Stephen King: Why We Crave Horror Movies

Stephen King’s essay does a good job in explaining why people love horror movies.  The writing is a good example of a cause/affect essay in that he explains how everyone is a little crazy and as a result we use horror movies as an outlet for our insanity and to keep reality in check.  He culminates this theory with his comparison of a horror movie being the “basket of raw meat” thrown to the gators to keep them down.  Apparently as long as people can vent their insanity through watching horror movies, they won’t hack someone up in real life.

As much as I would like to agree with King’s theory, I cannot relate.  I don’t particularly need to watch horror movies to vent my insanity and stifle urges to kill;  I guess my degree of insanity is fairly low.  I will admit I make funny faces in the mirror..  Maybe if I go rent a slasher movie I’ll stop.

Two Strategies of the Writing Process

The two things I will take along from this class that have helped me the most are definitely review and revision.  The one thing I never did in my writing before was review and rewrite multiple times.  This clearly is where O.K. writing becomes good writing.

Prior to this class I always had only two drafts: the entire essay I wrote in one shot and the one with corrected punctuation and spelling.  I knew that this was not my best work and it would most likely be reflected in my grade, but I never knew how much.  Re-reading work multiple times and giving it to others for criticism creates ideas that you might not have thought of originally.  Having others read your work can help you identify areas that may be clear to you, but are unclear or difficult to read for others.  I believe peer review and revision can easily improve focus, flow, and possibly a whole letter grade in your writing.

How an “Ideal” person would respond to me & my writing

I do not even know what an “ideal” person is.  That definition is most likely different for everyone.  Because writing is an art, its meanings and effects are relative and opinion based.  Just like reading other student’s blog posts about the readings, the essays convey different feelings for each reader and everyone has a slightly different opinion about them.  Writing is not math or science;  there is no one answer.  The only things measurable in writing are grammar, structure, and punctuation.  Taking this into account, the question has too many variables to answer it completely.

Suzanne Berne: My Ticket to the Disaster

My Ticket to the Disaster made me think differently about the site of the World Trade Center in NYC.  This essay made me realize it is in fact a tourist attraction, but not in the conventional definition.  When I think of a tourist attraction, I think of the worlds largest ball of yarn or the Grand Canyon, not a memorial or a disaster site.  It made me hope that people were visiting it for different reasons than normal tourist destinations.

Even though Ground Zero can be compared to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C.,  it is still completely different.  It is not a memorial yet; at present it is more of a spectacle, especially how Suzanne Berne describes it in her essay.  This is apparent when the security guard scoffs at her asking, “You want tickets to the disaster?”  The site is the aftermath of a terrible day in our country’s history.  It is still in its raw form, unlike the nice black granite Vietnam Memorial.

Berne made the site sound even more touristy to me by listing the different nationalities of people she noticed who were visiting.  When I think of visiting Ground Zero, it is from my perspective as a resident of New York.  I had been inside the World Trade Center before when I was younger, and when I saw the site after September 11th all those memories came back to me, along with the news coverage from the day of the attacks.  I hope the tourists visiting the site were there to pay their respects and were not there just to see the scene of destruction.

Diane Ackerman: Farewell to Summer and Its Buzzing Creatures

This essay was my favorite of the week because it was the only one that brought back my own memories.  That coupled with the recent end of summer and the beginning of fall made this a more interesting read than the others.

In the essay, Ackerman acknowledges her “precious last days with the hummingbirds.”  This made me think of the last days of this past summer and my awareness of its soon approaching end.  I remembered my recent attempts to do activities only possible in summer before it got too cold in the fall.  I savored the last swimming, cliff jumping, and enjoying the generally relaxed feeling associated with summer just as Ackerman enjoyed her final days watching the hummingbirds.

At the end, Ackerman’s last line is, “..they always leave too soon.”  This is true for anything you enjoy, but also makes the time you enjoy it that much more valuable.  Just like you would take sunny days for granted without the occasional rain, Ackerman would probably not enjoy the hummingbirds as much if they were around all the time.  The hummingbirds, like the changing seasons, are variables in our lives that would make our everyday routines that much more bland without them.

