Blog Post 4/8: Maps to Anywhere (p. 67-end)

The first short story to catch my eye in the remaining pages of "Maps to Anywhere" is the one titled "Live Wire". The description of a cut wire was phenomenal and very easy to envision. The primary thing that I noticed about this selection is that there was no punctuation: it was one, giant run-on sentence. I am thinking that the author wrote this in that style particularly to give the reader the impression of a rush or hurried tone. When I read the paragraph in my head, I noticed that I was reading it in a "panicked" manner. The style in which "Live Wire" was written also reminds me of one of the poems we read specifically in the past poetry packet: she was describing another stressful scenario (the sexual assault she had endured). The author had also then used lack of punctuation to express urgency or feelings of the main character through the story.

 

"Do you ever say 'I wish it was now? No. You wish it was an hour from now, or years ago. A fortune teller has no interest in predicting your now. A psychiatrist is not paid to delve into your now."

 

This is an excerpt from "Que Sera Sera", which I instantly recognized as being Spanish and it translates into (I believe) "It is what it is". This quote meant a lot to me, because as a psychology major it announces a perspective that I have never thought of in the past. There is a lot of truth behind this sentence: we are always wishing to be in a different time than the present, whether we would rather be in the past or in the future. It is very rare that we are able to be content with the present, and I wonder why that is. It is then that I realized the meaning of all of the quotes that say to take it once step at a time and to enjoy every moment as if it is your last: it is because nobody ever does. Instead, time is wasted wishing to be elsewhere at a different point and time.

 



4/1 Blog Post: Maps to Anywhere (1-66)

"-- a melancholy undiminished by psychotropic drugs, she spent weeks languished in bed, mute and inconsolable; her jaw clenched and the shades drawn."

I found myself unable to decide how I felt about reading "Maps to Anywhere". I think it is definitely written in a unique way, and the mini-stories leading up to one long essay makes it appealing. However, some stories were more interesting than the others. It leads me to think that either every piece of information is important and links to another event, or that there is just too much extra information included in the stories that don't hold relevance to the main point (which, I believe, is the long essay "The Wind Did It").

The short story pieces and the long essay seemed to be related in many ways. One particular question I had came up when I read "Beacons Burning Down": the story mentions his 81-year old father having a health condition. I am wondering if this mini-story in particular is meant to insinuate it takes place after "The Wind Did It" events. I do believe that every story is included to provide additional background information before the reader reaches "The Wind Did It".

There are also many themes and ideas that are connected within the stories to the essay. An example of this is the description of the narrator's trip to the barbershop as a child in "Beacons Burning Down": this scene is described as being euphoric for the narrator, as he felt the affection he never received from his father from his barber. In "The Wind Did It", there is a scene described where his father is massaging his head. This makes me further question the placement of "Beacons Burning Down" on this book's timetable in comparison to "The Wind Did It". However - the point I believe was trying to be made is that now that he is older, he receives affection from his father after all? It seems the idea/theme of every story is about traveling globally and he is somehow able to relate this to his childhood experiences. In the long essay, his father even asks him to go on a trip with him.

There are differences in how the long essay is written and how the short stories are written. For instance, "The Wind Did It" is not only longer, but also has more of a description within it. The short stories were concise and to the point, but very descriptive language takes place within "The Wind Did It". The style is less narrative in the short stories, but "The Wind Did It"was a majority of description and a lot of dialogue.

The differences in writing definitely changed how I read the pieces of writing. The style in "The Wind Did It" is seemingly full of dialogue, but the short stories give off more of a journal-entry style. You can tell that the short stories are a telling of a past event: but "The Wind Did It" is written with a present-tense narration. I read "The Wind Did It" as if it was the closing statement and ending for the short stories: it was very easy to envision.

3/18 Blog Post: Danticat & Shange

Shange

"Whenever she wanted to pray, she let her fiddle talk. Whenever she was angry, here came the fiddle."

This fiction short was not very appealing to me when I first read it -- I enjoyed "Night Women" a lot more. However, reading it through a few more times and discussing it in class I was able to really enjoy this story. I especially enjoyed the above sentence because I perceived it as a clear description of a character trait possessed by the main character Indigo. She was clearly musically inclined and passionate about playing because it is a way for her to express her feelings.

"...this terrible-playing child of mine"

I am noting this statement spoken by Indigo's mother because it points to minimal parental support. The fact that she describes her child as 'terrible-playing' (while speaking to her child, nonetheless!) does not show support for something her daughter truly enjoys. This could point to an extremely controversial topic of parental criticism: is Indigo's mother wrong for speaking the truth about Indigo's fiddle-playing? Or should she have encouraged her to continue?

"Mama, I'm happy with how the fiddles talk... sounding now. I don't want any lessons at all. I just want to play."

