The North American Review

Literary Magazine Review:
The North American Review: November-December 2007

The North American Review is the United State’s oldest literary magazine, having been founded in 1815. It has been published by the University of Northern Iowa since 1968, and is currently published five times a year. It is apparently very highly respected, having won, and been competitive for, the National Magazine Award several times. It mostly publishes fiction and poetry—with an emphasis on young new talent—but will also publish creative non-fiction, especially in the fields of environmental and ecological matters, as well as some book and/or DVD reviews and art work. The issue I read was the November-December 2007 issue (Volume 292, number 6).

The first thing that I notice when I look at a literary magazine, before I do any reading, is the format. Format is something that determines whether or not I am willing to even read a journal… and, personally, I would be rather disinclined to submit to a journal that I would not be willing to read. When it comes to the North American Review, however, I found myself rather pleased with the format. Though there is quite a bit of straight text (something that is to be expected, really, in a literary magazine), the stories are broken up by images and sections of poems, which makes for slightly easier reading. Though the magazine is in black and white (with a full-color cover), it doesn’t prevent artwork from being used liberally throughout. Also, some of the stories (such as “Small Humiliations” by Nathan Leslie, starting on page 16), use images to illustrate the text. Another interesting formatting style that the review uses is that they disperse some of the poems throughout the stories. For example, within Larry Watson’s “Doctor’s Boys” two poems, Roy Bentley’s “December, 1940” and Faith Shearin’s “At the Museum” are placed within boxes. This serves not only to break-up the nine page story so that it is not solid text, but it also provides an interest context/comparison between the three works.

There is a short editorial piece, and it seems that the Review is generally a non-specific magazine, accepting submissions from all categories. However, they do have ‘themes’ for each issue; for example, they say that in the issue I read they “highlight Native American Heritage Month” by including several pieces specifically on that theme (The issue’s cover, however, was focused on the writer’s strikes that were occurring at that time in California).

My favorite piece in the entire magazine would have to be a tie between a poem, “Jesus Is a Mystery Shopper” by Holly Amos (about a man’s behaviors in church, which had me shorting in laughter), and a short story “Small Humiliations” by Nathan Leslie. Though the poem was funny and insightful regarding church goers… I love the end, where the subject of the poem takes a little taste of the Holy Water, determining that “The holy water tastes like Dasani”. In Leslie’s short story—and at two pages, I mean short—a lot of meaning and a lot of character have been packed into a very small space. The two characters, David and the rather nasty Janet, seem to jump off the page in all their trophy collecting, road-kill photographing glory, with every description packed with a huge amount of meaning and potential for interpretation.

As for least favorite story, if I have one, would have to be Diane Seuss’s “I dreamed I was a Madame”. This is not really because of subject (working in the sex industry), but rather that the poem’s formatting, listing, and total lack of capitalization really irked me. I don’t like it when poems fail to capitalize when they should; it makes my hand twitch for a pen to correct the grammar with.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading the North American Review. I am not really someone who is drawn to literary magazines, and the less-focused nature of this one is a little-bit of a draw-back for me (I tend to like magazines with a theme), but overall I would really consider reading it again, and possibly submitting to it, though I wouldn’t submit any of my fantasy/sci-fi stuff, as I didn’t get the feel that that would really fit with the magazine. Considering its status as a very well respected magazine, I cannot imagine that it is easy to get into (the website says that they read over ten thousand pieces a year), but somewhere down the road I wouldn’t mind trying my hand at getting published by them.

the laurentian

The Laurentian Literary Magazine is a student run group that compiles together different stories fiction and non-fiction, poems, along with some artwork as well. It is run out of St. Lawrence and is composed of the student’s best work and is published once a semester. The edition I read was from spring of 2007 with thirty contribution from students. Even the cover page is artwork from a student and it is a colorful photograph that has been collaged together. The magazine doesn’t have the same appearance one would think of for a maqazine, instead it is in a book format with a soft cover. The stories to do not read as newspaper articles with many picture beside them, but as chapters in a book with artwork placed every so often in between. It looks like a fairly well loved organization on campus because the book definitely has more prestige and thus more funding than something like the hill news, maybe because it only comes out twice a year but also I think the greatest work from the student body is well cherished and appreciated.
There are no editorial notes or anything describing a true direction in which the work of the magazine is tended. This is obviously because it is a random compilation of work from students and each individually had their own goal or goal of a particular class assignment in mind. When the work comes together it shows the wide range of thoughts and identity of the students and classes on campus. There unfortunately are no bios given on the authors, again because they are less experienced writers being students but this comes well understood when reading the magazine. One of my favorite stories was “Good Morning” by Chloe LaFrance, she wrote very well about a girl who was trying to help her mother through the struggle of her father leaving the family. What I appreciated most about the story was how at the end of the story she talked about how the girl turned into exactly what her mother was like and how she did it because she loved her mother so much. One of my least favorite stories was “Righteous Lizard” by Frank Izaguirre, his story is about two young men who are traveling in the deep rain forests of Costa Rica. The story had two problems in my mind, first it was undbelievable and second there was no real plot. The two young men are wading through a river in the rainforest and see a crocidile not too far from them, and instead of being scared and trying to get away they both laugh it off. This is hard to believe and also that they weren’t attacked is unbelievable. Now also I am not going to conclude that all stories must have plots, but I do think certain stories, if they are not reflective enough or fit into a certain style that it is creative to not have a plot, need to have something going on. This story it seemed like they were on this big adventure and the only thing that happened was that they saw a lizard walking on water, which I guess was rare. The story ended to abruptly and needed more to happen, frankly I think the author should have had the croc attack and that could have made it more interesting than it was. The magazine overall was interesting and I think that if I were to receive one if the school gave them out than I would pick it up and acknowledge the work of my piers again, but I don’t think I would seek The Laurentian out at the library. I think it would be great if my work was published in this magazine because since I go to St. Lawrence it would be a nice step up that is more believable of happening to me in my college years, then Time Magazine using my work. It would be a nice recognition to have my work placed next to the best work of other students, and a good way to get me started in my writing career, if that was the path I wanted to take.

