Well, I didn't go clinically insane, so I'll call my first semester a success.
I also haven't technically finished the semester yet, so I won't bust out the mechanical bull and throw a party tonight.
I really don't have any idea what to blog about right now. I feel like I'm not capable of a self-reflective, deeply impressive, insightful blog tonight. So I'll write a horrible poem about this class.
We read some books and looked at some art.
I must say, Virginia Woolf didn't exactly steal my heart.
I feel as if I've reached that point at the end of Dancing With the Stars when they show a ten-second recap of each couple doing the best/most entertaining part of their dance. It's my last chance to strut my stuff on this blog and go out with a bang!
When this assignment was presented to us at the beginning of the year, I must say I was quite excited. Both of my AP English courses in high school required a blog, and that was always my favorite part of the class because I got to be satirical, witty, and give my real opinion. I got to relate my readings to pop culture, music, or anything random that reminded me of the reading, and I feel like this blog served the same purpose for me. The blogs also helped me to better understand the material we were covering because they forced me to think about what we discussed in class and develop some more ideas on my own, which I hardly ever do after a class is over. I wanted to create a blog that was actually entertaining to read and insightful at the same time. In Dear Diary..., I felt like I achieved my goal of writing something new and entertaining.
Staying away from the classic approach to blogging about readings was one of my main goals. I didn't want to simply comment on the readings, I wanted to give them another dimension. I know I learn best when I can relate the information to something I already know well. I did this more than once on my blog, but my favorite was when I wrote Sisterhood of the Traveling HeLa Cells. It was difficult for me to decide how I felt about The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and this blog post helped me understand my feelings towards the harvesting of Henrietta's cells and her history while fulfilling my requirement to write a blog that week. My analogies got better by the end of the semester with my most recent blog, Parental Guidance. This blog helped me to define the trials of Ama in my own words.
This blog helped me in class because it allowed me to give my opinions about the discussion if I missed my chance in class. It also allowed me to share my thoughts when we didn't have a class in which to discuss. I used Endangered Wildlife as my outlet to share my reaction to James Carroll's talk. I hope to continue to make my own assertions about my future readings like I did with I'll take a double shot of emotion please. After this semester, I won't have a class urging me to reflect on a book's impact on society or an author's writing style in comparison to another author's style. I reflected on Angelou's memoir as a means to understand how she reflected on her own life.
I tried to learn about my own learning and discussion skills as well in that class, and I now have confidence in my abilities to discuss something. One of my favorite aspects of this blogging assignment was the requirement to read my classmates' blogs and comment on them. The writing styles of my peers fascinate me, and I was honored to get a backstage pass into the thoughts of my classmates. I also trust the influence others have on my insight into works of literature much more now. The discussions we had in class enlightened and challenged me, and I hope to seek the opinions of others in the future more.
I must say I'm excited to not have to remember to blog every week, but I can't pretend I'm not sad to lose my chance to dump my thoughts into something and be guaranteed an audience.
While reading the second third of Power, I was struck by the similarities between the situation revolving around Ama's trial and the relationship between two best friends or a parent and their child. Ama first went through a trial that followed the laws of the American government. During the trial, Taiga members supported Ama. They testified in her favor which eventually led to the court declaring her innocent.
Despite their support of Ama in court, the Taiga people held their own trial of Ama. During this trial, their actual opinions came out, and they ended up banishing Ama.
These situations reminded me of when someone is in trouble in a public setting and their best friend or parent backs them up no matter what simply because that is what friends and parents do. However, after the public scene is over, the friend or parent reprimands the person in trouble or offers advice in private. This usually happens because that friend or parent cares enough to offer the person in trouble help and advice on how to never get into that situation again. They also care enough not to do it in public.
In this situation, Ama is the child, and the Taiga people are the friend or parent who protect the image of their people in public before offering their own opinions and judgment in private.
I've decided to take you on a journey through my thoughts while reading "Servants of the Map." From the title, I thought it might be some weird, satanic story about people who worship something that is either an actual map or that goes by the name of map. Then, once the story started, I thought it would be an intriguing story of discovery about the man who was found dead at the beginning. Then, I realized I would have to focus most of my attention on deciding if I thought Max would go back to Clara in the end. And I thought he would. Then he might his mistress and I lost all hope. I thought that he was too good a man to not tell his wife of this saucy relationship, and that he would ruin his marriage over it. Then I thought of his children. He hadn't even met his second daughter yet! I thought surely he would have to return to meet her. When he decided to stay on to study botany, I lost all hope. He would never find enough knowledge to satisfy himself enough to return home.
How can one know when one has learned enough?
Max obviously valued the quest for knowledge quite a lot, and he was willing to jeopardize his relationship with Clara for it. When I read the last paragraph about him triangulating the points, I thought that meant he was moving on to a new horizon that eventually would include his family. But I didn't realize until class on Monday that he meant he would wait for his wife to interpret his words. He found a way to make a commitment without actually committing.
When I was a kid, I pictured my life folding out in this sequence: grade school, high school, college, possibly grad school, and then the rest of my life. I thought that after the school part, I wouldn't have to write anymore papers. And I probably won't unless I specialize in some form of nursing and go to grad school for it.
I also thought everyone's life would follow this similar path. I didn't realize I was so wrong.
I also never thought about the entire process that goes into something being called "Peer Reviewed." The title makes complete sense, but I just never thought about it.
I think what I took most from today is the level of respect I have for those who dedicate their lives to teaching others and continuing to learn through the articles and knowledge of others. I plan on continuing to learn until the day I die, but I don't think it will be anywhere near the process of reviewing articles. I think I'll stick to reading them once they've already been approved.
I've decided to rewrite "Translations" and turn it into a love story. So here goes:
If this was a love story, Manus would be the main, hunky character who is drop-dead gorgeous but still a bit reserved and mysterious. He's incredibly caring, but he has a twisted and unknown past that causes him to be scared to fall in love.
Maire would be the overly-confident woman who flirts with everyone and never settles down until the story has resolved and she randomly finds someone.
Hugh would be the old man that everyone tolerates but who never actually adds anything to the story except for 5 minutes of inspired wisdom that blows everyone's minds.
Sarah would be the secretly beautiful woman who everyone just passes over but then she takes off her big, dorky glasses at the end of the movie and BOOM! she's the love of Manus' life!
And everyone else wanders around filling the space in the movie!
During class on Monday, I was struck by a memory of a scene in the second Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movie that reminded me of the overlap of emotional and scientific ties to the HeLa cells. In the scene, Bridget is in Turkey at an archaeological dig, and she is asked by her leader when a person's death stops being an emotional thing and becomes something to study scientifically. Bridget's answer is that that transition occurs when the last person who knew the deceased person dies. Her leader questions her answer, but it is not elaborated too much further in the scene.
This reminded me of Henrietta's life because that transition never happened. She became a scientific being before she was even dead! Her children were never even given a chance to mourn her before her body was being slashed open in hopes of recovering her immortal cells.
This book emphasized most to me the importance of a mourning period. If that period is abandoned or skipped, it will have to creep back up eventually. If there's one thing I've learned in my life, emotions have a way of finding you no matter what you try to do to evade them. It's best to just deal with them as soon as possible, but Henrietta's family wasn't given that chance.
