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[mdeisting]

Entry #20 Farewell

Well, here it is. The last post. It was a lot of work, but I think that it really helped me notice things. I’ve never had a class that had so many assignments that I actually enjoyed doing and was not completely freaked out about doing. I mean discussion boards have always been a fear of mine (much more permanent than in class discussion. hard no from me, but i mean there’s nothing we can do about that because of COVID.) Last semester I was kind of afraid the whole time “oh no what if I made a mistake changing to English” yada yada. This class has helped confirm that no, I did not make a mistake. I’m right where I’m supposed to be. I’m glad that I had the opportunity to take this class and I have seen a lot of growth from the start to finish (which I suppose was the point with all of the self reflection.) I like it when I take classes and then can actually see and understand the purpose and methods used for it. I’m glad that I will have these assignments saved. I’m hoping to be able to modify them for high school and will be able to do something similar in my future classroom. One of my biggest fears is teaching a class where the students don’t understand the point of it. I don’t expect to be as fantastic, but hopefully one day I will get there.

I would say more, but I have been sitting in my car for many hours now and my hip hurts and my computer is about to die, so I’ll hopefully see you in the fall on campus. If not the fall, then someday. I still have a year and a half left.

ok

bye.

[mdeisting]

Entry #19 What is Academic Discourse

Alrighty this is another one where I wish I had my notes on me so I will be narrating as I read through it as I did with the Bazerman piece. (Also apparently I’ve been sitting in my car with the hazard lights on because a cop came and knocked on my window and gave me a heart attack.)

I completely agree with the underlined quote (though I don’t understand why it’s gotta be gendered) “He has to speak our language, to speak as we do, to try on the peculiar ways of knowing, selecting, evaluating, reporting, concluding, and arguing that define the discourse of our community.” I have seen the difference between branches of university firsthand. The sciences speak and write in a completely different way than the humanities. I have written too many lab reports for both chemistry and psychology and know that science papers are written barebones with no fluff. Things need to be written in the most streamlined and understandable way so that it can be shared throughout the world. I know that English is also something that can transcend countries, but it’s in a different way than science does. I’m not quite sure how to explain it. It’s just a completely different community.

The point that students have to appropriate a specialized discourse is also something that I agree with. I felt like a fraud when I changed my major to English Education. Going into discussion-based classes when I was used to being talked at by a professor or working alone/with a partner in labs was a very hard transition for me. I still struggle with it. I mean people say fake it ‘til you make it, and I mean I made the dean’s list last semester (fingers crossed on this one, it’s going to take a miracle,) but I feel like a parrot rather than a person. I want to be able to write my own thoughts, rather than trying to figure out what a professor wants me to say about something. I also want it to have meaning. Parrots are just echoes.

In a way it reminds me of method acting. It’s like you get put into the role of “student/academic” and you can’t break character. Eventually you either get frustrated and break character or you become the character you are pretending to be.

[mdeisting]

Entry #18 High Middle and Low Self Evaluation

It really depends on what I write for what kind of language I use. For something that’s a blog format, it’s definitely a lot lower than an essay. (See Entry #16 comparing blog about living in Australia and essay for European Literature.) I feel like since this assignment has a bit more of a relaxed feel because it’s meant for self-reflection its got a good middle ground combination of high and low language. I reference a lot of writing techniques from the textbook which sounds super pedantic a lot of the time in these posts, but I also write as more of an inner-narrative-stream-of-consciousness kind of way I think.

In person I definitely code switch a lot between high and low language. My mother would kill me if she ever found out that I’m saying this, but though growing up she considered me saying “crap” as a swearword, she has been known to (jokingly) say that the “f word” is her favourite word. I think that I have picked up this habit from her because I’m the same way. Of course, it depends on contexts though! I worked as a summer camp counsellor last year, and I would definitely not drop the f word in front of a bunch of 8-12 year olds! But in my daily life, when talking to my friends or sister I am a bit of a sailor.

An example of where I would use high language outside of academic writing is for my job at CFABS. Each year I go to a conference called WRIB which is for bioanalysis companies and industry regulators (think FDA and EMA.) This requires me to put on a more professional air and have the ability to comprehend scientific language. I was a chemistry major for a few years so I have a fairly decent understanding of references to things in that industry. It really is like a different language, and I would consider it to be a high language because it requires a lot of schooling to be able to understand.

