I.S.P BLOG #7

DEAD SOULS by Ian Rankin

The narrative in the opening chapter of this novel is based upon getting the reader familiar with the traits of the protagonist. John Rebus stars in his tenth novel and for someone like me who has not read any of the series, after a paragraph of description I get the idea of the 'everyday man who happens to be an inspector' and I'm ready to discover who and what he's all about.
But even if you already know who this guy is, Rankin draws in all readers with his opening line "..he saw the man, and knew he wasn't the one." Who is he on the hunt for? Are we going to run into him soon? Narrative drive should be established as soon as possible, and that is done here right off the bat.

We do not meet the animal poisoner, yet Rebus informs us on his motives, which are odd.

I enjoy the setting that the story opens in; a zoo filled with all sorts of animals which do not need much description to get a picture in the reader's head, so their is already a great deal of depth to where we know we are. The voice sounds like the perspective of Rebus, although not in 1st person, it details how he feels and what is going through his mind in the appropriate places.

What makes someone kill an animal in captivity? Or abuse children? The applicability of the title is one of few in my studies that can be discovered early on; the views of most people, Rebus and Rankin is that they are dead souls.

I.S.P BLOG #6

THE SNAPPER by Roddy Doyle

There is good reason as to why The Snapper became a major film. People enjoy reading about a motley bunch of lovable ne'er-do-wells, and screen play adapters enjoy how little work they have to do.

There is 100% believable dialogue in this chapter. We hear less from the narrator than from the characters and that adds to the strength of this book's finest quality; the narration is there only to tell us what cannot be shown and being able to have your characters reveal the story on their own, as it does in real life, is a great technique because along the way we learn the who the characters as well. The voice of the narrator does not have anything special to say, it has the local as the rest of the cast and speaks succinctly and avoids "she said and he said" which allows the reader to watch what the characters are doing.

We know where we are, that is what is told to us, the dialogue is what does so much more. The direct speech between the characters is the most authentic out of any of the novels I studied for the I.S.P. The drive comes from how Doyle reveals the necessary information, the talk between the family leaves readers eager to overhear the 'gossip.' The tone is always light-hearted and that makes this book a pleasure to read; Jimmy Rabbitte is concerned about his daughter's pregnancy, but he isn't going to lose his mind over it.

Each character is created in the same way we learn about what is going on. For the size of this first section, Doyle successfully squeezes in an introduction to most of the characters if not all the family.

This book reads like a movie, and is not too difficult to plow through seeing as all a reader has to do is listen to what the people are saying.

I.S.P BLOG #5

LET IT BLEED by Ian Rankin

Through good sensory detail, the harsh winter night is pictured as a car chase screams through not allowing the dangerous conditions to deter any of them away from their objective; whether that be cat or mouse. Then, the picture in our minds has another dimension added to it when Rankin follows the classical order of the introduction 0f a story by introducing the characters; Inspectors Rebus and Lauderdale as well as noting their character traits with their action. The rule is to show what you can rather than tell. "Rebus had his teeth bared. He gripped the door handle with one hand, and the front end of his passenger seat with the other." A cautious inspector, willing to catch the bad guy yet would rather keep all his bones intact. This describes his partner as well, specifically how he handles an automobile in the winter which clearly is quite distant from relaxed. An 0n the edge r0ad rager is at the wheel, we are in the back seat listening; "We'll get them! We'll get the bastards!" If I were Rebus, I'd be 0n edge as well; "Rebus c0uldn't unl0ck his jaw l0ng en0ugh t0 reply." Rankin continues t0 show us character's emoti0ns thr0ught0ut this chapter, t00 many t0 write d0wn all.

We learn a backst0ry bef0re anything is 0verc0me 0r acc0mplished, via flashback. There is n0 sentence bef0re t0 prepare a reader, the reader sh0uld get what is g0ing 0n seeing as it has nothing t0 d0 with the present. This effect gives a 'c0p drama' t0ne that 0f which seen 0n T.V and adds t0 the wh0le idea 0f watching a b00k.
The characters are well established thr0ugh speech. In the flashback, a tapped phone call shows the dialect and traits 0f the kidnappers, "'We' phone tonight with the details. One last thing, no police understand?'... The ph0ne caller had sounded, working-class. In the mouth, understand had become unnerstaun."

I have not read any of the Inspector Rebus Series, but I can see why it is popular.

I.S.P BLOG #4

PERSONALITY by Andrew O'Hagan

I appreciate how O'Hagan succinctly introduces the subject to open the novel. "The body of Enrico Colangelo" will intrigue lovers of mystery or murder, but it keeps all other readers on the line by giving him a name; we know that there is more than just a decaying corpse on the shore. The setting is well set up as well in the beginning, life is given to the sea by it being called "violent." After all, so far as we know it was the violent sea that murdered this man.

