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....

Creative Essays?

I'm not going to lie to the readers out there, I have never thought about making an essay creative. When I think of essays, I think of the structured papers that we come across with at school. They are factual, and tend to pose a side of an argument. This is what I have always known, so the introduction of creative essays made me want to run the other way. I told you guys I was not going to lie, so I will not. What a creative essay does is that it incorporates facts about a particular subject and throw a twist on it to make it more creative for the readers. My first exposure to creative essays come out of the essay packet that I had to read for class. At first, I did not see the essay part with the first few sections, but then once I read "Mute Dancers: How to Watch a Hummingbird" by Diane Ackerman, I noticed the combination between creative and factual parts of the essay itself.

To start off talking about the one that I mentioned above first. "Mute Dancers: How to Watch a Hummingbird," is a piece about, well, Hummingbirds. The first paragraph is creatively written, and it drew me in to this particular piece. Afterward, it went into giving history, but it was still creatively written, and the language is beautiful. There are a lot of show aspects of this section as well, but most of it was talking just about the history. I learned things about Hummingbirds that I did not know about, for example how they were depicted as resurrection birds within Indian myths and legends. I know a lot of legend and myths, but I did not know about that. I enjoyed this piece a lot.

Another one that I liked was "Mint Snowball." In this piece, Naomi Shihab Nye talks about the recipe for something that is called a mint snowball, which is ultimately dessert. This dessert sounds so yummy and I want one, let's be honest. But the essay goes into talking about how the great-grandfather sold the recipe outside the family, and that the narrator's family is looking for a way to replicate it. I wonder if maybe the great-grandfather just did not want to pass it on because he is grumpy. All in all, I want to eat some dessert now.

Bathhouse Event

On March 18th, there was the bathhouse event. I was unable to attend due to classes being scheduled for the event. During class though, we read some of the two poets' work. Their names are C.A. Conrad and Dawn Lundy Martin. I will  be discussing Martin's work, though, today. I do not know much about the particular poems that I am presented with since they are from a larger book, the title has slipped my mind currently, but they are interested.

I will start with "Violent Rooms." This poem is split between two different sections. In my opinion the sections are connected, but the way I am not so sure. Some students mentioned that someone was giving birth, but I would have to disagree. I do not see it, maybe instead of that it is someone trying to deal with life. Not a particular even to describe the poem, but just their daily life. I think that someone trying to cope with abuse maybe when their were younger, and now that they are grown, they are just trying to piece together the whole picture.

The structure of "The Morning Hour" is different than what I have come across before. I liked the spacing between some words gives emphasis on what she is trying to say. Kind of like she wants you to sink in the words that she is trying to send across for the reader. I also like the use of brackets to separate the different sections, but it made me feel like it was like a time lapse forward. Martin uses strong imagery throughout most of her poems that I have, and I love the fact that she does this. The line that I liked particularly was "Feet thick as throats." This was my favorite line for multiple reasons, when one walks a lot, their feet are swollen (it sucks because this happens to me quite a lot), and is just thick from all the blood. But that line speaks a lot about the character within the poem for it talks about them being on their feet all day, so you can get a sense of their job.

C.A. Conrad is very... exotic. I am not sure what to say about him, but I do like that he isn't afraid to show what the process is like. The poetry exercises are interesting (no, I will not rub a banana on myself... I am so sorry), and it also shows that poetry can come from anywhere and it is up to the person whether they approve to continue with it or not. I think that someone should try them (also, why do they all have to do with being naked? Is that because you're more vulnerable when you are naked?), just to experience it once, because it is an eye opener. I am increasingly intrigued and want to read more from the two of them.

Death to the Bones

Today, we say good-bye to Writing Down the Bones, and I must say that I am sad about it. I know that I did not read most of it somedays (more like skimmed), but it was still very helpful to read. I will be talking about my last three favorite chapters. I found that within this section I liked more of the chapters, and I am not sure why (I have an idea as to why, that will come later though). Natalie Goldberg goes through what she has been doing, though it is more for after the fact that you finished writing something, but continues to give you more ideas to keep those creative juices going.

In "A Meal You Love", she talks about writing about a favorite food that you love. Where were you eating it? Were you with other people? Describe that situation and the people you were with and just let free. Since you are writing about something you love, and not something that is forced, you will notice how much more carefree it is to write about. She also mentions in the next chapter "Use Loneliness" that you should embrace the loneliness and write about it. For me, when writing, it is an escape from that loneliness that I face a lot during my major droughts of it. I feel like I have met someone new, and that we will be close friends when writing from the loneliness, and I know that I connect more to the characters that I am writing about than if I was happier and writing that way.

