Mother of The Year
My first impressions after reading Mother of the Year by Paul Theroux was that Paul's mother screamed bipolar. Her actions were that of an abusive boyfriend or husband. Living in a large family meant there wasn't much room for outsiders to peak in. This left their mother in total control, a dictator in some respects. The way their mother leveraged her kids against one another seems cruel to an outsider. I can't help but ask what was the author's purpose for writing this story down. Being a writer gives one ultimate power, history. Paul Theroux, by writing this story has forever stored in history (thus his memory) how cruel and negative his mother was. Instead of having some what of a hindsight bias in the future this story will always be used as a reference for the way his mother not only treated himself, but the other children as well. Although I must noted that throughout the story I didn't feel as though Paul was searching for an empathetic response, rendering me somewhat confused.
Shooting Dad
I found this story, Shooting Dad by Sarah Vowell to be entertaining and relate-able. Just as Sarah's father is into guns and shooting my own father is equally passionate about English football(or soccer as they call it here in America.) His team happens to be Manchester United, a team he proudly tells people he followed when they were in the 2nd division before players like David Beckham or Chrisiano Ronaldo had even been born. My father wakes up during the regular season at 4:30am in order to make the live the kickoff time in England. As a young boy my dad used to take me to the pub to watch the games, although they were never for me. I was always into cars. As a little kid my dad signed me up for AYSO as player and he was the coach. For years and years I played and liked it quite a bit. My dad also returned the favor by learning about motorsports and eventually appreciating the whole process behind it. Today my dad and I watch both soccer and Formula 1 together.
Jimmy Corrigan
To be honest, I didn't quite understand this text. Why did Jimmy continue to pick up the phone if he knew it was his mother calling? Does Jimmy subconsciously like the extra attention given to him by his mother? Could you go as far as to say that Jimmy NEEDS the attention from his mother? I just don't understand the point of these texts. Also the title of these comics is ironic and confusing.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
9/13 Assignment Boys & Girls
The story of Boys & Girls by Alic Munro is about a young girl living on a fox farm finding herself. As cliche as that may sound, our narrator's story is about finding herself relative to her gender. Living on a farm, lots of manual labor needs to be done, these types of labor aren't exactly considered "lady like." This story can relate to a lot of girls and boys finding out who they are because of their gender. The message from story is to be yourself and based on the way you act, the rest of the pieces will fit into place. If you're a skinning foxes or a hair salon, it doesn't matter.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Assignment 3
Reviving Ophelia
After reading Reviving Ophelia, the first topic that came to mind was how the author, Mary Pipher, seems to believe that girls an inherently insecure and are destined for failure unless they have a strong working knowledge of physiology. Pipher looks at women in a negative fashion although she does believe in hope. The hope that girls will become "strong" and will begin to appreciate the things and people around so that they feel comfortable and good about themselves. Pipher's story of June is a perfect example of the "hope" that she had talked about earlier. The cards delt to June would have been folded before the first the round of betting. June played her cards strong, sometimes having to bluff ( when June talks the trick to getting everything you want is to know what you want), but in the end June left with the metaphorical pot of happiness. At the end of the day, what's more important than that?
Inside The World of Boys
My first impressions after reading "Inside the World of Boys" was the contrast between this reading the previous story in Sound Ideas. William Pollak tells a story about a boy who I see a lot of similarities with myself. For instance just like Adam I don't like asking for help, with anything. Most of the time I really don't need help, whether it's an academic task or a mechanical task like building a desk from Ikea, but every once in a while a situation occurs where I need help. Until recently I usually gave up or studied it for a flaw because there was no way I wasn't capable of doing something it had to have been broken. A boys inabilitiy to show weakness is what makes them such good leaders without being sexest, from a biological/psychological point of view there is no wonder why men had dominated human existence for thousands of years. It wasn't until the age of technology where the playing field started to level out. After reading these last two stories, it's hard for me to feel obtomistic about ever having kids. It seems like girls are either going to become prositutes or get addicted and boys don't seem to be motivated at all. What is the world coming to?
Why Boys Don't Play with Dolls
I'm going to start off by saying I don't particularly like this essay. The author Katha Pollitt used a couple thousands words to say what I can easily sum up in one sentence. Children are easily influences by the people and things around them. Reading Katha's bio i learned that she is a femenist, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with being a femenist ( according to Mary Pipher all girls are screwed anyway...), but I believe that femenism comes from some type of trauma as a child. Perhaps Katha wasn't allowed to play football with the boys or was too good at math/science and intimidated the other girls around her. Regardless, I see this article as a medium for Pollitt to vent out her own confusions with society, clearly she doesn't want the parent reading this to allow their child to go through what she had many years ago.
The War Against Boys
THANK YOU, Christina Sommers finally is somebody I can agree with. Sommers acknowelges that guys and girls are different on a biological level. A level that we as humans don't understand yet. So it would be foolish to go around talking about things as if they are fact when quite frankly we know very little about how the human brain works. I really like the theory that girls brain develops language quicker than males as a way to explain why men were driven, from an evolutionary stand point towards being more "muscular" as a gender. It makes a lot of sense and it also gives us an explination for why woman, all of the sudden have managed to get rights in a relatively short amount of time. All in all I love Sommers use of the physiology of psychology as way to prove her points, I look forward to reading her essays in the future.
