TOW #13- Big Magic

Elizabeth Gilbert’s writing is known for its authenticity and conversational tone. In her newest book, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, she continues sharing her unique voice through her perspective about creativity. Gilbert’s personal anecdotes, illustrative similes, and paradoxes, bring her ideas together to reveal the beauty and importance of creativity.

An ongoing pattern that Gilbert does is providing personal anecdotes to demonstrate different concepts regarding the creative process. When she explained the subsection “Done Is Better Than Good,” she offered a representative example of an underdeveloped character from one of her previous books. Gilbert used this personal experience to show perfectionists that if she had waited to write this character just right, the book never would have been published. Another characteristic of Gilbert’s writing is her description through the usage of similes. She effectively does this while explaining her opinion that people don’t need to suffer in order express creativity. Her belief that “creativity grows like sidewalk weeds out of the cracks between our pathologies—not from the pathologies themselves” demonstrates this. Through this comparison, her insights are illustrated and made easier to understand. To conclude the book, Gilbert’s final subsection includes a listing of paradoxes to summarize what she wants her audience to gain from reading Big Magic.  She writes, “Creativity is sacred, and it is not sacred. What we make matters enormously, and it doesn’t matter at all. We toil alone, and we are accompanied by spirits. We are terrified, and we are brave. Art is a crushing chore and wonderful privilege. Only when we are at our most playful can divinity finally get serious with us.” She reminds her audience that there are burdens that come along with creative living, but that the rewards are just as important. Despite all the things that make up creative living, Gilbert’s message is clear. Big Magic wants readers to live creatively by “living a life that is driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear.” 

TOW #12- Don’t Let Kids Play Football

            As our understanding of brain damage in sports continues to expand, the question of whether children should continue being exposed to high-impact contact sports comes into focus. In Bennet Omalu’s editorial “Don’t Let Kids Play Football,” he uses his knowledge as a physician and elements of rhetoric to express why kids should not play football and other high-impact contact sports.

            To begin the essay, he juxtaposes restrictions with cigarette smoking, alcohol, and asbestos to the nonexistent restrictions made in sports. He makes the point that although all of these practices endanger our health, high-impact contact sports are the only ones that we have done nothing about. Through this comparison, he equates the risk factors of playing sports to those of smoking or drinking alcohol. He ends the essay with these examples by reminding the audience that there are legal ages for certain things and that the same should be done about “protecting the organ that defines who we are as human beings.”

            Omalu also uses rhetorical questioning to connect to his parental audience. He emphasizes the health risks that come along with repetitive hits to the head and asks, “Why, then, do we continue to intentionally expose our children to this risk?” As this question causes readers to rethink, Omalu informs us of the severity brain damage can have. After providing scientific evidence to explain the impairment that can be inflicted on this organ, he closes the essay by asking, “However, as a society, the question we have to answer is, when we knowingly and willfully allow a child to play high-impact contact sports, are we endangering that child?” These questions compel parents to think twice about letting their children play.

            Omalu’s ideas are effective and should be taken into great consideration. As his information reveals, our brains our extremely special organs and if protecting them means giving up “old practices in the name of safety and progress,” then these ideas need to be put into effect. 

TOW #11- You Are Not A Sketch

            Eating disorders have become a growing problem, especially in the fashion industry, throughout recent years. In 2013, Star Models, a modeling agency based in Brazil, released ads that each show two side by side images: a picture of a model in a fashion design sketch and a picture of a "real" model. Through this comparison and the words next to these images, this anti-anorexia ad campaign effectively raises awareness.

For each ad, the sketched model is drawn with the exaggerated proportions and long lines typical of fashion illustration. The "real" models to their right are depicted with the exact same proportions. The visual affect is quite disturbing, revealing the scary similarities that are seen on the catwalk during fashion week. The sketches brought to life are nothing more than skin and bones that resemble the unhealthy standards that can pressure women and men. In addition to the images, the visual text is emphasized with the tagline, "You are not a sketch. Say no to anorexia." It sends a powerful message to encourage a healthy body image and to expose the detrimental standards seen in the fashion industry.

