Finishing the Maps: Maps To Anywhere- Final

This will be the final section of Bernard Cooper's Maps To Anywhere, at least I believe this will be. During the reading for this part of the book (approximately page 67 through 128), the reader will be met with a different topic. Within the long essay of "The House of the Future," we are brought to the attention of Bernard's brother and his death. Though, there are still pieces within that longer essay which does not mention his actual death. I'm going to first talk about this particular essay since it was a larger part of the book.

The question to start us off with will be: what does Cooper mean when calling it the house of the future? For some maybe it was representing his love for architecture and how he uses it a lot to seemingly cope with what is happening within his real world. Though for me, I think it means something totally different; I think it is talking about how his brother, Gary, will not be in the future anymore. That he will not be living the same house that he was living in. This section (though you can see some more aspects of his brother throughout the rest of the book), you see him essentially dying, more like withering away. Cooper, along with his parents, will not see them in their house in the future when he ultimately goes, so that could be a way to describe their life after the fact. Though it is still up for interpretation...

Throughout "The House of the Future" Cooper barely touches upon relationship between his brother. I mean, that he shows him trying to keep him occupied on Saturdays, and how he was getting sicker, which would signify that he does miss his brother quite a bit. However, Cooper is always thinking of past memories of Gary, how he used to look like prior to him getting sick, as if he is trying to cling on to him before he got sick. At one point, Cooper mentions that he started to think that Gary's sickness was contagious, and so he would disinfect everything just like his mom. I feel like this is him trying to keep this hope that his brother would get better.

When Gary died, I expected Cooper to talk about himself crying, he did not though. It was a painful time during Cooper's life, I understand that. I have moments in my life that are painful to relive. But mentioning how much it pained me, mentioning how much I cried helped. I feel better everyday, though I know it will still be hard to bring up. I respect Bernard Cooper's journey through writing this essay, and I wish him the best of luck on his endeavors.

Traveling the Maps: Maps to Anywhere

So, back to creative essays. This time the class and I had to read Bernard Cooper's Maps to Anywhere, a collection of his creative essays. Some of these essays range from his personal life with his family, to, for example, a barbershop pole. They're interesting, incredibly creative, and insightful and thought provoking. I'm not talking about the general means of being creative. I'm talking about how just a simple word can provoke these images and thoughts about that particular object. In a way, some of his essays in this book remind me of one of my assignments for creative writing class, the first essay assignment where I picked the word "book." Before I go too far into that (since those are not what the blog posts are about) I will continue to go back to Mr. Cooper's lovely book. I am going to talk about some of my favorite parts of the book so far (up to about page 65), and this one is going to be a long one so sit back and relax.

Now, in the last blog post I talked about how I wanted to run the other way when it came to creative essays, but now I want to retract that statement. I am not sure what made this change, but it did. So, I want to start with a part that I can relate to within the first long essay. It is the section "By any other name" within the section of Beacons burning down. Why this particular section? As you can tell by my title of this blog, that my name is actually fairly common, so how can I relate to a name like Bernard? The answer is simple, my spelling is not as common as my name, and finding items with my name on it is very hard. Though, that is not what this is about. The whole Beacons burning Down section is a glimpse into the start of Bernard's life. Not by a "start" but getting to know him more before diving into the remainder of the essays.

Without a doubt, I think my favorite is "Rain Rambling Through Japan." I know why it is my favorite though, because of the fact that I am such a language buff and listening to the world that is filled with such language. Language of other animals, language of rain, you can learn more about your environment when you are paying attention to your surroundings, the language of the world, instead of just being nose into your phone or earbuds in for you to listen to music. But that is not my favorite part of this little essay. I love the comparison between turning pages quickly (for translating or just in general discussions), with the falling of the rain, the downpour. I encourage people to listen to the world around them and listen to the rhythm of the downpour one day. 

The last one that I will be talking about would be within The Wind Did It section. The language within this section appeals to me more. I feel like I am not just reading about his relationship with his father, I feel like I'm experiencing it with him. I really liked this line, "The worst by far was coiling the hose, a task he claimed I could never do well, though he made me do it again and again. Heavy and green and recalcitrant, the hose would snake in the wrong direction and cramp with kinks I couldn't undo." The reason behind why it is one of my favorite lines is well, the way he described it. I always imagined a hose as a snake when I was younger, and to know that just one other person liked it too, makes me happy. I would add more, but I will not have anything for in class discussions, so I will add more to the next one. I can't wait....