One question/thought that I have is this. Do beginning language speakers sound more high or low? Native language speakers don’t always tend to speak with proper grammar, but those who learn it as a secondary language have the grammar drilled into their heads. On the other hand, native language speakers have a wider vocabulary while secondary learners have a very basic vocabulary. Would this make it be middle since it is a combination of proper and low?

[mdeisting]

Entry #17 Bazerman Reflection

Alright, so I goofed this one up and totally spaced writing it when I was supposed to. I remember I took notes during class and was all set to go and then just never did it. I specifically remember this day in class because nobody could figure out how to print it without printing all 178 pages so we spent a long time trying to figure out how to do it (I also remember it because it was a good discussion.)  And now I do not have those notes because I am writing this in my car on campus because I no longer have access to wifi in my apartment.

ANYWAY.

I am rereading it, and the first thing I noticed is its use of high language. Quixotic? What does that even mean? My main beef with this piece is that I’m not even two paragraphs in and its quite pedantic. In spite of this, I do like the humour that is woven throughout. For example “In the extreme cases of filling out forms we can become powerless subjects of bureaucratic definitions and regulations.” I’m not sure if it was meant to be funny or not, but I thought it was.

Something else I enjoyed about this piece is the metaphors. They do a great job of clarifying the author’s points because of the high language they use.

One of the take aways that this piece offers that I like is “Yet underlying questions remain about what we want to accomplish and how we can do it in more deeply effective ways; that is, we cannot reduce our writing just to type, but must create it anew from our interests, resources, thoughts, and perceptions.” I think that this applies to my New Genre Project that I just completed. I created my own plant care guide, and it came from my own interests and resources. It was one of the most enjoyable projects I have ever done for a class. It’s important to be passionate about what you write and say, which is what I think this take away is saying.

Okay well. Now I found that that was just the introduction and not Chapter 1. I am a fool.

Now that I am reading the proper section, the note about the metaphors still applies.

Something that confused me was this statement. “Human language is built on interaction and activity in context and becomes meaningful and purposeful only in use.” I’m not sure I agree with this. A person can write for themselves (interaction.) I also get the feeling that they mean its only meaningful and purposeful when in use when it’s being used as interpersonal communication. I don’t know its just the way I read it. I’m just kind of mildly confused on that statement in general.

I like that this piece views language/writing in a socio-cultural-historical way. It’s a good way to think about things.

Overall it was an interesting piece though I was mildly confused on a few points they had.

[mdeisting]

Entry #16 How Audience Influences My Choices

Okay, so the biggest thing that audience affects for me is my use of high, middle, or low language. If I compare a blog post from when I was in Australia that I wrote for myself, my friends, and my family to my final essay I wrote for Dr. Butterfield last semester, the difference is stark. Take a guess which quote is from what.

"Sunday Lindsay and I went to a restaurant called the Brass Barrel and they have bottomless mimosas and yes we ordered that. Was I sick? Yes. Am I still sick? Yes. But did I have fun? Yes. And that’s all that matters. A perk of day drinking is you take a nap and by dinner you’re perfectly fine with no hangover (not that I know what those are right?)"

"Their use of character development, plot, style and language all combine to create a tale for the West and East and convey vital lessons that can be applied to all beings. The lessons learned through these texts—it is important to give thanks and honor all beings; time and the values that define morals are illusions; persistence is not always good; it’s possible to live for both the individual and the whole; we have a duty to others—are all applicable in both Western and Eastern ways of life. These lessons are rewritten as morsels that are easy for the Western reader to swallow, while still retaining the purest meaning from the Eastern philosophy from whence it came."

I don't think I've ever used the word "morsel" or the phrase "from whence it came" in everyday speech ever. It's a classic example of code switching. I speak differently to my middle school campers than I do to my best friend since kindergarten and how I speak to my sister. The same thing applies to writing.

Something else that audience affects is the topic of discussion. I would never write an entire essay about how I got drunk with my friend at somewhere called the Brass Barrel and turn it in for a grade in a class about European Literature. The audience determines how serious the content is and sets the guidelines for what the content should be.

Audience also affects how I use similes and metaphors. If I am writing something for an academic audience, I tend to use it as a clarifying tool, but if I'm writing something for my friends/family I use it to create imagery and spice up my story. I think that this is also because the topic of discussion is different between those groups as well. When I am talking to friends and family it is generally telling them about something that had happened, while academic writings are examining and explaining things.

