Farder to Reache

I have always been a big fan of studying astronomy and anything outer space related. I have found myself on countless occasions wondering about to ends of the universe and trying to wrap my head around abstract concepts. This can go one of two ways, either you are amazed by what you are thinking about and want to continue, or you are terrified by the thought of uncertainty and the unknown. The writing "Farder to Rache" by Albert Goldbarth touches this very subject and puts this subject into a very approachable manner.

"Then the fog disappears - which is, of course, the day clearing its throat for clear speech." This was a very interesting and catching way to compare the matter of time and life as a whole, to a human or living organism of clearing their throat. My interpretation of this was that it would make much more sense to humans if time was to be more like a living organism. A beginning and a end. A place to start and a place to finish. The unknown of the universe and time is what keeps us thinking for eternity.

I also enjoyed the fact that the writer used historical figures in their writing. This caught my attention because it portrayed the idea that they were looking at the same picture we are looking at when we stare up at the night sky, so it was not unrealistic to think how they did back then. It's amazing that we have learned so much more than we ever thought was possible, and we are still nowhere near close to anything truly, and I mean truly significant. As humans we will always be chasing our minds, but who knows, maybe one day we will get our answer.

Violent Rooms

For many of the big moments in one's life we remember more about where we were rather than what actually happened. This can be seen in the writing of "Violent Rooms" by Dawn Martin. My interpretation of this writing is a dark one that depicts a women being, or about to be raped. The reason I linked "location" and "moments in one's life" together is because when an event as traumatic as being raped occurs then the victim will forever associate that moment with that location. This is extremely popular among many people, not just rape victims, and the events do not need to be bad in any way but most are positive events. Much like when you were a kid and you learned how to ride a bike. Most people will remember where they learned and associate that location with that event.

My interpretation of this piece was of a woman being raped for a few reasons. "As in yard rake pressed to roof of mouth. A fragrant rod. Suh-ssuh-ssuck. Insistence." To me this seemed to be someone forcibly putting their hand in the girl's mouth and holding it open with the fingers being compared to the fingers of a rake. The attacker seems to be the one telling the victim to perform oral sex and is very persistent. "The contours of the girl blue. She is both becoming and fact." This shows that in those life changing moments we don't always quite remember every detail or we may of been so caught up in the moment that our imagery is blurred. She is "becoming and fact" because she is now a statistic of rape victims and this moment can not be erased and is now true forever.

"Having not ever been whole. Or simple. Or young. Just split and open." This may refer to the victim talking about how after the event occurred she never felt the same or life was just never easy anymore. This leads me to infer that she was young when this took place because she says she has never been young, so she may feel she never had a real childhood due to this event taking place. Also she may feel used because she is nothing more than just a "sex object" and is not important. Everything tying back to the title that she will always remember the room she was in where this horrible event took place.

Night Women

At some point in all our lives we are put into a situation where we must decide what we are willing to do in order to protect our family. That situation can be seen in this fiction story that we discussed in class called "Night Women" by Edwidge Danticat. This story in about a women with an internal battle about her own morality in her line of "work" and an external battle to support and raise her son in the right way. Throughout the story we are given clues that the husband is either an ex client of the women that has ran off, or he had died along time ago when the son was young. The "work" that the women does is not one that is seen in a positive way by the community. We are not told if the women is being paid for her actions, but it can be inferred that she is some form of a prostitute and sleeps with married men.

"The night is the time I dread most in my life. Yet if I am to live, I must depend on it." This is suggesting that she internally despises what her line of work is and knows that what she is doing is not morally right. However, she knows that the night is when she makes her needs to survive so she must bare through it every single day. She tries to hide her work from her son and uses this old radio that was given to him to play at night so he does not hear what is happening on the other side of the room. The women tries to keep her son as far away from her lifestyle as possible to make sure he does not end up on the same path.

"There is a place in Ville Rose where ghost women ride the crests of waves while brushing the stars out of their hair." I took this line as the "ghost women" being street hookers and that the stars in their hair is some form of glitter that is being brushed out. The women in the story does not seem to find herself in the same category at these "ghost women". It is almost inferred that she is some sort of "higher class" prostitute because she has clients that come to her on a regular basis, and does not need to walk the streets looking for some. Also her clients are typically wealthy men who are doctors and musicians.

The Falling Girl

All poems and short stories raise questions among its readers, but I have never seen so many possibilities with this one. The story "The Falling Girl" by Dino Ruzzati is one about a young girl who seems to of jumped off the top of a skyscraper and by the time she gets to the bottom she is an elderly women. I love that idea by the author and really enjoyed reading this story. As the girl is falling off this rooftop to her death, the author actually gives you a few hints that the fall is taking a lot longer than we might think. I feel this is a way for the author to symbolize how some people want to "live the fast life" and never stop to really enjoy it.

With reference to time the author gives the reader clues about how this plays a factor. When the girl initially jumps off the rooftop the sun is out and there is light. However, by the time she gets to the bottom the sun is set and nowhere to be seen. So it seems that this fall is stretched out over an entire day, but actually it is over her entire life time. By the time the girl gets close to the ground, and we never find out if she hits, she is an old women and has gone through her life. As she is falling she also mentions past lovers, friends, parties, and aspects of her life as she is going through them. The "falling" concept can be seen in this way as the girl going through her life in a way of no control or slowing down because when you are falling you can't control your falling or chose what speed to fall at.