There is unique character drive; we do not have a random gross dead person, this European tenor still is given motive, a thought process that his heart- although dead-keeps alive. "He could swim to the lifeboats, he'd find her there." The protagonists, a group of local boys, come across the body; we feel slight suspense in that we already know there is a body there and we are just waiting for the naive kids to come across it.

The narrative is omniscient and comes with a perspective of one of the boys, grown up, looking more than 50 years into the past. I get this number from the book itself: "only then, as a man of sixty-two, would Neil remember the fingers of the washed up man at Traig Iais." The voice also supports that idea, it uses the local tongue ("jumpers, crofters") and brings up personal details that only a local would bring up long after, as a way of reminiscing. "From the top you could look across the sound to South Uist and the place where Charles Edward Stuart met Flora Macdonald at midnight." It's also that of a storyteller, who isn't going to dance around the subject of a corpse.

There is artful sensory detailing of the boys at play in the Marram grass; "it was frightening to hear the crash of the waves and feel the rush of the sand that would sting your face and push you back to the dunes."

I.S.P BLOG # 3

HIGH FIDELITY by Nick Hornby

What drives the plot best in the piece is what I was taught should and usually does do the job, character and narrative. The character we meet within the first paragraph has a story to tell to an audience of one, and that's his ex Laura. The reason why the character drive and narrative drive work so well together is because the protagonist he supports the character is also the narrator. It's a first person narrative; a message to Laura, with a quick opening that instantly creates a comically sad Mr. Heartbreak who lists the most memorable breakups. We eavesdrop on a tone that feels like something we're not supposed to hear; we know he has just ended another relationship and that leaves men melodramatic and sappy so readers expect to hear something 'heartfelt.' "Can you see your name in that lot, Laura? I reckon you'd sneak into the top ten, but there's no place for you in the top five." Ouch.

There is a vivid description of U.K's Hertfordshire, Hornby paints a clear picture of the local hangout spot as a kid in the small English suburb. "right across the road from a little row of shops (a VG supermarket, a newsagent, an off-license). There was nothing around that could help you get you geographical bearings" he continues to explain the confusion of being lost in the town. Hornby brings back my own memories which allows me to relate to his character when he is detailing his puberty. Just as painful as mine, the unnamed protagonist empathizes with me by bringing up gut wrenching moments that clearly stick in his mind as a grown-up; his first breakup. "I stung, and I blushed, and I suddenly forgot how to walk without being aware of every single part of my body." The love able sadness emitted adds a familiarity to him, so we feel like we know him more.

The end of this section makes good use of writing something with cliffhanger qualities. "If we were doing this list in grief order, rather than chronological order, I'd put it right up there at number two." Number two? I wonder what number one could be...

I.S.P BLOG #2

ABOUT A BOY by Nick Hornby

When writing, your goal is to not only think about yourself but what will draw in your readers, a dramatic or action packed beginning can work in movies, most of the time in literature if there is too much happening right off the bat, surprisingly you will lose interest. What intrigues me to continue reading to the end of this novel is Hornby's opening scene; the moments after a breakup. As I said, dramatic and action packed could sound like the way to go, but it's the authentic drama that we readers are looking for. When people are breaking up, their emotions are running wild and melodrama will often take over. When we come in, it's all over and now we are going to watch real people not being fueled by their hormones. Marcus' mother and Roger had a big argument that he says "he hadn't understood a word of it," so how could a reader? Also, physically it is easier to write less. Eavesdropping on the breakup would tell us about the couple, we don't need to know Roger. The aftermath dialogue gives good background to Marcus' facts and character traits. Mainly, that he loves his mother and when she's upset "he ought to say something optimistic."

The narrative is present in this novel to only tell us what could not be shown by character action or speech, it describes the people and lets the reader read about them. It is fueled by English diction, filled with slang terms that we don't find in Canada. The voice of this narration is looking through similar eyes as Marcus the kid; he name drops popular children's movies of that time as well as his opinion on them, and the most interesting characteristic is the attention span. "And that when she was his age... something, he couldn't remember what."

The ending of this chapter is not as much of a segway into the next chapter as it is more enchanting narrative. Marcus' mother is depressed after ending another relationship, she feels alone and unwanted, her son turns on the 'tele' and hopes to find something that won't get her mind on her being single; he "zapped" to the channel programming "a sort of fish thing that lived right down at the bottom of caves and couldn't see anything, a fish that nobody could see the point of; he didn't think that would remind his mum of anything much." The naivete is humorous. A light-hearted way to end the introduction.

