Borderlands by Gloria Anzaldua

At first this book confused me as far as if it was like a longer essay, narrative, or a book a poetry.  The second confusion came from the language barriers.  It made me wonder how I was going to translate all of the Spanish to make sense of the English.  It gave me a sense of my confusion of language was very similar to her struggle with it as well.  This woman has struggled with identity, gender, sexuality, and becoming a person of her own.  Throughout the piece you learn what she does to identify herself.

"Cradled in one culture, sandwiched between two cultures, straddling all three cultures and their value systems, la mestiza.  under goes struggle of flesh, struggle of borders, an inner war.  Like all people, we perceive the version of reality that our culture communicates."  This was a quote I found very powerful for more reasons than one.  Its like being raised one way but developing likes of a new culture.  But in her case three totally different cultures would become very difficult to manage especially after crossing borders.  How do yo adjust into your own person if everyone around wants to mood you to their personal or cultural perspective?

We, in class, also spoke of acting verses reacting.  Acting is being proactive and reacting is falling behind and having sort of a negative catching up for events that have happened.  This quote I thought could be useful for acting, and being proactive in life.  "She is willing to share, to make herself vulnerable to foreign ways of seeing and thinking.  She surrenders all notions of safety, of the familiar.  Deconstruct, construct.  She becomes a Nahual, able to transform herself into a tree, a coyote, into a person.  She learns to transforms small "I" into the total self."  I think this is powerful in saying get up, explore yourself, break down life into the difficult and easy parts and completely understand yourself and when you get there, do tell, and share with others.

 

The Last Painting or the Portrait of God by Helene Cixous

The essay we recently read was very intriguing to me by the way of comparing art and literature.  Comparing thoughts of writing for the instant and capturing the moment and being able to perform those same processes with writing.  Although, painters have a total advantage in giving you a visual there are ways in which a writer could possible give you strong concrete images.  The problem is no matter how concrete a writer gives you images in their writings words translate differently in each reader's mindset.  An apple to me, might be green, radiate, and healthy, but an apple to you maybe the complete opposite, it might be red, tasteless, and unattractive.  Every readers has their own experiences and there is no solid way of changing that although a painter can enable to see what it is they want you to.

There a few quotes that stuck out to me doing the reading which are "I had made a distinction between what I had called "works of art" and "Works of being".  For me, works of art are works of seduction, works that can be magnificent, works that are really destined to make themselves seen."  I remember discussing this among my group in class with a question.  My question was how do we know if our work is considered a work of art of a work of being?  My knowledge was thinking that everyone would like to consider their work to be a work of art.  How do we know if we are on that level of knowing that our work is destined to  be seen, especially if we are afraid to publish them.  After discussing this with my group I learned that the writer meant works like like Rembrandt which was totally off subject.  My group member informed me that its not about having work that wants to be seen yet if it is personally and good and helpful to you then it would be good, helpful, and grand for others as well.

"This is how I live, this is how I try to write.  The best company for me is she or he who is in touch with the instant, in writing."  That to me is also very powerful.  Sometimes as writers we are caught up in the plotting, planning, and over thinking of things.  We lose sight of the initial thought which was powerful and becomes lifeless by revising before we vised.  I believe free writing is helpful in painting that image.  Letting lose, flying away with the page, and daring to leave those structures backbone.  Like a painter can capture an instant a writer can capture as much as they allow if they attempt to write in the moment. 

I really found this comparison between the jealously of a painter's art work and a writers' very informative.  I mean, I've been to art show displays where the people are wowed by the instant of the captured works of art verses an opening for a book show and all a writer can really do is explain, talk, and read certain parts.  The captured image burns when stuck in the same slot for too long in movie reels, is painting a pretty picture doing the same?  When a great writing can last a lifetime.

First Post,

My reading response to Precious, Disappearing Things,

     The piece was very inspiration and left me wondering about certain passages.  As an inspiring writer, I feel every creative writing student should have grasped a passage or two to learn from.  First I would like to say there are parts that moved me, such as "AVA is a work in progress and will always be a work in progress.  It is a book in a perpetual state of becoming.  It  cannot be stabilized or fixed.  It can never be finished.  It's a book that could be written forever."  As writers we often want to rush the ending instead of taking the time to actually write.  It tells me to write without conclusion just continue, go with the flow, experience where the piece will take you and don't be afraid to look back and radically revise.
     Another section that stuck out me to me referred to fragments.  "The fragments piled up.  Keeping the notebooks goings, I began to travel the world in my own way."  I like this because to me it is saying keep going don't stop, don't think about it, left the hand doing the speaking beside the mind.  Also when writing we tend to fix the errors while processing and it ultimately changes the meaning.  Its hard to avoid the green lines which tell us that the errors are there but some statements are made for different interpretations.
     "In AVA I have tried to write lines the reader (and the writer) might mediate on, recombine, rewrite as he or she pleases."  That's fun, give the readers multiple ideas to work with, don't allow us readers to only see one path in your writings.  Allow your readers to fill in the blanks helps it all become mysterious and telling, and fun.
     "Women, blacks, Latinos, Asians, etc.  are all made to sound essentially the same- that is, say, like John Cheever, on a bad day.  Oh, a few bones thrown now and then, a few concessions are made to exotic or alternative or "trangressive" content, but that is all.  And more free slips away."  So from this passage it makes me wonder if it is a bad thing to sound exotic or different.  Should everyone conform to the ways of the past writers which were all white males who've given up the basic restricted structures in which writers today suffer.

Sketching

I really thought the Sketching was a helpful read since I consider myself an inspiring writer for future novels and other works of art.  First, the sketching the tree was a cool way of explaining the process of brain storming.  It tells us to go with the flow, and just let the tree remain bare instead of forcing the starting image to becoming a finished planned work of art.