[mdeisting]

Entry #15 Anger

Hi so I realized that this is something that is going to start bugging me.

So in high school I took a class called “Art of Film.” The teacher taught us about the “rule of thirds” and “crossing the line.” and now EVERY TIME I WATCH A MOVIE OR TV SHOW I NOTICE IT. It has been more than 6 YEARS since I took that class.

This is the same thing about noticing different genres. They are everywhere. Make it stop.

[mdeisting]

Entry #14 Examining How Middle Aged People Interact on Facebook

Well at this point it may seem like I’m reaching, but hear me out. The way Middle Aged People interact on Facebook is a genre. Chapter 6 says  “genres normalize activities and practices, enabling community members to participate in these activities and practices in fairly predictable, familiar ways in order to get things done.” I will fight you if you say this does not apply to people on Facebook. The activity of tagging people in videos on their walls instead of messaging them privately and commenting on things that have nothing to do with you have become normalized by people in that age group. The thing they get done with this genre is letting people know that they are thinking of them and how they are doing. 

For example: My mother’s recent flashback post. In the post from 2020 it says “ Wow, this is a happy flashback! Love this memory and had to share. Missy Deisting” In the original post from 2014 it says “Ice Show....The last Tribute skate for these two.  I love that she has a dad brave enough to strap on skates and go out in front of a full arena to skate with his little girl.....” This post was my mom’s way of telling me that she was thinking of me and wanted to remind me of a fun memory. But the comments! Here are some:

X: “Good father.”

Y: “ Who knew? I'd like a reenactment next winter, please. : ) “

         Mom: “ Y, there is video and they were amazing together!!”

Z: “ will you post the video? “

Random interactions are normalized! I only know two of these people and the others are all my mom’s friends. 

Anyway that is just a thought that I had. 

[mdeisting]

Entry #13 Poetry

For this post I’m going to look at some poems from random books I have lying around my apartment. Each are from different time periods so I think it will be interesting to see how the styles changed. Of course every poet has their own voice, but it can definitely be said that there have been shifts in general language.

Lines on the Mermaid Tavern by John Keats 1820

“Souls of Poets dead and gone

What Elysium have ye known,

Happy field or mossy cavern,

Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern?

Have ye tippled drink more fine 

Than mine host’s Canary wine?

Or are fruits of Paradise

Sweeter than those dainty pies

Of venison? O generous food!

Drest as though bold Robin Hood

Would, with his maid Marian,

Sup and bowse from horn and can.

I have heard that on a day

Mine host’s sign-board flew away,

Nobody knew whither, till

An astrologer’s old quill

To a sheepskin gave the story, 

Said he saw you in your glory,

Underneath a new old sign

Sipping beverage divine,

And pledging with contented smack

The Mermaid in the Zodiac.

Souls of Poets dead and gone,

What Elysium have ye known,

Happy field or mossy cavern,

Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern?”

So the first thing that I noticed about this poem is how every pair of lines rhyme. I feel like the rhythm and sound of this poem make it seem like it was intended to be read aloud. I did some research and found that there was a shift between the 1700s and late 1800s from reading aloud to reading privately. 

Elm by Sylvia Plath 1962

“I know the bottom, she says. I know it with my great tap root:

It is what you fear.

I do not fear it: I have been there.

Is it the sea you hear in me,

Its dissatisfactions?

Or the voice of nothing, that was your madness?

Love is a shadow.

How you lie and cry after it

Listen: these are its hooves: it has gone off, like a horse.

All night I shall gallop thus, impetuously,

Till your head is a stone, your pillow a little turf,

Echoing, echoing.

Or shall I bring you the sound of poisons?

This is rain now, this big hush.

And this is the fruit of it: tin-white, like arsenic.

I have suffered the atrocity of sunsets.

Scorched to the root

My red filaments burn and stand, a handful of wires.

Now I break up in pieces that fly about like clubs.

A wind of such violence

Will tolerate no bystanding: I must shriek.

The moon, also, is merciless: she would drag me

Cruelly, being barren.

Her radiance scathes me. Or perhaps I have caught her.

I let her go. I let her go

Diminished and flat, as after radical surgery.

How your bad dreams possess and endow me.

I am inhabited by a cry.

Nightly it flaps out

Looking, with its hooks, for something to love.

I am terrified by this dark thing

That sleeps in me;

All day I feel its soft, feathery turnings, its malignity.

Clouds pass and disperse.