I.S.P BLOG #1

WHAT HAPPENED LATER by Ray Robertson

The first chapter of this novel is efficiently opens the story. Within pages two buddy characters Jack and Stanley are revealed, within paragraphs we know their favorite pub, and within sentences we see that Jack is a comical drunk. Despite the happy-go-lucky alcoholism and a moocher friend antics, Kerouac is more than just a buffoon. We learn more through the omniscient narrative than the direct speech; I do not frown upon Robertson telling us what he could show us because being a protagonist being dragged off the road after a drunken adventure still sauced as a pan, is not where I would expect to hear:
"Say Jack?"
"Yes Stanley?"
"How is life as French-Catholic-Writer going?"
"Not too bad at all my studio apartment friend!"
Since there isn't going to be any dialogue worth keeping in the story, it is appropriate we learn the facts above through the author's storytelling which enchants with his style.

Immediately establishing the skeleton's of the characters, the drive that resonates is that we are left to fill in the blanks of his/her personality; we are comfortable with him being a drunk yet we want to know Jack as a person.


The direct speech uses no quotation marks, it is italicized; the author credits the reader with knowledge by expecting him to understand also, this is a small technique used to keep the flow of the reading steady allowing a reader to watch the story in his mind. There are well chosen words that stick out and emphasize the other words that they're tied to. Jack is a "soggy drunk" and will eventually get the "crippling hangover" that he is used to.
"Well, there is Jack Kerouac, back on the road again." It feels like I am overhearing this story at "Gunther's Fisherman's bar" with the mates exchanging light hearted stories about themselves. The tone of the narrative sounds from the perspective of Stanley the reliable friend ("Stanley tried everything: reasoning, pleading, even threatening.") or Jack the writer ("how much money what's-his-name's agent got for him for his last paperback reprint deal.")

FALSEWORK by Gary Geddes

Three mo' poems...hoorah

GRAVITY, GRAVITAS

To me, the most interesting and best poems are the verses that are multiple elaborate stanzas of descriptions of a moment that lasts less than thirty seconds. Less than half the time it takes to read the piece. A story from some one affected by the tragedy of the bridge's collapse who I would most like to hear; someone who was a victim of the miscalculations. Geddes does marvelous work in illustrating the moment of the crash, and shows how much thought occurs during a few seconds.

Fear, instinct, faith. All a part of the emotions conveyed through the bridge workers' recollection. He thinks about his family, the science of how he will die, and accepting his death is the underlying feeling throughout all his instant brain patterns when he starts to fall. The one thing that saves him is himself knowing he can change his fate; he removes his heavy tool belt before it has time to sink him to the bottom of the lake. "No time for philosophy; no time for analysis. Simply, I'm going to die."
When your life flashes before your eyes, you realize all that matters and forget all that you're unsure about.

ROOTS OF HEAVEN

"How little it takes
to sever connections :a trigger,
a saw, a miscalculation."
A parent mourns for the loss of her son. The metaphor is clear and explained as part of the poem. A massacre of elephants at Lake Chad and the tragedy of the Second Narrows Bridge.
The mother becomes "that leathery beast bellowing her pain, trunk raking the the air for the scent ofher newborn." There is a connection between man and nature; caring for their children and how parents detail their worst nightmare as losing their children.

MOTT

I enjoy the diction in this piece especially. "fighting a capricious current, helmet smacking an impossibly bent girder, jungle of twisted steel, roller coaster to eternity." It is a good illustration of the dark and gloomy lake floor that the diver is working through. It's a tough job, alot of chances that one could die in that particular situation. Also, it's tough having to search for the dead. And that is portrayed in this poem. An encounter with an electric eel creates a tense moment in thie piece because we already know how delicate he must perform his task.

ON WRITING by Stephen King

pp 178-200.

Another informing section of "Writing for Dummies." Here King's subject under his scrupulous magnifying glass is dialogue; "what gives your cast their voices."

What I've learned is that speech is a much more vivid than straight narration as way of conveying a character across to a reader and other characters. You can tell the reader, but showing him is better. And this creates a characters voice better; if you learn about the character by 'watching' him, you'll be driven to read on and learn more even though you'll eventually be able to predict what the character would think or say in given situations.

Dialogue is the most sensitive part of writing. Your style of writing comes naturally, and there is no extra thinking involved other than thinking like yourself; dialogue calls upon a much more artistic ability. What makes is sensitive is that a reader can smell foul and poor character development before he opens the book. "When dialogue is right, we know. When it's wrong we also know it jags on the ear like a badly tuned musical instrument." King provides good examples of dialogue and speech that makes people cringe.