As widespread as the problem of underweight models is, graphic anti-anorexia ad campaigns like this one have effectively raised awareness. As the fashion industry changes, our society must do the same. We need to be more accepting of all body types and embrace our differences that make us unique.

TOW #10- High-School Confidential: Notes on Teen Movies

In David Denby's essay "High School Confidential: Notes on Teen Movies," he questions whether teen movies "reflect reality" or follow a "set of conventions that refer to other films." Using hyperbole and film references, he explores the similar patterns between teen movies.

Denby begins by describing the stereotype of the “most hated young woman in America.” In a majority of modern teen movies, this is the popular, tall, blond girl who is not liked. Although this exaggeration is not always true, it is a recognizable description of the antagonist in many teen movies. By starting the essay with these familiar stereotypes, Denby appeals to teenage readers. He then introduces the overlying question: Do these stereotypes truly reflect actual high school life?

The references throughout the essay connect Denby’s ideas to numerous movies. He alludes to movies that portray the typical high school life such as Clueless, 10 Things I Hate About You, Never Been Kissed, She’s All That, and Disturbing Behavior. By describing different characters and different plotlines, he connects repeating story lines and the similar characters. The movies become Cinderella stories as the nerdy girl attracts the most handsome and popular boy in the school and the movie “turns into a myth of social reversal.” These references help the audience understand Denby’s ideas through popular movies that they’ve most likely seen before.

Denby concludes that most teen movies have both the elements of reality and references to other films. They attack the status quo of teenage society, but usually end up conforming to it in the end. He also explores the idea of teen movies being the writers' way of obtaining vengeance for their own years of pain in high school. Regardless where teen movies come from, many remain classics that capture the essence of high school. 

TOW #9- Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Author Elizabeth Gilbert is well-known for her bestselling book, Eat, Pray, Love. The travel memoir sold more than 10 million copies worldwide, spent more than three years on “The New York Times Best Sellers List”, and became a film in 2010. Gilbert’s new book, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, offers insights on how to live creatively. Using anecdotes to express her unique perspective, Gilbert inspires readers to uncover the “strange jewels” that are hidden within each of us. By exploring our own curiosity and creativity, we can live with more mindfulness, passion, and joy.

She shares an anecdote about her friend, Susan, who flipped her life around by doing exactly that. When she was in her forties, Susan was feeling "plain" and "bored." Pondering the last time she had felt "free" and "lively," she remembered her pastime of figure skating, which she had quit because she simply wasn't "the best." But after twenty-years, Susan “didn't win medals, wasn't the top but gave back permission to herself to live in a way that made her feel like she was unfolding and becoming more than just an accumulation of her daily obligations.” Gilbert also shares her own generative process and experiences as a writer. Being rejected too many times to count, she encourages readers to do what we love and to face down what we most fear.

Whether we long to write a book, make art, embark on a dream, or figure skate, Gilbert displays the magic in creativity that can bring more joy into our lives. She encourages us to overcome fear and let go of the things holding us back from acting on our ambitions and desires. 

IRB Intro Post #2

My next IRB will be Elizabeth Gilbert’s latest release, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear. My mom had previously read her bestselling memoir, Eat, Pray, Love and recommended Big Magic for me. Using her own generative process and perspective, Gilbert shares her insights about creativity. I hope that through reading this, I can better understand my own creative process and be inspired to overcome the fears behind it. 

TOW #8- Slouching Towards Bethlehem

The second half of Slouching Towards Bethlehem continues Joan Didion’s theme of California in the 1960s and overlapping a wide range of topics. In the last two sections, “Personals” and “Seven Places of the Mind”, Didion’s tone becomes more personal and includes essays relative to her own life. She writes about her habit of keeping notebooks, self-respect, Hollywood, morality, and ending with an essay about leaving New York and returning to California. Aside from the scattered plotlines, Didion’s unique perspective and elements of narrative and realism display her personal search for herself.

