Dialectics: Moving Forward and Distraction

When something bad happens, something you can't get out of your mind, it is usually a good decision to move forward and forget. This doesn't mean picking up and running to a new place every time something happens to you, but it does entail trying other things and doing anything you can to move past whatever happened. That is where distractions come in. When you're distracted, it is much harder to wallow away in your sorrows than it is when you're staring at a blank wall, deep in thought. With me, whenever I am feeling terrible, I distract myself by watching t.v. or reading a book or something, and it really helps. Unfortunately, moving forward and distractions don't always match up. When there is a problem that can only be fixed head on, distractions will only slow the process down. Sometimes the distractions are the last thing needed to move on, and are even unhealthy. But, they bring a small sense of comfort and safety, if only for a little while. This shows what little things can do to make you feel great or at least better. And, in the long run, those little distractions could work wonders.

Blogging Around

Response to Taylor's post on voice

Taylor, what you say about voice is completely true. If I ever read a story where the voice of even one character has not reached it's potential, I toss the book and look for another one. Unfortunately occasionally I have trouble finding a voice of a character in one of my stories. If the character is somewhat different than I am, it's especially hard. In my short story, for example (which was bad, really bad) I couldn't figure out which type of voice my main character needed to have, and I still actually haven't. That's why I think the issue of voice is very important, and we should probably talk about it more in class.

Response to Graicey's post on timelessness

First of all Graicey, the words you used to explain why great literature is timeless were timeless themselves. "Good literature is like the sun, omnipresent and all seeing." really hits it. Alot of the timeless novels have lessons and experiences that we still would benefit from. Of course, as Graicey said, the life that both Conrad and Shakespeare experienced cannot compare to the face-paced life that we live, but regardless, the lessons on love friendship, and humanity are valuable. It makes me hopeful that people years from now will still be reading Romeo and Juliet or Heart of Darkness.

Best of Week:

The best thing that occured this week was the conversation about "Cathedral". Overall, I enjoyed reading that story quite alot, and the discussion we had made it more clear and easy to understand the characters. My favorite part of the discussion was the analyzation of the love between the husband and wife and the wife and Robert. The fact that the only name in the story was Robert got me thinking about this couple. They called eachother husband and wife, which seems very possessive and it gave out the feeling that they had become indifferent of eachother. At first, that made me a bit cynical, thinking that all marriages end up this way. But, even if there are so many marriages that end up this way, there are just as much that end up happy and well-lived. Anyway, it was just a really great story and a great discussion to get me thinking about that kind if thing.