Journal Review

“The Laurentian 2007” is a literary journal published by St. Lawrence University at the Commercial Press in Canton, NY. The journal appears annually and includes student artwork, poetry, fiction and nonfiction short stories.
The journal is printed in color, and the paper feels solid, smooth and thick. The pages are slightly yellow, or a dark off-white color, but the glossy feel of the paper offsets the antique color. The cover of this journal is creative and colorful, almost like a watercolor painting. It depicts houses on a short road that seems to lead into an ocean, with a rosy sunset overhead. The journal does not look particularly expensive; I would estimate it costs between ten and twenty dollars.
The font and print of the journal is all typical in size and format, except for the table of contents. The contents of the journal rotate in format between fiction, poetry, nonfiction and artwork. It rotates in that order nearly until the very ending “chapters,” when there are more poems back-to-back and only one short story.
The journal has a distinguished appearance. It looks like a novel for young adults, not a literary compilation. The romantic red color of the cover stood out on the shelf.
The only websites I could find pertaining to this journal were brief excerpts of faculty, alumni and a few student biographies.
The announcement of the journal’s mission is subtly written in two spots: at the top of the list of editors, and embedded along with the publication information. It reads, “The students of St. Lawrence University publish The Laurentian Literary Magazine annually … A St. Lawrence Tradition Since 1888.” This issue is a theme issue that follows the tradition of all of the issues published each year prior.
The stories and artwork in the journal are all personally composed and shared by students at this school. They do not have much in common, particularly since they are mixed genre, except that they all represent a personal aspect of the student writers or artists; even the fiction stories. All of the authors and artists are college students, so they are fairly inexperienced.
My least favorite piece was artwork of a beach. I felt that the picture itself did not particularly fascinate me, which surprised me because I absolutely love beaches – and all things water. Something about the cloudy dark blue water seemed eerie and unrealistic, yet it seemed to be a fantasy piece, so I was confused. My favorite story is the first, a fiction piece written by David Torres. His writing is extremely engaging. He is able to depict even the most mundane situations in a lively, amusing, interesting voice. He described seemingly boring things in very interesting ways. He is a gifted writer.
In the future, I would pick up another issue of this journal if I happened to run across it. It was extremely interesting to read their work and the variety of topics was engaging. It reminded me strongly of our class peer workshop groups, except for the editing aspect. For this reason, I would say this journal is a perfect fit for the fiction of anyone our workshop, since it seems like a great place to start where a student with a brilliant story would apply to be published in this journal. If ever asked to publish, I might, although I do not plan on publishing so I would have to consider it, despite the fact that this seems a fairly protected, private journal to be published in.

PRISM International

I read a quarterly literary journal called PRISM International, more specifically, the Fall 2007 issue. It is based out of Vancouver, Canada and is published by the University of British Columbia. PRISM is best known for publishing fiction and poetry, but it will publish other works of literary arts as well, including original dramas and creative non-fiction. At a glance, the value of the journal seems to be moderate. The pages of the journal are not the best quality, but they're not exactly made of pulp. The entire journal is printed in a sort of booklet form with a colored cover. The cover features different artwork each issue which include sketches and photographs. The actual cost of a single journal is ten dollars while subscription can go for either twenty-eight or forty-six dollars depending if the subscription is for one or two years for an individual. There is no announcement of a project or vision, nor did my issue have a specific theme or special issue. The journal does come with a well organized website, the url: www.prismmagazine.ca.

Although there was no specific theme to the issue that I read, there were some similarities between the short stories that I read. They all seemed to have some quality of death within them that led to a revelation or important ant human relationships/interactions. This similarity was difficult to find since each story were completely unique and the author's own. As for the poetry written in the issue, they all seemed to have no similarities between other than they were both published in PRISM International. The writers who contributed all ranged in experience. There were several award winners, but there were also first time published writer featured. Some other places that these writers had been published in include Coach House, The Malchat Review, the New Quarterly, and the Magenta Foundation. This difference in experience did not hinder the quality of the material any, and I even found that my favorite story was by one of the first time published writers.

My favorite story was called "Some Light Down," by S. Kennedy Sobol. It was about a young girl named "Cookie" who was reviewing the several murders/missing people reports in her hometown, including her best friend Anna's case. The story starts off by listing the different people cases and then goes into memories Cookie had with Anna. The chronology of the story does not go straight, but there is still an obvious progression and flow in the story. Cookie also includes recordings of the interviews she taped of the people who knew the victims or missing person after she learns that Anna's body was found. What I liked about this story was that it wasn't a mystery or who-done-it story with the main character discovering every detail of the crime. Instead, Cookie sought to discover who were the people who were killed or went missing. It was more so a story about people and their lives. It was an interesting change on the usual mystery story and humanized a possibly alien police cases.

My least favorite story was "When it Comes" by Justin Varata. It was about a person who is at a zoo and sees an old dying pig. It reminds him of a time when he was a child and wanted a pet pig for Christmas. He asks his father, who seems to be tired of life after hearing that his younger brother had died. The child gets a toy pig instead, which he leaves outside in the rain one time. The doll gets ruined and the man returns present day at the zoo. He decides to visit the pig one more time before leaving. When he reaches the pig's pen, two zookeepers are working hard to remove the dead body out of the pen. I disliked this story because there didn't seem to have a well thought out plan. I thought the story might be about the person's father, but there wasn't enough that related to the father. Then I thought it might be about death, but I didn't walk away with that feeling. All in all, I didn't see any purpose in the story and didn't take anything away from it after reading it.

I might pick up another copy of PRISM International some other time. I enjoyed reading the different materials inside its covers. I think I would let myself be published almost anywhere, but as to if PRISM would publish me, I'm not sure if they would. I don't get the feeling that the short stories that I write would fit with PRISM's usual stories, but then again I could be completely wrong. I could see either Erin or Alice writing something that was published in PRISM however.

Writer's Digest

I read the April 2008 edition of Writer’s Digest. Writer’s Digest is published by F+W Publications bimonthly, and is based in Cincinnati, Ohio. This literary magazine also has a website, located at www.writersdigest.com. This magazine includes tips for prospective writers, contests and competitions, interviews with published authors, articles about the writing process, book reviews, and columns about recently published authors. This particular issue focused on pop fiction, with a feature article on the five main categories of pop fiction which includes mystery/crime, romance, horror, thriller/suspense, and science fiction/fantasy.
The cover of the magazine is nothing to write home about, but the title is well-respected. A subscription to this magazine costs $19.96 for one year. I wouldn’t assume it to be an expensive magazine based solely on physically appearance, but there is high quality content within the text on the pages. The pages of this magazine aren’t overly glossy, but there is color on just about every page. There are photographs and colorful texts throughout the issue. It does not stand out too much from the other magazines on the shelf. It is of average size and length with lackluster covers each month.
After reading this magazine, I must say I was inspired. This journal is an encouraging piece of literature for anyone who is looking to become a writer. It is loaded with inspirational stories of authors who pushed through struggles and finally made it to success. At the beginning of the issue, there was a letter from the editor promising that “reading this issue is a treat.” She did not let me down. I devoured page after page of wittily written articles about the trials and tribulations of writing. There were also insightful essays on techniques of writing and the different genres of fiction.
I particularly enjoyed the feature article of this issue on pop fiction. This article covered each genre in depth with inserts from authors of each genre discussing their experience working in that genre. In the middle of the article, there was a large picture of a genre tree which was fascinating. It explored the many subcategories of fiction which can open so many doors for new ideas!
I also really enjoyed a piece called “Location, Location, I forget the third thing.” This is a column written by a humor author about good places to write. It lists the pros and cons of each described potential writing location. The reason I enjoyed this piece was because I found myself actually laughing out loud as I read through it. Sarcastic humor in writing is always a pleasure.
There was one piece on anti-religious writing that was boring. I noticed my mind beginning to drift and my eyes starting to skim as I read. This essay discussed the authors of hot atheist books, their platforms, and why they decided to write such books. The article dragged on longer than the others and didn’t particularly spark my interest. I take this as a sign to stay away from such books.
After reading Writer’s Digest cover to cover, I notice that I am more motivated to write. I’ll take this as a sign that this was a good magazine that successfully did its job. Not only would I read another issue in the future, but I would be honored to one day be published in such a well respected literary journal.