Beginning the second section with “On Keeping a Notebook”, Didion writes about her habit of keeping notebooks in order to remember certain situations. But the reality is, she cannot always remember what the notes mean. Didion explains that keeping a notebook is not keeping a record or a diary of events in her life, but to remember the way that she feels. Through this interpretation of her own habit, she shows how a notebook is essentially personal and unique to yourself.

The final essay in the book, “Goodbye to All That”, is about her reasons for leaving New York. Beginning, “It is easy to see the beginning of things, and harder to see the ends”, Didion describes her life falling apart in front of her. She had first moved to New York as a young woman looking for adventure. Through time and maturity, she becomes depressed from living so far from everyone she knows and loves. Finally, she gives in to homesickness and returns to California to make a new life with her husband.

Her essays resemble a journal; detailed, personal, thoughtful, with a deeper meaning to be found by Didion herself. Although many of these essays were publicly published, it is likely that many of her works were written for herself more than anyone else. Through her personal descriptions of California and writing, Didion reveals this search for herself during a time of confusion. 

TOW #7- Mother Tongue

Known for her portrayal of mother-daughter relationships, Amy Tan explores “all the Englishes” that are part of her identity in “Mother Tongue”. She examines the power of language, specifically English, and the different ways that it can be used. Through anecdotes and juxtaposition focusing on Tan and her mother, the essay reveals how language is not only an element of communication, but a measure of individual worth.

            Tan’s Chinese-American background plays a significant role in this essay. Expressing feelings of guilt, she describes her mother’s second language, English, being “broken” or “fractured”, “as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed”. Tan presents anecdotes to display the condescending attitudes given towards her mother due to the limitations of her English. In one situation, she recalls her mother going to an appointment to see a CAT scan. She said that the hospital did not apologize after they had lost the CAT scan, did not seem to have any sympathy, and would not give her any more information. But after having the doctor call Tan, who spoke perfect English, they had assurances that the CAT scan would be found and apologies for the inconvenience. By telling this story and juxtaposing the English spoken by Tan and her mother, she demonstrates the assumptions made by people through language. Because her mother’s English is different than “American English”, it is deceiving in that her mother understands more than one might think when listening to her speak. When Tan speaks on the phone to help her mother, she is taken more seriously. Through this, she displays how language can generate prejudice.

            Despite this, Tan concludes that there are things that language ability can never show; intent, passion, imagery, rhythms of speech, and nature of thought. “Mother Tongue” effectively proves this, revealing a new perception of language. 

TOW #6- Drowning Girl

Drowning Girl is considered one of Roy Lichtenstein’s most significant works. Painted in 1963, it illustrates the image of a woman crying in a turbulent sea with a thought bubble that reads, “I Don’t Care! I’d rather Sink—Than Call Brad for Help!” The graphical and narrative elements display a representative work of the pop art movement. Lichtenstein is able to create a melodramatic effect through intertextuality and parody based on popular culture.

Based on a 1962 DC Comics panel and Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Drowning Girl shapes a distinct meaning influenced by preexisting texts. The original piece depicts the boyfriend holding onto a capsized boat in the background and has different words in the thought bubble. By cropping the image to focus on the drowning girl and changing the narrative component, Lichtenstein places emphasis on the melodrama of the situation. His parody of various sources such as commercial illustrations, comic imagery, and modern masterpieces serves as a statement about pop culture.

The elements of modernism display Lichtenstein’s returning theme of women in tragic situations. Drowning Girl’s depiction of someone preferring death out of feelings of spite is a representation of the drama. The melodramatic quality about this piece draws upon the influence of popular culture—both contemporary and historical.

Lichtenstein’s impact on the pop art movement marked a shift away from abstract expressionism, art aimed at subjective emotional expression from the souls of the artists. Instead, his inspirations came from the culture at large and suggested little of the artist’s individual feelings. The style, subject matter, and techniques of reproduction referenced through popular culture appeared to dominate the artwork. Drowning Girl exemplifies this concept and effectively displays the melodramatic aspect of pop culture.

