Some other things you might want to write about this week:
- What might your classmates or professor be interested in knowing about you?
- What is your attitude about creative writing, reading, etc.?
- Now that you've thought about "Life, Love, and Happiness," some more, what do you think about it? How does it work? At what point does it turn from funny to sad? What do you think about Stillmann's essay about the essay?
This week, the blog will be extra credit. Starting this Sunday, you will be required to make at least two entries per week.
Some things that my classmates may be interested in knowing about me is my passion for writing poetry and short stories based upon my own life experiences. I started to develop interest for poetry since the age of 9. I wrote my first poem at that age as well. I have always been acknowledged by my mother who takes my writing abilities as a high priority and skill, because she too also loves to write a lot. I am excited to take an upper level English course such as English 220, because i can finally have the obligation to challenge myself a bit more to get out of my comfort zone. I love reading poetry and finding the essence, significance, or theme of the literacy produced by any author or writer, so i can see if i relate heavily or very little to what the author tries to convey in his or her writing. Creative writing overall gives anyone the obligation to freely write based upon their own experiences, but also consumes the ideologies that they have obtained from being taught about the many ways of writing. I myself take writing very seriously because not only am i passionate about it, but I love to give very detailed descriptions if I am portraying a story to an audience, and I love to help others who are in need of enhancing their skills. I also take creative writing and English overall on a serious level because I would like to persue a career in the communications department for Journalism, and I would also love to become an editorial journalist, revising, editing, and/or producing literacy for journals and newspapers worldwide.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, Shiann!
DeleteMy thoughts on "Life, Love, and Happiness" is that the author who combines all of these twitter threads intentionally develops a type of story-telling to intrigue and gain the audiences attention of the variation of dilemmas that people undergo in their lives. These series of tweets provided comical essences that would let the reader know that these individuals don't exactly take themselves seriously. However, the author's commentary towards providing reasoning behind putting together these tweets in chronological order for them to seem more meaningful, conveys the dilemmas the author also has had when being down in the dumps. He goes on to state how he would always find a way to discourage himself after writing a piece of literature.This leads to the authors ideologies of having to convey his own weaknesses and attributes that hold him back from his own potential. As the reader, we can come to a conclusion that these twitter threads have been brought forth to lead to the conception of having a voice of your own, and have our emotions and mental health can become a factor as to how we live our lives.
ReplyDeleteI totaly agree with you. He an extraordinary work combining all those work and making a very nice short story. More than an story I think he is just trying to explain what he is feeling. And asking for help. He needs help and LOVE.
DeleteNice responses. I agree to an extent. But I also see Stillmann saying something more general about the nature of this kind of communication, these kind of social networks where we're measured by "likes" and "followers."
DeleteSo, I don't know the "proper" way to start an entry on here, hopefully some classmates or the Prof. will correct me. I just wanted to get some opinions on what we read in class? Did anyone else find the whole thing sort of alien? I understand that its a collage and I get the message of the author but the tweets themselves seem strange to me. I don't really share much on social media so maybe that's why the tweets seemed strange but I'd like to see what you all have to say about it. To be honest what seemed alien to me was that people chose to be vulnerable in a public space, I don't know what to make of it all.
ReplyDeleteThis response is perfectly fine, Leonardo. I think that it's very accurate to read these as "strange," even if you are familiar w/ tweets. It's an incredibly strange way of communicating. And people do over-share.
DeleteAbout the love, live and happiness, i think he is trying to explain some hard and sad feelings. In a way that is easy to explain and understand. I think he is going throuhg some real problems and writing is a way of feeling better. He is trying to explain his feelings and his pain in a way that is different and at the beggining kind of funny. He is saying some facts for example when he says "we live in a world full of people who are pretending to be something that they are not" it is true. We live in a world where technology play an important role in our lifes. I think a lot of people have two lifes one is the real one and the other one is the online one. In which the real life people struggle and, they life they miserable life, they dont show the ugly part of it. They dont always look their best, but online everyone is happy and rich. Online every one is living their best life, including myself. The sad part is that we can't take the online filters with us. Without the filters we don't look so amazing. Online we just put whatever we want people to see, but most of the things we put are not real. Right now relationships are so hard and difficult to deal with. People dont like to try or fix things they just replace. People cheat just for fun, now we dont take people's feelings seriously, because now we have a lot of options. Its very different now than it used to be before, my grandpa said that before relationships were a serious matter. Now I dont think so.