Raving Dove Literary Journal- Lauren W.

Lauren Weinberger
Techniques of Fiction
Prof. T. Humer
11/15/08
Literary Magazine Review
“Raving Dove”

The Raving Dove online literary journal is a publication of mixed-genre. It includes non-fictional, poetic, and fictional writings. The mission of the Raving Dove is to resist all forms of violence through prose, poetry, and artwork. It can be found at www.ravingdove.org.
A new publication of Raving Dove is released online during each new season. They are now open for submissions for the winter of 2009. Submissions are welcome from all who are passionate about what Raving Dove represents.
Raving Dove began as a reaction and opposition to the US’s involvement in war in 2004. The editor, Jo-Ann Moss, emphasized the fact that “War is a concept far removed from our daily cappuccinos, kids’ soccer games, and peaceful hikes in the mountains.” Although Moss hope for change in her note to her readers she believes there is still much work to be done.
Moss also believes this literary journal is a reaction to not only the physical violence of war, but the psychological violence of everyday life. This may mean sexual or racial violence.
It is the Raving Dove’s belief that sometimes “through creativity comes enlightenment, and through enlightenment comes greater understanding.” Through writing perhaps the small community of readers can have a general understanding of both types of violence.
Last January of 2008 Raving Dove was ranked #1 for poetry in an online journal in the Preditor’s and Editor’s Readers’ Poll, 2007. Raving Dove also participates in the Pushcart Prize, storySouth’s Million Writers Award for Fiction, and the Best New Poets award.
Upon reading the entries of the online literary magazine I found that there is definitely a common theme of violence amongst every entry. One poem entitled “The Quiet” written by Jenny Williams addressed the after effects of a battle scene. She writes in the present, and although the narrator did not witness the battle, the childless mothers, and new widows inform what happened. “I did not hear the night of children or the barking of dogs, the screams of those losing limbs, losing lives…” The reader is pulled in through what the narrator did not see, but instead how she only “heard the wind as it sighs through the broken windows of an abandoned school…”
In another poem entitled “Allahu Akbar” by Robert Malone describes violence as well. An interesting theme of violence within the innocent is brought up in his poetry. “The soldiers, slender and young, children only…” he writes. The idea that they are seduced by hatred from a young age is brought up. We do not get a sense of the exact setting, but the reader gets the feeling that this could be in any common small town.
A similarly themed prose piece entitled “Little Angel” describes a gladiator’s point of view after he has won his battle in the arena. As in “Allahu Akbar” the reader is informed that from a young age children are violent. “Such a pretty child,” he thought, So innocent, so like my own sweet little angel…” It is the Emperor’s daughter, Octavia, who decides that Flavius, the gladiator will finish off his opponent by cutting off his head.
I enjoyed reading Raving Dove. I found it’s point of view on violence interesting and I think I would definitely read it again. The fictionally pieces and poetry were what I enjoyed most while going through the magazine. Most of the poetry was written in prose like style, which I found I could relate to. I think I would consider publishing writing or artwork in this online literary journal. I like the fact that it is free so anyone can find it and read it. I also like the inclusion of artwork because I am a painter. Raving Dove is accepting to many views and there was not one piece of writing that I didn’t find interesting.

CR Literary Journal Review: Drunken Boat

Assignment 8, Literary Journal Review:
Drunken Boat, Issue 9, Winter 2007/2008
Week of 17-21

URL: http://www.drunkenboat.com/db9/index.html
MySpace page: myspace.com/drunkenboatlit

My decision to read the literary magazine, Drunken Boat, I’ll be the first to admit, was because of its title. Although I will say it was my second choice out of the list Theo gave to us, my first one being Fiction International in hopes that I could have found literary articles about/by Japanese authors. Not finding the kind of article I wanted quick enough, I turned to Drunken Boat and immediately headed for their poetics section, and I was impressed. Not only was the quality of poetry that I read superb, but the layout of the website made for easy and accurate reading (as in, they made sure we are looking at the poems the way the authors intended us to see them), author biographies were provided (even pictures), and most impressing for me, audio of authors reading their poetry they imagine it to sound played with the text via Quicktime.
Many of the authors have previously been published elsewhere, and had excellent credentials (many of them are also professors). But what pleased me the most was that the authors came from all sorts of different backgrounds, from all walks of life, races and religions, and so naturally the range of topics differed vastly. The poems were all both well written and well recited, and well worth the time to sit, read, listen and analyze.
This was Drunken Boat’s first time having a Poetics section, and they were partly inspired by the poet and critic, Dana Gioia’s essay in The Atlantic Monthly, “Can Poetry Matter?,” “in which he compared poets to “priests in a town of agnostics,” pushed out from the mainstream of cultural life in America, into ever-more hermetic enclaves where no one, save other poets, had any interest in the art form.” Noticing a “paradoxical boom in the poetry business” despite poetry’s move towards “virtual obsolescence,” the editors at Drunken Boat wanted to provide an adequate means for readers like us to discover the answer to Giors’s question for ourselves. I’d say they did a fine job in providing us with a solid foundation and starting point: forty-one experienced authors, each having one to four of their best poems on the website, free, for us to indulge ourselves in.
Drunken Boat also has fiction, nonfiction, photos, web art, videos and sound on their web site, all available free for our enjoyment. I highly recommend this online literary magazine for all people that want to read quality work from experienced writers.

I was a pretty busy this weekend so I was a bit of bum as far as choosing a literary journal to read. I ended up reading an issue from 42opus, which is an online literary magazine. It is found at http://42opus.com and Theo has a link to it on the website. It publishes work in quarterly issues but new writing is always being added to the website. The issues that 42opus usually include short stories that are both fiction and nonfiction and then a selection of poems. The editors' goal in the magazine is to publish writing that can be new and exciting or writing that respects the literary history.
I read Vol. 8, No. 2. There were two fiction stories, a nonfiction stories, and then a bunch of poems. The subjects of the stories and poems were mostly about completely different things. There were some about nature, parenthood, loss of loved ones, and a few were about the writing process itself. Even though they were all very different there were a couple of common themes. One theme was the destruction of nature.
The writers themselves also varied a lot. The writers ranged from beginners with very few credentials to professors at universities to well known authors including Joseph Conrad (the author of Heart Of Darkness) and John Milton. I think this was a really good combination because there were a lot of different styles throughout the issue. One second your reading a contemporary poem and the next your reading something by John Milton. It kept me on my toes. Also I feel like this magazine is a good place for writers who are trying new things and different styles. Also many of the authors have been able to publish some of the same stories in Best New Poets and have received honors from the Million Writers Award for Fiction.
At first I was wary about using an online magazine, even though it's one that Theo recommends. I was afraid that a lot of the stuff that would be on there would just be a few stories written by someone that had no idea what they were doing. However, when I started reading it I was really impressed by what I was reading. Not only did the editors put in a nice mix of old and new stuff, but all of it was well written. Overall I was really impressed.

