Blog Post Oct 26th

One story I would like to talk about is from Wreckage of Reason titled  Ten Birds by Karen Brennan. What first struck me as I was reading this story was the syntax of the story. It was labeled into 10 different parts each describing something different but using similar words. She always refers to the birds in the story as a metaphor for how she is feeling. "Too many birds in the room, now they were beside me flicking their fearthers. I never cared fro their song which was unmelodic but let's face it the birds were a metaphor for the dread I felt" was a line from part 3. In a separate stanza  she writes "I knew the pillow was a metaphor for weariness and the birds seemed to be hiding." She keeps repeating the same items in each stanza. It seems to me that she is dealing with an emotion, maybe a loss of her husband of some sort. But she refers to the man beside lying beside her in a couple stanzas.
The next story I would like to blog about is Cottage Life by Masha Tupitsyn. When I first started to read this story the first like really got me, "I cracked time the same way I cracked you." This first line is a very strong opening line because when you crack someone it usually means they hard to get to know. To me this is about a love story in a cottage. This women then begins to talk about a certain birthmark under her breast that have made her uncomfortable to even think about letting someone see her breasts. "I wanted one lover for life just to avoid  going over the details of the brown thumbprint over and over again." was the line. This man she if with though doesn't even notice it and is in awe at how beautiful this women is. She is also very descriptive when she talks about the cottage she is in using this line "Dust in every place, summer flowers outcasts in a filthy house, pitch black attic room and no air except at night, a blow from the defenseless skylight, along with all bugs wafting through despite the obstruction of obscurity."

Blog Post Oct 19th

For this blog post I will write about is a couple of stories from "Wreckage of Reason" which is a bunch of short stories but together. The first story I will like to write about is New York/LA Whirlwind Romance by Karen Lillis. This is a story of a bunch of different quotes this lady heard walking around and just listening to people conversate. The way she put it together as if this was a man talking to a woman on the phone trying to sleep with her, and be with her, and then it ending up being that the guy just wants to be friends. This is done in two parts. Some lines that I will write are in part 1 he says: "I love talking to you" to "I can't wait to meet you" to "Look, I'll say it. I love you." In part 2 he says ""I'm just ignoring you when you get like that" to "You need to find a man closer to your age" to "The best thing about you coming is I finally cleaned my house" to "Yeah, I'll talk to you sometime." This is very describing of a stereotypical man searching for a women and then backing out of it once he meets her in person.
The next story I would like to write about is Upon finding a Knife by Suki Wessling. This story was very creative where she staring writing about this character named Craig who had a key in his pocket. She interacted herself into this story with the line "The writer decided that it would not hurt to leave the knife in his pocket," and the line "The writer helps Carl off the subway." It's also interesting how she relates this knife in his pocket to a key that is useless. "which the writer finds annoyingly plentiful like locks to which she has no key." This was  a very creative story.

Response Oct 12th, 2011

The first story I would like to blog about is Word, by Cynthia Reeves. At first this reminded me of that one poem that talks about words and ends in the rapist is therapist. She uses good descriptions like the line "No L in tongue, after all, but sometimes her tongue felt like an L, fluid, thrusting itself inside her mouth to form Love, sometimes running itself along her teeth, lips, gums." I don't exactly understand what she is talking about metaphorically, but it is very descriptive nonetheless. Another just concrete line from this story is "She reminded herself that smug is only a word, but then hand is a word, too, as when he ran his, gently down the seam of her spine, after yes." It's easy to picture what she is talking about when she right so descriptive. Another point I would like to add is that she likes to use her commas, to help, slow down, the, reader, like, this. A good example would be "She dropped the K, inverting reverting, thinking, won, now, no." That is a different use for mechanics.
Another story I would like to mention is Look for Dr. Nick by Geri Deluca. This story was very interesting to me because I believe she was trying to prove a point. That point is that most Psychotherapist don't actually listen to you they just prescribe you drugs to help balance the chemicals in one's depressed brain. I have thought this for a while now. A line for using good descriptive words is "The chemicals in their brain that give them the illusion of an identity are out of control" of a depressed person.  A line with concrete details from this story would be "It had a strange smell, like toxic fluorescent dust, and my window opened on the exhaust from the cafeteria, adding the aggressive odor of hamburgers and French fries cooked over an over in the same oil." You can just picture what this lady's office smells like from all the concrete detailed words.

Blog Post Oct 6th

This blog post will be about Anne Lamott's book "Bird by Bird". As soon as I read this book I couldn't put it down. Lamott knows how to write well, and I enjoyed this book. One part really reminded me of how i live my life. When her brother is writing a paper about birds, and his father notices that he is struggling. The father then proceeds towards him and put his hand on his shoulder and says, "Lets take this bird by bird." Basically this is how I live my life. Day by day sort of way and not worry about other stresses down the road. She even mentions that this could be similar to a college students life. "I tell this story again because it usually makes a dent in the tremendous sense of being overwhelmed that my students experience" quote from the book.
The whole idea of shitty first drafts is genious. This is a perfect way to get people to start writing. Even if it is as shitty as you think. No one else will read it and you can make that first draft into a good second draft. In short words what she is saying that the more you practice your writing the more you will improve. Even the great ones have had struggles with writing at one point in their lives.