ReplyDeleteEvery thing is changing both for the good and bad, for instant as the author said "Hooray, I wrote a short story I'm proud of. Too bad short stories don't exist anymore." The author was upset that writing short stories wasn't interesting anymore to anyone. People have more interest in their image and how much likes can their picture get, not really interested in short stories or blogs, people exactly like the guy in the picture hiding the truth. Making everyone think that they are in an exotic place somewhere in the world when actually they are in the middle school parking lot where their little bother go's to school.
DeleteFunny response, Duran.
DeleteFrom what we went over in class, the author Pablo Pinero Stillmann wrote a flash essay with different opinions. I found it very interesting when he writes about life because I can relate to some of the ideas he took from people that wrote things on twitter. He mentions that life is too short and is right, you never know what can happen to you or people that you care about. Waking up everyday and being thankful is very important to me, seeing life differently can be hard at times depending on the situation your in. when I'm angry, I tend to think that life is hard and that life is unfair, however when I achieve something, I see the purpose of life. I see what my father had tough me and everyday I wake up to learn something new. In today's generation, I believe that people are distracted by technology, the authors puts together tweets like "We live in a world where losing your phone is more dramatic than losing your virginity." I can relate to the quote because there are times that I lose my phone and I get desperate, I worry, but after finding it, I realize that I can't leave without a phone which is crazy for some people. Today's generation cannot leave without their phones, people uses phones everyday, it is useful for some things like maps or research. However people tend to get obsess with their phones and I can't blame hem. At the end of the essay, he puts out people's emotions like depression. I believe that when you express how you feel on the internet, it gives your mind to say and spilled anything. I can relate, when I feel that i want to say something, I write it down, it keeps my mind clear and makes me want to express everything, what i like and what I don't like.
ReplyDeleteMy attitude towards creative writing, is that it is a very interesting way to have the reader attention. Creative writing let your express your feelings in many different forms and ways. I think that it is a good way to start writing because it will help you to improve your skills in writing. However, some reader may or not understand every ideas that is being said but that also may have the reader to wonder. what does this writer means when he mention this particular line. I also feel that creative writing entertain the readers to continue reading as they go along by rhyme , or making a joke or some times it is basically what is going in the world.
ReplyDeleteMy Professor and classmates might be interesting in knowing that I once used to LOVE writing my own little short stories when I was younger! I think the main reason that I stopped being excited to write them is because of school. School made us write so much that writing just became a chore to me. I wonder if this class will spark up my creativity and my love for creative writing that I lost. I like the idea of being able to express yourself in creative writing/reading. There is no specific topic to write about unless you are given a theme. You literally are able to tap into your inner thoughts and creative juices and let them work! I'm hoping that is exactly what I do this semester. Life,Love,Happiness was very interesting. I was so shocked to learn that this was made up of 31 users! It blended together so well. The essay turns from a light hearted tone into a sadder tone when it gets near the end. I feel like it began to transition to a more serious tone when the user quoted " I'm sorry I'm not good enough...etc". That was the real turning point. Stillmann's essay about the essay was quite humorous, especially when he said that with writing short stories he might as well have learned Atari. He also took a turn in his essay when he said that he actually enjoyed being a vouyer on twitter! Overall I enjoyed Stillmann's flash essay as well as his actual essay.
ReplyDeleteNice response, Nyah. I've heard this story so many times from students: they loved to read and/or write and then school ruined it for them. Why do you think reading and writing can be such a chore in school? What does school do to ruin it for people? I hope that we can start to bring back that earlier passion.
DeleteEternal Return
ReplyDeleteThe flash essay was a bit challenging to read simply because I didn't know that Leo Spivak was a fictional character also I thought "bad Jew" was somewhat name calling or a racist remark. If those names were noted as a side note of what they are, the passage would have been understandable. After rereading the flash essay I understood that you were hurt almost felt what your teacher felt if he would have felt death and if it were painful, I was also knowledgeable that you knew his wife even her name which meant that you were close to his family. This is why the flash essay had lots of emotion which make it that much better.