Are those the faces of love, those pale irretrievables?

Is it such I agitate my heart?

I am incapable of more knowledge.

What is this, this face

So murderous in its strangle of branches?--

Its snaky acids hiss.

It petrifies the will. These are the isolate, slow faults

That kill, that kill, that kill.”

I really like this poem, but also I really like Sylvia Plath so it’s not really a shocker. I noticed in this poem she uses expletives a few times, as well as parallelism. I also love the combination of natural and mechanic language (is it called mechanic language? I don’t know I’m just guessing and am going to call it that.)  

Absolutely Nothing by Osoanon Nimuss 1969 (as appears in The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephan Chobsky 1999)

"Once on a yellow piece of paper with green lines he wrote a poem And he called it 'Chops' because that was the name of his dog And that's what it was all about And his teacher gave him an A and a gold star And his mother hung it on the kitchen door and read it to his aunts That was the year Father Tracy took all the kids to the zoo And he let them sing on the bus And his little sister was born with tiny toenails and no hair And his mother and father kissed a lot And the girl around the corner sent him a Valentine signed with a row of X's and he had to ask his father what the X's meant And his father always tucked him in bed at night And was always there to do it. Once on a piece of white paper with blue lines he wrote a poem And he called it 'Autumn' because that was the name of the season And that's what it was all about And his teacher gave him an A and asked him to write more clearly And his mother never hung it on the kitchen door because of its new paint And the kids told him that Father Tracy smoked cigars And left butts on the pews And sometimes they would burn holes That was the year his sister got glasses with thick lenses and black frames And the girl around the corner laughed when he asked her to go see Santa Claus And the kids told him why his mother and father kissed a lot And his father never tucked him in bed at night And his father got mad when he cried for him to do it. Once on a paper torn from his notebook he wrote a poem And he called it 'Innocence: A Question' because that was the question about his girl And that's what it was all about And his professor gave him an A and a strange steady look And his mother never hung it on the kitchen door because he never showed her That was the year Father Tracy died And he forgot how the end of the Apostle's Creed went And he caught his sister making out on the back porch And his mother and father never kissed or even talked And the girl around the corner wore too much makeup That made him cough when he kissed her but he kissed her anyway because that was the thing to do And at 3 am he tucked himself into bed his father snoring soundly. That's why on the back of a brown paper bag he tried another poem And he called it 'Absolutely Nothing' Because that's what it was really all about And he gave himself an A and a slash on each damned wrist And he hung it on the bathroom door because this time he didn't think he could reach the kitchen."

This is another one of my favorite poems. It’s a lot less abstract than Elm though they were written in fairly close time periods and are fairly similar on the topic of love and suffering. I think that the use of parallelism and repetition in this poem is what makes it so powerful, because it gets darker and darker with each line. One of the things that I struggle with is writing emotional poetry. I love writing poems, but if I try to write about sad things they seem stereotypical, so I usually end up writing about birds. Not that there’s anything wrong with birds--I love birds, obviously. Here is one of my emotional attempts.

the radius and the ulna

I.

Someday my skin will

melt off my beautiful bones and they will be

pearly white again—

or perhaps a dull yellow from age.

This time you will not

see them because you asked me

to peel my skin off piece by

piece--

it will be because enough time has passed

that we have both forgotten

why you put me back together

after you took me apart like a surgeon cuts open

a patient.

 II.

What do you want?

I can’t give you anything more.

All I have left are

my porcelain bones—

you’ve stripped me bare.

 I suppose you want those too.

 Take them.

I don’t need them anymore.

I’ll float by as you

stand there among

the piles of my flesh, using

my eyes

to see the world that I am

leaving behind.

 III.

Someday

you will look at me with

my rotten eyes

and ask why I’ve returned.

I will remember how

even though you sewed me up,

you didn’t put everything in its place.

I’m sick of being jelly.

 I want my bones back.