I also liked the parts about how most people are "None writers" and how they feel like everything must be planned in advance.  She believes when authors say everything was pre-planned that some of them, very few are hyping themselves up.  It's best to just write, have some ideas ready but go with the flow and see where the story takes you.
The part where she explained about Ed, who actually travels to his desired location of the story and takes like a miny vacation.  I think it's really cool how he'll go to the area and stand back and analyze life in the enironvment and after everything is done he uses his experiences to help with probably descriptions, people, and areas of what he can picture to place on the page.  I really liked the sketching it influences us to find what works for us individually as writers.

Farewell

Farewell

The perfect symmetrical steel rods with design to keep the rift raft out are still open, with only a few minutes until close.  I exhale with anxiety before entering the fences into the grounds then park soon hoping out of it with a present.  I realize this may be slightly rude but if I don’t do it now, then when will I have the courage?  After entering the foyer of the office, well dressed and groomed people smile while cutting their eyes at the ancient clock on the wall matching the aged decor of the room.

The friendly elderly lady behind the counter asks, “Hello, how may I help you?”

“I’m sorry, I know it’s a little late, I wasn’t aware that you are almost closed…I was just wondering if I could drop this gift off.”

“Aw, what a precious gift?  Yes, of course, but please make it quick.” 

I bowed my head not knowing how to respond but with an intense smile I replied, “Thank you, ma’am.  I’m looking for Winston Barns.”

“Your father?”

“Nah, a really good friend.”

“He’s not ready, yet.”

“It’s okay, I’ll find him.”

The lady types the name into the computer and within moments she prints out a list and after grabbing it from the printers she hands me a map and the list.  She gives a kind feeling just before saying, “Our offices will be closed soon so if you need to come back another day here is my card.”

“Thank you.  I really appreciate this I won’t be long I promise.”

I hurry out of the office; ignite my car knowing this will be the moment of truth.  It’s been a while since that day and my heart is hazy and my mind is nostalgic.  My car departs of the office lot off of the pavement onto the tire-made pathway.  Left.  While staring at the road I focus half my attention on my map starting to feel confused, antsy, and sick to my gut. Left.  I know I must continue because I don’t know if I’ll have the strength to do this again anytime soon.  Left.  I really hope this helps me overcome my regret.  Right.  Around the final fountain I realize I’m approaching where I need to be.  Right there.

My trembling wrist turns off the car, leaving me blankly staring at the clock; the time is 4:55 PM.  So I leap out of the car with fright in my fingertips holding my gift seeing that time has grown scarce.  It is too late to make excuses so I should hurry before the shift will end.  I walk with my gift in my arms staring with my attention on the bare patches of soil.  I see many of fancy entities, but this one isn’t ready.  I continue to search but my mind is grows flustered and racing faster than I can search.  The time is up since it has reached 5:00 PM.  Hysterically tears shed from my eyes when the guilt because if I failed, yet again.  It took me so long to get here and now I have to disappear. 

It’s time to leave before I’m considered trespassing.  I’ll come back to give you my gift buddy…farewell… for now.

Wreck Of Reason

After after a few selections from the Wreckage of Reason I came to a few conclusions.  I felt like it was a mixture of poetry and fiction.  It was very poetic yet some were lengthy with plots.  I really liked the Word.  Throughtout that piece there were a lot of hints to what the writer was walking about and I like how certain words were italized giving the word a stronger meaning.

Even though a lot of them didn't give me a short story vibe like in my fiction 101 Lit class one particular story stood out to me.  More than winter or spring had great dialoque and from the beginging i could get a great feel for the characters through their conversations.  Even thought i thought the langauage was extreme and harsh with the bold "FUCK YOU GOD!" statements I got a feeling from where the tension was clear.

I liked Numbers as well.  It was a quick great read that caaught my attention the moment I started to read it.  And after the readings the words at the bottom gave it even more explanation, but I would is that pushing show vs. tell dealing with the detail in the story?  But I got a good sense of both there was a lot of listing and with those lists i could visualize what was happening.  It was a  good read.

My favorite reading

I found this weeks reading very insightful dealing with a lot of different angles of writing.  First off with the segment of Polaroid I like how the writer used Polaroids somewhat like a metaphor for writing and the process of never knowing how the picture will turn out until its totally developed.  As a writer sometimes I worry about how I want the piece to turn out rather than the process of getting there.  I like "You couldn't have had any way of knowing what this piece of work would look like when you first started."  It's like we put so much on predicting how something will turn out instead of going with the flow and enduring the surprise that will naturally occur. 

In characters sections I learned a different way of viewing how to write about characters.  Give them personality, give them motives, describe them by not only how they look but how they carry themselves, what they own and how they present it.  I really like the point that we all favor at least one of the characters but don't hold back to that person that you love.  "As soon as you start protecting you characters from the ramifications of their less-than-lofty behavior, your story will start to feel flat and pointless, just like real life."  Its like saying takes risks show their good side, show their bad side, give them obstacles because we all go through this things, why shouldn't your characters?

I really like the part where the writers speaks on sharing your work with a friend in this part, "You may need someone else to bounce your material off of, probably a friend or a mate, someone who can tell you if the seams show, or if you've lurched off track, or even that it is not as bad as you thought and that the first one hundred pages do in fact hold up."  Great advice.  I feel like I just write, and write, and write and without any feed back while writing I start to feel self conscience and doubting my work.  I often call my brother to request his options, someone who is blunt and will tell you if your ideas aren't strong enough and maybe take a different angle on your plot before it could be potentially ruined.

This was my favorite PDF by far!

Justin T. Fluellen.