Essay Packet 1 Response

When reading Mint Snowball essay i notice many things. The description of the store in the first paragraph is very good. The narrator, which is not specified at this point in time says that people drove all the way from Decatur to get one of the Mint Snowballs. When it is said that the recipe is sold for one hundred dollars that surprises me, I agree that it should have stayed in the family for the tradition to be carried on for many years. When the grandmother loses the paper that she had replicated the recipe seems like it is a very sad point in the essay. The recipe could very well be lost forever in the world. As the story ends it seems like the narrator  just wants to go back to the time when they could make the mint. The description that is used really brings it all home for the story. It ties everything together and makes everything make sense. I enjoyed reading this story very much.

Juice Response

When reading “Juice” you can't help to feel you are encountering something very intimate. And what feels at first as a document of self discovery, leads itself to become a play on the essential idea of discovering, of wondering and reaching for meaning, without the necessity of achievement. Gladman's language is powerfully unique, for it pronounces itself conversationally, yet is still buoyant in its philosophical games and acts of deconstructing through time-jumbling and non-linear associations. Emotionally, this story brings you into its poetry, its softness, and its deliberate reassembling of its narrative, artfully enough to give back a reflection of how you can fit meaningfully within its spacing.

Fiction Post

Fiction: I have not really understood the stories that we have read. The story about the interns was very confusing and I felt somewhat lost when I was reading it. I feel that reading these stories are good to learn from for someone like me who has not really had experience in reading fiction or writing fiction. 

I have had little past experience with writing fiction. I had to very little in high school and I don't know where to start. I would like to start to learn how to write fiction. The things that make it fiction and what does not make it fiction. I have really struggled with writing in general and would like to learn more about it all. 

City Eclogue #2

In the poem Simple As One Two, the first line speaks to me. "Who having put on the disguise of a disease to get little relief of a day or so." It says to me that that people but on a mask or disguise to protect the people they love from feeling the pain of a disease that they may have. People do this naturally to make sure that they only feel the pain and it wont bother anyone else. I have experienced this myself with my aunt., She had breast cancer and she seemed so happy. She put up a front to make sure that the family wouldn't be bothered with the pain that was feeling. It made me feel like she helpless and needed help more then ever.

The next line says "and not been able to get the minute off him to enjoy the naked hour out of costume out of the shell of he office." This to me says that all they want to do is stop wearing the mask that they put up. They want to live a "naked hour" to get away from the role that they have playing for a while. It can strain someone in so many ways to pretend to be something they are not.

"Enters back cramped in to crab crap the worse disease to have to." This says that they enter back into the shell that they have created. So all in all they create this shell and then want to get out of it for an hour or something and then enter back into it. This is a cycle that these people create to avoid pain and to avoid the fact that they have a certain disease. It cant be changed. I really liked this poem!

City Eclogue Response

City Eclogue by Ed Roberson really interested me in many different ways. I like how a lot of the poems are spaced out and weird looking. It makes the reader wonder about why it is written like that. I am not sure why it is written like that. It gives the poems a certain vibe that makes each line mysterious.

In the poem Seqouia Sempervirens, the first line says " We are about what, a squirrel's size is to a tree, to this tree." To me I understand what it means in the terms of the squirrel being small and the tree being alot bigger. I especially like the comparison between the squirrel and the tree. It can also foreshadow what I am about to read. It gave me good imagery of a little tiny squirrel looking at huge tree. This was a main point that I liked out of all the poems.

In Beauty's Standing 1 I like how they use the imagery and the comparisons that he made. " Building up more junk and more junk doesn't pay the bills and get the light back on". I am sort of certain what is meant by this. I get the understanding that if you pile junk on junk you wont be able to pay the bills and wont have light or any other things that we want. It can be also in a non literal way that I would not be able to understand.

Poetry Response

This week we talked and read about poetry. I am not that into poetry. The Shakespeare poem that we read together really spoke to me about how good poetry can be.

Assignment One. Introduce Myself

Hi my name is Ryan Duda. I am a freshman here at Eastern Michigan University. I actually grew up in Ypsilanti. It is my home. I will be majoring in Computer Information Systems with a minor in Business Management. So far I love this campus and all that offers us freshman. There are so many resources that can be used on campus, it blows my mind. This campus offers many ways to be involved and in the first week I truly feel at home and like I found where I belong. All in all I made the right choice on coming to this campus and will enjoy my 4 years here!