TOW #5- What Art Unveils

From The Opinion Pages of The New York Times, “What Art Unveils” analyzes what art is, why it matters, and what it tells us about ourselves. As a philosopher and writer, Alva Noë’s work on perception and consciousness is the foundation for his thoughts on art. Through his contradictory opinions, captivating perspective, and applicable examples, he effectively explains how art unveils us ourselves.

            He begins by discussing the approach to art, acknowledging the common idea that the key to answering questions is through neuroscience. Opposing this, Noë concludes that “neuroscience has yet to frame an adequate conception of our nature”. He explains that our biological nature cannot explain art and its place in our lives and instead moves in a different direction stating, “Art can help us frame a better picture of our human nature”. Through this contradictory configuration, Noë’s disagreement to the speculations of others engages the audience in understanding his philosophical ideas. Following this, he introduces his perspective of what art unveils: a way of learning about ourselves. He explains that artists make stuff “not because the stuff they make is special in itself”, but because “making stuff is special for us”. As a making activity, it reveals our nature. Noë explains this concept by comparing and contrasting an example of an everyday object: a doorknob. As something that is plain looking and does not puzzle us, it is taken for granted. Art, in contrast, “disrupts plain looking” and “discloses just what plain looking conceals”. This example displays how art disrupts our habitual activities and makes us anew, by displaying us to ourselves.

            By contradicting common ideas and simple examples, he is able to explain his complex perspective on what art unveils. His insights throughout this editorial introduce new ideas to readers interested in art. Expanding on how art unveils us ourselves, he presents a fascinating, abstract philosophical standpoint. 

TOW #4- Slouching Towards Bethlehem

            Known for her works exploring American cultural, Joan Didion observes California life in the 1960s in Slouching Towards Bethlehem. The first half this collection of essays consists of the first part of three, “Life Styles in the Golden Land”. Discussing figures from John Wayne to Howard Hughes, Didion captures the unique time and place of her focus. The combination of the wide-range of subjects are compiled perfectly to create the theme of California.
            The aesthetic in Didion’s distinctive style of prose is what makes each essay so special. She captures a vision of America with realism and a unique perspective. With subjects concerning the dislocation and change of the time, she approaches each with seriousness, truth, and awe. Although her personal essays are not included until the second part of the collection, her memorable voice is essential to “Life Styles in the Golden Land”. The journalistic, deadpan, but individual tone that she writes with has made her an accomplished author and has made Slouching Towards Bethlehem a modern classic. 

            To some readers, the scattered subject matters are confusing and lack an important meaning. Through reading and thinking deeper about this collection of essays, the theme of California in the 1960s becomes clearer. Didion wants to be understood, to provide insight to the world around her. The events she describes, in her own life or not, effectively do this through her unique prose. She is able to bring the time and place alive in a beautiful way. 

TOW #3- Corn-Pone Opinions

            In “Corn-Pone Opinions” Mark Twain, the well-known American author and humorist, examines the effects of social pressures on thoughts and beliefs. He explores and analyzes why it is our nature to conform to ideas that are not our own and why this can be a problem. Twain begins by recalling when the idea was first impressed upon him as a fifteen year-old boy during the mid-19^th century. In this anecdote, he conspicuously repeats a line from a sermon he heard given by a young black slave: “You tell me whar a man gits his corn pone, en I’ll tell you what his ‘pinions is.” This approach effectively presents Twain’s insight to “Corn-Pone Opinions” while giving the audience something to ponder over.

            He analyzes the human nature to conform to what is popular in society. Using examples such as the flaring hoopskirt and Shakespeare, he comically explains how things become accepted and popular, but soon disappear. People conform to opinions, even if they are not their own, to gain the approval of others. Twain connects the audience to this idea through his usage of the first person point of view. By writing “we” instead of “they” throughout the essay, he shows how “Corn-Pone Opinions” are inevitably engrained in all of our lives. His modest tone presents these ideas in an uncondescending, informative way that make this essay realistic and relatable.

