Lorrie Moore & Theodore Roethke: Each of these exercises are designed to be done AFTER you have read through the work once. Choose one activity to do.
Go through Moore's piece paragraph by paragraph and explain the structure of the piece. How does each move Moore makes add to some aspect of her "how-to" message?
OR
Go through the section on Roethke and identify ten concrete nouns. With your list of ten concrete nouns, decide whether each of these nouns is used literally or as a simile or metaphor.
Due 3/31 by 2pm.
Clint Giwer
ReplyDeleteI chose to write about Lorrie Moore's piece "How to Become a Writer"
Lorrie Moor's first piece of advice on how to become a writer is to find something you want to do and fail miserably at it.
She explains everything in second person.
She recommends becoming a child psychology major, I think this is a way of saying change your major when you get to college because things arnt what you expect. She recommends taking creative writing one of the few good pieces of advice for actually becoming a writer. (I suspect this is the entire reason we were told to read this piece).
Her next piece of advice is to spread your wings and fly, do your best not everyone will like what you write like she says some people are smarter than you and some are dumber. I like her sentence," You read the whole thing out loud in class. No one likes it. They say your sense of plot is outrageous and incompetent. After class someone asks you if you are crazy."
The next paragraph basically says hold on to your old ideas because they may help you create something new in the future. If you think of something clever write it down.
Moore makes a lot of assumptions,
Apparently Moore thinks that creative writing students write a lot about explosions, and that
People who are writings sort of stumbled upon it, they didn't originally choose to be a writer.
Overall her story is actually a less effective how to guide than "How to date a brown girl,white girl,..." Itsnot really advice just a funny story. But it is pretty humorous with small specific details that make it fun like, the cough drops and the cole slaw. Basically being a writer is hard and you have to do a lot of digging to get to the gold.
My Papa’s Waltz
ReplyDeleteShelf – I believe this noun is literal. The scene is of a little boy dancing with his drunken father, bumping into a kitchen shelf and knocking down pans.
Ear – Again, this noun is used literally. I believe this poem is the only one in this section that can be taken literally.
Root Cellar
Ditch – This noun is clearly a simile, a powerful one at that. Ditches are pretty dank…
Cuttings
Feet – Metaphor comparing freshly cut plant roots to feet reaching for ground.
Fish – Metaphor comparing a newly risen sapling to a slippery fish, which again is a good image. Plant stems, especially those of new plants, are smooth and shiny giving them a slippery look.
The Lost Son
Wound – Both literal and metaphor. He could be taking about an actual wound, but given the tone of the poem I do not think this is the case. The wound is a lake cut into the flesh of the Earth given the fishing references.
Door – Metaphor. I don’t think he’s in a big house with a bunch of doors in which he has to pick one to go through. He’s talking about choices; what choice (door) should he chose (open) and where will this choice (door) take him?
Roots – Metaphor. Or not. It is under “The Pit”, so maybe it’s literally a man who’s caught in a pit and is looking at the sides of it and wondering in awe. OR maybe he’s in a cemetery and his roots, ancestors, are lying under the leaves.
Eels – Metaphor for cool water rushing into the narrator’s mouth.
Milk – Metaphor implying mother’s milk, to go back to the essence of life.
I chose Theodore Roethke.
ReplyDeleteIn Papa’s Waltz
1.Death-simile.used to describe how well he hung on. “the whiskey on your breath/could make a small boy dizzy/but I hung on like death.”
2.Palm-Literal meaning. “palm caked hard by dirt.”
In Root Cellar
3.Ditch-used as a simile. “dank as a ditch”
4.Bait-also a simile. “ripe as old bait”
In Cuttings
5.Feet-metaphor for roots
6.Fish-simile. “slippery as fish”
In The Lost Son
7.Wound- figurative.the break in the water where the line goes. “fished in an old wound”
8.Seed. figurative. The seed could be the person leaving their comfort. “is the seed leaving the old bed?”
In In a Dark Time
9.Eye-could be both metaphoric and literal. The actual eye can see but it can be open to a new thing/experience/realization. “the eyes begins to see”
10.Fly-simile.used to describe the soul “like some heat-maddened summer fly.”
How to be a Writer
ReplyDeleteThe first paragraph says for you to follow your dreams to be a movie star or an astornaut, and then fail miserably. This way you will have alot of anger built up at a young age.
Then apply to college as a child psychology major. Start taking writing classes and others that don't apply to your major. Apply to law school and then decide not to go.
Eventually quit classes and jobs until you have lots of free time to be a writer.
Overall this is a funny story that says to become a writer you basically have a lot of failure to deal with and do everything to your own accord, and make many decisions and not follow through with them.
I'm talking about "How To Be A Writer".
ReplyDeleteThe first piece of advice that the author gives is a bit of a wierd one. She suggests that one should simply fail miserably at something, so as to realize how untalented at other things one is.
The next tidbit is to enroll into college under some kind of major that doesn't really prevail. After this, slowly deteriorate from school and any job one might posess and then start writing in the free time that has just opened up.
As someone who wantsto be a writer as a career, the idea of this being the road to sucessful writing is a scary one. Though, I think the society that we live in more and more demands to have some kind of college experience, or else I would follow this story to the T.
I chose Theodore Roethke
ReplyDelete1.(death) simile. "But I hung on like death"is the point of deciding.
2.(shelf) literally.
3.(ear) also literally.
4.(palm) also literally.
5.(ditch) simile. "dank as a ditch" is the point of deciding.
6.(snakes) simile. "like tropical snakes" is the point of deciding.
7.(Bait) simile. "Roots ripe as old bait" is the point of deciding.
8.(Feet)metaphor for cut plant roots
9.(Fish)simile. “slippery as fish” is the point of deciding.
10. (Fly)simile.
SOSUKE NAKANO
I'm choosing Roethke:
ReplyDelete1. Buckle - It feels like there's more to this word than giving it a once-over. However, I'm having a hard time understanding what else it could be, so I think that it is a literal sense of the word.
2. Waltz - This certainly feels like a metaphor for a beating the narrator is receiving from the father.
3. Dirt - I think this is a metaphor for the things that the father did that he shouldn't have done. For example, drinking and hitting his son. Things that would be considered a sin in religious points of view.
4. Chink - This is a rather confusing word which I am having a hard time with, as there are many ways to interpret it: another form of chaps, or a racial slur used to describe Chinese immigrants. With the rest of the words in context, however, I feel that the latter is probably the one that Roethke meant.
5. Tongues - This is definitely a metaphor for how the leaves look in the night.
6. Hath the rain a "father"? - This poem about running away (I think) seems to reflect a hint of Roethke's dislike for his father. The rain is being unforgiving, and this is the narrator's way of asking for sympathy.
7. Windows - This feels like a metaphor. Windows are a view into one's life, though I think it could also be used as a way to describe seeing one's future. In the context of the poem, it seems that the narrator sees his end, I'm guessing a change in season.
8. Papa - Here, it seems that it refers to the sun, which makes a bit of sense.
9. Shadow -
10. Fly - This is an obvious simile to the narrator's soul. I think that what he's trying to describe is the feeling that he just doesn't understand who he is, or he doesn't recognize who he has become.
9. Shadow - This is the darker part of the narrator, which he goes into more detail with in the poem.
ReplyDelete