Thanks for the response, Duran. It's funny, I think that you're right, calling someone a "bad jew" might be considered anti-Semitic. I think that Gerry got away w/ it b/c he was Jewish, similar to how some African Americans might use the n-word or homosexuals use the word "fag." A good question: Why do you think it's okay for the target of a slur to use that slur, but not okay for the rest of us?
DeleteThe Life,Love,Happiness flash essay was very expressive and innovational to me because of the way the author just toke a collection of different people quotes, and put them together in order to make an essay. Along with this, when I first read this flash essay I had no idea it was a collections of people thoughts from twitter.The way it flows smoothly everything just connects well and make sense to me. In Stillmann's flash essay he was expressing the view s of one see life and their was also sadness mention in the flash essay " I'm sorry that I am not good enough, I'm not pretty enough. As well as that, all these two quotes are showing results of insecurities and at this point is where it turns sad. Along with this, " If you thinking faking an orgasm is bad " at this point it was funny until the very end things changed.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. Because at the beginning he was just like being funny. And making jokes. Even though all the jokes were true. Because we live in a world where nothing we see in the internet is the real thing. We just post whatever we want people to look at. But at the end he gets in his feelings and star to express what he really wanted to say. I think he said at the end because if he starts writing about how depress he is or how bad he is feeling maybe people would just ignore him. But I think everyone was very surprise by the way he started and the way he ended it.
DeleteMy classmate will be interesting to know my determination to do things that the teacher says well because although my English is not so good I always try to do my best. I think the creating writing class is very interesting since i can develop my skills and learn more the language. In the essay ¨Life,Love,Happiness¨ by Pablo Pinero explains how technology and social networks have changed people's habits, now people can spend hours and hours on the phones and feel happy. On many occasions people remain locked up by messaging or playing video games. As time passes, technology advances and entertains people more.
ReplyDeleteSo is this a good thing, Gabriela?
DeleteThe Professor and my classmates should know that collecting and putting my thoughts on paper is very challenging for me. My hope is to learn how to write
ReplyDeleteLife, Love and Happiness by Pablo Pinero explained how individuals portray two different lifestyles. On social media people pretend to be happy and confident, but deep down on the inside they are truly unhappy. For instance. Their career, social relationships, family are in shambles. But instead, they pretend to be secure living like a star. However the things that should be important are a supportive family, successful career.,and healthy relationships. In life we must make a wise decision and be honest with ourselves or we will continue to wear a mask.
Hi Bernadette, why is it challenging for you to put your thoughts on paper?
DeleteSomething that the class would like to know about me is that I am a Haitian citizen and english is my second language. My attitude towards creative writing is mixed. While I am excited at the fact that I can express myself without the constraints of critical Lens essay, I am worried that I may have difficulty crafting the stories. I may need help with reining in on my stories. I am also not that fond of poems. I will do my best to learn in the class to become a better writer.
ReplyDeleteAbout Love, life and happiness I found that it was very interesting how this melding of tweets could make a story. While it was an expression of life, the story highlights the lows and highs of the human experience. There may be those that interpret the essay being happy or sad. I view it as someone who has loved and lost and had some fun along the way. For someone to know the true feeling of loneliness, they must have known what the true feeling of together. I think that is great, because it is better to have loved and lost than to never change my relationship status.
Dear Ashley: I think you'll have no problem crafting stories. There will be a lot of time for practice this term!
DeleteWhat might your classmates or professor be interested in knowing about you?
ReplyDeleteThis is my last semester at Queensborough, after attending on and off for 8 years. How exciting! I began writing for the campus newspaper (Queensborough Communique) since the Fall, and I really enjoyed the whole experience. Though I love and respect journalism, my current focus of study is Psychology, with the vague goal of doing some sort of work in social work or mediation, perhaps (I was inspired by a book I'd read on conflict resolution).
What is your attitude about creative writing, reading, etc.?
Writing is a source of anxiety for me. I can probably trace it back to having my diary read by my parents as a young child. Despite that, I considered writing my refuge, but it became difficult to express anything. Years ago, my one and only mentor urged me to never stop writing, but I did stop, for a long time. Taking a journalism class helped break that dry spell, and it soon dawned on me that I wanted to take a creative writing class to learn how to find my voice, to stop thinking in cliches and canned phrases. I enjoy creative works and value the ability to conjure entire scenarios or worlds, with interesting plots or themes but could never figure out how to generate that from my own mind. It seemed like a gift possessed by a special few (a stubborn attitude I've rid myself of). Most of the books I read skew heavily non-fiction, but I want to appreciate original (or historic, or poetic) creative works and importantly, not be so intimidated by the writing process.
