Final Thoughts (yes, I know this is late)

This semester has gone by very quickly. When I first signed up for my classes, I knew I would have to take my last two gen ed's in the Art category, so I picked this class as one of them. I have to say that going through this entire class, I don't know if I have become a better writer. In my opinion, writing has always come kind of "naturally" to me in the sense that I can write about almost anything. I'm pretty opinionated, so sometimes the things I write about have some bias toward them. I don't think it affects the message though.

My writing process hasn't really changed that much. In this post I can already tell you that it looks kind of scattered. Particularly because I'm not 100% sure what things I should be pin-pointing. What I do know, though, is that my experience with this class has been pretty unique. I had never attended readings or any type of shows but by making at least two of them mandatory I feel like I've experienced something I wouldn't normally set out to experience. In my writing, I wasn't too fond of writing poems or fiction (because I hate fiction) but when I force myself to go through it, it all turned out okay in the end. I found out that my sister liked my writing, so that was kind of inspirational, in some sort of abstract way. At the end of the day though, I don't feel quite as satisfied about all of my courses this semester, it's probably the two art gen ed's speaking, though.

For my final thought on writing, I just want to say that I feel writing is particularly a leisure activity. I feel like if I was going to write about something, I would only want it to be informative. Why? Because I'm addicted to relevant information. I do not like spending time wandering the possibilities of things that don't exist. I want to convey a message that will make people think about Something. I find this the most effective way to communicate. In the beginning of class, I said that I was a part of something called "The Zeitgeist Movement", and I will stick to my thoughts about writing and offer something relevant to anybody who decides to read this. So I leave you with this:

www.TheVenusProject.com

www.TheZeitgeistMovement.com

www.ZeitgeistMovie.com

Happy learning.

Essay Packet 2

Okay so for this blog response I will be talking about essay packet #2. Out of all the essays on this packet, I have to say that none of them quite stood out any more than the others. I didn't really have a favorite nor did I like any of them that much. This is usually not the case, but I digress.

So anyway, the first essay "Three Voices" is terribly confusing. In all three parts they mention an or the color orange, but I don't know the significance. There really is no plot to these essays other than what seems like random babbling about some type of life experience. In all three parts, it may seem to be speaking of the past, present, and future of ones life, but I haven't quite figured that out. Near the end it makes some type of reference to the life translating English to Spanish and vice versa. Almost to be defined in text as: Young Woman Longing Life Stranger is Orange Angel of Wonder, My Life is Sacred. I don't get this one.

The second essay, The Fine Art of Sighing, really pisses me off to put it quite frankly. The idea is that everybody sighs for different reasons. We all sigh with our bodies and we all sigh differently. In this idea we are all connected through this sighing, and makes its point in mentioning a literal Bridge of Sighs. Well isn't that just beautiful. We all eat food. We all drink water. We all breathe clean air. We all think with our brain. We are a human species. We all make decisions. We all grow old. We all die... Why would the author pick sighing? Yes, I understand that we are all connected, but we are all connected for multiple reasons. I don't know why the author picked this one, I suppose it just doesn't resonate well with me.

The third essay, Crumbling Expectations, isn't one that is quite my favorite either. It follows similar to the first that most of the time I wasn't quite sure what was going on. It was only when we spoke of it in a group did I understand its meaning, and even then it was a little shaky. This story tries to convey that almost all of our lives are similar. The characters father had drafts of novels which had a set storyline. The character tried to rewrite the story but in the end the same thing happened. The idea that we all have goals and things that we cherish, and even cherish them while neglecting other things. Then the idea that when these things fail and are destroyed, only then do we realize the things we had all along. I suppose this is a story that teaches us to appreciate what we do have, but even then I couldn't be happy with the message, because there are so many things that people do NOT have, that NEED to have things vital to Life, that I couldn't feel "right" telling them to appreciate what they do have. I don't know. Confusing!

Blawg

One of the essays that we did not talk about in class, that I would like to write about here is Mint Snowball.

This story seems to be one of those types of stories where you lose something in your childhood that you enjoyed so much and know you can never get back. For the author or writer, this happens to be a Mint Snowball. A special recipe created by a great grandfather. When his/her great grandfather passed away, the recipe was gone forever since the only copy of the recipe was lost. Ever since then, the writer seems to have felt something missing from their life.

Now, we all have a lot of Mint Snowballs in our lives. Things that we enjoyed and lost. Perhaps a childhood memory, or something you cherished. For me, I'd probably have to pick my childhood. Although it's not something tangible, when reading this I couldn't help but think about all of my childhood memories. All the things I used to do when there was not a care in the world. I figure if I ever had the chance I would probably do it all again. I'm sure anyone world.