This statement by the main character Indigo points again to the character trait of passion. Indigo does not care about the quality of her playing: she just plays what she feels because she truly enjoys doing it. She is carefree and she has an abundance of self-confidence and trust within her playing and capabilities. When her mother tries to convince her not to play her fiddle around the neighborhood because everybody would say mean things about her, Indigo says "No momma, that isn't going to happen." I think that Indigo also expressed the character trait of seeing the good in other people.

Night Women - Danticat

This was a really powerful short story to read. Although it was short, it had a lot of descriptive detail and you learned a lot about the main character through implications and without the author ever saying it out-right.

"An old lover who disappeared with the night shadows a long time ago."

This is the statement made by the narrator and main character when describing the father of her child. This implication is what told me as the reader that she is a single mother, and the way he was described points to her having resentment and sadness toward him.

"Love is one of those lessons that you grow to learn, the way one learns that one shoe is made to fit a certain foot, lest it causes discomfort."

I really like this sentence, but I am confused of what idea the narrator is portraying. Is it the idea that everyone only has one correct love? Or else it is uncomfortable? Or is it just that having the shoe on the wrong foot in general causes discomfort, and that is a lesson that people learn in life?

"One of my suitors gave [earplugs] to him to plug into his ears so he can stay asleep while mommy works." 

"[The day working women] won't have to lie next to the lifeless soul of a man whose scent still lingers in another woman's bed."

"I see his wife's face in the beads of sweat marching down his chin."

These few, short lines told me a lot more about the story. The first quote is really strong to me; the idea of a man giving a little boy earplugs so that he won't have to hear what is going on is disheartening: especially since you are hearing the narrators side of the story and you know that the current situation is not something she enjoys being in.

The second quote I felt had outstanding imagery to it; she continues to say "I want him [her son] to forget that he lives in a place where nothing lasts." This leads me to think she believes love is hopeless.

The very last quote I believe is the most powerful of all. The assimilation of sweat beads marching is such strong language and it shows a sense of guilt, even though she is not the one in infidelity. She feels responsible for the pain that would be felt by the other women if they were to know.

 

Blog Post for 3/11 "The Girl with The Blackened Eye"

"Nobody said a word - didn't want to get involved, I guess." 

     When I read this line my stomach dropped. I don't express my opinions about controversial topics very often because I don't find the conversation worth the grief. That being said, when I read this short story I forgot that it was fiction. I found myself angry: angry at the thought that people would not want to "get involved" when they see a girl with two black eyes because it is "none of their business". Angry at how that situation would be considered "none of their business", but if they were to see two gay men in love it would become everybody's business. The possibility that domestic violence in general is not as enraging of a topic as gay marriage: I find that to be very wrong. 

"Personality is like a flame"

     I really enjoyed this simile. I thin personalities are flames of the soul and they're completely capable of being dimmed, brightened, extinguished, tarnished, etc by other people's actions. There are days when your personality flame can be thriving and you feel confident in personality traits. "I feel aggressive today." "I feel funny today." "I feel creative today." The days that your personality is dragging: "I feel sad today." "I feel quiet today." "I feel lazy today."

"You're special. You're not like the others."

   "The Girl with the Blackened Eye" in it's entirety was a very powerful story to me. It was especially powerful because of the point of view in which it was written. Having the untold-ever-before story written by the victim herself, through her eyes, made it seem very real. It worked efficiently with the broadening of empathy throughout the story. The above quote is what I found to be most perplexing and interesting about it. I really want to understand why the abductor chose to let her survive. Why did he feel obligated to save her, but have no issue killing the others? I remembered a quote from the beginning of the story "....everyone of your privileged class"; when I read this I wondered if he was referring to her family wealth.

     As far as the narrator's character goes, I found it very interesting that she felt loyal to her abductor nearing the end of her captivity. It was strange to think that she would not want to betray his trust, but I have heard about this phenomena in my psychology classes. I think that she wanted to remain loyal to him in order to display the way she would like to be treated - "treat others how you would like to be treated" sort of manner. However, I still wonder why he viewed her as special. Did he see innocence within her? Was it purely her age? The author wrote the story with a use of description that made it possible to envision the scenario in the reader's mind, which continued the already-growing empathy of the reader for the character.

 

Post for March 3rd

I read Fiction Packet #3 last week, and I wrote down a couple of quotes that I really appreciated from the story "The Falling Girl" by Dino Buzzati. This story instantly caught my interest with the title: I was curious to find out what it was about. The story is about a nineteen-year old girl named Marta, and from what I gathered I think it is about moving through life too quickly. This reminds me of myself in many ways: I have to make sure I remember to take it easy and not be in too much of a hurry.

"The city became a sweet abyss with pulsating lights..."

The story maintained my interest even past the beginning. I was surprised that Marta had free fallen from the balcony on the top of the skyscraper, but I soon realized it was for a reason. Her fall from the top was described as "constituted an interesting diversion for the tenants" -- as if somebody falling off of the top of a skyscraper can be belittled to be named a diversion.