[mdeisting]

Entry #12 An examination of Artist Statements

So now that I’m thinking about different genres, Aaron’s paper on photo essays reminded me of when I took photography 1 last semester. I had never had to write an artist’s statement before and for that class I had to for my final project. Just like the new genre project, I had to study up on what is acceptable and what is not before I ventured into it.  Here is what my professor had to say on the subject. “An Artist Statement is a short written piece that accompanies an artwork or exhibition and describes the artist’s ideas and motivations.  An artist statement is not supposed to explain every detail of an artwork or process of art-making.  Instead, it should provide the viewer with a general context for or insight into looking at an artwork and understanding the artist’s concept and inspiration.” The examples she provided were generally one to two paragraphs long, though through my own research I found that artist statements can be pieces of art themselves. They can be song lyrics or a poem that the piece is based upon. I really liked this idea and so for my project I chose to write a poem to accompany my piece. I think that because of how kind of bizarre and random my pictures seemed to become more cohesive with the artist statement, which is exactly its job. I think it was a successful attempt at trying a new genre without even realizing that’s what I was doing. Here is my piece:

2 am

A car passed by.

The headlights danced around the room

like a ghost looking for a loved one

before evaporating as quickly as it had appeared.

The only consistent glow came from the streetlamps.

My eyes searched for another source of light

but found none.

I was alone.

[mdeisting]

Entry #11 A Poem I wrote

I know it is discouraged to do short stories, but poems are okay right? I wanted to look at this poem because it needs some work, and then in another post I think I will analyze some other poetry. Anyway here goes (it’s not my best work I wrote it when I was falling asleep looking out my window one night.)

9:53 pm 2/1/20

There’s a star outside my window.

It’s quivering in the cold.

Why wont anyone let it in?

9:57 pm 2/1/20

It’s just a trick.

10:04 pm 2/1/20

There is a camel outside my window.

The star is his eye,

the curtain his neck--

I’m afraid

he’ll catch a chill in his bones 

that will never

leave.

[mdeisting]

Entry #10 Plants for Pots 1974

Alright, so since I don’t have any gelatin salad recipes of my own (though my granny makes green jello with carrots and olives in it every Christmas. yuck.) I’m going to write a short plant guide in the style of 1970′s plant care books. So I figured I should probably take a quick peak at one before I begin to try to write my own. I’m thinking I’m going to write about my spider plant since I don’t know specifically what kind of aloe plant I have, and besides my aloe plant it is my oldest plant that I’ve been caring for. I have like 20 house plants so there were a lot to choose from, but I think since I have the most experience with my spider plant I will do that.This book contains a small section about it so I will copy it here.

“Cholorophytum (klor-o-fi-tum)

 From the Greek choloros, green, phyton, a plant (Liliaceae). Greenhouse plants with long narrow leaves, some with variegated leaves. They are interesting in that they produce long drooping flower stems ending in a tuft of leaves, forming an offset. These offsets may be detached and rooted for propagation purposes.

Species cultivated C. comosum (syn. C. sternbergianum), 1-2 feet, white flowers in summer. C. elatum (syns. C. anthericum, C. capenese, and Phalangium elatum), 1-1.5 feet, white flowers in summer, var. variegatum has creamy white longitudinal variegations on the leaves.

Cultivation Grow the variegated and tall kinds in pots in a mixture composed of equal parts of loam, leafmold, peat, and sand. The drooping kinds should be grown in baskets or pots suspended in a greenhouse or window. Plants can be used for bedding out of doors from June to September. Pot up the young plants in March, and from March to October keep them at temperatures of 55-65 degrees Fahrenheit, for the remainder of the year at 45-50 degrees Fahrenheit. Water freely during the summer but only moderately during the winter. Propagate by seeds  sown 1/8 inch deep in pots containing well-drained light soil at a temperature of 65 degrees Fahrenheit in March, by offshoots taken in April and placed singly in pots or put in a window or greenhouse, or by a division of roots when repotting.” (47/48)

This book tends to have a strong mix of high and low language. It gets pretty technical with the scientific names of the plants. I have seen examples where it includes both the scientific names and common names for the plant, but this book did not. But when it came to instructions for care, the book seemed fairly straightforward and simple. I do with it had a bit more detail for everyday care rather than focusing on propagation, but this kind of plant is one of the easiest to care for so perhaps the authors thought they didn’t need much detail. I think that though I will be doing a similar formatting style, I will be aiming my text at the everyday grower who may have questions for how to care for their plants. Like “why are the tips of the leaves getting brown?” “How often should I feed it?” etc.

[mdeisting]

Entry #9 Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre 1964

Take 2: I accidentally closed the tab when I hit the wrong button and it deleted my whole post and didn’t save a draft. :(

Same concept as the last post, this is one of my favorite books and I wanted to review the things I thought were important enough to underline. I got this book from my boyfriend and it was his copy so it has some of his notes in it too. This is one of my favorite things and why I tend to buy used books. I love seeing what people were thinking about.

