Today was picture day, so our time was limited in some periods, but many of us had great conversations about how authors relate to place.
1. We did class pictures. These are for the yearbook and for personal picture packages if you wanted.
2. We discussed place as seen in the 3 pieces assigned for reading last night. Some of our conclusions:
Spalding Gray’s piece “It’s a Slippery Slope” is about both a the ski slope as a place and Fryeburg Academy as a place.
The ski slope was described as “pulling in [his] stomach” and an “exotic dessert.” Furthermore, Gray uses figurative language when he writes, “I could see these white fingers through the trees like melted marshmallow sauce over coffee ice cream.” When one student commented “he’s just hungry!” we started to see his hunger as metaphorical. All of the food and stomach comparisons led us to believe he was hungry for the mountain, hungry to ski, hungry for adventure. To Gray, the place was a metaphor for adventure. How can you turn a place into a metaphor in your own writing?
We also discussed Gray’s response to his school, which he calls “the Gulag.” Obviously, comparing it to a soviet labor camp, Gray felt trapped there, increasing his desire for adventure. What kind of place would you write about being trapped at? What is the opposite of this contained place? Where is freedom to you?
We also discussed the first few pages of Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father. Obama writes about Harlem, which many students described as “croweded,” “bustling,” and “dirty.” Students contrasted the bustling nature of Harlem with Obama’s solitude, which he describes as “the safest place I knew.” We discussed how solitude can be a safe place, similar to a bedroom or home. In your solitude, you have total control over the environment. There are no outside stresses. People become “unnecessary distractions,” as Obama writes. What kinds of figurative places do you go to? Why are they important to you?
Likewise, we discussed how Obama saw “a kindred spirit” in the old man living next door. The old man lived alone and was always silent. When he finally died, Obama saw in his apartment “close to a thousand dollars in small bills rolled up inside wads of old newspaper and carefully arranged behind mayonnaise and pickle jars.” For a moment, Obama wants to know more about the old man, but then stops himself, thinking “I felt as if an understanding had been broken between us–as if, in that barren room, the old man was whispering an untold history, telling me things I preferred not to hear.” Obama feels like an intruder when learning about the old man’s history (though the apartment he left behind). Ironically, the feelings of intrusion on the old man’s privacy are narrated through Obama’s own personal memoir, the reading of which a 23 year-old Obama may have seen as an intrusion on his privacy.
HW: Prepare some notes about what you want the focus of your memoir to be. All memoirs have a focus, be it “my life in singing” or “being left-handed” or “the best summer ever.” Brainstorm what you may want to focus on in your memoir so you can start thinking about writing pieces tailored to your focus. Don’t worry! We’ll make it work!
ALEXA GARVOILLE 