Maps To Anywhere Response part 2

In part 2, the story “Leaving” could possibly represent someone who was born to stand out of normality or someone who wants to leave normality. The mother and father fit the profile for the perfect parents. The 2.5 children,, one brother one sister and part of another child, also seem to fit the perfect family picture. However, the 0.5 child, isn’t all there. Parts of it are missing, which is how some people can feel while trying to fit in with others. They can feel isolated because they feel that they don’t fit in, much like the 0.5 child. The 0.5 child wants to leave what little space that they take up.

In “The Theory of Relativity”, it talks about growing up. It starts off by saying how odd it is that children are born with such big heads that are not relative to their bodies. It also talks about the parents expectations for their children growing up, especially when it comes to the boys. They are expected to grow up big and strong like their dads by eating their vegetables and drinking milk. Children are expected by their parents to grow up big but society wants them to be small. So while we are getting bigger, we want to be smaller, thus creating the awkwardness that is in society today.

In “Aphorism”, it talks about  swine and oysters. But honestly, it seems as if the swine are really humans and the pearls from the oysters represent what humans take from nature. As humans, we are the greediest creatures on earth. We take from nature and all other animals that are around us, knowing that most of the animals cannot defend or take it back. This is why we can be defined as swine in the eyes of the animals. Humans take everything from them and rarely give anything back. We see what we want and take it, not caring about what animals it will effect.

Maps to Anywhere Part 1

In the story “Beacons Burning Down”, the speaker (Bernard), seems to have a love of the English language and its complexity. He doesn’t really like his name because his mother keeps forgetting it. He doesn’t seem to like the concept behind religion. The speaker also seems to have a problem balancing his family and his own life, his mother wants him to write her book but he wants to finish his own book first. He seems amused by his father’s job as a lawyer. The most amusing story to me was the story of Mrs.Green and headless rooster. Mrs.Green nursed a headless rooster while claiming that the rooster was Lazarus and a benefit to science and mankind. The rooster was taken away from her until the speaker’s father helped her win her case. However after getting the rooster back, it dies after a few months later.

In “Atlantis”, the speaker talks about going to a barbershop. He feels at peace when he is there and knows that his barber will take care of him. Most women feel the same way when they are at the beauty salon, they feel a since of ease and comfort. He describes the blank faces that hold up the hair cuts for the  costumers to choose from.

Fictional Packet 3 Response

The first story in this packet reminded me of the creation of the world. The two boys that were playing in the mud seem to be making the creatures that roam the earth. Then they create the girl out of mud. They watch her wake up at night and see the two moons that are her eyes. Inside of her, they see another girl, they say that there is a sister for each of them. They dive into the moons and the moons shatter into a billion pieces and each piece turns into a star. The brothers do everything in their power to make the girl happy. This story also has sexual undertones. It also serves to say that men were created to serve women instead of the other way around.

The next story that I found interesting was “The Falling Girl”. This story makes me think of people who move to fast in life and meet their deaths earlier than they should. The main character Marta, is 19 years old. She is wealthy and popular but wants more. Marta wants to be at the biggest parties and is always on the go. Her friends try to get her to slow down but she ignores them. She feels like she is falling into the world and missing everything that can make her life better. Marta also noticed that there are other girls falling as well, however they are falling faster than her and they are dressed way better than her. To me, this story speaks to the saying “More money, more problems.”, she feels that because she does not have enough or dressed good enough, she is not good enough. The man towards the bottom of the building says that you can only see the young girls at the top and the old women at the bottom. It seems as that as the girls fall, time takes over and they age as they waste their time racing towards stuff that they don’t  even need.

I found a lot of stories in the fiction packet to be very interesting and complex. It was somethings that I could not understand, the story ” Singing Fishes” and the first story were very hard for me to understand and the meaning of these stories escape me. However, the other stories were easy to get the meaning of. I liked the packet as a whole.

Juice Part 2

When I started to read part two of “Juice”, I thought it would be a continuation of part one. However, part two starts off with a different speaker and a different situation. The speaker returns to their hometown after being gone for a number of years. The speaker sees that nothing is the same from when they left. The speaker states the fact that their sister made signs and one sign in particular said ” No Through Street”. The speaker also talks traveling on trains from east to west. The speaker learns that you can be surrounded by both life and death on a train. The speaker also learned to love the human voice as they would rather hear what is going on than try to see it.