My favorite point of this section is his views on profanity in literature, or as his mother put it "the language of the ignorant." If you're willing to substitute PG rated nouns in exchange for good ol' fashioned cussing, that isn't giving the authenticity of your character, unless he or she is like Stephen King's mother. "The point is to let each character speak freely, without regard to what the Legion of Decency or the Christian Ladies' Reading Circle may approve of."

Three poems from FALSEWORK by Gary Geddes

PASSPORT

What happens after a war is a fantastic yet bewildering idea for people living through it. The story in this poem is told by a man immigrating to North America with the dream of the war ending realized. He describes warm settings; the American dream, what he wants for the good of his family, the family he wants to start in the new world. Geddes then shifts the tone after he builds compassion for the narration. The fantasy becomes reality when he is taken to the opposite of what he dreamed.

LADIES & ESCORTS

This poem creates a very enchanting voice of a 1950's construction worker. Geddes uses the diction of the character he has narrating authentically by bringing in the right words. "Bugger-all, gung-ho" as well as lingo that would be picked up from doing that kind of work. "Inserted a couple of pins to knock out as the choker tightened and the crane took up the weight." It tells a story well in a different style of poetry that is not as metaphorical or filled with a whack of triple meanings.

AN EDUCATED GUESS

I'm not entirely sure as to what the educated guess was. I like the story in the poem as it another view of the bridge before the tragedy and that gives a offset feeling to the reader; the dramatic irony is that we know something terrible is going to happen and the characters in this scene would never expect it to happen. Geddes does good work of creating a relationship between a reader and the protagonist. Him and Katie, his love interest, begin talking about the Sisteen Chapel in Rome, and I love the scene where he finally gets a kiss. She is a Fine Arts student and he's a steel worker; when she starts on about her appreciation for art and then he relates it to the only thing he knows, steel working. She finds his "venture" cute and gave him what he deserved

IN THE JUNGLE by Annie Dillard

"Out of the way of what?"
Annie Dillard's piece looks into another culture and details its beauty and the staggering differences between it and our country. The good thing about travel writing is that it's out to point out positive things that we do not experience in our culture so accompanied with good sensory detail, you can be involved in the best and most vivid 'telepathy' in reading.

Dillard's piece is a teleportation device. She makes good use of detail; her sensory description enlivens the piece in a way that allows a reader to have a picture of the scene in his mind, he can see the scene in his own mind and then watch it happen. There is intimate microscopic detail in her description of flora when she talks about tree trunks being "thirty or forty feet across." There is a variety of tree names which she learned and then teaches us, and fauna detail; there are many things in the rainforest I should be afraid of.

The local customs of the rainforest are another thing. There is a good value of shock that intrigues a reader. "Blowgun-using Indians, who killed missionaries in 1956 and ate them," "we saw where he had impaled the head of a boa, open-mouthed, on a pointed stick by the canoes, for decoration."

Also, her diction adds to her style. She has a good use of self explanatory verbs in describing "Herons, egrets, and cuckoos;" plodded, clattered, lolled and fussed.

Wayson Choy Visits EWC4U in rm. 104

I've been very lucky learn from the notes of professional writers that have reviewed and revised my pieces and given advice that can only be gained from experience. Our most recent visitor was Wayson Choy. I've read The Jade Peony twice for school now, and he's visited once for both times but this time it was much more intimate as there were only three students.
Wayson teaches his own course on writing. I believe the best teachers for writing have written stories themselves and he brought along and did a shortened workshop activity that he uses in his class. The subject of the workshop is narrative voice and what drives it and the story forward. This is also what we've studied in class and voice is important to the short stories we are writing as an assignment. We examined a handful of articles from the New Yorker magazine and focused on the narrative voice and how it enchants a reader; making the reader want to continue and that the best writers can do that within the first couple of sentences (for 5$ a word, I’m sure they make them all count). When it was our turn to do the writing, I learned that I had no trouble creating a voice but ran into trouble with getting to the point of the story. We wrote as ourselves then as characters which we mimicked and got from characters in our lives. It is important to have narrative drive, which is the plot and plot is driven by characters and atmosphere. Having this experience with an accomplished writer who is often credited as being lyrical in his diction, gives us knowledge on what needs to be done in a piece; what needs to be detailed and how it's done.

