Reaction to You Shall Know Our Velocity – Will and Hand (I don’t like ‘em)

I liked this book and would recommend it, though the characters themselves did get on my nerves sometimes. The way that both Will and Hand acted at different points in the book bothered me. Reading about what goes on in Will’s mind makes me feel that he is very troubled and strange. Of course I talk to myself in my head every once in a while, but to hear him carry out arguments with people as much as he does, I just didn’t like it. Also, I would like to point out that certain words, and even just syllables in words were italicized throughout the book. I could not really find any connection with these italicized sections except that they were probably emphasized by the speaker. I think that these italics are the result of Will’s “strange” mind. When I read those parts in the book it made me think of Will speaking to me, telling the story, and that he was overanalyzing the quotes he remembered in a way by emphasizing things he thought were strange, mean, curious, or otherwise different. They made me think of a confused and still surprised Will telling me the story. Will is also overanalyzing the situation when he argues with people in his head, by carrying out full conversations. And don’t even get me started on the way that red eyed, pig people bring him books of things he doesn’t want to remember. I know that it can be hard to keep things out of your mind, especially horrible things, but the way that will has created a metaphor in his mind for the remembering of the past is very strange. The metaphor being that these disobedient, scary people are his minds tendency to remember what happened to Jack.

Hand also bothered me. He has a sort of passive way of asserting dominance, and there are not too many things that bother me more. Will had picked up on this, and pointed it out throughout the book. One thing that Hand will do is start to explain something that is very bizarre (something that he is almost sure that you would not know), but he acts like you do know it, or asks “you know what I’m talking about right?” This makes him seem superior when it turns out that you do not know what he is talking about, and good old Hand will fill you in on his amazing knowledge (you owe him now, but no matter because no one expected you to know more than him). One part in the book that made me really think of Hand as having a problem with dominance was when they were playing basketball with the local boys (page 113). Will says that he was trying to keep the game casual, and Hand knocked the ball out of the hands of the much younger boy and scored… “It was not cool” Will said. Hand seems to take any opportunity to show his power, and always wants to seem “manly” and “greater.” I think that in this situation, and many other situations like this one, it is a much better person who realizes that there is no reason to assert yourself as the biggest or the “alpha male,” and that the moment is about something more than that. There are times when it isn’t possible to assert you dominance and power, while at the same time being a good person.

Intertextuality

I think that the intertextuality in Blue Highways is very interesting. Though I realize this is not a very original example, I would like to talk about how I came to understand its significance. The Whitman quotes do a couple of things for the story, and I did not notice them until we talked about intertextuality in class.

Quoting Whitman does add an element of poetry to the book. To be honest, Whitman's words are more beautiful than those of Least Heat-Moon. But also, quoting a poet like Whitman conjures up feelings of freedom and experiencing the unseen parts of the country. This is done by the choice of quotes that are descriptions of Whitman's own experiances. I think that the best example of this is when Least Heat-Moon describes the worn walking paths next to the roads (page 52). By citing Whitman's experience of the same thing, the setting is more believable, better described, and just more authentic.

The quotes also add another characteristic to Least Heat-Moon. In the first paragraph of the book, we learn the he is a recently fired English teacher at a college. By quoting Whitman throughout the book, his character is solidified as a lover of literature. When he point out that "Whitman said it this way," or "said it best," the reader can see the english professor in him.

Blue Highways - Initial response

After just a few senteces into this book i thought that I would like it. It seemed like a good plot. Some man has decided to drive off because his life was kind of falling apart. But I must say that I do not like this book at all. I found it very difficult to read over spring break, because I could not see the plot going somewhere. So far it does not seem to be building up to some sort of climax, I cannot find a major conflict. There is only one main character too... unless you count the van.

The only thing that happens in this book is he meets new people, and describes them for a few pages then moves on. The people themselves are interesting enough, such as the couple building the boat, and the fishermen with the crabs. The scene in the woods near the grave site was interesting. However the story is not going anywhere. There need to be a plot of some kind to make a good book.

I can not find any sort of literary elements in this book. There is no character development, no antagonists or protagonists, no symbolism, just no story line at all. However, I would not say that this book is absolutly aweful to read (if my post so far has come off that way). Like I said, the poeple are interesting. I would just like a book with more sense and meaning to it. I would not reccomend this but to anyone, however I think that if I were to describe some of the characters in this book most people would find them to be interesting.

In this book, there are many things that symbolize other events, and are microcosms of the book as a whole. Overall I liked these things in the book a lot. The fact that I noticed so many makes me believe that if I look a bit harder I will find a lot more.

One of the things that I noticed was that her mother does not use the same toothpaste (or did not used to use the same tooth paste). She had three different kinds because she would get bored of having the same tasted in her mouth each night. This is a good characteristic that describes the way she treats other things. She has run away from her home 2 times, and cannot keep a friend for more than a month.

