Why?

My favorite part of this article was the idea that the writer is infiltrating the readers mind, their most private space. Putting ideas into peoples heads, and using abstract concepts to come up with your writings.

Taking abstract thoughts and tieing them to real things is what I usually what I do just the same as our auther this week. I like how she decides to travel around to get inspiration and gather ideas and concepts to help her write. It makes me happy to think that someone has such a passion about them to work for their art.

Using picture to express ones thoughts in the mind is such a great analogy for what actually happens to me when I attempt to write. In the long run though, it makes sense that no one knows what process writers use. However, going to the extent of writing a novel is sort of silly.

Why I Write.

In this week's reading, Joan Didion talks about her reasoning behind writing. She states that her inspirations come to her through things that puzzle her. Things that make her think why, who, what, and where. I think this was a very good perspective on writing. It makes it more interesting for the audience and for the writer as well. This style of writing gives people the effect of what she called "white space". White space allows for the audience to draw up there own conclusions and make their own assumptionsof what is going on with the character or the story. This style like she stated is not abstract, it just allows for the audience to draw their own opinions. There are no double meanings when she talked about the lights on the bevatron. She literally just wanted to know if the lights were on in the bevatron. I think its a simpler form of writing but is just as effective.

Why I write

"I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means." I love this quote by Didion. I think this quote rings very true to most writers (and when I say "writers" I mean anyone who feels compelled to put words onto paper). I know that when I choose to write, maybe in a journal for example, it is a process that unfolds as I am actually writing. I discover what it is I really want to say, what I truly feel, what I think I understand and what I still feel unsure about.

If you've yet to create a picture in your mind, full of images and words and actions then you can't possibly write meaningful, passionate work. Everything will just be useless words designed to make the reader happy when indeed writing is really "the act of saying I," so the writer has to have an image in their mind already in order to create the voice of "I." That is waht Didion is saying, that we have to have a story in our mind about the way we think things should be except that the image in our mind is incomplete and so we write to uncover the answers/meanings of our mind. If we already knew the answers, we would have no business writing in the first place.

That voice of "I" is exactly what Johnny Cash talks about in his interview. He was told he was a "song stylist" becasue he took another singer's song and made it his own. He stayed true to himself. Cash heard the song with his ears one way and in his mind another and so he sang it in a way that would make it unique to him. Cash had no way of knowing how acceptable his way would be until he actually put it out there.

A&P

1. I interpreted the ending as Sammy having a quick reality check of what he had just done. Looking back at the store, he realized that he really had just quit his job because he wanted to impress the girls that had gotten yelled at for wearing only bathing suites into the store. After he quit he realized that the girls did not care that he quit because Lengel had embarassed them and since he knew Sammy's parents, Sammy probably knew that his parents were not going to be pleased at all about the situation.

2. I disagree with Gilbert Porter because the Sammy overreacted somewhat to the situation. He quit because Lengel told the girls that they were innapropriately dressed and needed to wear clothes over their bathing suits. Lengel wasn't embarassing the girls because they should have had shoes and clothes on. Sammy just wanted to impress the girls by sticking up for them and then by quitting. Only to realize that the girls did not care and were gone by the time he walked out.

4. The story was very descriptive and had many details. The specific details helped me actually picture the story as I was reading it. All the descriptions relate to the story's identity because they are all from Sammy's point of view and everything that he saw, with out any other person's side of the story.

Why I Write by Joan Didion

The way Joan Didion described writing was very different. It made me think of writing as actually interesting rather than somewhat boring. She explains it as a way of getting your point across to other people and getting them to listen to you in a completely different way. You can make the reader listen to you, make a point and persuade people to see your side, and cover up any aggressiveness towards the reader just in the words you choose and the way you arrange those words on the paper.
"Why I Write" was a very good title for Joan Didion's, even though she stole it. It stated in three words what she was going to tell you with a very good explanation. She did make me want to keep reading what she had to say like when she talks about shimmer and all the descriptions of pictures in the mind. She describes what goes on in her head while shes writing and how she makes sense of the pictures in her mind. I thought it was really interesting not only why but how Joan Didion writes. How she starts from the pictures she has, which have no meaning yet, with out any idea what the plot is even going to be. Then with however many pictures she has she makes them into pieces of the novel and builds off of them. With all those pieces she fits them all together on paper and turns it into a novel.