Now that you've thought about "Life, Love, and Happiness," some more, what do you think about it?
The title reminds me of one of those wooden home decorative "Live, Laugh, Love" pieces found at craft stores.
It was a fun read, the train of thought was pleasingly manic and incoherent while the voice became increasingly brooding. The assemblage of all these messages captured the burgeoning spirit of life in our social digital landscape, where we're all self-involved, together.
How does it work? At what point does it turn from funny to sad? What do you think about Stillmann's essay about the essay?
I think the pessimism creeps in pretty early on in the essay, after he plugged in the slogans of the day (YOLO and a couple of hashtags) the line "We tell our kids it’s not about winning, it’s about having fun. But all they see on TV are the biggest games: politics and war" seemed a moody change of tone, but inevitable.
There's a kindredness I feel reading both Stillman's essays, that kind of existential angst is familiar to me.
Social media is a fairly recent medium that at once breeds all kinds of discontent (even as we self-select i.e. "follow" our interests and friends!) while also giving one an intimate look at other peoples' unadulterated or unmoderated thoughts that makes it difficult not to get sort of addicted to. "The Screen" is like an ominous entity.
Reflecting on these works in 2020 (seven years after the original 2013 publication) makes one wonder when anything is ever going to feel real again.
Dear Steph:
ReplyDeleteThis is an excellent response. Congrats on your impending graduation. What plans do you have? I'll be interested to hear what you think of the Guillermprieto essay since it's about her experience as a journalist.
That's terrible about your parents reading your journal. I hope they recognize now not to do something like that.
I think that she doesn’t mean to write about the wars and the drugs. All the bad things that happen in those countries where she goes to write about. She even said, “People sometimes ask me why I like doing stories that are often violent and cruel, and the answer is that of course I don’t”. This means that she doesn’t like writing about these things but if she goes to a country to write about something. She is not going to lie about what is really happening in there. In the other hand people really like to read about these things. For example, we all see in the movies, Netflix series. They are amazing. But reading about them and knowing these are real stories make us want to know more about it. I think that at the bottom of her heart she likes writing about all these stories. Not that she likes the violence but it’s interesting what people do for money or power. And interviewing those people that did all those bad things. She said that most of these criminals doesn’t have nothing to lose. I think life is a very important thing to lose. And the families of those criminals they have feelings and the pain goes from generation to generation. I think she is a very brave writer to go to those places and write about very bad people. The are some of her colleagues that are now dead because of the work they do.
ReplyDeleteUnderground, i think he is telling the story in a positive way. In the way that he is still a live. When his wife asked him if he was ok, he said yes. But ended in the hospital. He dont want her to worried about him. Because compare to others he is ok. He could be telling the story in a sad way but he prefer no to. I think nobody want to read a sad story. It will be more interesting to read a story that he is telling what happened in a way that we can see that it was a sad thing but without making us cry. He is looking at the positive instead of crying for what happened to him. He is turning this bad moment into a book. By telling his part of the story. He tells the story sometimes in a funny way. I haven't read the book but for the pages that the professor read to us I can see that he is trying to tell the story with more colors, not just white and black.
ReplyDeleteThe book Underground. I started to read it and I really like the way the author wrote it. He didn’t make a boring story. Instead, he wrote all those people’s story. To show the reader all the details, from each of them. Most of the affected people said that they forgive the people who did this. I think Japanese people are very nice people. That’s why they don’t want revenge. But in the other hand I think they might be a little scared. Because there was a lady that she didn’t wanted to say her name because she lives around the organization that did this. The story that caught my attention and it really got me like crying. Was the one of Shizuko Akashi. The girl that was in comma. The one that the brother tells her story. About how she didn’t event got married because she wanted to take care of her parents. I think this is very sad. How she ended up like this. The doctors told her brother that she may not make it. And then she ended up as a vegetable. Her father got a heart attack. This story is very touching. In the book they don’t just focus on the negative things but in the positive too. A lot of people survive and each of them have a story to tell.
ReplyDelete