Even though this was an interesting part in the book, and at the beginning I like the book, overall I do not think is was very good. I thought that the end was pretty bad. There was not enough closer in my opinion. When she finally met her mother I would have liked her to explain herself better. Also I think that the explanation of her not wanting anyone to feel sorry for her was kinda… weak. It was the end of the story, and I personally was ready for some really interesting explanation or confession to be made by her mother. Sure it turns out that Clarissa’s father was Anna Kristine’s son, but that just seemed unbelievable to me. First it does not seem likely that she would run into her grandmother, and also that her grandmother would know for sure that she was her granddaughter.

So to me the ending of the book was a disappointment, because also I would have liked to see things tie into each other a bit more. Or at least have Clarissa’s next move be a bit more explained because I am not sure if she really did move to Hong Kong and not tell anyone of her past, or if she was just hoping something like that would happen. That final explanation of the rest of her life seemed to come out of nowhere.

I definitely thought that the book was set up for a good ending. Especially because of all the unexpected turns taken in the beginning of the book. From Clarissa running away in the first place, to Eero not being her real father either, to her finding her mother in Finland, and not her father. But no, her mom says that she didn’t want people to feel sorry for her, and then Clarissa never sees Pankaj again. That was a situation with some potential too. If she was to reunite with Pankaj, what would happen, how would he feel, what would be said or explained, would/could they live together after that. I will never know, and to tell you the truth, that kinda bugs me. When writers leave out details at the end to let the readers imagination fill in the blanks, personally I would like to have the questions answered in a most interesting, emotional, exciting, and appealing way… but no, not in this book.

Like I said before, there were many symbols and such things that I noticed in this book. And because of that, I think that if I were to look closer and do some close readings, I could find some more great symbolism. So herein I shall find the inspiration to formulate my paper about the book.

Northern Lights

As I have been reading this book (to take a lesson from our class) I have been confronted with so many different borders and gaps.  There are a lot of things that I have never come close to feeling, seeing and doing.  Such as how Clarrissa must feel about her mother leaving, and finding out the identity of her true father.  I can not imagine how what it would be like to travel all the way to Finland, to meet your real father for the first time.  However, I think that this book is well written, and therefore have gotten a feeling of what emotions and motivations Clarrissa is feeling.

Clarrissa compared her leaving Pankaj, to being as easy as it was for her mother when she left.  She was able to tell him the night before, "don't ever leave me" as she was thinking to herself about how she was going to leave.  This is another thing that I just cannot imagine doing.  

I must say that I am really enjoying reading this book, and that I thought I would not.  I have not read too many books, typically just because I do not enjoy having to read in order to have the story reviled to me.  Usually I cannot concentrate on the book, and sometimes just fall asleep.  This book really does keep my attention.  Some of my favorite parts include when she is talking about her feelings in the church when she first saw her real father Eero.  How she was not sure whether or not to get communion because she was worried he either would or would not recognize her.  

I also like the mysteriousness of her mother, how she disappears, clearly has secrets from people such as her affair, and does strange things like talking to the neighbors cat and changing relationships with friends by the month.  

The author does a good job of describing the landscape and setting.  I have never been to Finland, or anywhere like it where you have long hours of no light, but I like the images that are put into my head of school children walking with flashlights, a dark sky with the sun in the corner, and the description of the people she meets.

The gaps and borders in this book really have made me very interested in it.  The situations, places and emotions that I cannot relate with, but feel through the reading have made it very interesting.

My history as a Writer 2

When I came to college I did not know what was going to be expected and my writing. I thought that maybe, like in high school, every class I took would emphasize the importance of writing. That I would be shown how in all of my different areas of study, being able to convey effectively what it is you are trying to say was very important. However, this was not at all expected of me. In my English class, yes, I was asked to make points, describe settings, situations, and logic, and analyze many things. But not in my other classes, and I think that I know why.

Instead of teaching the importance of good writing skills, and asking a student to write a paper on a specific thought, my classes are just based on the fact that if you cannot write well, you will not do well. Now, I still have classes that require papers to be written about history, science, or engineering, but I also need to write well for many other things that I do. I must be able to explain myself on tests, my reasoning on lab reports, and even take good notes. Some of my classes are very heavily lecture oriented, and lecture is important in all of them. If I am able to write well, then I will be able to copy down the correct notes and read them later to remember and learn everything that I had to. More importantly, I will be able to recognize what is being taught by the professor easily.

I believe that I have come a long way as a writer. At the beginning of high school, my writing skills were limited to writing a biography on a famous person, or writing a book report. But now I use my writing skills all of the time. Being a good helps me in all of my classes. It helps me communicate with other students and professors, it helps me compose papers on exactly what I am trying to say, and it makes me a better student as it is an intellectual way to express my idea.
Oh yeah, and then there is the whole writing poetry thing that never really worked out for me.