“You continually force the truth because you’re always looking for something.” (1)

“My passion was dead. For years it had rolled over and submerged me; now I felt empty.” (5)

“When you live alone you no longer know what it is to tell something: the plausible disappears at the same time as the friends.” (7)

“Stones are hard and do not move.” (24)

“Monsieur, I believed the word adventure could be defined: an event out of the ordinary without being necessarily extraordinary.” (35/36)

“Yes? Is that what you wanted? Well, that’s exactly what you’ve never had (remember you fooled yourself with words, you called the glitter of travel, the love of women, quarrels, and trinkets adventure) and this is what you’ll never have-- and no one other than yourself.” (38)

“Sunday had spent it’s fleeting youth.” (50) 

“Perhaps there is nothing in the world I cling to as much as the feeling of adventure; but it comes when it pleases; it is gone so quickly and how empty I am when it has left.  Does it, ironically, pay me these short visits in order to show me that I have wasted my life?” (56)

“You talk a lot about this amazing flow of time but you hardly see it. You see a woman, you think that one day she’ll be old, only you don’t see her grow old. But there are moments when you think you see her grow old and feel yourself growing old with her: this is the feeling of adventure.” (56/57)

Ok so this book is basically entirely underlines so I’m only going to do these first few quotes from the beginning of the book. Like I said, its one of my favorite books. Like with The Bell Jar I love his style. I think it’s so beautiful, and there isn’t another way for me to put it. It just is. It’s got a nice mix of high and low language. This is another way of writing that I would like to incorporate into my own style someday. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to because I don’t tend to use high language, but it’s something to work on. Last semester in one of my classes the professor had us copy a page of text to see what it is like to write with that author’s style, and so I thought that writing out these quotes for my posts might be helpful. Getting in the mind set of writing with that style can help me develop my own voice as a writer by grabbing bits and pieces from various authors.

[mdeisting]

Entry #8 The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath 1963

Like the basic person I am, this is one of my absolute favorite books. I read it while I was studying abroad and it just really connected with me for some reason. I thought for this post an interesting thing to do would be to go back and look at the quotes I have underlined to see if they have any devices in common. Like why did I like that specific sentence  type of thing. I’ll be flipping to random pages and seeing what I have underlined.

“The sound of the cicada only served to underline the enormous silence.” (135)

“There is nothing like puking with somebody to make you into old friends.” (41)

“Pausing in my work to overlook the pristine expanse, I felt the same profound thrill it gives me to see trees and grassland waist-high under flood water-- as if the usual order of the world had shifted slightly, and entered a new phase.” (228)

“There must be quite a few things a hot bath won’t cure, but I don’t know many of them. Whenever I’m sad I’m going to die, or so nervous I can’t sleep, or in love with somebody I won’t see for a week, I slump down just so far and then I say: ‘I’ll go take a hot bath.’“ (18)

I think the last quote is one of my favorites because that is exactly me. 

One of the things I notice in these quotes is the use of irony. It may not seem like that out of context, but if you look at the surrounding passages it’s present. But the first quote is definitely ironic because it’s about silence but the sounds make the silence more obvious. I just love her voice in this novel. I hope that someday I’ll be able to incorporate a bit of her style into my writing. Though this book deals with serious topics she still manages to have humor in it, and it’s not a cheesy kind of humor either. It’s real.

[mdeisting]

Entry #7 The Loneliest Continent by Walker Chapman 1964

I picked this book up from Pearl Street Books a few months ago but haven’t gotten around to reading it yet so I thought I’d analyze the rhetorical devices used on the flaps. I think that this is an important thing to look at because it’s what makes a person want to buy the book. 

At first glance, the thing that sticks out is how many times parenthesis is used. On the front flap it has at least 4 examples of parenthesis. The use of this is what makes the book sound spicy! It emphasizes the crazy things that will be discussed in the book and makes the buyer want to read it.

“Across the bottom of the earliest maps of the world, as ships began to venture out of the safety of European waters, appeared one ominous and uninviting word: ‘Fog.’“

“Yet belief in the existence of a mysterious landmass to the South-- inhabited, perhaps, by mysterious monsters-- persisted from ancient times through the great ages of exploration.” (This example also contains an example of expletive.)

