Pride and Pathos

First off let me just applaude Sojourner Truth for what she did. The mere fact that she stood up (as a woman of color) and talked in front of the crowd of white me and women before slavery was even abolished! There obviously must have been deep rooted emotion in her words. Her emotions come out as she's talking of being a mother and witnessing her 13 children get sold into slavery. The thought of that is just heartwrenching. This is a very good form of pathos. She shows ethos which correlates with the same situation. Her credibility (ethos) is that she herself was a slave, adn she even said, " have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! " her logos comes into play as she starts talking about how a person's intellect cannot make or break said person's rights in society. This is my first encounter with Sojourner Truth, and for this, i think extremely highly of her. What a powerful woman, with even more powerful words.

Robots? more like Shmo-bots!

In this essay by Ellen Ullman, 'Dining With Robots', she really goes in-depth in her metaphor, " a computer program is like a recipe. It's a set of instructions." Ms. Ullman dives into recipes trying to explain what is and what isn't like computer programming She begins talking about how sauteed beef is a quick to make meel for important guests, and how she coudln't explain that to a computer. She then adresses how artificial intelligence is a really hard problem to solve because it is not just a recipe. She claims that the professors had no idea how to cook. Honestly, i really feel overwhlemed by her essay, halfway through reading it i just had to look away from my computer screen for a few minutes and take a deep breath. Her words feel to me like a rusty machine feels to a mechanic, clunky. It seemed as Ms. Ullman lost herself in her writing and just began rambling. The essay was quite confusing. All she does is restate obvious, unanswerable questions, and then keep moving into the next one. How could she make a robot understand why there are different wine glasses, or why its important to eat, or sit, or anything. Ullman just becomes a bit redundant in her writing. She does use a very good vocabulary, but she could of for sure wrote for a broader audience. With a little time myself, I could've wrote in a more intriguing style than her.

words of imprisonment...

Wow! I had know idea that when i started reading this essay, i would be so bent up with emotion by the end. By Amanda Coyne, "The Long Goodbye: Mother's Day in Federal Prison" is a sleek, powerfully written memoir. Full of sensory details, the reader really gets drawn into the, not quite 'action' per-say, but more into the emotions which are flying throughout this prison visiting room. Not only does Coyne manage to write this extremely well, she also puts her own opinions dominantly in. Coyne talks of America's unfair legal system, and raises an important question: "Aren't there mor serious rapists, armed robbers, and murderers who should be doing hard time rather than petty criminals?" This is a super-hot topic in politics today and, quite frankly, I'm proud she expressed her opinion so openly. That's one of the beautiful things I'm starting to find out about writing. You can really express your true feelings on a subject through a pen and a pencil. Coyne really emphasized the emotion, and I don't know about you all, but i could literally feel it within me. She must have struck a chord somewhere. I might've been the thought of the mother who only made four phonecalls and is now serving 10 years, or the mother's boyfriend who actually committed a real crime got off with 3. This essay has really sparked my brain to think about our legal system now in America. It's a joke a rapist can get less time than a pothead. Does anyone not agree? The one thing i really thought was just a painful thing to think about (not literally painful) was when the boy punched his mom in the face and walked away without another word. Thinking about a scene like this was almost unbareable... Powerful writing...

Pig Lips and Pick Pockets

Here we have two good examples of profiles. "I'm Not Leaving Until I Eat This Thing" by John T. Edge, and "The New York Pickpocket Academy" by John Mcphee. (These guys have the same first name!) I'll start off with " I'm not Leaving Until I Eat This Thing". Edge morphs this writing into a hybrid of a profile and a personal narrative. This is actually a great idea because if you obviously have a personal experience with the thing you are wirting a profile about, why not tell it? It draws the reader in a little more, and makes the whole profile more interesting. Honestly without his little anecdote, this profile would have been completely boring. I mean, honestly, who would want to read a profile about the process of making and distributing pig lips. So with his little story of trying the pig lips he draws us in, has us keep reading, until we find out how they are at the very end. Now as for John Mcphee's profile, "The New York Pickpocket Academy", I have mixed feelings for. I'm sure to many this is a good, fun to read profile. However, for me, i thought this profile was really hard to follow. I can recall numerous times when i had to pause and read things over, and wonder which person was who, and when things were taking place. For example, Mcphee would not introduce the characters at all, he would just bring in random names, and you were forced to try and figure out who this character was. I didn't like this at all. I mean i understand how the chaotic style of writing symbolized the chaos of the 59th street farmer's market, but there's a point when you have to realize that any given reader might not being following too well.