            As the essay closes, Twain’s use of hypophora effectively ends in a reflective manner. By posing questions with obvious answers, the audience is able to recognize how influences shape the opinions of everyday life. Despite being written over one hundred years ago, Twain’s perception of opinion is ever-present in human behavior. 

TOW #2- Australian Red Cross Advertisement

This visual text is an advertisement for the Australian Red Cross aimed at promoting blood donation. Instead of a money donation box, this one contains blood and reads in bold print, “Money isn’t everything.” The idea presented through the image intends to get people to donate blood by showing that they don’t need to spend money in order to help a good cause.

When people see the same things over and over again they get immune to them. Organizations need to continuously come up with fresh approaches to get people’s attention. By putting a twist on the concept of donating, the Australian Red Cross uses a donation box in a different way to draw attention. The juxtaposition of a money donation box and a blood donation box stands out to help promote blood donation. Today, money donation boxes are less effective because they are everywhere and people cannot always afford to be handing money out. In contrast, this advertisement explains that people can save lives without spending any money.

It also stands out because its effective use of the different modes of persuasion. Through the writing on the box, the advertisement creates ethos, pathos, and logos. By including “save up to three lives without spending a cent” it provides numbers to support blood donation. It also adds an emotional aspect to the advertisement by reminding the audience that life is precious and donating can help save lives. The phrase “money isn’t everything” confronts the audience by stating that donating is an ethical thing to do. Combining these important rhetorical devices is effective towards getting people to donate blood.

Using the familiar image of a clear donation box but in a different context, the advertisement stands out and appeals to the audience in different ways. By looking at a different way to bring attention to donating, more lives can be saved.

TOW #1- How Segregation Destroys Black Wealth

Today, it is common for Americans to believe that discrimination in the housing market no longer exists. Contrary to this, the editorial board of The New York Times provides insight into why it continues to be a problem in “How Segregation Destroys Black Wealth.” The investigation of a recent complaint filed by the Nation Fair Housing Alliance shows how real estate agents contribute to segregation. By limiting the opportunity to buy into high-value areas for African-Americans, "ghettoization" is encouraged and black wealth is destroyed. Long after the Fair Housing Act was implemented by Congress to outlaw housing discrimination, it is shown to still be an issue.

This is supported with information and statistics which demonstrate that “the damage reaches across generations and continues today.” In addition, research and quotations presented from Princeton University’s Office of Population Research create ethos and logos. Supporting the editorial with factual evidence and referencing a prestigious school is effective because they show how the history of discrimination has taken a great toll on black wealth. The comparison of the 1960s and 70s to present day demonstrate the changes in discriminatory practices. It goes on to reason that although the techniques today are subtler, they are still there. By including these rhetorical devices, the author is able to accomplish their purpose, explaining how segregation destroys black wealth.

It is pointed out that it is a greater problem in some areas of the country than others, but it speaks to the broad American audience and readers of The New York Times. People want to know about what is happening around the world, especially in their own country. After reading this, those who assumed that black people no longer face discrimination in the housing market can see this issue more clearly. Despite the advancements made throughout American history, the prejudice and discrimination reach across generations and are still here. 

IRB Intro Post #1

For my first IRB this school year, I’m choosing to read Joan Didion’s essays in Slouching Towards Bethlehem. I had read her title essay in The White Album over the summer, which interested me in looking at some of her other works. This collection focuses on America in the sixties, especially California, the center of its counterculture. I hope to gain insight of the unique time and place she writes about while looking at the great prose that has made it a modern classic. 

