfect child, like he would never do
anything so terrible—that’s what it seems like she says on the first page:
“Dylan was a gentle, sensible kid…”
After this, however, she goes on to say that he had changed
and become more troublesome in the years leading up to the attack. This is not
atypical for high schoolers—I myself kept secrets from my parents and lied
about what I was doing. I was even suspended from school for shoplifting from
WalMart when I was 14. Klebold and his friend, Eric Harris, did similar things,
but they were more quiet, more angry, and more distanced from those around
them.
And she had no clue
that such a thing could happen. Her husband seemed a bit more intuitive—he had
a bad feeling that his son had been involved in the killings. Oddly enough,
Klebold leaves her husband out of her story after the very first part.
Columbine’s story is a devastating one, and I read the book about Cassie
Bernall (She Said Yes) when I was
about ten, but since then I haven’t thought much about Columbine. I looked up
some CBS videos and some of the footage is so scary and sad—Dylan and his
friend running through the school, knocking things over, holding giant black
guns in their hands--but survivors of the shootings deal very well with the
incident: they say they’ve turned their lives into meaningful things and they
focus on the positive aspects of Columbine’s shooting (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXKKtFfKSBI&feature=relmfu).
I think that’s part of what Susan tries to do. She doesn’t
say that she has any project or awareness methods to help her bring good out of
Dylan’s message, but I think it’s still too hard for her: it did take her ten
years to write about Dylan and the massacre. I do, however, think she tries to blame
others for not noticing the warning signs. For example, she says the English
teacher who received Dylan’s disturbing essay did not get back to her about
Dylan seeing a guidance counselor. She almost seems to blame this teacher for
never telling her. Why didn’t she see the teacher again and insist on Dylan
getting help? If I wrote an essay like that, I would want someone to help
me—it’d almost be a cry for help.
Susan Klebold reveals many things in this essay through effective
flashbacks and harrowing moments. She begins the story at a very tension-filled
part, and then flashes back to Dylan’s childhood and adolescence, and then back
to the aftermath of the killings. When I read between the lines, I feel that
Klebold is admitting her blindness to her son’s troubled final months. He’d
done some bad things with a certain bad friend—why didn’t she and her husband
try to keep him away from that boy (Eric Harris)? If Dylan hated his school so
much, why didn’t they try to ask him why, and give him the choice of going to
another school? I am not a parent, but my parents always tried to get to the
root of my anger issues and they punished me when I did imbecilic teenagerish
things. They were not oppressive: I appreciate their concern, faith, and
persistence in dealing with my younger self.
I do not want to go along with the parents and citizens in
America who condemned the Klebolds for raising a murderer. However, something
HAD to have gone wrong with his life, though, or else he would not have done
such a cruel thing. He was depressed and suicidal, yes, but why did he need to
devastate an entire community (and his family) in order to end his own
suffering? If Klebold needs to see his act as connected to suicide in order to
cope, then that is understandable. But for me, it is not enough. Susan seems
obsessed with her attempts at keeping her child safe; I, on the other hand,
appreciate my parents’ ability to let me experience pain. Pain is a part of
life. If one is protected from pain throughout his childhood and then suddenly
meets it in adolescence, handling that pain is difficult and sometimes
impossible. Parents nowadays want their children to fulfill their own dreams,
to excel in school and sports, and live free from trials and tribulations. I’ve
seen it in so many of my own friends! I’ve also seen them go off to college,
completely forget their sheltered lives, and do things that endanger
themselves. They experience natural, painful consequences of their actions and
sink into deep depression. I pray that when I someday am a parent, I work with
God and my husband in order to allow my children to learn and grow with a
little help from me and a lot of help from life.
No matter what we try to speculate about Columbine, we’ll
never know why Dylan and Eric (and all the other murderers, suicide-doers, and
perpetrators of evil in the world) did what they did. Maybe we’ll find out when
the pain of this world is gone and we live in a place where we are NOT supposed
to experience pain. Here on earth, it’s inevitable and expected.
--Laura Strawn Ojeda
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Take one candle light a room.
People write other races all the time, and Straight wasn't that great at writing another race. She's a good writer no doubt, but her race writing did nothing for me and this plot did nothing for me. What did get me was the rest of the writing. Things that stuck in my mind were the honest descriptions of people like glorette. You get such an HD picture that it's almost too much. The way some chapters started with description of travel and destination and how the south was described in this book; well those were my favorite things. As for the rest of it and the convergence in LA and the hurricane; it felt like the movie remember me with Robert Pattinson the way it used a fake family plot to give a face to the very real catastrophe and I hated that. The catastrophe's already have faces. The ACTUAL people that went through Katrina and 9/11.
Sheldon
Sheldon
Take One Candle, Light A Room Review
I will admit that this was a hard book review, being that I was zoning in and out while I was reading, and ultimately got around half way. I'll admit I didn't finish the book, but from wat I remember, I thought there were instances in which I was interested in how she worked in her descriptions.
Sometimes there was instances in which I was bombarded with an overworked sentence that was nothing but descriptions and nonsensical details. Nothing to push the story onwards. It just gave a clearer picture to the setting which was always helpful. I never got tired of the settings and the imagination that she mentioned in the settings. But there were times when I looked at it and had to make a double take once or twice because I was overwhelmed at times. Overall, I enjoy the lingering, but sometimes, I didn't feel like lingering for such a long time.
I really liked the relationships that FX Antoine had with the other characters. Her father, brother, Victor, they all had a relationship with her that was significant. And the journey towards Louisiana was the farthest that I went. But I still feel as though I was saving myself the time of not worrying about the unnecessary details.