Even though the speaker says they do not blame their sister for the popularity that their street has suddenly received for  the signs. The speaker speaks as if they secretly do blame her for it. Since the speaker has been back in town, they have not talked to their sister or went to go see her. The speaker states that after a public craze about the sister’s signs brought the media to Hershey Street, six months later, long- time neighbors, The Godfreys, moved out. The speaker feels as though the media and museum- goers have consumed the last of the street. The speaker is prepared to get on a train and never return because they feel like there is nothing to return to.

However the speaker does try to make the best of the situation. the speaker attempts to explore the new stuff that was built over the stuff that the speaker knew as a child. They attempt to snuff out the probable ghosts of the past. This section of the book seems to suggest the problem that some people have with change and growing up. The speaker hates the fact that so much has changed. Some people do not like change and tend to have a bad reaction to change when it happens. The speaker also seems to have a problem with growing up and changing them-self.

Juice Part One Response

While reading “Juice”, I was kind of confused as to the origin of the speaker and his people. To me it seems as if the people of his culture are going through a hard time adjusting to the changes that are going on  around them. I have come to think that they may be a tribe that is native to an mountainous area that incomers are building around. Unlike other cultures that look to the past for guidance, they do not. They prefer to store it away from sight and not use it, which to me, is kind of weird. However, I want to know why he was the only one left behind. Why did he have to suffer the effects of being left alone for so long that he heard voices and saw spirits? Why couldn’t he go with them or why couldn’t a few of them stay behind with him?

This book displays the descent into madness that a person can experience from going too long without human contact. The speaker went from  having his whole community there with him to being by himself over night. What was the crisis that these people went through that they left him behind?  In the beginning of the book, the speaker was obsessed with  juice, any kind of juice really. But once everyone left him, he no longer worries about it. He just wonders when his people will be back. He doesn’t eat and it is unclear whether he sleeps or not, but it is highly likely that he doesn’t. It is also unclear how long he has been left alone, on page 18, he says that it was 2 years ago that the first visions appeared. However, that could just be from that moment in time in which he was speaking.

So far, I would say that this book is pretty good. It has plenty of mystery as to what happened to his people, where did they go, when they are going to be back, and why did they leave him there by himself? He finds ways to entertain himself, even though he is slowly going insane without human contact. He even finds a way to take care of his sexual needs. I honestly cannot wait to see how this book ends. It will be interesting to see his people’s reaction to the changes of his state of mind and body when they return.

 

Fictional Writing Responce

I am a person who enjoys fictional writing. It is very interesting to see what characters people can come up with. I also like to see how a writer can twist and turn a character’s life. My favorite fictional story was “Obsessions” in the Goldberg story pack. Even though many writers will not admit it, they often write about the object of their obsession. Whether it is a person, an animal, a place that they like to visit, their obsessions can be found through out their work. In the second short story packet, the story “Internal”, it shows how characters can become obsessed as well. The two interns became obsessed with observing each other to the point where their decaying minds and bodies did not even matter to them, just as long as they where at the holes so they try to see if they could get glimpse of each other.

To me creating fictional writing is kind of like an art. You have to create a main character that everyone likes and can relate to. You have to be able to paint a picture in your reader’s mind of what you want them to see. When I am writing fictional stories and cannot think about anything to write about, I often write about the people around me and the situations that they go through or something that I have been through. I also like to write about my obsessions and one of them happens to be supernatural creatures. I love writing about the supernatural because it is very interesting subject and it holds my attention. On rare occasions, I like to personify objects to give my stories more personality.

I really like reading and writing fictional stories. They hold my attention better than any other writing genre. Even though writing fictional stores can be a pain, especially when you are suffering from writer’s block, it is still a good experience to have in the back of your mind.

Longer Short Story Packet Response

In the first story, “Intern”, I do not think that this man was really hired to be an intern. To me, it seems like he was hired to be  a spy for the man who hired him and that working beside  Doctor Rauch is just a cover. Everyone tried to tell the speaker to stay away from Doctor Rauch, but when he asked why, no one had a real answer. The doctor wants the speaker to spy on his brother and warns him about all of his brother’s habits. However, the doctor does not call it spying but “observation from a distance”. From what I have read, I can guess that the doctor wants to use the intern’s notes on his brother to come up with a cure for different types of psyches. He seems to believe that by observing their behavior, it can give an insight as to how to cure them. However I think the only thing that the doctor managed to do was drive the intern crazy.