“Mr. Chapman, beginning with the imaginative ideas of early Greek geographers, tells of the first South Sea voyages, the rugged adventures of the sealers and whalers of the 18th and 19th centuries, and the first major American expedition-- prompted by the speeches and writings of a gentleman who believed that habitable worlds inside the earth could be reached through great holes at the Poles.” (This example contains two uses of parenthesis.)

Also, I’m not gonna analyze this I just wanted to include it because I thought it was a really funny author bio and is written exactly how I would if I ever got the chance to get published.

“Walker Chapman, born in New York City, spends his time (when not at they typewriter) travelling, gardening, and collecting rare books. His special interest, both as a reader and writer, is exploration and discovery. Mr. Chapman is married and while his wife generally accompanies him on his travels, she says she does not wish to go along when and if he makes his often-discussed journey to Antarctica.”

[mdeisting]

Entry #6-- Figurative Language in Better Homes and Gardens Decorating Book 1975

As I was looking through the chapter headers in this book, I began to notice that while the information is presented in a straightforward way, the introductions tended to have figurative language when describing why this section will be useful. For example the chapter 3 introduction goes like this:

 “The broad strokes of your decorating encompass the elements of good design. You can orchestrate a full concert of colors with the use of textures and patterns, arranged with due respect to the balance and scale of each of a room’s elements. In decorating, textures are almost tactile in impression, while patterns are playgrounds that offer variety for your eyes. You have an innate sense of ‘rightness’ that makes understanding the principles of good balance and scale easy. This chapter will help you sharpen that sense.”

In this small introduction, the author uses metaphors in the majority of the text-- orchestrating a full concert of colors, patterns are playgrounds. The author uses metaphor again when they call a room a shell in the introduction of chapter 6.

“The way you treat the shell of each room largely determines whether the effect will be one of soaring sweeps of space or cozy intimate areas.” 

I really like this sentence for some reason. I think it’s because of the alliteration of “soaring sweeps of space.” I think I’m generally drawn to alliteration because of the flow that goes along with it.

[mdeisting]

Entry #5 Parenthesis in House Beautiful-- Frank LLoyd Wright

I’m not sure what year this magazine was published, it doesn’t have a year it just says “October 50 cents”

As I was flipping through it I noticed that a lot of the advertisements in it contained the use of parenthesis. For example, an add got a Motorola stereo hi fi and matching television says, “We took the ageless grace of French Provincial styling... entrusted it to the skilled hands of modern furniture craftsmen... to bring you this masterpiece of outstanding charm and grace.” I think it’s interesting that the writer chose to put emphasis on the fact that the craftsmen were modern. A lot of the other ads in this magazine also emphasize the “newness” of their products. Other things that they emphasized is the ease of use, what a great idea the product is, and cleanliness of their products. In an ad for a Crane sink goes like this, “It adapts itself beautifully to any setting. And-- cleverest of all-- it works from a single hand control!” I think it’s interesting that most of the full page ads contain some kind of parenthesis in this magazine (I’m not going to type out every example because that would take forever, but trust me when I say there are A LOT.)

[mdeisting]

Entry #4 5 examples of figurative language

1) You Are My Sunshine by Wilf Carter-- “You are my sunshine” Metaphor. 

https://open.spotify.com/track/6Gdg94ZsnnxOxptol9K5Z2?si=p8qkuv77RnO2D7QNh9Tb5Q 

2) Skeleton by The Front Bottoms-- “You are the cops, you are my student loans, you are a head shaped hole in a sheet rock wall, you are the pain I feel, you are the stud in the wall” Metaphor.

https://open.spotify.com/track/54GOsWlxjhVPQOp5FLh1se?si=fb8cPfrMQ8OBH_Ut0qYuqQ

3) Road to Nowhere by Talking Heads-- “We’re on the road to paradise” Meaphor.

https://open.spotify.com/track/5gS8whHdcpbkdz0qonQZF8?si=sJQqxqlZRDmf9cGROa2DNw

4) Girl from the North Country by Bob Dylan-- “Where the winds hit heavy on the boarder line” Personification

https://open.spotify.com/track/4K1imZQQ0yKtJ40vGmUajS?si=xrg4NE6nTcmztaLl0dH1Hw

5) Far from Me by John Prine-- “Ain’t it funny how an old broken bottle looks just like a diamond ring”-- Simile 

https://open.spotify.com/track/7nzQdJorKDWFsmvIN28mMM?si=J9YjNreSShO12_FWraVaXA