So far as the writing style and form/technique/whatever you'd like to call it, most of the essays that we have/have not spoken about all typically run the same. The writing is descriptive and in depth and gives you a real feeling of your senses using details. The essays usually run sequentially and stay in order-things do not skip around to different time periods. I may or may not have enjoyed all of these essays. I'll leave it at that.

Essay Packet (1)

The first essay packet has over 20 pages filled with various essays written by various authors. The two that I chose and will be talking about is "Sunday" by Henry Gates Jr, and "Farder to Reache" by Albert Goldbarth. These two essays along with a couple others are particularly short compared to others, but nevertheless I like them and will be commenting on them.

The second essay speaks about the universe and poetry in everlasting infinite fashion. Many scientists/astronomers played with the idea of the universe being infinite rather than stars binding them at the ends. The author states:  Perhaps infinity isn't discovered along a timeline of gathering progress, but by certain sensibility, no matter when it lives. I liked this part because it really puts a concept of infinity existing for an infinite amount of time, regardless of progress. He then talks about the two astronomers/scientists and himself hanging out drinking some beer on a late night, and it turning into quite a good time, as the sun rises. The last part of this essay really sets the tone per-say because it gives an imaginable relaxing outlook on day/night, infinity and kinship toward one another. I enjoyed reading both of these essays.

edit: I removed my middle paragraph mainly because I spoke about the food rather than the "underlying issue". Yes, I know this essay was about civil rights, but No, I am not concerned about it's point. The most that I got out of the first essay was that it made me think about all the memories I had with family and friends when I was younger, and how much I enjoyed family get-togethers and reunions. Hopefully this edit doesn't get misinterpreted. :)

92 hours.

That's how long I went without my computer... Felt like an eternity.

Anyhow,  for this blog response I will be talking about a book that I am currently reading outside of the classroom. This book can be classified as nonfiction, but may seem like fiction to many narrow minded to a world of possibilities.

The book that I am reading is called "The Best That Money Can't Buy" by Jacque Fresco. The author is a social engineer, futurist, public speakers and scientist. This book consists of a world beyond Politics, Poverty and War. The author spends his writing talking about the process to obtain this type of world, as well as pointing out the difficulties and major problems that today's world faces.

The institutions of today are outdated and age old, and they no longer work. Money today is backed by debt and when in the hands of corporations and non-government entities, they have a major influence on the way the world tilts. This understanding coupled with the envisioning that we have come so far in the fields of science and technology, can make many of the things we understand today such as Work, Money, Corruption, Economics (of money), Poverty, War, and Law can be reduced and practically eliminated.

The central vision for this type of world is called a Resource Based Economy. This entails ALL the worlds resources for ALL the worlds people. Anything less will fuel scarcity (artificial or real), war, social stratification, elitism, poverty and crime. Within an RBE, people have surpassed the concept of Property and instead have access to the necessities of life. The only real problems that will exist in this world are problems that are common to all humans.

This world is getting very nasty every day, and it's this book that I hope to finish as soon as possible. This book provides a tangible outlook to many alternatives we will face in our near future. Economies are crumbling and nations are at war. We are all human beings, and only when surrounded by a certain environment from birth do we see things such as nationalism, patriotism, racism, bigotry, and terrorism. Once people wake up from the misguided institutions that 'guide' our lives can we work toward a world goal.

Imagine; People... Giving a shit about People.

To: To: After That

Meta-fiction. I guess that was the word to describe this book. For me, it probably had to be one of the most confusing books I've had to deal with. I mentioned in class that I felt the author did a lot of "thinking out loud" and that seems to be the theme of this book. Gladman talks about various topics, mostly about her other book "After That". In this book, she likes to talk about her writing process, and how its changed, and what's going on in her life right now. She tries to make a time line of her work, and how it took her years to finish up some of her work. Also what seems relevant is that due to the time that it took her to finish some of her work, her writing style changes with the culture in which she lives and the form/style that she learned over the given time. I thought that this was particularly interesting considering if I was writing a book, how difficult it would be to finish it year by year and retain the same writing style.

That in mind, I can say that the book again was extremely confusing. It's almost as if you were able to make a documentary type film, and then make a documentary about it, this is what To After That would be. I didn't get a full chance to read every last page since Amazon gave me the wrong book. I recall this happening to somebody else from Barnes and Noble. Pretty upsetting, but nevertheless from what I did read I found this book interesting, in a confusing "what the hell is going on" type of way.

Short Stories and Poems

I'm a little late on this post, I suppose that's a good way to start...

Anyway, the first thing that I would like to talk about are the poems that I wrote on any recent events. The two that I chose, probably the most obvious was concerning the miners in Chile. The poem is called Sixty-Eight since that's how long the miners had to wait before I believe the first miner was brought up. I thought it would be particularly simple to write about this event considering that being trapped anywhere for 60+ days would bring out a lot of thoughts or memories.