Catherine Gildiner Visits EWC4U in rm. 104

It was great having Catherine Gildiner visit our writer’s class. It's such a good experience to discuss writing with an author using her book as the topic. The class read her memoir which I very much enjoyed because her narrative was enchanting and I could relate to her childhood stories having been through the frustrations of adolescence myself.
Meeting the author of a novel gives you the chance to get further explanation of moments you couldn't understand or characters you found particularly interesting. Everyone had their own personal inquiries but once they were answered, we got an idea of what writing is to her and she gave personal advice to me that explained good ways to get over my own obstacles in writing. I felt very lucky because she shared the same troubles as I do; not writing objectively and writing in things that are not apart of the story. Not writing to the arc. She said that it's good to think along the lines of making background sentences, but find a 'kernel' and write to that, and leave out everything that didn't happen.
I brought my mom along, and she was extatic to meet the author of Seduction and have her copy signed to show off to the rest of her book club.

TOO CLOSE TO THE FALLS (FATHER RODWICK) by Catherine Gildiner

I remember when I first went out for dinner and dancing with a priest. We got drunk and philosophized the Catholic faith, how to get out of being a sinner, and before I realized it, had discussion about under aged sacrilegious activities that could be frowned upon by "Mary Magdalene before she asked for Christ's forgiveness."
This section of Catherine Gildiner's memoir is the last in the book; she's 14 and in catholic school with her best friend Miranda and they get their kicks out of being rebellious. Cathy has no trouble sticking it to the man. Unless, the man is a man like The Rod. This piece is another look through a youth's eyes, with an author's words. This story details another humorous part of growing up; the discovery of sex. Cathy isn't completely unfamiliar, but the thought of sexuality doesn't run through her mind as oft as her friend who unloads the revelation upon Cathy. "He wants to do it"
"What?"
"What Lady Chatterley did, nitwit."
Again, the troubles with being “uninformed” about certain things are comical for the reader because he can empathize. Cathy was the only girl in the class who didn't know what was going on; the priest was boinking the 14 year old catholic school girl.

In this piece, Catherine's diction perfectly resembles that of a schoolgirl and it isn't hard for the reader to believe that this girl is the same little girl we've been reading about. "I covered your ass, you stupid jerk, handing me that book. Christ, now our mothers are being called."
Her thoughts as well, are believable. "I was suddenly appalled that I hadn't shaved my legs."

A PERFECT DAY FOR BANANAFISH by J.D. Salinger

Well you can't argue that it was a perfect day for bananafish, whatever they are. This short story is worth reading because of how realistic the tone and dialogue is. When I read this, my mind was portraying screenplay to that of an early sitcom. The description of characters and their actions is very precise, but still leaves room to the imagination where it should, i.e. the specifics of their physical attributes.

The opening scene is beautiful. We are given all the information we'd need to understand the story and then some, but only through the conversation between a girl and a woman she calls "mother." The author doesn't change her title from "a girl" when narrating her even though we know for certain that she is Mrs. Muriel Glass who has only recently married Seymour Glass, a character who still isn't trusted by Mom and Dad. We feel this tension as a normal part of marriage, a comical device in any story, because of the way Muriel defends her love, by blowing off mom. I loved the conversation they had, it hasn't been sized down, because it's a real mother concerned about everything in her daughter's life. "The girl increased the angle between the receiver and her ear," it's a small gesture, but it happened.

The tone is more conversational than most because most of the story is in the conversations.
I think that the twist ending is constructed in the best way it could possibly be in literature. Right at the last sentence. James Gagne was a woman all along.

ON WRITING (On Writing) by Stephen King

Finally, a book that can actually teach you how to write. If you can follow the guidelines and teachings of Mr. King, not only will you write, but you'll have just as cunning a dialect as the rest of the big shots. There are many great minimalist and simplistic lessons that, in my case especially, keep a writer from becoming "enchanted with his powers of description." and show that what a writer is "not being paid to do is be self-indulgent."

In the part of On Writing that is on writing, King has discussed (through 'telepathy') three elements of fiction (narrative, description and dialogue) that are the focus in the Writer's Craft course I'm taking while we are studying fiction. I'm 500% sure that the author knows exactly what he is talking about.

I most appreciated look at description. In his telepathic lecture, we are taught a great lesson in simplicity, more so; not over detailing. The magic of storytelling is when the reader’s imagination fills in the blanks i.e. how bloody the axe murderers' face is, how short the ravishing red head's skirt is, or how long the eerie long hallway is. If we were giving exact detailing of these kinds of points, the imagining is gone and boredom can arise.

JADE PEONY (chptr 9) by Wayson Choy

This passage excerpted from the novel was originally a short story that Choy wrote in a writing course. How the novel The Jade Peony came from the colour pink written on a sheet of paper, is as mystical as the story itself.

The novel should be appreciated for the wonderful work Wayson put into making the story seem so real that you can almost touch it. Feeling like you're in the room with all of the Chan family comes from the authentic use of direct speech, sensory detail, and conflict.

