Farewell (for now)

As the semester comes to an end I'd like to recap all that we have read or written about. A personal favorite of mine was reading "Writing Down the Bones" as a whole, closely followed by maps to anywhere.

Writing down the bones I connected to on a personal level, she pushes her readers to push themselves and to create better work by first starting with shitty work, and that's okay. One point that she stresses that I found both inspiring and hilarious is to keep ALL of your journals filled with brief ideas, scribbles, etc. I found this to be so funny because it is something I do already, I have notebooks filled with things from the beginning of my freshman year of high school, during the phase of my first real boyfriend and teen angst. Over the summer going into my freshman year of college here at EMU a close friend tried to convince me to get rid of them arguing "You haven't opened them in 3 years, what's the point of keeping them? They're only taking up space."  But, I held on, I kept them stored in a box in my closet.  As it turns out over Christmas I went back and opened them, a bittersweet moment but worth it.

She also stresses that it's okay to not be wonderful and that every writer starts somewhere, they may believe they are the Picasso of poetry (chances are they aren't) but might as well let them start there. Personally over the semester I have made great strides towards improving my own works. I have fought through personal problems only to come out stronger and more developed. I feel as though I have found my voice, and what I want to do with it. My poetry has come a long way from the beginning of the semester, as has my ability to write fiction. To be honest before a class my freshman year, and this one I was absolutely awful at writing fiction. Yet, through work-shopping and working with other young writers I have progressed.

From Maps to anywhere I not only found a personal connection, but I found a love of his writing style.  He varies from a very reflective, in the moment style of writing to a disconnected fragile style. The range alone I found to be impressive, as I often get stuck in one style while writing. He incorporates such detail in the ordinary experiences he has, it inspired me in a sense to go out and look at things differently. How would I describe everything going on to someone who couldn't see? How do I tell my readers how I was feeling without being boring and plain? By expanding my means of doing so, and opening my heart/mind to everything around me. Often times people shut out everything that doesn't directly pertain to them, The "noise" gets drowned out by our internal noise or even other external noise that we blare in order to ignore the world and it's potential.

As a whole this semester these two novels or collections of stories have had the most influence on me as a reader, and a writer, Changes to my style based on theirs have been made, but without managing to lose my own style only to mimic theirs. Several poems, or short stories spoke to me as well but none of them carried the same impact as these two collections. In a way I am proud of myself for actually reading through them instead of skimming through them online only to find I got absolutely nothing out of doing so. It has been a good semester, and I bid you  farewell (temporarily).

Maps to Anywhere 2.0

From Maps to Anywhere this week we were asked to read several sections. My favorite out of those assigned was "The house of the future" it not only told the story of how people thought of things in this time period when it came to houses, but also of a dying boy. The way Cooper incorporates his brother succumbing to his illness with describing the house they were living in, blows me away; It is in a very straight forward but in an emotionally filled manner.

Cooper also incorporates his love of architecture/disdain for nature while describing the house of the future. The house had all of the elements a family would ever need, a self running kitchen, extra wings to the home and more! His love for preserved things and all things that would never be found in nature was polar and completely opposite of the love his brother had of nature. There were several emotional parts to the story, for example he had spent all of the time  hoping a dreaming of his brother getting better only to find out that he was getting worse. From experience with family having illnesses that will only ever get worse I connected with him on a more personal level here. When his brother got to the point they all knew it was over, and they had put on a play for him I couldn't help but connect.

In the short section dog house, I found it very strange yet understandable that he wanted to kiss and touch his brother in the manner he had dreamed of. I understand that not only as a sibling or in a state of loss you begin to think about people in a different way, occasionally in a romantic or sexual way. I feel like every child that has a sibling goes through a short and natural curiosity about their siblings and what it would be like to have a relation with them. I also found it odd that this dreaming didn't arise until his brother was near death. Why not when he was healthy and thriving? What made the desire so strong in a time where he could do nothing?

The story in itself has a very personal touch to it, yet it sounds as though he is detached about the whole situation. It is if he is speaking about it from an outside perspective. The essay as a whole brings together elements from the rest of the book, tying in characters and plot lines. The placement of the essay within the book was particularly ironic, he waits until the end to bring up his brothers death. It as if he was telling about his brother from beginning to end but used his brothers death in order to end the book more or less.

Maps to Anywhere 4/2/15

This week we began the book of essays known as Maps to Anywhere, in the first part of the book I found his story Atlantis to be interesting, But, not in the way most people say things are interesting just to keep the conversation moving.  I found it interesting because of the detail and the "voice" of the story it reads as though someone is telling you of this experience in such great detail you feel you can relate and even connect with where the author is taking you.

He describes his first experience at the barber shop in a way that made me remember the first time I ever got a haircut, it is such a personal experience and it can make of break you for the future. He used the phrase "He flourished a comb he never dropped, a soundless scissors, a razor which revealed, gently,  gently, the nape of my neck...". If you have ever watched someone getting a haircut or watched them get a  bad haircut you know that paying attention and being gentle is very important. I like the wording he used to describe the man and his tools. he didn't just come out and say "he used a razor and shaved my neck, he used scissors for my hair" his wording was very direct and detailed.

Bernard's description of the aftermath of his haircut was also greatly detailed, he describes how he watched his hair blow across the floor and how different he looked. I feel as though every one of us has had that shocking experience as they turn you around and you look at the difference that has been made. As he is getting the haircut he kept his eyes closed making the reveal especially shocking. He talks about how even though his eyes are closed he can still picture the "ghosts" of the things around him. I found that to be interesting because I know when a lot of people close their eyes they also close their minds to the things around them.