The second article that I wrote about had to do with a family that had their newborn taken away from them just after his birth. Yes, that's right, Social Services basically kidnapped a family's baby after it was born. The reason that was given is that the father was an Oath Keeper (protector of the Constitution) and police said he allegedly had a violent history. That's awfully funny, because I'm pretty sure Social Services don't take away children that are in poverty, or for any other reason I've ever heard. It's an awfully disappointing story but I thought it would also be good to write about considering how emotional the event really sounds.

The other thing I wanted to briefly talk about was the short stories. We mentioned only one in class and that was the Liquor Store story. I felt adequately about the story, but some of the other ones that caught my humor were the Misdemeanors and The List of Famous Hats. I didn't get a chance to read Every one of the short stories, but Mystery Stories was also interesting to discuss in class.

I think that's all I wanted to say about these topics. If I feel the need to add something I'll edit it sooner than later.

Blood Dazzler

Reading the Blood Dazzler can seem like quite a chore after some time. The authors writing is very organized and uses a wide range of vocabulary, and captures the feeling of Hurricane Katrina from the storms point of view. When I say capture, I mean that she does quite an extensive job of bringing the feeling and emotion of the storm. The poems are written as the storm becomes a tropical storm, and then a hurricane, and the poems reflect these stages.

The only problem that I have with her reading is that the word usage makes the poems especially difficult to read aloud. Words that are not commonly used are placed together and sometimes when reading you can't help but feel like your reading random words placed together. The capturing of the storm and the storms "eye" are usually highlighted, but the problem of poetry comes back into the light.

Here we have poems, which are great in their light, and spread many emotional feelings, sufferings, and grievances. Then, in the real world we have a city that was built with very poor infrastructure, didn't receive proper support and funding to help the victims of this flood, and thus caused the results which are still being seen today. While the poems, as stated before, capture MANY of the devastating effects of a hurricane, I'm still more offended by the lack of planning and environmental care that actually made this hurricane a category 5 (or was it 4?). Either way, you can write a poem about a burning building, or you could build a building that's fireproof. Maybe it would take away from the actual poem, but the suffering would be minimal.

*Edit: Turns out it was a category 3, which considering the impact the city was built worse than expected :)

Adjsiaojdoijwaioejwaoidjsojdsioajorewnakjdnsa!!!!

Okay, so I couldn't really think of an adequate title.

Anyhow,  this part blog post will be a reading response to various work in "Writing Down the Bones". After reading some of the material, I have to say that doing some of the things recommended is awfully tough. The author (name slips my mind at the moment) makes a lot of suggestions about writing down as much as possible at almost all times. In one of her stories she talks about how she had all of these journals/diaries and notebooks stacked high, mostly with all of her writing filling the pages. She states that whatever is on your mind should be written down and that one should do writing practices just writing down everything imaginable.

I admit that she seems awfully enthusiastic about these ideas and this grand concept of writing down everything possible and doing practices and comparing writing to physical activities, but I've personally tried this and after about 10 minutes I usually find myself staring at a piece of paper just writing squiggles. Not necessarily words but in 10 whole minutes, I find it hard to write down every thought that enters the mind. I personally dislike some of the advice that the author gives because I typically try not to devote much of my life to writing poems or abstract thoughts.

Some of the other stuff that was presented in class was pretty neat though. Sharing various poems and reading them, pointing out what we like about them. I thought it was okay. At the end of my day I still see poetry as poetry just as politics are politics. Hopefully we will step into the creative writing aspect of the class, since I'd much rather explain how a tree can cut a saw in half, rather than seeing how abstract speaking can spin its way around the classroom.

Poetry Packet Reading Response

      After reading the majority of the poems by Shakespeare in the poetry packet provided, I have to say that Shakespeare's writing is incredibly unique. Some of his poetry is awfully confusing and abstract, while others are easier to follow and provide a point of interest. The one poem that I would like to personally talk about is poem #127.

     This poem in general speaks about the beauty of his mistress. Using color black in the view of the culture/society as a comparison to her beauty. Shakespeare's poem structure is that every other stanza rhymes (forgot the proper term) and each line is fairly simple to understand. Though I am not a professional writer, nor do I write poems, I found this poem to be one of the easiest to read and follow through.

As for a personal response to the poetry packet, I feel as though I have an under-appreciation toward the entire concept. Poetry, theater, art, and other various forms of writing/acting seem to be a privilege among developed countries. People such as Shakespeare may be able to provide "masterpiece" poetry, but this action in its entirety does not do anything to help solve real world issues. It's more of a leisure activity rather than tangible activity. I suppose this is why I have my under-appreciation toward theater/poetry/writing but hopefully this viewpoint will be adjusted for better or for worse.

General Information

Hello,

My name is Nathan Davidson.

I am 22 years of age.

My birthday is in July.

My major is Accounting.

I am currently a Junior at EMU.

My blog posts will be more in depth than this one... :)