One more chapter I liked (though I will talk about another one after this) would be "Writing Marathons." I have never experienced one before though, but a day of writing and sharing with people that you like and are in your own particular group of writing friends seems like a day I would like to go with. It makes no sense, I have weak wrists now so writing with pencil or pen tends to hurt after a while, but the reward is best. After a set time you read aloud what you have wrote, and no one says anything. No one critiques it (they might in their own set of writing), but you get to let your guard down and focus on just writing it all out. Have a topic of swimming (example from the book), I would write about the first time I swam completely, or maybe during the swimming conditioning during middle school and how the coach believed I could make it all the way to the olympics. It was empowering to hear that, and it is something that some writing lacks. The love of the piece, the way that you are writing about something that you know and continue it.

The last one I will write about will be "The Samurai" and how it is taking out whole pieces that just suck and "samurai" it out. While you let other people read your work, you will notice how many different opinions come about (which Ms. Goldberg talks about nicely in a different chapter, I believe), the point of the samurai is to be tough towards your work. You have to work through the parts that suck completely and find those pieces of gold. I think writing should do that at one point, which parts worked better with other parts, etc. The most important thing is to always claim your writing that you have completed.

More Fiction

We have been going over more fiction lately. I must say that I personally like this section more than poetry. However, there are some parts that make me want to tear my eyes out. Though I will not speak of those and save them for another day. There are some gems within the fiction packet that we have been reading. My favorites would have to be The Falling Girl, and August 25, 1983.

I will start with The Falling Girl, the imagery is astounding throughout the piece. But that was not the main reason that I liked the story itself (though I will come back to it, I want to start with this first), the main reason would be the idea behind it. It is whimsical in the sense of taking forever to fall from jumping from the top. There are many different meanings behind all of it, when the younger women are falling faster than Marta, it could represent that life is passing her by, or that it was not her time to go yet. The author has pointed out during this particular part the outfits that Marta is wearing versus what the other girl was wearing. To me it was pointing out the economical differences of the two women and how that no matter what status you are at, you might not be in the best place. Now, to the imagery of The Falling Girl, my particular favorite is when the author is comparing her to a seductive comet. I love looking at comets and they are insanely pretty, so this girl must be pretty in the eyes of the narrator.

August 25, 1983 was a whirlwind. Most of the time I was not sure who was talking to whom, and if it was all real. At first, when I was reading it, I thought of the movie Groundhog Day which the main character repeats the same day over and over again until he broke it. I'm not exactly sure where I got that loop from, but then the second time reading it I realized that it was not what that meant. Maybe it was a time travel like from most science fiction shows. Even with the discussions within class, I feel like the meaning is still out there.

Fiction Time!!

During this week and last Thursday we started discussing some short stories. These short stories ranged from funny, and life hearted ones to more serious ones. With each new short story, a new author with a new technique. Some were fabricated with more dialogue, one felt like it was a run on sentence broken up by semi colon.

Wallet was lighthearted, and fun. The story was about an older man who created a fake wallet, filled to the brim, because his kept getting stolen. He has his son be the getaway driver when conducting the "experiment" of taking the wallet to the mall and seeing if the fake wallet will get stolen. This backfires in the sense of the fake wallet being stolen and the guy runs for it. It mostly takes place as a mall, but in a car as well. The line "He is an old man trying to act feeble and childlike..." is a good line to add when discussing about the fact that he is trying to fool others into taking the fake wallet.

Letters from Home was more of a list in terms of writing. Though filled with the imagery of what she was doing possibly in the day of her life. Or maybe it was for her whole life. The ending is not that clear about what happens to her in the end for she is now sailing away with a guy. The question would be who is this guy and why is he just randomly appearing. During the middle section of the short story, it is broken up with a guy that is coming and asking about things. There may be more of religious connotations within it. Then the story gets really deep in the last part where it is talking about everything is connected with each other.

Another one that I particularly liked was The Colonel. Within this story, it is about a man visiting a fellow military man. I did not understand this story that much, I am not sure why,  but I was trying to figure out what relationship the two men had. Like was the main visiting a friend or a lover???? This was not clear. What I did understand, however, was the fact that the colonel did not care much about anyone else. It was his way or the highway. The imagery is strong towards the end, when he is spilling the ears out of a sack. It is a disgusting image to think about.