Thursday, January 28, 2010

6- Half Baked

okay, so this has little to nothing to do with english, but i just have to share. i was having a little bit of trouble buckling down and starting my Women's Lit paper. i had already facebook stalked everyone i could think of and i was getting antsy. i cant write this paper... i cant think... i cant write this paper... i want chocolate... i want ice cream... i want Ben and Jerry's Half Baked ice cream! yes yes yesss! now that will help me out.... and so i found myself smothered in my gigantic i-could-be-homeless coat shivering in the frozen dessert aisle at Smith's searching desperately for my drug of choice. its not here. its not here! this cannot be possible. oh my gooosh. what the crap?! i began to panic. when, like an angel descending from heaven before my very eyes appeared the most divine little package i have ever beheld: Ben and Jerry's Half Baked Fro Yo. yes. it is true. for all of you addicts out there who may or may not be upset or embarrassed by the, in my opinion, always amazing fact that you can eat an entire pint of ice cream in a heartbeat- this is for us. the healthy alternative. and it still tastes delicious. nothing lost except an extra unwanted attempt to go to the gym. i bathing in happiness right now, you have no idea.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

5- A Poet's Attempt at Fiction

When i am having a particularly horrible day i go to the nearest bookstore, sit on the ground, and grab randomly at poetry books. if i don’t like the title- i shove it back in its place. if i don’t like the paper color or smell- i shove it back. if i don’t like the specific combo of words my eyes fall on in the middle of the page in the middle of the book- i shove it back. i reach and grab and reach and grab and shove and slam until i eventually find exactly what my subconscious has been searching for. today i found Anne Carson. and it is so extremely fitting that i have found her, and today, of all days. yesterday i finished the most beautiful book in the world. it hurts; i miss it, a lot actually. i found myself wishing i could still be reading it for the first time. that i could be reading it eternally. i dislike re-reading. this book is titled Fugitive Pieces and it is by Anne Michaels. this book, and the new books i discovered today, are prose-poetry. they are poem-novels. they are a postmodern intersection of lyricism and plot. and they freeze me. they stop me cold and turn me off of the world. i read these books and i am gone. a poet's first novel, a poet's 'attempt' at fiction.... this is my true love. no genre completes me like this. the first book i read in this manner was The Way Through Doors by Jess Ball. it stunned me. and i have been forever grasping for more of it. today's books are precisely what i need, precisely what i want. Autobiography of Red and Decreation by Anne Carson. When i grow up- this is what i will do, this is what i will write.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

4- Indian Captivity Narratives

In my American Lit class we just read Mary Rowlandson's account of her time in Indian captivity. This was a wonderful reminder to me of one of my very first works of historical fiction! In elementary school I wrote an entire journal that was meant to be that of a young girl who had been captured by Indians. Although I can't recall much of the work itself, I do remember having the Indians nickname her Corn Silk on account of her lovely fair hair.

3- Reading Series- Joni Tevis

The BYU Reading Series is every Friday at noon in the library. I did not particularily enjoy last week's reading. There was only one line that stood out to me from the entire collection:
"When you blink, I hear it, eyelids' fluttering kiss."
This line is beautiful to me because the choppiness of each word seems to enhance the feeling of a fluttering eyelid.
I was surprised that I didn't like Joni Tevis's work. Based on the pre-reading I thought I would like her a lot. The pre-reading was an essay about grottos and a place called Rock City, and grottos are freaking awesome! Her actual reading focused on much blander topics and especially discussed death and other raw, dirty, exposed subjects which aren't my type.

2- Quotes

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." - Annie Dillard

“It is not enough merely to love literature, if one wishes to spend one’s life as a writer. It is a dangerous undertaking on the most primitive level. For, it seems to me, the act of writing with serious intent involves enormous personal risk. It entails the ongoing courage for self-discovery. It means one will walk forever on the tightrope, with each new step presenting the possibility of learning a truth about oneself that is too terrible to bear.” - Harlan Ellison

"Real editing means staying in touch with lots of writers, and poking them on a fairly regular basis about what they are writing and reading and thinking and obsessing about and what they have always wanted to write but haven’t, and also it means sending brief friendly notes to lots of writers you have never worked with yet in hopes that you will, and also it means listening to lots and lots of people about lots and lots of ideas, some or all of which might wend their way into your pages, and it means being hip to the zeitgeist enough to mostly ignore it, and it means reading your brains out, and it means always having your antennae up for what you might excerpt or borrow or steal, and it means tinkering with pieces of writing to make them lean and taut and clear, and always having a small room open in the back of your head where you mix and match pieces to see if they have any zest or magnetism together, and it means developing a third eye for cool paintings and photographs and drawings and sculptures and carvings that might elevate your pages, and writing captions and credits and titles and subheads and contents pages…." - Brian Doyle

"Fill the papers with the breathings of your heart" -William Wordsworth

“The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read. Not by any other person, and not even by yourself at some later date. Otherwise you begin excusing yourself. You must see the writing as emerging like a long scroll of ink from the index finger of your right hand; you must see your left hand erasing it.”— Margaret Atwood

Thursday, January 14, 2010

1- Getting to Know You



Hello! My name is Emma. Here are some fun things about me:

1.) I am an identical twin.
2.) I drink Lavender Rooibos tea before going to bed.
3.) I often read myself to sleep, which has been hard on my glasses.
4.) I am from Northern Virginia [15 min outside of D.C.] but spent my childhood just a train ride from London in Weybridge, Surrey.
4 1/2.) I have spent nearly every summer of my life on Cape Cod.
5.) I have 12 plants in my bedroom.
6.) I am terribly afraid of birds.
7.) I do not like meat; however, I do quite like bacon.
8.) I enjoy going on walks and playing outside- especially making forts in the woods and exploring ruins.
9.) I eat excessive amounts of fudge.
10.) I love wearing dresses.