Profiling the Dead

This profile is actually quite interesting, just as a well-written profile should be. Wrote by Brian Cable "The Last Stop" gives us insight on the daily routine of a mortician. Cable goes into great detail not just describing how Mr. Dreaver looks (the mortician), but how the actual mortuary looks itself on the outside and inside. One thing i found interesting was how the building was described as an "odd pink structure set in the middle of a business district". I know the mortuary we have at home is a nice building set off away from the road with a beautiful lawn. Also the way that death is profiled in this is a little more than nonchalant than we think about it ourselves. The way that the mortuaries are losing business because of the recent surge in creamtions, and the how there were signs hanging behind the desk (right beside a crucifix) saying credit card were accepted as payment. I just think that is the opitomy of our economy today, and how money is starting to even take over religion. One hundred years ago, that crucifix would have hung high above any kind of sign of payment. Fast forward one hundred years and that sign with the payment options listed on it has slowly kreep up to hang beside the crucifix. This profile does ease some curiosity though, and even fuels a little more. I didn't know how morticians could get the body back to a normal state, but i see now that they use parts off of other bodies. Also how Cable reaches out and prods the body... The cold, clay-like feel... what a thought. This was a good profile.

On Being a Westerner at 100MPH

These two readings, to me, were a treat to read. Honestly, they were both sort of dark, or at least a little more than we've been reading, but i enjoyed them thoroughly. First off I'll start with "On Being a Real Westerner" by Tobias Wolff. As Tom stated in class, the main reason this reading was great was for the fact that it was wrote by Tobias Wolff. On a more serious note thought, this selection was very well written. For example:"Roy was stingy, and slow to take a hint, but I'd put him under siege." This quote makes me think about knights laying siege to a castle in order to gain the thing he most wants. In this case the .22 is the castle, and as it states in the next line, "I had my heart set on that rifle". One thing that really stood out to me was when he started a paragraph with this line: " One afternoon i pulled the trigger." This quote alone creates suspense, but he follows with talking about how he was following an old couple with his sights, and you immediately think he killed them. However, with his great writing skills he somehow mangaes to twist your mind back to reality, and you realize all he shot was a squirrell. Now as for the other reading, I had more of a personal connection. I own a muscle car like that. I have a Mustang GT with a body kit. It's my baby. Throughtout this whole reading all I could think about was myself and that car because it just rang home so much. The descriptions of reving the engine and how it felt to feel the trembling of the wheel as you squeel down the road. Rick Bragg nailed these descriptions right on the head. Two great readings.

Jean Brandt and Annie Dillard

Okay...so first off Jean Brandt, "Calling Home". I honestly liked this essay more than "An American Childhood" by Annie Dillard after the first read through. It seemed a little more personal to me just because we've all had that impulse to take something invaluable(like that button). Something that wouldn't be missed. I'm no thief, nor have I ever stolen anything, i can just relate to the impulse. I guess this sort of made me lean more towards this reading. However; i began a second look-over of these readings and found that after really analyzing instead of just reading i really liked "an American Childhood" the same,if not more than, "Calling Home". Jean Brandt had good structure in her writing,but as we touched on in class, the dialouge is, simply-put, unrealistic. The whole conversation between her and her mother is short and not very emotional at all. I'm just saying she could have done a little better with her choice of dialogue. So, like i said previously,after the second read through of "An American Childhood" i really found i enjoyed this reading. The way Annie Dillard stretches out the chase scene with a mix of choppy and lengthy sentences really kept the pace. She made a 10 block chase scene seem like a marathon. That is very good writing to me. I also enjoyed how she talked about how she could have ran to Panama, and how she ended her whole reading with that reference.