 

Fiction Packet part 1

The stories are both interesting and a little weird. The first story ” Survivors”, takes a very different view on marriage. The narrator says that he hopes he dies before his lover. He doesn’t want to deal with his lover’s family. He knows that the family will not approve of their lifestyle, especially his lover’s father. He also knows that the family will secretly hate and blame him because he is the survivor. It is a shame that he has to feel this way about the family if someone he loves and cares about. It should never be this way between loved ones and their families.

The second story, ” The Colonel”, was very disturbing. It started off as a nice simple dinner. In the beginning, it seems as if the speaker doesn’t think that anyone would believe he was there. The scene turns from food to bad when the parrot speaks and the Colonel tells it to shut up. However, I was not expecting the Colonel to come back in the room with a whole bunch of cut off ears. The fact that he would not give the people back their rights makes it seem like he is a dictator that care only about himself and power.

The third story that I found both interesting and weird is ” The Talking Cat”. First of all, I have a problem that this cat can talk and then the speaker has a full conversation with the cat as if nothing was wrong with this situation. Then the speaker has the nerve to call the women who owns the cat jealous. It is her cat, why wouldn’t she be jealous? Your talking to her talk. Maybe she is the only one that the cat talks to. But my last question is why is the cat talking in the first place?

 

City Eclogue part 2 response

In the second half of City Eclogue, the first poem I read was Open. I believe that this poem is about the housing segregation that was going on before and during the Civil Rights Movement. Sometimes, if there were areas that Caucasians did not want to live in and the government did not want African Americans to live in, they would tear down the houses. The narrator of Open was speaking on the fact that before the houses were torn down, the area seemed to be full of life and that it used to be very tight living quarters. But now that the houses along with the other people are gone, all he sees is an open sadness as generations of families have disappeared.

The next poem that I found interesting was Simple As One Two. It was a lot easier for me to understand unlike most of the other poems in this book. I like the fact that he asks why should someone have to play sick from work just to get some time to himself ? Why is our society so obsessed with money that we are willing to work ourselves to death and why is taking a day off just because you need it a crime? There should be no reason why you have too act sick just to get a day off from work every now and then. And even when you play sick from work, you cannot go anywhere because you cannot take the risk of being seen by any coworkers. The speaker states that even the dumbest of animals knows when self preservation is needed. I think he is saying that humans do not know this limit.

Overall, the City Eclogue is a very good book. There were a lot of poems that confused me and were hard to read. However, it was very interesting to see a different view of the city life other than mine. As a person that has lived in a city in which there are abandoned buildings and was part of the Civil Rights Movement, I never really saw the poetic side of all the damage and neglect I see. I normally see the problems as something to either get away from or fix. If anything this book has taught me to not always look at the negative but the positive as well. 

City Eclogue Part 1 Response

When I first started to read City Eclogue, it was very hard to read and understand. There were a few poems that I was lost and confused about. For example, the poem City Eclogue: Words for It, I have absolutely no idea what he is talking about. I think he may be referring to how in the city we try to combine nature and urban life but in the end it turns out to be different than what anyone expected. You have the birds and the beautiful flowers and then you have the smell of garbage and car exhaust that human waste produces. I also believe that he is talking about how we try to set boundaries on pollution like “No Littering” or cleanliness committees as a way to help keep the Earth clean but at the same time we try to use the health of the Earth as a way to hide the bigger sins that we commit.

 While reading, I soon reached a poem called Sit In What City We’re In. This is one of the few poems that I can understand out of this book. It starts off with “ Someone may want to know one day how many steps we took to cross our street, to know there were hundreds in one city streets in one direction and as many as could fit between the land’s contours crossing lines.” This reminds me of a group of people who live together in the city and it may not be by choice. The speaker is referring to the future as far as I can tell and he wonders whether or not anyone may ask why these people are stuck living together in this part of the city. As I read more of the poem, I realize that this poem is about the housing segregation that African Americans faced before and during the Civil Rights Movement. In part two of this poem, he talks about how African Americans were looked at as something wrong and something that doesn’t belong in this world and how some African Americans would wish that they were a part of a different culture because they thought they would have a better chance at life.

Overall, I would say that this book is pretty good, even though at times it was very hard to understand. Reading the first half of this book gave me a taste of what to expect when it comes to the second half.  While reading this book, I realized that this writer has a different writing style that I am not used to. Most poets you can tell what they are going to write about and how the poem is going to end. Ed Roberson, however, is a completely different story. Many of his poems were very hard to follow. I hardly could tell what the subject of some of the poems were or what was going on.