Brian Cable Reading

The Last Stop
Cable's tone caught me off guard. I'm not sure if he is trying to lighten the situation by joking about it, or if he just a insensitive. I felt that Cable was attacking the mortuary business. As he went on, I felt that he became less judgmental. I suppose since it is a profile essay he was caught off guard initially by the fact that it is a business. I do think Cable did a good job mixing in the facts he researched in with the morgue description, it flowed. At then end when Cable sees a dead body, it's really surprising. I was curious before, but I don't think I would have done that, it seems disrespectful, especially how he goes on to say that he was "happy" to see one.

Tobias Wolff and Rick Bragg Readings

On Being a Real Westerner
I feel there is a condescending tone in Wolff's description of himself finding the rifle the be a "necessity" for being a Westerner. I guess Wolff is looking back at him himself as naive. I have a bunch of questions popping up as i read this. What year does this take? I guess a long time ago, because he aspires to be a "Westerner". Also, who is Roy? Is he a weird neighbor, older brother, or dad? And is there something wrong, like mentally, with Roy, why does he whine? How old is Tobias Wolff? Similar to our class discussion, I agree that when Wolff describes himself admiring his rifle poses, it reminds me of the pictures that surfaced on the internet of the Virginia Tech shooter. It begins to get really disgusting as Wolff describes his happiness as he stalks the people passing his window, with his gun. I can fully picture the scene, happy, unsuspecting people, and a dumb kid with a gun; I am waiting for and accident to happen. When it gets tot he part where he wants to shoot something, It is scary, I think he might of actually shot a person if there had been one walking by. I find it so ironic that he tells his mom that there is a dead squirrel, and then continue to describe himself as an animal, after he just killed an animal. Even though the he feels remorse in the end I kinda feel that I just read a memoir of a future serial killer. Even though I found this memoir to be very gruesome, I preferred this one, it was able to hold my attention.


100 Miles per Hour, Upside Down and Sideways
Introduction is great. Bragg describes the feelings he felt toward his car, and makes it comprehensible for his audience through describing it as "an approaching storm", something everyone has seen. I like how Bragg transitions from paragraph 1 to paragraph 2 as he uses the same reference, slingshot. As Bragg goes on to describe the car, his detail is vivid and makes it easy to "see" the car. Bragg's praise for his car seems a bit obsessive; especially how he refers to it as "her" and only lets one person drive. Bragg's story is pretty typical, he is over taken by the power he gets from the car and ends up wrecking. It's funny, as Bragg was describing the crash scenario, and before it was mentioned, I was thinking he was really lucky, everything was in the right spot for him not to get hurt. Making Connections: I think the car not only fulfilled Bragg's "High school status", but the work he put forth was a lot and to be able to see the result of his hard work, must be really rewarding.

Dillard and Brandt Readings

An American Childhood
In Annie Dillard's "An American Childhood", she recalls a time in her childhood, where she experienced an exciting chase. I love how Dillard use short, then long sentences in her first paragraph, the choppy lines make it seem that she is telling the story form a child's perspective. As Dillard describes running away from the angry man, she gives great details to where exactly they are running. The details almost make the story seem very recent, or almost like the narrator is still the same seven year old girl. It's so funny that Dillard is disappointed when her "hero/captor" catches up with them and expects, and wants, something more extreme than a lecture. I've never been disappointed for not being punished enough, she must have been an odd child, but makes a great author.

Calling Home
In Jean Brandt's "Calling Home, Brandt recalls a time in her adolescents when she shoplifted. Brandt's description as she is leaving the store actually makes my heart beat faster, wondering if she is going get away with her "crime". I can feel how nervous she is as she describes her thought racing. I feel like I understand exactly what Brandt was feeling as her story progresses.

Chapter Four: pg 116-127

Notes:
*The introduction is what keeps the readers to continue reading.

Writing Response
"Herb's Chicken" is a very discriptive narrative of a woman(Lundin), along with her husband, learning how to "process" a chicken. I was dissapointed by this piece. I do not believe that the narrartor used a strong beginning; the only thing that hinted at something interesting was the word process in quotes. The narrative goes on the explain the gruesome steps to processing a chicken. I feel that Lundin did however provide a a good description for Herb, through allowing him to "talk". And as for the message of this narrative, I'm not sure that Lundin was able to convey one. at the end of the story, after the blood and guts details, she "chirps" that she can probably make the chicken, which, I feel, ruined her message. She goes on to say that she's not going to eat the processed chicken. Until the end, I thought the message was to be vegetarian, or animal friendly, but now I'm not really sure what it is. The "chirp" at the end is kind of eerie to me, because chirping makes me think of birds and she just watched them be killed. "Herb's Chicken" was really strange to em and I felt it lacked a message.

Chapter Four: pg 109-115

School Lunch
Pooja Makhijani's narrative is a look into a period of time during her youth when she felt different, and "left out". The narrative was ironic for me, in the sense that, I expected Poooja to overcome her embarassment for her culture when the other Pakistani girl was introduced. But instead, this character seemed to aid her in her "coversion" to one of the other girls. Aisha supplies Pooja with mini pizzas, and various other white foods, while Pooja gives her traditional Pakastani foods; this whole arragnment seems almost unfair to Pooja's mom. I guess it's up to Pooja what she wants to eat, but I feel that Pooja did not really try and persuade her mom, instead Pooja casually lies and trades food to feel less distant from the girls she wanted to be like.

Eggs
In Aba Opincar's narrative, I was totally set back from Aba's lack of respect for his mother. His narrative reminded me of Judy Brady's "I Want A Wife" essay, for Aba talks about all the things his mother does for the family, but has no gratitude.