"Gentle butterfly, why not stop a minute with us?"

While she was falling from the top of the building, she was approached by strangers along the way enticing her to slow down and enjoy herself. Although she surpassed all offers, eventually she was falling so fast that she didn't even have time to decline.  I found this to be very relative to my daily life.

Also as Marta was falling, it was described that she soon began to notice other young women falling along side her. Personally, I took this as an implication of the tendency for women to compare themselves to other women in a competitive fashion throughout life.

"A decrepit old woman..." "At least down here you can hear the thud when they hit the ground"

I was surprised at the end of the story that Marta had been described as an older woman by someone who had seen her falling: but that's when I realized that the story was about passing through life too quickly and not living for a purpose but living because you have to. I thought this story had a great lesson to learn along with being an overall good read.

 

Blog Post for 2/18/15

I began reading the fiction story packet from "Micro-fiction An Anthology of Really Short Stories". The first one I read was "Survivors" by Kim Addonizio. I instantly knew what the story was about by the starting words: "He and his lover..." This short story was very eye-opening to me. A lot of my closest friends are of a homosexual orientation, and I have personally seen them go through just as much pain and heartbreak as somebody of a heterosexual orientation would. It is absolutely absurd, in my personal opinion, for anybody to discount the value of love someone has for another individual, no matter what their gender. I especially loved the line about one of the characters fathers "(tried) to beat his son's sexual orientation out of him with a belt on several occasions during adolescence".

"Dear God, let me die first, don't let me survive him."

Throughout the packet, the next story to instantaneously catch my eye was the one titled "Walking the Baby to the Liquor Store".  I loved how the title pulled me in as a reader without giving me much of a choice: with a title like that, I had to see what it was about. "This morning she's Cleopatra and the liquor store is Rome." I have a difficult time understanding exactly what this one is about -- but I like the context in which it is written. I feel like I am reading a letter that was sent specifically to me from the author, telling me what he is feeling and thinking about his child and his social role as a father.

"....watching the fireflies coming on and going out again in the long grass like so many sparks flying off the anvil of the world."

The "mystery stories" by Sharon Krinsky were really mind-boggling to me. It bothers me when I read something and cannot interpret what the point they are trying to get at -- it can be a big fault for somebody who loves reading as much as I do and is well aware that most writers don't have a big picture anyhow. I'm figuring that it is all based on personal interpretation, but it still stresses me out that I don't know what they were thinking when they wrote it. The only short story of hers I remotely understood was the "Poetry": I believe she made the china cup reference to metaphorically describe how delicate her poems she had written for her crush were, and this makes me think of how heart-breaking it would be for me to profess my feelings for somebody and have them think it is plastic-cup material.

Blog Post for 2/11/15

   I think I'm becoming a little bit more comfortable writing poems. At first the idea was terrifying: I have always been more of a short story writer, certainly not poems. As I was writing the poems due for workshop this week I realized that my first instinct (with the guidelines I was following that is) was always to take the poem a depressing route. That's not how I feel in everyday life, however I have found that is a lot easier for me to think of ways to stem off of a depressing basis rather than a happy one. I am also realizing that the more poems of others that I read they become a source of inspiration for me to take my story a little further or maybe in a completely new direction. I don't think writing depressing pieces of literature this entire semester is wrong -- but I am definitely anxious to see what I can do with a more positive source of inspiration.

   I also finished the rest of the provided packet of "Writing Down the Bones" that we were given... it is still one of the best books I have ever read! I don't think I have ever read another book required by a college course that I actually felt like I am benefitting from in a great way. Every time I read an excerpt it gives me more and more inspiration to carry my own notebook around with me to express my thoughts. There were a few quotes that greatly impacted me:

"Even miracles are mundane happenings that an awakened mind can see in a fantastic way." p.74

I had to look up what mundane meant ("practical details of regular life") but I knew that this was a fabulous sentence the second I came across it. The words are so clear, short and concise; yet when it is all put together it could change thousands of perceptions and views in many aspects. I really enjoyed reading about how you need to get to know your environment in order to become a great writer (i.e.: knowing the names of flowers that are in your neighborhood to be able to describe them beautifully and accurately. They are a living thing and deserve the dignity of having its own name.) It makes me realize how unaware we actually are -- we think we are conscious and nothing can get by us, however we miss thousands of opportunities to learn or explore everyday even when they are right under our nose.

"Often, as I write my best pieces, my heart is breaking." p. 103

When I wrote the first couple of poems we were supposed to write, I was going through quite an emotional upset. To top it off, I did not even want to write the poems in the first place. However when I sat down to write them, I found my pen practically unable to keep up with everything I had wanted to write down. They were effortless poems that I created and covered in tears, I did not hold back anything -- this doesn't mean that they weren't in fact terrible; they totally are. Nevertheless, I felt a lot better just even writing down everything I felt I needed to express. Plus: We didn't have to turn them in, so nobody ever was forced to read them! :)