Assignment 8

The New England Review is published quarterly by Middlebury College Publications at Middlebury College. The journal consists of several different genres, Fiction, Prose, and Poetry. The journal is styled like a book and flows seamlessly from one genre to the next, without chapters or headers, just the essay or poem. The pages are black and white and are printed on a fairly heavy paper, with an interesting cover picture titled "The Trouble with Enoki Fish." This journal stood out on the shelf because it was surrounded by other less colorful journals in the basement of ODY. The essays and poems in the journal were all interesting in their own way. Many of the stories in the issue are translated, which I found interesting because it gave me an insight into other nations interpretations and uses of different genres. One of my favorite pieces in the journal is Heartline by Alexandra Teague.
I cannot put my finger on its exact genre, the Journal classifies it as poetry but I feel like it is a combination of prose and poetry. Its style, the way it looks on the page, is very poetic, enjambment, little punctuation, etc. But the message and the (loose) sentence structure make me think of prose. The story combines her childhood in a stream and her bloodline with her parents with a one-night stand she has with “a classical pianist stockbroker.” The juxtaposition of childhood and family with promiscuous sex shocked me, but Teague makes it understandable. I am not a poet and I am constantly amazed at the poets ability to make sense through abstract metaphors and similes, something I have never been able to do comfortably or even intelligently. I enjoyed all of the stories and have a tough time finding my least favorite.
All of the authors and poets in the journal are very accomplished, most, if not all, having won literary awards and have been published multiple times. I think that this journal and all literary journals are useful for us to read and critique in regards to our own writing. I enjoyed this journal but I have to be honest and say I read it quickly for the assignment. I am sure I will pick up more literary journals in the future, especially over vacations, when I have more time to read and enjoy the entries.
This journal seems to fit any number of our tastes in fiction, some of us write complete fiction, while others combine non-fiction and fiction to create our stories. I think this journal has a well balanced input of each genre.

New England Review

The New England Review is published by Middlebury College which is, logically enough, based in Middlebury, VT. The review has a website, http://cat.middlebury.edu/~nereview, which catalogues the current and previous issues in addition to outlining the protocols for submission and subscription. The New England Review publishes a wide range of literature in four (quarterly) publications. This issue included a number of poems, works of shorter fiction, excerpts from novels, an “art” review, one critical essays, and a few of what I will categorize as “personal” essays. As far as the review’s production values are concerned, I would say that it is a very well put together magazine. The cover is in full color, with each month’s face a different submission of art, while the contents are exclusively in black and white. There are, as far as I can recall, no pictures. Just words. Words printed on 100% recycled paper. The overall size of the book roughly a standard page, perhaps a bit more square, and it seems to me a very respectable looking book. Perhaps not as fancy as a leather bound tome, but most certainly not the hobo of review journals. This particular issue looks weathered, not literally, but the cover gives the impression of age with its faded yellows and reds and its collection of strange shapes. The artwork is, most definitely, the thing that would first draw any reader to its pages. Books are always judged by their covers, so I’m glad that they are finally rebelling against well worn clichés. As far as I can tell, there is no overarching message we can call a review “manifesto” or motto. That being said, I would say that, given there is no manifesto, the New England Review does not make an effort to live up to a calling or creed. As far as content goes, I cannot speak specifically of a theme. There were a few works concerning the relationship between men and women, but besides that, no great trends. My favorite work is an excerpt from the Icelandic novel, The Great Weaver From Kashmir, by Haldor Laxness. I say that it is my favorite work because of one line and one line only. Call me a sexist if you will, and I do believe you may, but it’s just plain funny to say that “Women don’t understand spoken words. One can only speak to them as to children and dogs.” Priceless. My least favorite story? Trouble. Read it, I dare you. Within the first line you will understand why I have such a problem with the format the author chooses to indulge in. Overall, I must speak to the magazine’s quality. All of the contributors are very experienced and, mostly, highly decorated. I would most certainly like to see my work published here as long as it was put next to anything written by Stephen O’Conner. Would I pick up a copy again? Probably not, unless I am doing a Literary Magazine review, but you never know.

The New England Review

I chose to write my review on the New England Review (NER), Volume 29, Number 3; mostly because it was available in our library. The journal is published by Middlebury College in 4 installments each year. The journal is a compilation of critical articles, short fiction and nonfiction works as well as several poems, from a variety of authors that prior to this assignment I had no idea existed. The cover of the journal is a piece by Maureen O’Hara Ure and is the reason I first picked up this particular issue. I would love a poster like this for my room. Apart from the cover art, there is no color and are no images at all. The journal is published entirely on recycled paper and has the same textural quality as the paper of a paperback book. In fact, it is just about the same size as a large paperback book. A single issue sells for $8.00 and a year’s subscription is $25.00. I looked for a mission statement or anything of a similar nature and couldn’t find one. So I looked for one online and there wasn’t one to be found. Working from the actual journal all I was able to decipher was that it publishes a variety of works by a variety of authors, both established and up and coming (judging from the author notes in the back of the issue).

The stories in this journal are varied. From abstract poems to a collection of letters to an entire story told in short staccato sentences, the prose ranges all over. One of the themes of this collection of pieces was nighttime. For the most part all of the pieces either occurred or were about the nighttime. I particularly liked the poem “Aubade” by Gary L. McDowell. The last verse was my favorite: The body mustn’t die./ Night must evolve. In the milk of dark,/ fingers turn to wings and we sleep:/ come lay me down. Of the fiction pieces, I really did not enjoy “Trouble” by Stephan O’ Connor. The style was choppy and not something I would look for in any type of writing. At first I thought the staccato sentences were neat but after the fifth I was dying for them to end. I kept counting how many pages were left of the story and the answer was always too many. On the other hand, I really enjoyed “Horses” by Molia Dumbelton. I found her prose style easy to read and very engaging. I suggest her to everyone in the class.

Over all I think that the NER is a decent literary journal. I don’t know that I will pick it up again but I don’t know that I won’t either. Literary journals have never been something I have set out to find in a library but I enjoyed reading some of the pieces in this one. If ever I manage to get a piece to a state where it could be published, I will certainly consider sending it to the NER.

