Here are the guidelines:
- Reading responses must be AT LEAST 250 words.
- Include your full name at the end of your comments. Unnamed comments will be deleted.
- From the "Comment As" drop-down menu, choose Anonymous, then click "Publish."
- Reading responses are due by midnight on the night PRIOR to our discussion of the required reading.
Karr’s chapter 5 shows how much she praises Nabokov and unique writing. I’m a little confused about the chapter, but what I can pick from this is the “color” within sentences and pleasant details. For small bits from Nabokov’s pieces, they are beautifully crafted. Reach farther than just description of something, but you own thoughts and fascination. Also, the use of “resurrecting” people into paper and give them a beating heart again. Karr’s just introducing Nabokov’s style of writing and poetry as an example of what she says on pg. 61, “you-ness” and craft and discover your own. Onto chapter 7, which is only two pages, it is deciding which scenes of a memory are worth writing and has meat on the bone. The best details are the greatest details if you can make something of it.
ReplyDeleteThrough Ferguson’s chapters 8 through 10, the whole preparations of filming a documentary is coming to light. She was given the opportunity to film the Raramuri when they are doing their sacred and religious ceremonies. Yet the gather of money and how expensive it is to put the ceremony together is difficult. Add in the cost of going back and forth and money for the camera and equipment. Didn’t know that you can ask for grants for a film. That took some dedication and time to write letters. Raramuris are different from regions and traditions. Probably there is an intense and closed living of their culture to those that thrive openly with people. As for the killing of the cows as part the ceremony, I want barbacoa right now, even though the killing of the cattle was described well. But I beat the meat was so darn good.
Hector Dimas
Chapter five was very interesting yet it left me a little confused. Karr goes on and on about Nabokov and how much she praises him and his talent in writing Speak, Memory. I am going to be honest I have no idea what I just read she just went on this huge rant about how good he is and how bad we are if we were to attempt his work. Her title for the chapter says it all Don’t Try this at Home, so then why even write this chapter if it isn’t going to help us in any way. I still enjoyed when she gave us examples of Nabokov’s work, Karr is totally right he sounds like he’s very talented. I am just a little thrown off about this chapter and how this chapter can help us. I am interested to hear how the class interpreted this chapter. In chapter 7 How to choose Detail was quite short. I had this question in my head for a while. Since detail is very important when it comes to writing I was wondering what was the correct way to choose detail, and how much detail is enough. Or when is it too much detail. Again this chapter didn’t really answer my question, but it still gave me better ideas than chapter 5.
ReplyDeleteLizette Garcia
In Ferguson’s chapter 8 I liked how she talks about how what she is doing is not everyone. She compares what others go do in Mexico to what she’s doing in Mexico. I really liked this chapter. These past chapters have really been growing on me. The details she gives are starting to get better and better. I'm starting to get mental images of her daily days in Mexico. I really liked when they are in the meeting to talk about the documentary she wants to film. I felt like I was right there next to her when she talks about what's going on. When they start to talk about what they will need the food the money she does a good job with the details here too. On page 77 when Ferguson goes to see her friend Hiram and tells her about Maclovio and how he stays silent. I loved this moment it just felt real. Hiram mentions “ Tu y yo tenemos un trato” this part I really liked because it shows her loyalty and friendship with Hiram and Leonarda. Chapter 8-10 was very well detailed the preparation for the film was interesting to heat about. I didn’t think that making a documentary would take that much time, money, and dedication.
Lizette Garcia
DeleteReading Response in Karr’s, Chapter five and seven talks about Nabokov and his writing. She praises and talks about Nabokov, the Russian-American novelist and entomologist. According to Karr, his book, Speak, Memory is a mesmerizing edition on the nature of beauty, time, and loss, played out against backdrops of fairy dusted interiors (p57). Karl continues and states that Nabokov’s of all talents he flairs more for carnality. I like the way she takes passages from Nabokov’s book, explains and gives examples. On page 67 I liked what she says about love for a person, we think of the actual person and Nabokov’s mind naturally moves in a metaphorical direction…I am intrigued about what I am reading in this chapter. I will look for Nabokov’s, Speak Memory book and read it. On Karr’s chapter seven she talks about how she comes up with four details in her writing to share with the reader.