Why I Write- Joan Didion

I like how she talks about how “She” writes in her papers, and I like the way she talks about grammar being “shimmer” it gives you a perspective that the grammar and the way your pronounce things makes a difference in a paper and changes the way you read a paper as well. The way she speaks about a picture giving her all the answers, and she isn’t the one looking for the answer. She sees a picture and narrates about it. It almost like she has an idea and a place and a picture all in her mind, and then she makes up a story and people to go along with it. Like the lady at the airport she made up, but she really did go to an airport. I think the fact that she didn’t know who any of these people were explain to her why she made the title of this “Why I Write” because she is the one making up all these different people. Not so much how she writes.

New Media Literacies

The new media literacies is a set of skills that everyone needs to use in today's culture; to function in the current media environment. Whether it's a computer, cellphone, we are constantly interacting with an ever-changing, high-paced technological culture. These skills will help society become creative artists, better citizens, and good workers in society. Before other modes of media, consumers really had to pay attention to what was being conveyed. During the 90s, everyone apparently retired to Portland when they were young and put birds on things as art. Nowadays, people are becoming the consumers and producers of their own artwork and blogs, via internet, etc. People are their creators to what they want conveyed. Instead of interpreting the different artists, we ourselves are the metaphoric artists. We are now finding out that we have to tap into our own identities. These skills are for the real-world. They are used to help us find ourselves in a manner of expressing who we are in a societal environment.

Two Readings and a Couple Videos....

The point of the readings and videos we read and watched this week are directly related to the class theme of identity. Why I Write by George Orwell, in my opinion, dealt with what exactly influenced him to become the writer that he eventually became and how writing is horrible but there is something about writing which drove him to keep writing otherwise he probably would not have. Why I Write by Joan Didion also dealt with her personal style of writing which apparently was more about remembering and describing exact details than about the deeper meaning behind it all. The video New Media Literacies had people from MIT talking about how the media world is rapidly changing pace from producers and consumers being totally separate entities to the producer and consumer being one in the same using mediums like YouTube and Facebook to get their ideas to the rest of the world. The final video was a short interview with the awesome Johnny Cash. He talked about how a teacher told him not to try and imitate anyone but to make any song his own. I think that all of these materials brought up a good point on how we as individuals need to find our individual voice as a writer or a person in general.

Why I Write

I thought the interview with cash was a very cool little thing to watch. He was just explaining how when he would sing other peoples songs he would sing them in his own way. He knew it was not his song, and he knew he would not be able to sing the song like the original singers could, but he just wanted to sing it in his own way and he became very famous doing that. As long as you do things in your own way and not the same way other people do it, you are making yourself stand out and get noticed. If he would have just tried to copy how the original person sang it, then noone would have wanted to llisten to him. But since he did it his own way, he became very popular.

The other short video was about the new medias that people are dealing with today. It was a lot different back in the day but now everyone has so many different ways of getting in touch with someone else. And people are learning new things and trying to create new ways of media and to get information or advertisement out every single day.

After reading the “why I write” I was left a bit confused. At the end she had the twist that she really had no idea why people write and if she did she wouldn’t have to write novels about it. She was writing her novels based off a picture that she had in her mind and wrote based off that

Obama speech edits

As a group we noticed that a lot of Obama's edits added a mixture of emotion and accountability to his speech through the edits. He often tried to convey to the audience that his statements were not broad generalizations, that they were from real people with feelings. Obama made many attempts to unify American belief on politics, that no matter which party one is from, everyone can agree to values such as good will. On top of this, Obama tacks on his own political agenda to these 'unifying' statements. For example, adding on "that only government can ensure" to an example of something that everyone stands for.

Obama speech

We think he made the revisions that he made to make the speech more personal and relatable to the audience. For example when he says “But those of us who knew Teddy” The way he says us and Teddy. We also think he made the speech more comprehensive to the audience. Also he gave very relatable examples for the listeners. We also agree with the blogger when he says the government "has to step in to help deliver."

Obama's Speech

We think that he made the changes to make the audience feel included, to engage them, both Republicans and Democrats. One line, Obama adds "I know that many in this country..." This addition shows that he wants to make his speech personal. He is not delivering it as a fact, but letting the audience know that he knows this, just as they do.

No one in our group really follows politics, so we don't have much of an opinion about the bloggers interpretation of this speech. We do, however, agree with the second paragraph's points about his drawing individuals as "active agents," because we feel that is important in relating to and engaging the audience.

