Blog Response #10

First, I would like to talk about a short story called The Fine Art of Sighing. The first paragraph did such an excellent job of putting into words and describing someone sighing. For example, in the story it says "a kettle hisses. A balloon deflates. Your shoulders fall like two ripe pears." The way the author described a sigh in that passage was creative and unconventional. I also connected with this story with ease because it talks about the persons mother starring out of the kitchen window sighing. I can picture my mom doing the same exact thing. It's funny because I always tell my mom she sighs too much, and that makes her sigh. I guess having three boys is something to sigh about.

The other story that I want to talk about is Things To Do Today. The form of the story is very unusual for a short story. It is set up in a way to look like a list, hence the title. Each of the numbers are very abstract in  meaning. For example, here are a couple of numbers from the list: 1. thaw the wounded, 26. make the beautiful go to work, and 70. control the urge to farm. Every single number on the list seems to be random. However, there must be a meaning to all of these being in a list. In terms of language, there is various repetition of action verbs like motivate, force, grope, nudge, practice, etc. I hope we go over this short story in class because I really can't find a meaning behind this list.

The last short story that I would like to talk about is the one we already talked about in class - Total Eclipse. I liked this story because seeing an eclipse in person would a magical thing, like seeing the Northern Lights at the poles. My favorite part of the story was when the author described the eclipse as it happened. "the sky's blue was deepening, but there was no darkness. The sun was a wide crescent, like a segment of tangerine." My favorite part about reading a story is the ability to visualize what the author is vividly describing.

Blog Response #9

The first essay I read was Sunday. I liked this essay because it reminded me of the holidays with my family, eating large meals until we were full beyond belief. It made me laugh in the essay when it said "white people can't cook, they don't know nothin' about seasoning." This reminded me of my mom's cooking because when she cooks her food can be pretty bland (she'd kill me if she heard me say this). I know a lot of African American families cherish their Sunday dinners and this essay told about the Coleman family's Sunday dinner. The descriptive nature of this essay shows in the last paragraph when it talks about what they eat during Sunday's dinner.

I also read Mint Snowball which is closely related to the first essay I read, Sunday. The two are closely related in meaning because they both have a sense of remembrance. Both are about a memory of family traditions relating to recipe(s) that warm the heart. The following passage shows this: "the mint snowball tasted like winter. she closed her eyes to see the Swiss village my great-grandfather's parents came from. snow frosting the roofs roofs." Nothing brings back childhood memories like eating a familiar meal with your family. These two stories reminded me of the movie Ratatouille because at the end of the movie, the food critic eats a dish made by the rat that tastes just like his favorite recipe made by his mom.

The third essay I read was Mute Dancers: How to Watch a Hummingbird. I'm going to Eastern to pursue my passion in life - wildlife, so I really enjoyed this essay. The last paragraph is awesome when it says "Hummingbirds are iridescent for the same reason soap bubbles are. each feather contains tiny air bubbles at different angles, and that makes blazing colors seem to swarm and leap." This passage is excellent at creating a vivid image of the rainbow of colors on hummingbird feathers that act as a prism when hit by sunlight, like a soap bubble.

I enjoy reading the essays because they are more straight-forward than poems and fictional stories. You don't have to look super far into the material to get the meaning or message of the essays.

Blog Response #8

For this weeks blog response I would like to talk about a couple of the stories in fiction packet #3. The first story I read was The Singing Fish. My first thought after reading this story was that it was a child's imagination running wild. The simplicity of the sentence structure made me believe it was a child's work. During the in class discussion some of the other students thought that it was primitive and caveman like, which makes sense because unique way it is written. For example, "Says me is who, brother says to this. Oh yeah, I say. But who said so to you?" The way the sentences flow seems backwards, so i can see why some of the students see the story as the point of view of primitive cavemen who didn't even know the meaning of grammar. I also noticed that there is a great deal of repetition of words. Time and time again it goes back to the brothers, the girl, mud, the moon, and so on. This reaffirms the thought that I have about the story being in the POV of a child. Children tend to go in circles especially when telling a story. That's just what I got out of The Singing Fish.

I also read The Falling Girl which I though was interesting. I think that the meaning behind the story is that Marta is rushing through her life (the falling symbolizes this) without slowing down to enjoy it. When she first starts falling the sun is setting and she is still falling when it becomes dark. I think this symbolizes time going by as she rushes through life. I really liked the descriptive nature in the beginning of the second paragraph. The part I liked most is "from that airy height the girl saw the streets and the masses of buildings writhing in the long spasm of sunset, and at the point where the white of the houses ended, the blue of the sea began." The creates a vivid image in my mind about a skyline contrasting the dark blue of the sea. There were other women falling as well which I really did not understand what that meant. Towards the end of the story it says "at these low floors only falling old women pass by. you can see beautiful girls from the hundred-and-fiftieth floor up. those apartments don't cost so much for nothing." I guess this could symbolize that the older women are more humble and the prettier women have their heads in the sky.

The last story that I read was Death to the Right Fielder. This story intrigued me because it describes the outfielders as "outsiders" and "onlookers". The infielders "demand communication". I think the position of the players symbolizes the classification of personalities of people. Towards the end of the second paragraph is says "people could pretty much be divided between infielders and outfielders."