The literary Journal that I read for Assignment 8 was The Georgia Review. This was started in 1947, and is a prestigious, classic literary journal that encompasses fiction, prose, poetry and artwork. Even simply browsing their web page, I could tell that this is a well respected, organized journal. In comparison to some of the other online journals that I looked at, this one seemed to have the most literary professionalism, citing famous writers that have been included in previous issues, as well as doing small features on events that the Georgia Review has sponsored. To the untrained eye, this website(www.georgiareview.com), is organized, manageable, and easy to navigate.

Even just reading this journal online, they provide samples of pieces in PDF, so you can get the feel for what the piece would be like if you were actually reading it in the magazine/journal. Even something so simple and stylistic as the fonts used makes this journal seem very crisp, fresh and well cared for. This journal is published seasonally, so they have the time to ensure that each edition is well organized and thought out.

In reading what I could online of this journal, I found that the pieces seem to be a bit over my head, but what I liked the best was the poetry. It was a bit difficult to follow some of the essays because they were all from larger collections, so it was difficult to get a good sense for what was going on in such a short part of a larger piece. I did really enjoy some of the poetry, I thought that it was refreshing and different. The art is also beautiful in this journal: I like that this literary journal is not just literary but encompasses other elements of art such as paintings and sketches.

And, on the literary level, they encompass a wide variety of writing styles, as well as topics and themes. I think that it would be difficult as a "no name", starting out, to be published in this journal, just because it is esteemed and well known and has included so many famous names in the past, but it would certainly be a stepping stone to strive for, for any writer who is interested in being published.

My favorite piece was Judith Kitchen's, an excerpt from "The Speed of Light". I adored her descriptions and voice, she captured the moment beautifully, and I loved her descriptions of people taking pictures, she described that tourist scene to a T-and in an artful way. I am always captivated and intrigued by writers that can describe something annoying, irritating or disgusting beautifully. She does that in this piece. I admire that, and I took something away from this to use(hopefully), in my own work.

I gained a lot and enjoyed myself whilst reading The Georgia Review. I think that I would certainly read it again, to gain ideas for myself(more stylistically than thematically), and also just for the enjoyment of reading other works, particularly the poetry.

To be Biased or Not to be Biased Week of Nov 10-14

To be Biased or Not to be Biased Week of Nov 10-14

It’s Blogging Time! Ok, so my workshop group buddies have learned something new about me: I hate suicide stories. It’s not that I knew someone personally that has taken their own life, but rather as someone in the group oh so perfectly pointed out: I have too strong a personality to accept the more ambiguous reasons why people commit suicide. This fact, however; did not interfere with my work shopping process. No, I’m not trying to defend myself at all here, I really just have nothing better to talk about. As I said during the workshop, I can cast aside all personal feeling while reviewing a story. But my dislike of a particular type of story does make me work harder at finding all those little hinges that just need a bit of tweaking. If a story has the ability to make a believer out of a skeptic, that must mean it’s one hell of a story. So with that, I read all stories with a certain level of an incredulous attitude, forever playing the cynical devil’s advocate. Honestly, I think that’s how I can best serve these stories and their respective authors. I’m glad at least one person agreed with me on that point in class the other day. So, I will say I hope I’m not being too mean, and that everyone finds my comments both constructive and helpful. And if not, well, I did say I wouldn’t defend myself for being honest. Who doesn’t like it when someone is forthright with them, right?

To be Biased or Not to be Biased Week of Nov 10-14

To be Biased or Not to be Biased Week of Nov 10-14

It’s Blogging Time! Ok, so my workshop group buddies have learned something new about me: I hate suicide stories. It’s not that I knew someone personally that has taken their own life, but rather as someone in the group oh so perfectly pointed out: I have too strong a personality to accept the more ambiguous reasons why people commit suicide. This fact, however; did not interfere with my work shopping process. No, I’m not trying to defend myself at all here, I really just have nothing better to talk about. As I said during the workshop, I can cast aside all personal feeling while reviewing a story. But my dislike of a particular type of story does make me work harder at finding all those little hinges that just need a bit of tweaking. If a story has the ability to make a believer out of a skeptic, that must mean it’s one hell of a story. So with that, I read all stories with a certain level of an incredulous attitude, forever playing the cynical devil’s advocate. Honestly, I think that’s how I can best serve these stories and their respective authors. I’m glad at least one person agreed with me on that point in class the other day. So, I will say I hope I’m not being too mean, and that everyone finds my comments both constructive and helpful. And if not, well, I did say I wouldn’t defend myself for being honest. Who doesn’t like it when someone is forthright with them, right?

rut

So I have this problem where I write fiction that is mostly true. I find it much easier to write about things I know because then I can give accurate details and emotions into the piece. There are a couple problems with this technique I'm coming to find out. One is that I get defensive of my characters when readers don't like them only because that means the reader wouldn't like me or someone I know well enough to write about. In workshop my characters are being criticized and its not very fun because people are attacking my personality or the personality of my loved ones. I know they don't mean it maliciously, but it's starting to bother me. Another problem with writing about things I have encountered and characters based off of myself is that my stories are becoming too similar. I try to choose events that happened at different times in my life as to alter the character's age, but they're still mostly the same. For my final story I want to try something different. I'm just afraid that I wont tell the story as well if I haven't experienced it. I was thinking of trying a story that I've heard intimate details about from a close friend. That way I can distance myself from the story but still have inside information and make it sound believable.

One of These Things is Not Like the Others, One of These Things Just Doesn’t Belong! ^_^

1) The young man leaned back, the lines of his Armani suite crisp and sharp against the faded couch.


2) Becky flipped the lid off of the tube with an impatient ‘snap’, before smearing Burt’s Bees Lip-gloss in Sheer Shimmer all over her bruised lips.


3) “Nothing a Band-Aid won’t fix,” Jenna murmured as she knelt down next to her crying son, smoothing back his hair even as she examined his leg.


See the three above sentences? Can you tell me what about the three is the same, and what is different? Let me give you a hint; they all use product-placement of some kind, but two of them use it effectively, while the third does not. Can you guess which are which?


Sentence 3 uses a product, Band-Aid, which has become so well know in pop-culture as to have achieved brand association, a state whereby the brand in question has become so associated with the product in general that its name can be substituted for the products without any confusion by the general public. Another example would be to say ‘Kleenex’ rather than ‘tissue’.


Sentence 1 uses a brand that, while not having achieved brand association, has still entered the popular vernacular to the point where it is accepted as being associated with particular qualities. To delve a bit into semiotics, this is a case where the signifier (an Armani suite) has achieved such cultural recognition as to have a distinct and generally accepted signified—both what is being indicated by wearing the suit (class, wealth, etc.) as well as the fact that that is what the wearer wants to project. Thus, placing a character in an Armani suite (or having them carry a Gucci hand bag, or have jeans bought at Wal-Mart), while still arguably a form of brand-placement, is a form that transmits meaning about a character.