After reading Reviving Ophelia, the first topic that came to mind was how the author, Mary Pipher, seems to believe that girls an inherently insecure and are destined for failure unless they have a strong working knowledge of physiology. Pipher looks at women in a negative fashion although she does believe in hope. The hope that girls will become "strong" and will begin to appreciate the things and people around so that they feel comfortable and good about themselves. Pipher's story of June is a perfect example of the "hope" that she had talked about earlier. The cards delt to June would have been folded before the first the round of betting. June played her cards strong, sometimes having to bluff ( when June talks the trick to getting everything you want is to know what you want), but in the end June left with the metaphorical pot of happiness. At the end of the day, what's more important than that?
Inside The World of Boys
My first impressions after reading "Inside the World of Boys" was the contrast between this reading the previous story in Sound Ideas. William Pollak tells a story about a boy who I see a lot of similarities with myself. For instance just like Adam I don't like asking for help, with anything. Most of the time I really don't need help, whether it's an academic task or a mechanical task like building a desk from Ikea, but every once in a while a situation occurs where I need help. Until recently I usually gave up or studied it for a flaw because there was no way I wasn't capable of doing something it had to have been broken. A boys inabilitiy to show weakness is what makes them such good leaders without being sexest, from a biological/psychological point of view there is no wonder why men had dominated human existence for thousands of years. It wasn't until the age of technology where the playing field started to level out. After reading these last two stories, it's hard for me to feel obtomistic about ever having kids. It seems like girls are either going to become prositutes or get addicted and boys don't seem to be motivated at all. What is the world coming to?
Why Boys Don't Play with Dolls
I'm going to start off by saying I don't particularly like this essay. The author Katha Pollitt used a couple thousands words to say what I can easily sum up in one sentence. Children are easily influences by the people and things around them. Reading Katha's bio i learned that she is a femenist, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with being a femenist ( according to Mary Pipher all girls are screwed anyway...), but I believe that femenism comes from some type of trauma as a child. Perhaps Katha wasn't allowed to play football with the boys or was too good at math/science and intimidated the other girls around her. Regardless, I see this article as a medium for Pollitt to vent out her own confusions with society, clearly she doesn't want the parent reading this to allow their child to go through what she had many years ago.
The War Against Boys
THANK YOU, Christina Sommers finally is somebody I can agree with. Sommers acknowelges that guys and girls are different on a biological level. A level that we as humans don't understand yet. So it would be foolish to go around talking about things as if they are fact when quite frankly we know very little about how the human brain works. I really like the theory that girls brain develops language quicker than males as a way to explain why men were driven, from an evolutionary stand point towards being more "muscular" as a gender. It makes a lot of sense and it also gives us an explination for why woman, all of the sudden have managed to get rights in a relatively short amount of time. All in all I love Sommers use of the physiology of psychology as way to prove her points, I look forward to reading her essays in the future.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Assignment 2 (Critical Analysis, Shitty First Drafts, Zandie Smith)
"Critical Analysis"
From the moment I laid eyes on the text I instantly felt David's position. It's not that I had never been taught what a critical analysis was, but I never had any sort of formal training. What I mean by that is, I was never taught to read a story with a "critical" mind. After reading a story, sometimes I had a position, sometimes I didn't. If I didn't have a position I would make one up and hope the teacher agreed with me. The tips given to me from this brief essay will translate to a more critical analysis of future readings.
"Shitty First Drafts"
The first thing that comes to mind after reading Anne Lamott's Shitty First Drafts, is how young her writing voice sounds in comparison to her actual age(the book noted she was born in 1954, math would say she is almost 60.) I found myself laughing out loud multiple times especially when she quoted one of her writing buddies "It'sn ot like you don't have a choice, because you do - you can either type or kill yourself."
Reading about Anne, a professional writers, struggles in writing a first draft helped me find solace in my own writings. It's comforting knowing that you are not alone in your struggles and that people of all different skill levels struggle to the same degree. I found her passage to be both eye opening and comforting.
From the moment I laid eyes on the text I instantly felt David's position. It's not that I had never been taught what a critical analysis was, but I never had any sort of formal training. What I mean by that is, I was never taught to read a story with a "critical" mind. After reading a story, sometimes I had a position, sometimes I didn't. If I didn't have a position I would make one up and hope the teacher agreed with me. The tips given to me from this brief essay will translate to a more critical analysis of future readings.
"Shitty First Drafts"
The first thing that comes to mind after reading Anne Lamott's Shitty First Drafts, is how young her writing voice sounds in comparison to her actual age(the book noted she was born in 1954, math would say she is almost 60.) I found myself laughing out loud multiple times especially when she quoted one of her writing buddies "It'sn ot like you don't have a choice, because you do - you can either type or kill yourself."
Reading about Anne, a professional writers, struggles in writing a first draft helped me find solace in my own writings. It's comforting knowing that you are not alone in your struggles and that people of all different skill levels struggle to the same degree. I found her passage to be both eye opening and comforting.
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