Dialogue reveals the true nature of each of the characters, that is; their beliefs, fears, desires, and the person they really are. For example, the superstition of Poh-Poh is conveyed many times; "these are special pieces, because they come from a sacred place," "my spirit will hear its sounds and see its light and I will return to you." Also, the white cat with "pink eyes like sacred fire" shows her belief in the afterlife as well. Her spirituality is contrasted, the children are unsure of who they are- confused identity, which is revealed in their dialogue.

Dialogue is also an effective tool to create tension and drama, because different beliefs will often clash. "Our whole household held its breath, she had promised us a sign of her leaving." the drama here is; what is the sign going to be? Is there going to be a sign? There is also a beautiful drama in Poh-Poh's privacy, the jade peony which was a gift from a lover who she lost, she keeps until her death. And there is a good sense of tension created mid-chapter where the whole family is sitting in the parlor in "troubled air."

The best example of description is on pg. 168-169 "my eyes darted in panic...in the center of this semi translucent carving, no more than inch wide, was a pool of pink light, its veins swirling out into the petals of the flower." I feel these two paragraphs are beautifully written and an excellent of why Choy's writing is described as lyrical.

THE SANTALAND DIARIES by David Sedaris

What a wonderful look into how much of a shit-show meeting Santa is. Now, I'm not putting down one of the most magical moments of childhood, neither is Sedaris I could imagine, but the reality he illustrates in this piece is too funny, and a parent who has ever had to deal with these escapades would find this sidesplitting. Let a thirty-three year old elf tell you just how different SantaLand is when you're not apart of the audience, the brainwashed dorks who drag their children down to Macy's not knowing the meaning of freewill.

The most enjoyable part of the story was hearing what the people had to say. The level of reality in the words they said made them "real people and not just characters." (To quote On Writing by Stephen King) The speech of these people is a good look at how characters are well constructed; what they say is funny because you can imagine what being in their situation would be like, and it's easy to get where they're coming from. Sedaris' main character is the most relatable to anyone. He also creates magnificent representations of 'characters' that we see in real life; like the ditzy valley girl who ends every sentence with a question, or the tired manager who has been in whatever job it is long enough to not feel the need to be polite about what she has to say. "I have scraped enough blood out from the crotches of elf knickers to last me the rest of my life. And don't tell me, 'I don't wear underpants, I'm a dancer.' You're not a dancer..."

THE HANGED MAN by Ian Rankin

"The killer wandered through the fairground."
What a great opening sentence; it transmits a good idea of the setting and subject of this short story. I enjoy Rankin's writing because all I read from this piece is so natural and often I can find the flow of a piece to be choppy and unrelated, this aspect of his diction gives me good ideas and lessons that I should apply to my writing. Also, there are a few slang words from English or Scottish dialect that doesn't hurt to learn; "punter." The title is appropriate and insightful; the hanged man is a tarot card that is referred to in the story, and it is a metaphor for what the protagonist discovers in the end. The tone is wonderful, again to refer to the opening; I see a dark fairground and the mood is solemn and quiet, the man who we follow is named Mort, this is a clever name for this character because it is resembling to the French verb "mort" which means to die, unfortunately I think I saw this same 'trick' used in Adam Sandler's Click. There are more puns in the piece that relate to death; "There was a stiff breeze," this gives the same characteristics of a corpse
Mort is an assassin, but he prefers the term killer simply because he wants to keep it simple and that is exactly what he is, a killer. Once he finds his target, the dialogue they have is so believable, each of the characters emotions can be depicted with just reading their speech; they calm acceptance of the Gypsy and the frantic confusion of Mort. There is spectacular twisting at the end, which I can imagine takes a skilled writer to set up, especially in a short story.

TOO CLOSE TO THE FALLS (COLD) by Catherine Gildiner

Little Cathy is doing her job. She has no time to be distracted by the modern day sex icon that is Marilyn Monroe. Gildiner, again, does a great job on writing through the memory of her childhood. This writing, gives the reader a similar point of view, to that of Roy's; we learn to grow a soft spot for naivety. It is cute to watch (read) Catherine react to Marilyn; she never understood the concept of a celebrity, which explains her puzzlement as to why everyone wants to see her so bad, what the deal with her mood was, or why she was in front of a grown man and a little girl in her underwear. Perhaps it was jealousy, maybe Cathy wanted to be famous. This part of the memoir pays homage to the late movie star in that it shows still as a normal person who wants Juicy Fruit and a Photoplay, not brainwashed by her own narcissism like most stars.