To be as brief and honest as I can with this book review, I didn't finish it. But what I loved was the interesting details, but felt that she didn't have to go overboard on details so that way I could focus better on the plot versus the pretty wording.
Kathy Zinzun
Sometimes there was instances in which I was bombarded with an overworked sentence that was nothing but descriptions and nonsensical details. Nothing to push the story onwards. It just gave a clearer picture to the setting which was always helpful. I never got tired of the settings and the imagination that she mentioned in the settings. But there were times when I looked at it and had to make a double take once or twice because I was overwhelmed at times. Overall, I enjoy the lingering, but sometimes, I didn't feel like lingering for such a long time.
I really liked the relationships that FX Antoine had with the other characters. Her father, brother, Victor, they all had a relationship with her that was significant. And the journey towards Louisiana was the farthest that I went. But I still feel as though I was saving myself the time of not worrying about the unnecessary details.
To be as brief and honest as I can with this book review, I didn't finish it. But what I loved was the interesting details, but felt that she didn't have to go overboard on details so that way I could focus better on the plot versus the pretty wording.
Kathy Zinzun
Take One Candle, Light a Room: Short Reflection
I have to admit, I rushed when reading this novel. Still, it’s an amazing read about the bonds
of family and friends and the things some may go through to preserve these
bonds. I appreciate how the author can
write from the perspective of a created character instead of taking an
omniscient narrator’s role, as was the case with most fiction I read throughout
high school. This story was insanely
believable. Everything mentioned had a backstory relating to either the main
character or someone she knew; the characters had individual dialects (excluding the narrator to some extent); and not everything in this novel followed a linear path. However,
there were many parts of the story that made me feel uncomfortable. I’m not saying that just because I don’t feel
that the story is PC, the story is automatically bad – heck, I look back on this
story fondly and am sure most people would.
I think I’d better just leave it at that, otherwise I’ll spend too long
on individual blocks of the story and avoid the bigger picture. In the end, it’s a good story with believable
yet shocking writing and timing, always keeping readers on the edge as the
newest event unravels.
Idida Z. Casado
Blog 7 by Ruthie Heavrin
Susan Straight's Take One Candle Light a Room is highly convenient and misguided. How can a white woman possibly write from the point of view of a black woman? In class we were told that Straight feels like a black woman trapped in a white woman's body, but that goes against everything she writes for in this novel: family and heritage. Why isn't Straight proud of who she is? Why can't she be a white woman in a white body who understands that racism is bad? I feel a little offended that she chose to write from a first person point of view. Like the essay prompt suggested, family is huge theme in this book. Victor loses his family so he creates a new family with the fakesters. FX Antione reconnects with her father during the trip, and Victor and Antonine are finally able to find family and peace in each other. Straight should find peace in who she is.
The book is highly convenient and almost feels like magical realism. How convenient that Hurricane Katrina shows up and that everyone happens to be in Louisiana at the same time. If it were that easy to be together, then the journey should have never happened in the first place. There was convenience in the characterization as well. Straight uses the plot to form the characters instead of the other way around. I mean that many of the characters did things because it would progress the plot, not because it is something they would actually do. Sure, all the Little Women fans would love to see Teddy and Jo together, but it's not in Jo's character to marry someone for convenience. It is not in Victor's character to lash out at Antione then suddenly be nice the next chapter. He leaves hints for her to come to Las Vegas, then acts surprised (and angry) when she shows up. Victor wasn't round enough. Also, the manner in which Straight described her characters was unsatisfying. I couldn't picture a single one and had to choose people from my life to take the place.
I wish I could say something positive about the book, but the constant switch between flash backs and present time became jumbling. I couldn't tell if most of the events were past or present. The syntax was highly frustrating as well. Most of the sentences. Were. Not complete. Sentences and I. Had trouble. Following along. It had a James Joyce stream of conciseness feel, but there is a reason why scholars still scratch their beards over Ulysses: it's hard to understand because the syntax is ludicrous.
I would have loved if the first chapter turned into an epic tale of how these women overcame rape and defeated the white rapist. Such good content should not be summed up in one single chapter. Those womens' stories were much more interesting than the constant bragging of the places Antione has been.
Why is this book so critically acclaimed? I don't know but I can guess that it has something to do with white people being happy that a white woman wrote from a black woman's point of view. "Finally," they must have thought – "We're in the clear."
When you believe... How far would you go???
When reading this book it immediately reminded me of movies such as: Blind Side, Lean On Me and the Power of One. All of these movies portray people taking a risk so that another person can have the opportunity to succeed. Antoine is an character who notices Victor's potential. She knows that her Godson can succeed if he is given the right tools and the opportunity. When Victor gets into trouble Antoine takes it upon herself to help him. She sacrifices her time and energy to help someone that may not even accept it.
This is a huge risk. I often wonder to myself, "If I were in Antoine's position would I do the same thing?" My answer always comes back as, "it depends." However, I am reminded that that if I really want to make a difference...sometimes you have to take a risk. This is the beauty of truly believing in something. Dr. Martin Luther King once said, "If you haven't found something worth dying for... You aren't fit to live." What if believing meant dying? What if dying meant really living? How far would we go to risk everything that we have for something that we believe in?
- Felicia Tonga
Monday, May 14, 2012
Take One Candle Light a Room
I loved this book! It's incredible how she was able to get into the mind of not just a black woman, but a biracial woman. I think that specificity is overlooked when people talk about Straight's achievement. I could relate to the way she portrayed some of the thoughts and emotions that a biracial woman might have. Sometimes it felt as though the book was written for me. I had to keep looking at the author's picture in the back to confirm that it wasn't a memoir; she was so believably in the character's head.
Kayla Santos
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