Sentence 2, however, is using a brand that is obscure enough as to have no widely accepted cultural meaning, and so it totally useless as a way of transmitting meaning about a character. You see, for a brand to achieve status as a cultural signifier it has to have a level of acceptance and has to be well known in that society. Burt’s Bees is neither generally well known, nor accepted to have any meaning. Furthermore, notice another difference between the brand-item in sentence 2 and those in sentences 1 and 3? The name of the item in 2 is long. Which is bad. If I, as a reader, have to endure brand placement I want it to be brief. Drawing it out like that is only annoying. It would have been simpler to say that she “ghosted sheer lip-gloss over her bruised lips.” You would get the same meaning—that she wanted her lips to be highlighted without covering the bruises on them—without the brand name. Furthermore, both Armani and Band-Aid have a level of longevity that Burt’s Bees does not (at least yet) have.


Of course, it is best for all if you simply don’t have to use brands at all…. XD


Cheerio!

This is awful but I forget my password and have to re-set it every single week. Since everyone else wrote about our stories and workshop groups, and mostly because I am sleepy so my brain is turned off, I will hop on the band wagon…
I really like my workshop group – we are each such different people and our writing styles vary dramatically. We have come to an understanding of each other’s strengths and weaknesses as writers so the constructive criticism is well-delivered as well as well-received. I think each week, we workshop more productively because we have already talked through each other’s writing styles enough that we understand what we mean without the extended explanation at this point. I like that as a group, we are comfortable criticizing each other’s papers partly because, on the other hand, the praise for each other’s writing constantly flows.
My most recent paper was practically a biography (except for the ending), though I did not realize it at the time. I knew I was modeling each character on a real person in my life, and that the events (besides the ending) were based on true life events, but I did not realize, until my group tore it apart, how un-creative my story was! In my past papers, I had always written out of my own imagination, so whether my papers were awesome or awful, they were interesting and creative. In this paper, I completely relied on what I already knew about each character and occurrence, so I did not allow room for creativity until the ending, when I needed something dramatic or else it would be boring. Even with my ending, my group had incredible suggestions for a wild plot.

Assignment 8

I was struggling to find the right magazine or journal to do this assignment on. For all of the magazines that I “found” were based around minimal fiction. After talking to Professor Hummer, I discovered that this was for the beneficiary of finding a place where to which young writers could turn. After constant search in the library and other areas of the S.L.U. community, I finally ended on good ol’ Google and found the online journal “The Blackbird,” Spring 2008, Vol. 7 No. 1. Which can be found at http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v7n1/index.htm. The Blackbird always starts off with a foreword to discuss the issues content. All issues hold fiction, non-fiction, essays and poetry. There are several authors that work to make this production possible.

There are several good structural aspects about the site. It is very easy to navigate. I enjoy the simple dynamic. I think that when things get to frilly they start to lose the depth of the actual piece of writing. The argument of the journal is that they are basing their journal on the content of the piece. The journal trys and promote this feeling, in their message they state that by having less frilly-ness one can enjoy the content of the piece and just focus on the writing.

After reading through the journal , the piece that I liked the most was in the fiction section which did not entirely surprise me, because I am usually geared more towards the fiction aspect. The piece that I liked was unconventional in its content. Liam Callanan wrote “When the Lights Go Down.” The story deals with a sixty year old woman who has finally had a life-wakeup call and starts dating one of her previous students who is thirty years younger than her. Now like most stories, this is naturally scandalous. However, the kicker is that at the end the man and woman do not separate but they stay together, despite all of the social stigmas. I think what I like about this story is the depth to the difference. A normal situation would go the route of this just being a onetime fling, but this time is something that is real to them. I think that this difference is what attracted me to the story. Another aspect that attracted me was the simplistic nature of the story but still insightful writing of the story. I would read this author again, and I really enjoyed the piece.

The section that I was not too fond of reading was the non-fiction book review section. I had nothing against the style of the authors, but it is very difficult to read a book review when you have not read a book. Now, if having the read books that were discussed, and I came across these articles, then I would be more apt to enjoy these pieces. But for the purposes of reading everything, this is the one section that was difficult and not useful for me. However for the stamina of the journal, I think that it is really good that these parts are included in order to reference to good books and for their name.

I think I would love to look at the next issue of this journal. These types of simplistic, but still necessary, journals give me hope that there is more chance of me getting published later in life. Right now I just write for pleasure, but if the day arrives that I want to look for a journal to try and publish my works in I know it is possible. The Blackbird has shown me more options as long as the possibilities of other small but necessary journals. All of these smaller and simplistic journals give hope to writers searching for publication.

Okay, almost forgot to write on this blog again. So, since the majority of the group seems to be talking about workshops, I'll just add to the topic. I agree with Sara C. and Hunter. I enjoy the workshops. I love it that we can get an outside opinion that usually has no bias towards the piece of the author. I'm always afraid to get my friends to read my stuff because I'm worried that they will try to spare my feelings and tell me something is good when it's not. Luckily, I do have a group of friends who will tell me something sucks if it does, but work shopping a piece has a completely different feel than getting feedback from a friend. I love getting back the workshop checklists and see how people felt about what I wrote about and see if they got the same meaning I was intending.

Aside from what I get for myself, I also just love to read. It's fun to read what other people have to write about. A bunch of times I'll read something and think, "That's an awesome idea for a story." I guess I get stuck in my own head a little too much every so often that I tend to forget that people don't think like me. Then I'll read something that I couldn't have thought of to write and it's refreshing. It's nice to see how everyone can be so different while still having similar interests.

So something I found interesting this week was when I was workshoping Janet Sun's story. She wrote about the apocalypse and the four horsemen of Revelation from the Bible in a very new and inventive way. Sorry to put you on the spot by the by, but anyways I just thought it was really funny that I spent much of the story being very confused. The whole idea behind the story was that these four people were meeting at a bar to go off and ride off into the sun set and put some plan (which this plan was a mystery to me, and I wrote this in my wrokshop) into action. Personally I have a very good background of the Bible from taking a New Testament course here at SLU but I had no idea that was what the story was about, I just found it all a bit bizarre. When we me to talk about her story I found it very funny that it all seemed to come together for me and I felt a tad stupid that I had missed that huge hint. I went back and read the story again and saw the hints everywhere. They were all carefully hidden within the story and made it very creative. But anyways now I know the "plan" the apocalypse and find the story to be very good, I am glad that after talking about the story in class I was able to see the true meaning behind it.

Last Wednesday when we did the name/poem exercise I noticed something kind of cool. I started out with my poem being about a woman who loved to drive fast, but by forcing the poem into the structure forced me to completely change subjects. The name I chose was SUE, which meant that I had to find a word that had Q in it without any U. The only word I could think of was Iraq. All of a sudden my poem was about a woman running away from her problems (a loved one in Iraq that she hadn't heard from in a long time). I just thought that it was really cool that the form of the poem changed the meaning so much.
To completely change topics I've really noticed this week how much better everyone in our group has gotten at writing these stories. I was pretty impressed by each one that my group wrote this time. It's kind of fun to think back to the stories that we all wrote earlier in the semester and compare those to the ones that we did for this assignment. So that's kind of awesome.