The White Album

Joan Didion’s title essay The White Album recounts personal and cultural experiences through her life during the 1960s. Born in Sacramento and later majoring in English at Berkeley, a majority of her life and literary works are based off of California , including “The White Album”. Each of the fifteen segments in this essay are narratives that focus on her emotional life and incidents she was involved with as a reporter at the time. Some of which include Manson’s gang murders, a recording session of the Doors, interviews with Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver, and student uprisings at San Francisco State. Each becomes a metaphor for her own life, a comparison to the chaos and breakdowns culturally and personally. The first sentence reads one of her most well-known lines, “We tell ourselves stories in order to live”, which becomes a central theme throughout the essay. She explores why she could not tell herself the stories that she needed to survive and why she could not coherently put together those images she had experienced. The essay’s format, a collage, resembles the breakdown of coherence that Didion experiences culturally and personally. Though the majority of the essay focuses on the tension and paranoia during that decade, she ends on a hopeful note in the possibility of escaping and moving on to a different time period. Parts of this essay were first published in Didion’s “Points West” column in The Saturday Evening Post in the late 1960’s for an American’s abroad   audience. In fact, her work was widely read, but much of her literary work, including “The White Album” was possibly  written more for herself than for anyone else. In the final sentence of the essay she writes, “…but writing has not yet helped me to see what it means”. Her purpose in expressing her personal and cultural truths was accomplished through her narrative. The meaning behind the memories in each segment becomes more clear as the essay progresses.

“Helter Skelter” The rise and fall of Hollywood in the 1960s. (songmango.com)

Letter from Birmingham Jail

Looking back through American history, one of the greatest influential leaders to date is Martin Luther King Jr. He is most recognized for advancing African-American civil rights through nonviolent resistance. In 1963, he wrote an open letter from a cell in Birmingham Jail defending this practice of nonviolent action which was later widely published. It was originally addressed to eight white clergymen but it also became an inspiration as a call to action for the nation. Throughout “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, King explains that people have the responsibility to break laws that are unjust. He stresses that they must take action instead of waiting, potentially for a long time, for the court to pull through and give them their equal rights. King creates pathos and tells of the innocent children being put through the injustices. In one instance, he describes having to explain to his daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that had just been advertised on television because it is closed to colored children. This anecdote evokes a sense of sadness in the audience that helps reason why the laws are unjust and why people must try to make a difference. After addressing being considered an extremist, King uses anaphora when listing other extremists throughout history. Some include, “Was not Jesus an extremist in love?... Was not Amos an extremist for justice... Was not Paul an extremist for the gospel of Jesus Christ...”. This strategy of repetition made the point he was making clear; some of the greatest figures in the world are extremists. He adds that, “maybe the South, the nation, and the world are in dire need of creative extremists”. As the letter comes to a close it is clear that King’s shared ideas are well-supported and are important. His words are heard and have brought great change to the world.

“Skies of Civil Rights” Dark clouds and deep fog of prejudice being lifted for the stars of love and brotherhood to shine over our great nation. (apod.nasa.com)

Once More to the Lake

Contributor to The New Yorker and author of top children’s novel Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White, relives the lakefront father-son memories in his personal essay “Once More to the Lake”. As he is visiting Belgrade, Maine, with his son, he finds pleasure in reminiscing about the childhood memories he experienced with his own father there. White juxtaposes his memories of the lake as a child to his observations as a grown man. In one instance he compares the sounds of the boats there. He describes the modern boats as making an “unfamiliar nervous sound” and the boats from his childhood as “sedative, an ingredient of summer sleep”. With White’s interwoven imagery throughout the narrative, the vivid memories of the lake are brought to life. He recounts the early mornings, “when the lake was cool and motionless, remembered how the bedroom smelled of the lumber it was made of and the wet woods whose scent entered through the screen”. Most importantly, the description in “Once More to the Lake” is able to picture the cycle of life, which is White’s purpose. When his son and he are fishing, he says, "I looked at the boy, who was silently watching his fly, and it was my hands that held his rod, my eyes watching. I felt dizzy and didn't know which rod I was at the end of". It intends to show the audience, specifically parents, how people pass through life. One day we are here and one day we are gone. The parent to child relationship in this essay perfectly demonstrates this concept of life. When White is watching his son put on his swim trunks in the closing sentences, he ends, “As he buckled the swollen belt, suddenly my groin felt the chill of death”. Seeing himself in his son and his father in himself, he comes to a realization of his own mortality in life’s cycle.

“Revival at the Lake” A thunderstorm “linking the generations in a strong indestructible chain”. (channelstv.com)