When the girl also initially jumps she sees a party at the bottom that she wants to go to. I liked this idea because to me it shows that a lot of people will do anything just to be partying or trying to always have fun and do anything to get there. This raises the question of why didn't she just take the elevator down? Or even the stairs if you needed to, why jump off the building when you know what price you have to pay that comes with it. Also at the end of the story a man named Roberto mentions an advantage to jumping from the bottom when you are already old, "...you can hear the thud when they hit the ground." This to me was saying that when you are old you can see your death coming and it's not as much of a shock, but when you are young and take the leap, you have no idea what will happen.

Fiction Packet - But What Was Her Name?

Giving such a large amount of information in such a small amount of time is not an easy task for anybody, but these short stories in the poetry packet proved otherwise. I chose to read the story "But What Was Her Name?" by Dawn Raffel which is a prime example of that. This story is about a women that we are not given much detail about, only that she was lucky to of been born by "some trick of oxygen." Throughout the story you do not receive much more information about the women, only what she goes through in her life. This story was very life-like in the aspect that this story could be very similar to that of many women in the world. This was also a very sad and dark story which really got you to think deeper about the women and her life.

The story tells us the women is married late in her life, and "bore live descendants" which is a very uncommon way to say she had kids. It almost portrays the idea that either she doesn't have a connection with her kids or doesn't think of them as her children. The women is also a house wife and is said to be in the kitchen cooking for most of the story. She does her cooking and over time she grows old and fat and the years just fly past her. This is the life of many women in the world and not a very happy storyline that usually comes with a fiction story.

The ending of the story does not seem to get much better as all the others stories do in this packet. The women's husband is now dead and she will not take off her wedding ring. I feel like this is because the majority of her life was dedicated to serving him and now she is lost without him. It can also be inferred that she is a religious women as she calls out loud "Father?" which could be seen as her referring to asking help from God. Then the final line of the poem is basically her dying so there was an entire life of this women described in about 20 lines of writing, and after you know this women's life story you still don't know her name, as if she was forgotten rather than not mentioned.

Writing Down the Bones - Baking a Cake

This section really stood out to me among the rest. I really liked the analogy the author used to compare one's writing or product to a cake, and the ingredients are the details of the writing. Without the correct amount of ingredients then your "cake" will not come out right, or the reader will not understand what you are trying to say. Also, having all the right ingredients plays a big role in the process as well. If certain details are left out then you wont have the "cake" you wanted and everything will not come out right.

I also liked how the author talked about having a connection with your "cake". This is because it's not just any old cake, it's YOUR cake. It's a part of you whether you like it or not. You put time and effort into it and it will represent your thoughts and ideas. I am someone who really likes to put a piece of myself into my writing and call it my own. When I put my name on a piece of paper it represents me and I stand by it. Maybe it doesn't represent everything about me, but I wrote it for a reason and want it to reflect a piece of me.

I think the reason I liked this analogy so much is because I could relate it to anything I do in my life. Sure it worked well with writing, but to me it was more than that. When you bake a cake you make a goal, prepare your steps, and work hard to get there. The ingredients are the steps along the way that you want to put into your goal to help you reach it. Nothing good comes easy and you have to keep working on it to perfect your "cake". 

Tocqueville

Tocqueville is not like any other poem I have ever read before. I've read poems in the past with multiple meanings, different narrators, and hidden messages, but this one takes the cake. The endless possibilities are mind blowing after reading this poem because you are never quite sure which road to take. Everything seems to be so interconnected in one way or another that it almost sets you up to pick up all these different points of view and different meanings. This seems to be multiple poems hidden within each other, that also connect to a bigger idea while also having their own smaller picture.

One aspect that I questioned while reading this poem was how many different narrators had input throughout the reading. "I am 18, married with 3 children" (Pg 38) "I am 22 years old" (Pg 40) " I am 24 and have four children" (Pg 28) The reason these three passages stood out to me was because they almost seemed to be new introductions of narrators. Two of the three introductions mentioned some type of children or marriage with the speaker. However, one of them did not and it was odd to me that the one that didn't was the middle age and not either the first or last introduction. I also tried to compare the different introductions for any contradicting information that would lead the reader to believe that someone else was speaking but all three did not conflict with each other in any way. Another aspect I thought was very interesting was that the ages revealed in the introductions did not come in chronological order. In fact the ages revealed was in the order of oldest, youngest, and then middle.

Another clue that lead me to believe that there are multiple speakers was the fact that the poem contained multiple re-occurring themes spread out through the poem. This included war, a murdered child, the speakers wife, and the idea of portraying impressions of a certain people or idea. The speaker would almost jump back and forth from these different themes and switch his voice when speaking about them. This could be a result of different time frames in the speakers life or represent some kind of aspect the narrator is trying to get across to the reader. This was discussed in class that the poems were placed in this order to get the reader to see how ideas are portrayed to us in the news or to give the wrong impression to people about a certain topic.