Writing Environment: Noisy vs Quiet

I can write pretty much anywhere except where there is noise, particularly where there are people talking.  I’m sure this is true for most people, but it really is the only thing that makes a difference for me.

It is just hard for me to hold ideas in a noisy environment.  I will think of something that is worded perfectly in my head, but with external noise I sometimes almost lose it before I can get it out onto paper or my laptop.  This makes the process extremely frustrating because then I have to waste another minute trying to remember exactly what I was going to say.  I guess you could say I either have some form of ADD or just a terrible memory.

In a quiet environment, ideas get onto paper or typed out as soon as I think of them because there are no outside distractions.  This helps me write continuously and actually helps my organization.  My ideas seem to flow better and stay in a more logical order when I can continue writing about something without stopping.  I find that my organization is worse when I write down different ideas and have to go back and string them together.

The Great Outdoors

Nature and being outside is a huge part of my life.  A hike or a simple walk through the woods with some friends can be relaxing, peaceful and adventurous.  In the summer time I try to never spend more than a few hours inside on a nice sunny day.  This is the perfect opportunity to get some friends together and play a game, relax somewhere, or go swimming or cliff jumping.  The fall is no different.  The weekends during the fall foliage are perfect for hiking in the Adirondacks.

Dave Barry: Punch and Judy

Dave Barry’s Punch and Judy is a fun to read compare and contrast essay.  This is mainly because it is completely true, although mildly exaggerated in parts for full effect.  Barry uses humor well in his writing, which makes it even more fun to read.  In it he is comparing the differences between men and women and how they react to certain situations as well as the assignment of some gender based tasks.  He bases the differences in reaction to situations on the fight or flight syndrome for males and the tend and befriend syndrome for females.  He gives examples of these two by saying that men always end a disagreement by physical means and women always compromise and befriend.  This is obviously a gender stereotype, but it is pretty close to the truth.  Barry also gives the example of children on Halloween.  He starts off by sorting each of the genders by one of two costumes, and then states that all the girls are in social groups while all the boys are bouncing off the walls.

Barry also lists two tasks that are generally male or female jobs.  He talks about the “laundry refolding syndrome,” which states that a man never folds clothes correctly and a woman will always correct his mistakes.  He then lists the “inflatable pool toy syndrome,” in which the female brings home an incredibly large pool toy for the man to inflate for the children, almost losing consciousness in the process.

Ski trip

One friday night when I was still in high school, my friend and I decided to go on a ski trip.  This was pretty much a spur of the moment idea and was a ridiculous decision to start.  My friend Brian got out of work at 10:30 pm, we hatched this plan by 10:35, gathered our gear and left for Sunday River in Maine at 11 pm.  This is normally about a 5 hour trip, but for two idiots leaving in the middle of the night with a road map and a case of Mountain Dew, it would take much longer than that.

We were on the right course for the first leg of the trip, as it took us right past Killington, a trip we had taken many times before.  We started to get in trouble when we got into New Hampshire, as this was beyond our familiarity.  This is where bad instructions were given, by myself in fact.  In a fatigued, but caffeine powered daze, I read the map wrong and told Brian to take a right instead of a left.  This was the worst possible spot to do this as we travelled over an hour and a half going the wrong way before we realized our next turn had not come about.  It was about 2:30 in the morning by the time we finally turned around.  On the return trip back to the correct route, we encountered no less than 6 moose in the road.

It was 5:30 am when we finally arrived at Sunday River.  We tried to sleep in the car before the mountain opened, but were unable to so we just lay awake cursing over our mistake.  By the end of the full day of skiing, we had both been awake for about 30 hours.  In this state I had become almost delirious, even more so when we were driving back home.  By the time I got to sleep in a hotel near Killington, I had been awake for 38 hours and was pretty much hallucinating from lack of sleep.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr: In the Kitchen

To start, I thought “In the Kitchen” was going to be about something else entirely.  The last thing I was expecting was that it would be about hair and how important it was to Mr. Gates and his family.   This essay made me think differently about conformity.  I had never even though of this as something people did to fit in better.  The extremes that were taken to make your hair look different seem extremely strange to me, but it gave me more insight into the times.

I have to say, this essay was extremely boring to me.  I did learn something new, but it was not something that I could relate to or was interested in.