ReplyDeleteIn chapters eight through ten ferguson she tells us how she is going into pre-production for her documentary feature. She is in Mexico preparing for filming and finds out how difficult it is to get this project going. She's in a ranch in Mexico, where she is talking to people who will organize her film. It doesn’t matter how prepared you for a film project, it is not easy. It starts with an idea and it ends with the actual project or least it has to end that way. It is that in between phases that is difficult. For example Ferguson is raising money for her production such as grants, donations, etc. It takes money to jump start a project; travel (location scouting), camera equipment, crew, post-production(editing,music,foley). She is finding out really fast that it is not an easy task. She is in her pre-production stages and off to film the ceremony (production stage) on chapter 10.
-Luis Rodriguez
ReplyDeleteKarr's chapters were insightful, kind of long, but were packed with good tips and examples. Chapter 5, page 61, she says "Nobokov wannabes don't sound just like turds..." Not being a total jerk, but that's how I feel about hipsters and their Nirvana t-shirts, that we all know don’t know a thing about 90's grunge, but I definitely don’t want to be "that kind" of writer. I did appreciate how she ties into the "voice" chapter with this one, and how we make our own flow in language that is true to ourselves. The "baby/corpse" example on page 63 I enjoyed. That advanced flow of writing is not one I can say I've come close to mastering but one that is fun to play with in my current writing experimentations. Chapter 7, she lists, then dismisses a list of scenarios that she is sure if she can trust to write about. She chooses one, and explains how the intimate details of that statements compelled her to trust its authenticity. It's an interesting checks and balances technique for memories. Ferguson's chapters had me on edge. The details about how much effort she put into following through with her project and the ways in which she allows the reader to partake in her internal conflicts was very interesting. When she discusses the phone call with Ventura and the ways that she goes out of her way to see him, not to secure his participation, but to reassure him, I thought showed a part of her that is true to the what she endured to complete this documentary. It make it more real as she could have walked away from all of it after it was off to a slow start the first couple of years. The personal conflict of the cows, and how Hiram's deal with her for the cows was renegotiated by Leonarda's offer showed a tension that an outsider faces trying to maintain a balance between their culture's politics (197-200 iBook). I really enjoyed the way everything did come together in Chapter 10. The ways she details her conversation with Ventura in Chapter 9 was really substantial and told a lot more about Ventura than just the documentary.
-Amanda Gonzales
In Ferguson’s book, chapter 8 she gives a lot of description on her surrounds and the also the people that are with her. I like how she says that many journalist want to go out and take pictures of remote places, which have no internet, the nights are too cold, there isn’t a comfy bed to sleep in, and UGG’s are not an option for hiking the trails. This is almost every person that I know. I thought it was kind of funny on how she needs to buy cows for her movie. I never stopped to think about how much money actually goes on buying crops to make the movie better. The last thing that caught my attention was on page 86 where she describes about what she read about people who cross the dessert. Personally near my house in Arizona, about 20 minutes from the house, they have an area where you can shoot from 10 yards out to about 800 yards out. If you drive out for about 30 minutes into the property and start walking to set up your target, you can see people’s clothes on the floor, water bottles, backpacks, food wrappers, shoes, and a lot more that people have left behind. For my fiancés safety and mine we walked back to avoid any possible confrontation. But people, do make this journey and it’s just breathtaking. People will sometimes take on the hardest journey in their life just so their family and they can have a better life. There’s border patrol vehicles going around all the time but people still take on the dangerous journey.