I love workshop weeks. At first I used to dread them, spending tireless hours reading and critiquing the work of my peers, but now I really enjoy it, I think because we have gotten into a routine in my group. It is becoming more predictable: everyone in my group has a very unique writing style and topic choice, and I am starting to see people write similarly every time-I mean that in a lot of ways: not that their topics are similar necessarily, but each one connects to the previous. Sarah writes stories geared for children because that is her passion, Craig always has some twisted, witty, incredibly metaphoric intense story, Leah always has a very imaginative, detailed story, Ali's stories always end with some great twist that leaves us wanting more, Hunter writes about nature, hiking, wilderness with great voice and captures this life and essence, Chris writes very well thought out, imaginative, sweet stories, and Adam writes very sarcastically and is very in tune with the college, teenage lifestyle mentality: he can relate, and joke at the same time. His style is very conversational too. Each of them bring something different to the table. And, they bring a lot of feedback, critique and praise to workshop: I have gotten a lot of fabulous, and productive input from my group on how to make my pieces better: I appreciate and value their direct honesty, and the time that they spend on my pieces, it is not half-assed.

I guess this is like a little mini "ode" to my workshop group, but we were talking today about how our workshop is pretty kickass, so I thought I would echo that praise by letting each of them know they are talented writers and workshoppers! Keep it up team. I would be interested to see a counter argument from my fellow classmates in regards to their workshop group, and if it compares to the awesomeness we have going. I am looking forward to workshop on Wednesday! I bet you guys have some comments for my piece...

Ok well after last Wednesday's class I am pretty sure everyone thinks I am a perv for my misinterpreted sentences about the couple going to the village to get some milk..geez everybody! haha. But I have to say, that exercise was really helpful and interesting: it allowed me to think of writing more along the lines of poetry rather than just writing: have that repetition tied the story and paragraphs together, and made everything flow more easily. I do have to say that writing the story was far more easier than writing the poem: I just gave up. I was trying to write OBAMA, and I felt that what I put down did not adequately capture what I wanted to say, it ended up sounding pretty lame.
I do really enjoy the writing activities in class, and it is always really entertaining when people read parts aloud. I especially enjoy when we pass our pieces and add to someone elses, it reminds me of games we played when I was little. And, getting it back at the end is always entertaining too. It is not only helpful for our writing abilities, but it is fun. Plus, it's always good to see what you can write on the fly, sometimes I think my best writing comes in those fast generated, quick response writing sessions that we have in class. It is a good way to collect my thoughts and generate ideas for future pieces. Keep them coming!

Description- Blog for Week of 11/09

When I first entered this class I thought that description was useless and unnecessary. Okay, well not entirely unnecessary. But I did think that people over did it and went way overboard. Sometimes I still think that people go overboard. But I soon realized that it wasn't actually the description all the time, but the fact that I wasn't reading into the description well enough. I have been reading over my fellow work-shoppers stories and they do a fantastic job describing things. I realized soon after that it wasn't the authors of all the previous novels that I have read who were doing a poor job of writing, but it was me not reading well enough. I thought about all the wonderful descriptions I had missed in the past. I missed out on so many beautiful stories simply because I put a negative connotation with description. Now don't get me wrong there are a few books I have read where I am thinking, "why must there be so much?" However, there are many books that I can look back on as of right now and realize that I have missed crucial pieces to the story because I did not accept of the possibilities of description.

Description is key. It can be overdone. It can be underdone. But it needs to be done. The feelings that can come about from vivid description are worth more than a thousand simple play by plays of plot. Description is necessary. All parts of the story are necessary. When I have read in the past I have missed that, but now I realize what I have missed, and now I am able to look at reading and writing with a more vivid and enjoyable light.

CINDERELLA

EDIT 11-6-08: I noticed that I had a few mistakes in some of the sections... darn that letter 'e'!


Why? Because I am masochistic, and this was fun... and it ate my brain until I finished it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Beautiful Outlaw: excluding x and z.
~*~


Pretty girl, very small and sharp, quietly kneeling, joints bent, with nimble fingers that through the ashes dart.

Face soft, dream loyal and just youth, dream of great Balls, all the Vogue now, where dancers turn gracefully, clothed as though peacocks before the queen.

Dream, queer little girl, of a fairy godmother, voluptuous, proud, bold; who with quick vows of joyful delight sets you free. Go, girl! Go to your ball!

Beautiful girl, whose ashes blacken your hair to a raven’s shine? Your mother's perhaps? Your Ebony-ash fingers reach for your Prince, resting softly, quavering on his royal arm; a jewel of the night sent to weaken the sun’s rays.

Spin and twirl, joy in your quick bouncing walk, longing in your floating grasp. Aiming for a crown; a small child grasping voraciously at that which is past what your tiny digits can normally touch.

Quiet! Listen! The clock chimes, awakening you with a jolt. Midnight is calling. Flee, little child; do not let the men catch you; jump back violently and dance away into the night. Get away now, do not let them stop you. Home is calling; time to heed it's summons.

Quick, now, run past guards nodding at posts, dart down stairs slick, across yards soft, your hard gait jolting on spongy turf. Fast as a bird racing though the sky, fly away from your boy-King, do not allow any pursuit to catch up to you.

Home now, quiet as a mouse. Scurry away from your stepmother. Hide from your sister’s angry, bitter stares. Keep away; don’t grant their vicious jests power over your tender spirit. Don’t cry young one, it's okay.

See? There in your pocket? Freedom in the form of a transparent shoe. Ghost it on over you white foot, just so, being very cautious with your quaking hands and hammering heart. See now? The dream continues.

“Ding dong!” The prince is come, looking for his bride. Run to him now, little girl, little queen. Show him your ghostly shoe on its tiny foot. Ignore your stepmother 'n stepsisters, crying in their hovel. Remember, they’re just silly women. You’re the queen now; you possess the Prince.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, what does everyone think?

Also, does anyone else think that submitting our stories for grade, and then getting feed-back through the workshops is rather silly? Might it not work better the other way around?

Just a thought.

You all seem pretty into the election. Personally, I'm just happy it's all over and we can start talking about something else. Hopefully I can turn on the TV and watch actual shows again!
So, on a different note, I thought today's class was interesting. Even though the beautiful outlaw poem was challenging, I thought it was really cool. I wrote mine about my roommate, and when i got home I showed it to her. I re-wrote it and had her find the missing letters. Unfortunately she was on to me and figured it out after the first letter, but she really liked it and hung it up on her wall which made me happy! I can't imagine how much patience it would take to write an entire story like that, but I would like to push myself to try one day. Things with hidden messages in them have always intrigued me. I wasn't too big of a fan of the ghazal once we turned it into prose. That seemed to work better as a poem in stanzas. I actually really enjoyed writing those forms from last week, the pantoums, and I was hoping to try and use a technique like that for my story but I got sidetracked. Oh well, there's always the next assignment.

ramble

I, too, saw the hologram of Will.I.Am ("singer and supporter of Barack Obama") on CNN. That was super bizarre... I still don't understand the necessity, but they also zoomed in on Oprah Winfrey's face smushed between two shoulders, smiling or crying (it could have been either, I couldn't tell) during Obama's speech in Grant Park.

