Blogging with Alice Walker

A few weeks ago I went to Alice Walker's lecture at Georgia State University. She is quite a character and someone who can be greatly learned from. One of the first things that I was anticipating before we arrived was, "What is she going to be talking about?" She didn't have any recent publishings to my knowledge.

Well when she began to speak she immediately answered my question. She said, "I'm going to talk about me." Which makes sense. Beyond that, though, she began to talk about her life and perception of our most recent history, which I found very fascinating. She claimed to have retired from her writing career, even though most of her lecture consisted of readings from the blog she constantly writes in.

In a way, hearing from her blogs was more rewarding to me than reading any of her books. They are first-hand, immediate accounts of her views, not necessarily of civil rights anymore, but of modern whereabouts that she records her thoughts on. For example, she writes a lot about her chickens. Forget equality of race! "Why did the chicken cross the road?" she says, "to bring us both to the other side." She tells us of her experience communing harmoniously with 12(?) chickens that roam her backyard. She also blogged a beautiful poem in memory of Michael Jackson and talked about the present hardship of American farmers and the troubles with technological development.

What is interesting to me about the idea of Alice Walker blogging is that we get to listen to her mind develop as society does. To be honest, I almost expected her to talk about things that happened 50 years ago, but it was very impressive to me that her perception updated as the world did, and she sees some of the problems that occurred 50 years ago tumble down the line into 2010.

Alice Walker's blogs are an account of her continuous thoughts, like a journal or a blueprint of her mind, that is so easy to learn from. I never realized the benefit of blogging, but apparently it can be just as valuable of a historic artifact as classic literature.

"Not For Robots" by Laini Taylor

I used to think that I hated writing. In high school, whenever I had a writing assignment (a paper or story), it would take me FOREVER to put anything down on paper. I had pretty severe writer's block and I would end up pretty exhausted by the time I was through with the dumb thing.

But after randomly finding this site, everything made sense. Simply put, I'm just a perfectionist. Like Taylor says, I find writing "both glorious and maddening, necessary and impossible, dazzling and stupifying." In other words, people who find writing easy more than likely don't work as hard at it as those who find it hard and work hard in order to obtain their desired grade. (For those of you who find writing papers easy AND get good grades on them, I envy you.)

Even if you don't think about writing in those extremes, this is a pretty interesting and somewhat entertaining site. First, she talks about her personal story as someone who always dreamed of being a writer, but never really got to it because of how difficult it is to actually sit down and force yourself to do it. Proceeding it is a series of blogs that are meant to be helpful for writers, such as "ideas and brainstorming," "exploratory drafts," "some important decisions," "methods to my madness," "hardwork & revisions," and "getting published." Her ideas are really easy and amusing to read. She uses a lot of quotes and helpful metaphors, such as relating brainstorming ideas to a "seed." Taylor is also very relatable, using her own experiences writing to walk you through her advice.

Probably my favorite part of the website is the giant list of insightful quotes that run down the right side of the page. Here is a list of some of my favorites:

"A writer is someone to whom writing is more difficult than it is to other people."- Thomas Mann

"The only way [the book can be written] is to set the unbook -- the gilt-framed portrait of the book -- right there on the altar and sacrifice it, truly sacrifice it. Only then may the book, the real live flawed finite book, slowly, sentence by carnal sentence, appear."-Bonnie Friedman

"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug."-Mark Twain

"Looking back, I imagine I was always writing. Twaddle it was too. But far better to write twaddle or anything, anything, than nothing at all."-Katherine Mansfield

"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass."- Chekhov



I recomend taking a look at this site. It's like a blog, so it's pretty easy to read, to the point, and really laid back. Simply put, she allowed me to see the act of writing in a new light. The expression of language is really hard!

Irony in “A Temporary Matter”

Jhumpa Lahiri’s “A Temporary Matter” surprised me. Its abrupt ending, the tragic announcement that Shoba is moving out, is a stark contrast to my personal interpretation of the events leading up to it. Several elements portrayed in the story helped me see potential in the couple’s relationship, only to find puzzle pieces of irony clashing together into a heartbreaking conclusion.

Darkness

Darkness in this story can have many connotations. To me, it refers to the unknown. The fact that they only feel comfortable talking to each other in darkness portrays an idea that they are drawn together by the unknown in each other, as if they have just met for the first time all over again. This causes a sense of renewal and, as my interpretation goes, an improvement in Shoba and Shukumar’s relationship.

Instead, the truth of why Shoba wanted to play the game to begin with is exposed with the light on. Hence, light represents truth and darkness symbolizes the most important thing that Shukumar does not know, the game in the dark leading up to the harsh truth.

Organization

The piece describes Shoba as organized and always planning ahead. Before the baby died, she “put her coat on a hanger,” “paid bills as soon as they came,” and always “prepare[d] for surprises.” Shoba is described as a go-getter, and very well put together. As devastating as the incident is, it is ironic to see a woman of such composure crumple so badly when life takes an unexpected turn. “Now she treats the house as if it were a hotel” (6), she has given up on visiting friends and family, and has given up on the relationship with her husband, even to the extent of moving out without confronting him until she had already leased an apartment.

“Temporary” matters

While reading the story, I was trying to find connections between the temporary power outage and the couple’s troubles. As I was reading, I found that because the couple began to become closer to each other in this time, I thought that just as the darkness is only “temporary,” the difficulties in the relationship are only “temporary.”

Once again, to my surprise, this metaphor only meant that the relationship’s love and spark of hope is only as temporary as the electricity maintenance.

Confessions

Two of the most important elements of the story are the confessions and Shoba and Shukumar’s reactions to the confessions. My impression was that their lack of anger at the confessions was a sign of strength, sympathy and understanding. When Shukumar told Shoba that he cheated on his “Oriental Civilization exam,” she answered, “you didn’t have to tell me why you did it,” as “she took his hand” (17-18). This implies that she knows why he did it, signifying sympathy and lack of judgment toward him, which is a sign of love and understanding. Even the confessions that could have easily hurt each other, such as lying about plans or carrying around a picture of a model, did not seem to faze them-- “She simply listened, and then took his hand, pressing it as she had before” (19). I felt that this is a sign of strength in the relationship, as if because they have been through the worst, the small honest mistakes in a relationship cannot weaken their bond in love and sorrow. I thought it was an acceptance of each other’s role as normal, imperfect human beings.

I believe that Shoba is a very complex character who can be analyzed in countless ways. Her reasons for making the decision to leave her husband after the tragedy can be sympathized with on many levels, no matter how surprised I was. Her indifference to Shukumar’s confessions, I believe, could be a simple sign that she simply could not find the strength to love, since her greatest love (her child) was taken from her.

I did not find irony in the way Shoba reacted to her situation, only in Lahiri’s way of writing it. She successfully used the plot elements of darkness, confession, and character personality to create irony and suspense in a complicated marriage.

Haley DeLoach Eng 110- G

Hey everyone,

Hope your papers are going well. If any of you are writing yours on "Pilgrimage," I found a pretty good civil war site about the Battle of Vicksburg if you think it can be of any use in your papers.

http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/siege-vicksburg.htm

I also found an article about the Vicksburg Pilgrimage held during the spring, which is a big help in understanding some of the happenings and meanings in this poem. It says, "Pilgrimages are weeks of special emphasis organized and advertised by the tour homes, most of which were built before the Civil War."

http://www.vicksburgpost.com/articles/2008/10/30/news/doc4909d6ad39f0e761453119.txt

I hope this was of some help to anyone!

-Haley