Overall, Obama made the speech more familiar.
Makes it more listener friendly
Revisions pulled it all together
More personal
"That large-heartedness -- that concern and regard for the plight of others -- is not a partisan feeling"
Unified audience
"members of Congress -- Democrats and Republicans -- did not back down. They joined together so that all of us could enter our golden years with some basic peace of mind."

Obama in class readings

We think that he made the changes mainly becuase he wanted to make his speech more personal to the reader and make it more engaging and captivating to the audience. It tugs on the heart strings.

We as a group agreed with what the blogger was saying. We think he hit the ball on the head with his thoughts and ideas of what Obama had in mind in why he did what he did. We agreed alot on the blogger saying that Obama wanted to add more detail and more of a personal touch to his words. He really wanted to engage the readers and make it as personal as he was able to.

What Obama did to the draft

Vince feels that Obama made the changes so his speech didn't make it seem like he is talking down to the audience, making his speech more personable. Vince also agrees with Obama's changes and feels that it makes his speech sound more relateable. Obama attempted to put himself on the same level as the people he is talking to. For example, when he added 'of us' to the first line.

I feel that Obama's changes are a bit manipulative. You can make anyone agree with what you are saying by the way you say it. In this case, I feel like Obama is trying to appeal to the audiences emotions more so than the content of the speech. The blogger states that the President repeadedly added feelings and thoughts to specific people or groups of people. I think there is a time and place for appealing to one's emotions, but I don't agree that in a speech given by the President is appropriate.

Obama's Edits - Response.

We think that Obama's edits helped the speech sound more personable. He made it apply to everyone - Democrats and Republicans. We think that he wanted to help his audience feel a sense of unity. Some worked with Ted Kennedy and knew what he stood for, and Obama's goal was to simply remind them of that. The matter was something that both Republicans and Democrats agreed on and worked together toward.

The blogger says pretty much the same thing:

"He drew individuals, members of Congress generally, and the American people as active agents into a joint national project of compassion and positive action."

Obama also spoke in first person throughout his speech saying things like, "I know," "us" and "we" making himself sound credible and relatable.

He thinks that through Obama's edits, he gave his audience a sense of "YEAH! We can do this!" Obama mentioned that hard work should pay off and the blogger felt that Obama gave a feeling of hope when he said, "the government has to step in and deliver on that promise."

So as a group, we agree with the blogger.

A&P

I really enjoyed how John Updike explained what he seen, it was as if I was in his position seeing everything that he did. The way he desscribes the girls and the view of outside the door. I always enjoy reading stories that are very visual becuase then it gives you a feel of what it looked like in their point of view as they wrote the story. I also like how he stood up for himself and quit becuase of how the manager was reacting to the way the girls were dressed in his store, but kinda sad too that he would take such a big step just because of some girl he thought was pretty and didn't even know..

I am glad that we were able to read something that was fun and not really contributed to academics, sometimes it's nice to read something that you may be interesteed in. It keeps me focused on the story when i read soemthing like that opposed to something that wasn't entertaining at all.

A&P

I feel like Sammy was an typical 18 year old guy. He was think poorly and acted impulsively. He was more worried about the girls that walked into the store than his own job. I feel that he was not acting rational and thinking logically. I don't think that he should have chose the girls than his job because the job is more important at the moment. His parents is friends with the store owner so he is probably going to get in trouble when he gets home. I found him to be childish and foolish
I however liked the story and thought it was well written. I found it nice to read a short story and take a break form the academic article. I liked the story but found Sammy's gramar a little annoying while readding.

Thoughts and Questions on A&P

1. We have decided that the end feels more frustrating than anything else. Sammy now has to find another job on his own, and start over somewhere else. When he said, "I quit," I'm sure he felt liberated and relieved that he was finally done with that place, but once he got outside and looked back I feel like he regretted his decision.

3. This story really shows Sammy's personality, and therefore, his identity. Throughout the story we get to read his thoughts and see what he's thinking. He ends up quitting his job because he was upset that his boss embarrassed the girls in the store. I feel like he wanted to impress them and be the person they might want him to be, but it didn't work. Once he got outside of the store, he realized that he now has to find a new identity and a new place of work because he just threw his job away for a girl he will probably never see again.

5. As a group, we have decided that we would not have made the same decision. Even though he tried to be the hero, it didn't work out for him. It was a stupid decision that he couldn't take back. Keeping a job and trying to keep your boss happy (even when they are stupid) is a little more important than a scantily clad girl and her friends. They shouldn't have been going around town in just their bikinis anyway - it was in the 1960's, for goodness sake. Hahahahah.