I love political discussions, simply because I think it's incredibly important to be able to discuss our values and beliefs in that context and hearing other people's thoughts hopefully forces people to be open-minded. On that note, I think there is a way to say things, and a way not to. It annoys me deeply when people think they are right and others are wrong, and their treatment of others also becomes a reflection of their ignorance.

Totally changing topics,
I have a friend who calls herself "apolitical." She understands politics and wants to work for CNN someday. She was the person everyone was turning to with questions about why specific things happen the way they do in the Winston Room last night. Yet, she refuses to vote because she only cares about immigration laws and she feels that both parties don't actually address the issue. She has not watched a single debate this past year. She told me, "nothing will change either way [no matter who is elected]." Is that true?

I am twenty-years-old now. In four years, I'll be out of college, forced to work either in grad school or in a starting career. Life is so unpredictable, I could have a baby or two by then (hopefully not, I think to myself now). All that is guaranteed at this point is that my life will be completely different. I will no longer be protected by the bubble of being a full-time undergraduate student.

Vote for President 2008! Week of Nov. 3-7

Vote for President 2008! Week of Nov. 3-7

Like the concerned American citizen that I am, and although I was up until 2 A.M. doing Japanese homework, I set my alarm for 7:30 in the morning so that I could be on that first SLU van off to Canton’s Municipal building and a Mickey D’s coffee. Now of course I didn’t roll out of bed until 8:21 and missed that van, but I left at 8:34 and proudly walked my way down to cast my vote. One my way there, a flash of magenta catches my eye, and I look up to see none other than our own dear ol’ Theo coming from voting herself. What better proof of my voting could I have asked for, I mean, seriously. I could have looped around and went back to sleep without ever having voted at that point. But I would never! I care too much for my country to do that, and my vote is important in choosing the lesser of two evils… Onward I trudge, around the corner, past the McDonalds, into the building with the sign “Vote Here” or something, “Canton District 3+1,” down the hall, left around the bend, skipped downstairs and tripped up four, and alas I arrived at the polling station! No line, just some middle-aged guy talking about how he’s the 7th owner of something with the poll worker who was the 3rd owner.
Anyway, I step up to the—thingy—and I must have looked lost because one of the ladies came up to me and asked if it was my first time. What happened next, I shall forever be ashamed of and will blame on my lack of sleep: She says, first, you switch the lever, and I go, now? And she kinda looked like a fish lost for the word “stupid,” which I'm sure she wanted to say after my dumb question, and finished explaining. I pulled the lever to the right, and then struggled with the damn button thing. I don’t think I’ve ever felt more like an ignorant ass than at this polling station. I pressed, poked, and pulled at the thing before I figured out the scoop-shaped little button was the perfect shape for your finger so that you can pull it down (duh). I decided not to vote blindly for any of the other offices there, switched the lever to the left, walked to the Pub, ordered a hot cider and shamed my friend working there for saying she wouldn’t have time to vote. Personally, I’m glad I just came to be of voting age during this historic period, and I'm proud to be Canton district 3 + 1’s voter number 76 (and FaceBook voter 881,156 or so, they were jumping up by the hundreds, and I was on at 9 or 10) and proud of myself for taking advantage of a very special right granted to be by many a woman’s suffrage.

Oh, CNN...

The election is like a birthday or major holiday with the amount of excitement that I feel while waiting today. The buzz is exhilarating and the amount of stir in the community gives me faith in the future.

I was also doing minimal homework and was watching CNN today. I saw the hologram. Interesting. However, I am writing about the way that media portrays statistics. I think that they place everyone in a box. Labeling. As I once read, "labeling is for jars." I understand that they are generalizations but I think that people take these stats to heart and will judge others based on statistics. I am a white undergraduate born-again female. Does that mean I am supposed to vote for McCain? According to the majority of statistics it does. If I am part of the percentage that votes for McCain whom is white what does that say about me? I understand that race is an issue in this election, but I think that these stats put so many people in a box it feels suffocating. I understand that they are "filling in time" and just trying to be helpful and give information, but still I personally feel boxed in.

I am a female. I am a Christian. I am white. I am a college student. I am in the 18-24 bracket. I a live in a "blue state." I respect Obama. I respect McCain. Can you place me?

Distractions

Okay, so I'm having a hard time doing any work today because of the elections. Currently, I'm watching CNN and they have a hologram. It's really weird and really distracting, hence the title of my blog. I'm so confused. Also, the my friend's TV has been on msnbc all day and they've attracted quite a crowd. I would love to be with them, but I have work to do and I'm slowly getting it done (emphasis on the slowly). Okay, this hologram is just really odd. I can't imagine it being real and feel like it's just superimposed, but CNN is swearing by it. Some slightly unrelated voting news in my life is that, I was so upset about not getting a voting sticker. And I'm not the only one. Just putting it out there, but who else was upset that we absentee voters don't get a nice little sticker stating that we voted?

Anyways, onto more class related stuff since commercials are on at the moment. I don't know if anybody else has been feeling the same, but I've been in a rut. I've been having the hardest time thinking of what to write about. I end up going around my house for other people's input. For assignment #5, I ended up writing vaguely about abortions because my roommate just blurted it out when I asked. We laughed at the joke and then I actually took it in consideration. I don't think the story came out badly or anything, but since it wasn't entirely my making, it just didn't feel the same as everything else I've written. For this assignment, I asked around like I did for #5, but nothing sounded like something I wanted to write about. So, after days of procrastinating and trying to figure out what I was going to write about, I went to the Internet. I found a website that, as one of the options, gave you three random words. From those words, you could try to think of a story around them or, in my case, trigger an idea that had a strange, random, and convoluted connection. It was an interesting way to into a writing mentality and I found it helpful. For anybody who might want to use the website as well, the url is:

http://shortstoryideas.herb.me.uk/

Well, that's all I have to write about. Back to the election and trying to do more work.

I had a really hard time this past week trying to figure out what I was going to write about for our last assignment. I don't know why this was more difficult for me than it has been the other times. It was the type of thing where I had two or three ideas kicking around my head. One day I would decide on one and then the next day I would decide that I liked another one better. I guess part of it was that I couldn't really foresee how I was going to make any of the stories long enough, or have any sort of decent conclusion. I don't really think that I liked any ideas that I came up with this time. By the way, I apologize to any of you who have to read my story. It's pretty bad.
I don't know how I feel about the forms that we have been learning about in class. I remember last week I really enjoyed a couple of the exercises that we did playing with different forms. Then I wasn't such a big fan of the list stories that we worked on in class yesterday. Maybe I'm just hard to please lately.