ReplyDeletestephanie Cisneros
I personally really enjoyed this chapter. I liked the examples of Nabokov’s work that she provided for us. But honestly I feel quite confused about the point of this chapter. I'm not sure if she was trying to be sort of sarcastic in the title, but she makes it seem like we are not good enough writers and we will never be as good as Nabokov, so we shouldn't even try. I don't really like how she emphasizes how important it is to have our own voice. I took this chapter as you shouldn't try to write like anyone else because writing is supposed to be unique and one of kind so if it's like someone else's it won't be as good because it's not your own.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy at the beginning of chapter 8 how Ferguson talks about how photographers basically just want things handle to them. They don't want to work to get perfect pictures and they definitely don't want to do the traveling she has done to see the Zapareachic. I really liked this because I feel that I am the person that will go above and beyond to get what I want. Just like her. I still really enjoy Ferguson's amount of detail she puts in her writing, especially in these chapters, the amount of detail makes this book grow on me more and more everyday. I really like how at the beginning of chapter 10 she adds some comedy into the part where the jeep is breaking down. You always have the one person that tries to make everyone laugh in a stressful time and I am usually that persons so I related to this really well.
Jessica Young
In Karr’s chapter 5 I liked what Philip said about poetry that it works like a slot machine. The theory of putting a penny in the machine and whatever you get out is your “feeling”. For some reason, it made sense to me I understood what he was trying to say. She talks about Nabokov and how he gives an object more meaning that what it is also giving you a whole new perspective of the object. By going deep into his emotions like on page 59 he’s talking about a crystal egg. He relates these objects to a memory that he had in his early childhood or a memory that happened in his life. I didn’t like that she kept giving examples after every paragraph after a while it got to me and made it a bit boring. Especially once it got to “twinning” I got bored and tired of reading an explanation then going into an example, there’s only so much you can take.
ReplyDeleteIn Ferguson’s chapter 8-10 I liked how she’s expressing about journalist wouldn’t want to walk trails and drive three days to a house which would be on the cover of a magazine because of how beautiful the house is. There were a lot of words which I had trouble pronouncing but I appreciate her inputting the names of the places and giving a great amount of description to them. I think she did a job transitioning from chapter to chapter it wasn’t all over the place.
Monika Gonzalez
Karr gives advise on how the memories we jot down on paper might not always be entirely true. Sometimes they sound a bit dramatic even to us the writers. She does make a good point when she says that the concrete images are the ones that make our memory more real. This is true in the sense that only us as the writers know what it was like to live the moment. For example, the first day of high school, or the first day at your very first job. Only the writer can describe in such detail to the point where the reader can feel as if they were also there. We are the only that can distinguish between what we think happened, and what actually happened. We might not be able to remember every single story to its core, but we do know the most important factors, and why that memory is so important.
ReplyDeleteIn Fergusons chapters, she shows us how much work and effort is needed to bring about the smallest of films. This I compare it to writing, a good story is the outcome of the amount of work, effort, and emphasis you put into it. She also mentions how she does not get paid unless her movie gets picked up, which in some cases it doesn’t happen as fast as one would expect. The same thing happens in reading, we can write what we feel is an amazing story, but if it doesn’t grab people’s attention, then that story will never get picked up.
-Celica Chavez
In Ferguson’s chapters it took me a while to figure out what she was making reference to at the beginning when she brings up “they”. I was really confused at first because I was caught off guard. She was being careful about drinking, Hector, last week you mentioned how were iffy about her and Hiram, how did that part make you feel? It made me laugh when she brought up the tooth paste and how it snuck on to the list , reminds me of something one of my family members would do (including myself) I like how she explains the background details that go into making the film and the pricing and what is needed. I had no idea what “Mexican ornithology” was so I needed to look that up. When they start having car trouble, she mentions how the “real producer” Bill sits back and smiles when disaster comes, and again that makes me laugh because I would do that, but I’d also lend a hand and help out.
ReplyDeleteIn Karr’s chapter sometimes it is confusing to understand the references she is making because I haven’t read those books and there are times when I don’t know who the people are. But I really like the examples she uses from Nabokov and how he words things, but she also goes and mentions how people try to sound like him and come off as “pretentious turds”. When we write we should stick to how we sound, if we are trying to mock someone else’s writing style and not staying true to our own way of speaking we are lying to our audience.
Sorry my post is super late, for some reason I have been having problems with submitting things, even on black board. This happened to me last semester. Maybe I need to get rid of my MAC for something else :(
Jessica Guzman