Updike Discussion

1. The ending is liberating and risk-filled and it's kind of a writ of passage for Sammy because he made a change in his life. He's moving on to a new stage in life.

3. We think the piece fits with identity by his observations of people and giving them instant identities. He identifies people by how they dress and how they move and then gives everyone a profile. For example, there's a queen bee and she has two worker bees following behind her. He also gives the people he's annoyed with identities.

5. If we were Sammy we would probably still have quit, but looked for another job first. His decision was very spontaneous, but we think he wanted to be spontaneous for once because he was afraid he would end up like his boss.

A&P In-Class Questions

1) He was making a huge deal about quiting his job, when realistically he was only 19 years old and will have plenty of other opportunities to get a better job. We think he will get over it and it is not as bad as he thinks it is. It is sad in his perspective, but to us it is liberating because now he can pursue a better paying job.



2) His boss told him that he was making a mistake by quiting, but he didn't care and proceeded to quit. When he could have sucked it up and just kept his job and not try to impress the girls. We disagree with Gilbert, because it was more of a naive decision, trying to be the big shot. It came down to him being left by himself.



5) If it came down to us being in this position, we would not have gone about it the same way. We would have reinforced the managers orders to the girls and then continued to work.

The People Watchers

1. He seems like a realist in the end in comparasion to the beginning and middle of the text. It seemed like he had always wanted to quit his job but this story gave him a profound reason to quit his job at the grocey store. The story was bitter-sweet because he has to come to reality at some point and realize what is going on.

3. He seems to be able to see others identites because people fall into a certain pattern after a while espeicially in the grocery store where you see people shopping in a grocery store every day. The setting of the grocery store never changes but the people who enter it and leave it do change which could give Sammy upper hand on seeing one's identity.

4. Writing in that intense detail is very interesting because it is evident that someone can get so lost in the moment with explaining one simple story. The purpose of the details is to give the reader a good image of what Sammy saw through his own eyes as well as the feelings he was going through at the time.

Response to A&P

1. The two senses we felt from the end of this story were liberating and eye-opening. Sammy is realizing that he cannot grow up and mature in a job he hates, just because he was given the job. This realization and risk-taking is liberating. Also, Sammy realized, after taking this risk, that though it was necessary, this would lead to some tough times. This closing line is eye-opening for Sammy.
2. Porter sees Sammy's decision as one to live "honestly and meaningfully." In a way, we agree because if you disagree with the politics at your job it may be best for you to quit. However, quitting because his boss embarrassed a girl is very different than quitting a corrupt law firm - that would be living honestly and meaningfully.
4. The detail in this story helps to build the reader's interpretation of the character's identities. We also see more of Sammy's identity, not only in his decisions through out the story, but also in the way that he assumes things about the girls based on their descriptions.

A&P group review

1. Sammy was a bit upset and frustrated with his decision of quitting his job. He did it with the intentions of becoming the young girls' hero but, as we out, that wasn't the case. His boss also said that you don't want to do this to your parents and, as sammy said, was true. So, at the end we think that he realized he made a quick decision that he probably should have thought more about it.

2. We feel that Sammy did not quit his job for the right reason. Sammy wasn't living meaningfully because the meaning was not interpretted by the girls. He wanted to be their heroes, however, it really doesn't affect them longterm like it would Sammy.

5. We both agree that we would not have quit because it wasn't that big of a situation. We can understand if the boss was being extremely rude to the girls, but he had to tell them they couldn't come into the store again unless they are in clothing. We think that's a very reasonable request.

A & P Questions

1.)We think that the ending of the story kind of sucked for Sammy. he ended up not catching the girl's attention and subsequently did not have a job. The end of the story was both liberating and frustrating because you put yourself out there and get shot down by the girls and don't have a job.

2.) We disagree with Porter, because Sammy put himself out there honestly and got nothing out of it.

3.)Sammy changed his own identity from being a reserved person but then came out and spoke up in front of the girls.

4.) The purpose of the details in the story is to bring meaning to Sammy's decisions in the story. If there were not any details we would question the decision making of Sammy. On the other hand, he might not have wanted to end up like his friend who was 22 and was already married and had kids.

5.)If we were Sammy, we wouldn't have made the same decision because it was a such a small thing for him to quit his job and be left out in dust.