ON WRITING (WHAT WRITING IS) by Stephen King

Telepathy? Of course! Why didn't I think of that? The further I read into this memoir, the larger my love for the style, and respect for the author, grows. This passage by Stephen King is the neatest piece of literature I've ever read, and I am not just throwing that term around to come up with words. If I wanted to do that, I would just write the way I normally do, dance furiously around the subject. It's those kinds of 'moments' in writing, the little anecdotes that are the most interesting. I like how King writes that way in his book. He establishes an awesome relationship with the reader that breaks down the 'third wall' with a force. I think his goal in this section was to talk about writing in a new way, it has never been explained in such a trippy manner. I fully understood the concept of writing being telepathy; ideas and images are transmitted from the mind of the author into the reader's, and over any time span as well! This is such a neat thing to write about. Also, there are important lessons learned from this reading that will give confidence and motivation to writers who just need "to kick ass;" description of an object is not writing down the exact physical measurements or a popularity contest but a meeting of the minds.

TOO CLOSE TO THE FALLS (MARIE SWEENEY) by Catherine Gildiner

These memoirs of Catherine's are wonderful. I thourouglhy enjoy her clear and clever diction adds to the magnificent stories from her childhood that she craftily conveys as she saw it when she was a young girl. She perfectly gets the invisibility of being a child in her words, the confusing ignorance that comes with being inexperienced at life reminds us all of what it was like to be five or ten years old- how all the things that perplexed us; why we weren't allowed to say certain words and all the words we didn't know, and getting first hand impressions of emotions- the human condition- and only truly understanding it years after.

The tone is naturally light hearted because she is a little girl, and people are typically nice to little girls. Why not? Sometimes, when Cathy would be in a situation not appropriate for someone her age, to me it would read like the stories of Scout Finch in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. You still know that it is a grown woman, obviously sophistocated, who is writing (she doesn't make spelling and grammatical errors on purpose to make it really from a five year old).
The passage about Marie Sweeney falls into this well. Cathy does not know what the old woman meant when she said that she "fixed girls who were in trouble," and she admired her rebeliousness and vocabulary which she mimics (as children do) out of admiration and hopes of being more adult, but she does not now how outrageously inappropriate she is.

GHOST RIDER by Neil Peart

I like Neil Peart because of how he sounds. A nice guy, the death of his wife and daughter were so close together, and heartbreaking enough on their own, and he was torn but wasn't going to sit around (quit Rush) and let it eat away at him and drive him mad. No, like a rockstar he would go on a motorcycle journey of self-discovery. He still did quit Rush, but only temporarily. Ghost Rider is a memoir of the two years he lived after his loss, he went on a search for his future and dealt with the memories and heartbreak of his past. He climbed onto his BMW R1100GS motorcycle and set off down the road. What could he looking for: meaning? peace? or to look for a reason to live?

He is a world famous musician, I already liked him before I even knew he wrote a book. I was won over by the fifteen minute drum solos and the thirty five piece drumkits which was

THE ACCIDENT by Douglas Bell

I can picture this memoir originally being Douglas' extravagant bar story to tell to a crowd in need of a good one; this epic tale is a suitor because the diction isn't overly sophisticated so you could understand it as soon as your heard it, where as in literature can be like "a box of chocolate" most of the time which makes repeated reference to a dictionary inevitable.
This was entertaining, it is certainly less artsy than a memoir styled like There is a Season with less complex literary terms, but in any case that is just dependant on the author's writing style.
I noticed that in the all the speaking in this memoir displays a classic psychological process of dealing with such an occurrence; prologued with the "hop-waddle-walk" (fear; he does what he can to save him from the horrifying monster that is the truck) next, he admits to himself "I'm in trouble... This is what it would be like if I were mashed by the big freezer in out basement." (Acceptance) and oddly at the end anger "Fucking bastard, if I ever get my hands on that cocksucker..."
I believe that Bell achieved his goal in this piece that is; describing how a totally routine morning can have something catastrophic follow it. How normal the day was going. I liked the opening foreshadow he uses right off the bat to say that he was going to end up in a hospital. "Breakfast...Later when I threw it up in the emergency room..." this is the second sentence, and the last we hear of any sort of medical emergency or danger until the latter sections of the piece.

THERE IS A SEASON by Patrick Lane

I learned a lot of new words after reading this piece. To read this memoir you need the fluent vocabulary of gardener and a mountain man to appreciate his detailing of his respect for the land he lives on.
I feel he was modest, he wasn't writing down impressive words in order to stump a teenaged reader who is trying to analyze it, but instead a colourful array of colourful nouns that give the wildlife depth when he spoke of it. Although he might actually be in love with nature, the tone of his storytelling was a lot more conversational meaning he did not over detail. The things he described were important to the topic; when telling the reader about the setting, Lane used simile, metaphor and personification in his diction: "Grasses...lay like fallen hair upon the earth, and their new green spears caught the wind with frail hands." When he does get into detail it is appropriate because these are the fine points that he was noticing as it was happening, he talks about a cougar that was recently shot out of a tree in front of him. "I remember touching the rough blond hair of a dead cat's nape, the curve of its long yellow incisors, and the dead ball of its eye as it stared sightless through me to the fading sun." Here we see how stunned he really is by witnessing death for the first time.
I enjoy the way he remembers the places in a physical way, like those memories of those places are like remembering who he is. "My bones remember the water and the stones," "...the stones remain like ghosts in my hands...” I having gone camping since I was nine years old, gone on canoe two week long canoe trips through Algonquin Park and Dumoine, and a veteran cottager so I can relate to Patrick's love for the outdoors.

UNDER THE INFLUENCE by Scott Russell Sanders

I like this memoir because it the subject is dark but the content isn't too graphically horrifying making the piece an appropriately sentimental look into the complex emotions of somebody who's loved one has an addiction. Referred to as a disease now, alcoholism affects "In the United States alone... some ten or fifteen million people," and each case is unique. Young Scott's father is the drinker, and when he describes how he sees his father with this problem as "a starving dog gobbling food," it's clear to see that it is painful for him. He details his feelings as he tosses and turns at night "hating him, loving him, fearing, knowing I have failed him." These are the thoughts that children have, they can't understand how their parent could be so weak, so helpless - in this, the child is obligated to feel responsible and comes up with reasons to feel guilty, which Sanders does. He artfully illustrates his father in a way that reads well chosen words and a tone that sets the view point from his ten year old self. The typical scene of his father after a night of heavy drinking is told with verbs that tells the story of young children in the room with a dragon who "bursts, grunts, growls, clashes, prowls, thumps, rummages, slams, and mutters. The only dialogue in this piece is short and seemingly pointless, Scott again has walked in on his father taking a swig of whatever his beverage was, he wasn't disallowed to drink in his own house, let alone by his own son. The moment is ill at ease and leaves the two scrounging to make awkward conversation.

ASS BURGER by Augusten Burroughs

First of all, I will take the opportunity to use these words in a grade twelve writing assignment; ass burger.

I enjoyed Ass Burger, because of the underlying moral and theme that is clear throughout the piece. Ass Burger gave off warmth of sincerity as it was about brothers being supportive, and the unspoken love that exists from childhood. I could imagine that Burroughs almost definitely wrote Ass Burger with an unconcealable grin on his face when he brings up the quirky and fun memories of his older brother. Despite how he felt about John calling him ‘retarded’ or slow when he was younger, and even though then he did not know of Aspergers Syndrome, his respect for John is admirable. Not to say that it would be difficult to tolerate him, but the fact that they are brothers comes first, he describes the punishment for anyone who "is mean to my big lumbering brother with his unusual, one-in-a-trillion brain," a fierce loyalty has risen from him.
I love the character of John; obviously this is thanks to Augusten's craft. This diction is similar to that of Stephen King’s memoir, that being; casual and conversational. The dialogue in Ass Burger is wonderful; it is honest straight and at times, down right hilarious. The tone of this piece is appropriate; it is as if you are reminiscing good times with your brother. I do have a brother (and I’m still not sure that he’s ‘all there’) so I can certainly relate to the two, especially when they are young, that was Eric and I.

ON WRITING by Stephen King

I've read up to about a little less than a third of On Writing, I feel as if Stevie and I would have no trouble carrying on a conversation, because he's written a memoir that creates the same repore with the reader that would be present if he was sitting across the room sharing his stories.
Stephen is not out to impress with big words. One of the sections in this part of the book King tells us how a mentor John Gould tought him to write in simple, succint sentences; 'take out all the things that are not in the story.' (pg 47) His straight forward diction makes him come across as an honest everyday man. This is also a key element in the tone of his writing which is casual and sincere. I like the little thoughts he usually has to end a section, "Just an idea," "Man oh man," he's just rapping with me. We've all had our embarassing, painful, and frightening moments, especially in childhood. King depicts the trauma of being unheard when your little, and he paints each picture by describing the memory of each sense, olefactory, audio , visual ect. I can relate, it reminds me of all my finest moments of adolescence, and the responsibility learned as a young adult where he has a rough work schedule while using that money to pay for his passion.
I enjoy the informality of this peice, of this style of writing because it allows a repore to grow with the author and reader as there is no upper or lower class, no division between the King and his people, so to speak. It is more so of a friend in a more laid back manner giving you an honest idea of why and how he writes the way he does, and in fiction there is no gage on how down to earth this person really is.