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While reading “The Mute Sense” it shows how important smell is, I say show because the imagery is quite vivid. “Wild blueberry bushes teemed with succulent fruit and the opposite sex was a mysterious as space travel...” This is my favorite of the readings due to connecting with the authors thought on how smell can remind you of a certain memory or a person. With “My Papa’s Waltz” it gives us how memory can be deceptive. When writing his book, he had to scrap it due to confusing what actually happened to what he imagined. Reading this story is confusing not knowing what’s fact or fiction, if he really danced with his father or if he made it up for the sake of the story “That’s fiction. But, in fact, it doesn’t matter”. In Westbury Court it also deals with memory. When living in the apartment building one catches fire then years after when the narrator moves she can hardly recall the children who died, looking back to her memory Westbury wasn’t how she pictured it, there were bad things happening. From the Nigerian who got shot to her home being broken into. Things aren’t always what we remember them to be.
ReplyDeleteKendra Lara
Diane Ackerman's “ The Mute Sense” teaches the importance of one of our largely underrated senses: smell. I found it very relatable when she mentioned being able to tie a memory to a scent. “Hit a tripwire of smell, and memories explode all at once.” Scent being tied to recall is not a new concept but the extent of that ability is often lost in the nostalgia that the past gives us. Scent is very well it's own language, with thousands of variants and even further complexities. “But we smell always and with every breath,” she says and I'm drawn to the finality in her tone. Because it's true. Smell is constant, living. Smell is us interacting always and profoundly with the world. And because one of the elements of creative nonfiction is the concept of a Narrative, each of these stories holds truth and memory within. James Brown’s “My Papa’s Waltz” begins with a memory, albeit an unreliable one at times, but still it draws from the writer’s life. His dialogue is melancholic as it speaks of truth and fiction and the blurry line that separates them. It's this that I find fascinating about the short piece. That fact and fiction often blend to help us move on. When we can finally look back without it hurting, we can heal. We can remember. We can see clearly what things mean and where the value of memory, be it good or bad, lies. The author mentions a book he wrote once but discontinued. It speaks of his childhood desire to free his mother from jail, and it's a distorted desire. One he realizes will never be. But it's only until he's older that he can face the truth, face the memory, move on with it in mind no longer afraid or confused. And along those same lines, Edwidge Danticat’s “Westbury Court” also deals with a painful memory. A girl and her brothers in an apartment building. A fire. “It was too troublesome for her to acknowledge that people could die randomly, senselessly, at Westbury Court or anywhere else,” is probably my favorite line of the entire work. It's ignorance but it's almost realizing said ignorance. The writer feels guilty and it reflects in her words, in the way she views the world after the incident. It's powerful in a subtle way, and I think that's what she was going for. The world moves on whether you're ready for it or not, and how you learn from it, how you move through it, is different for everyone. Each creative nonfiction short story is an excellent example of what to do. I noticed that their dialogue is necessary at each intersection and they do well to bring their "riting" to life.
ReplyDeleteSandra Martinez
As I re-read these short nonfiction stories I referred back to Gutkind’s five R’s to compare techniques, and reading The Mute Sense, Ackerman writes in the passion of the moment expressing refreshing endless details about what most of us usually take for granted in our everyday lives. As an audience member I’m inspired to learn again the wonder of smelling.
ReplyDeleteMy Papa’s Waltz relies on memory, or reflection of a past event in this writer’s story, I appreciated when Brown admits “…I find myself confusing what actually happened with how I imagine it.” Because it’s true that perhaps our nostalgia is based on how we felt or how we wanted or want to feel and not how the real events have taken place. Brown goes through the research of what was, could have been and new information is added to the reflection, some backstory added in this particular memory. It feels like a strayed off tangent yet makes the story wider in scope. There’s the sense of regret, longing, wishful thinking as adults that maybe we didn’t have to be so annoyed or bothered by something or the actions of someone in our past.
Westbury Court still confuses me, I’m not sure what the meaning or intent is. I sense guilt, and just as the previous story, there is also confusion here as well to what were the real details of these memories, however I do relate to the feeling of having responsibility of looking after things or someone when you yourself are a child.
-Naissa Janeth Acosta
After reading these 3 creative nonfiction essays, these particular works showcased the poetic elements of descriptive imagery and the type of diction that relates to the type of story or narrative that is occurring in the story. In “The Mute Sense”, Diane Ackerman talks about a memory of her own and an interesting idea of the so-called mute scene which is our sense of smell as well as appealing to the sense of touch, taste, sight, and, of course, smell. In “My Papa’s Waltz”, James Brown discusses his memory of his father during his childhood and the novels we wrote about those memories, focusing about his father. During the essay, Ackerman utilizes the senses of hearing, touch, sight, and smell. In the “Westbury Court”, Edwidge Danticat talks of his traumatic experience back in his past about his near-death experience of when his apartment building was on fire and survived due to one action he neglected to do. This essay consisted of the senses of hearing, touch, sight, and smell. While reading the chapter on how to write short creative nonfiction, I agree with the aspect of creative nonfiction can support and deviate from the traditional method on how essays are written these days in college and in high school. In other words, creative nonfiction is a method to free from the ridged standardization of essays. (225 Words | Jose Contreras)
ReplyDeletePreviously I have read the original ‘My Papa’s Waltz” and had been confused on the title as to whether this was an adaptation or an extension of the piece by Theodore Roethke. However, I was pleasantly surprised with a fresh narrative. The piece stood out to me for two reasons, the first being the tangents that the author dives into. One could argue that the piece is several tangents stitched together by the author’s feelings towards his tough father and his absent mother. The author’s regression into a lack of self-confidence, shown in his accounts of failing to create the book he wanted and the uncertainty of the dance he would take with his father, humanizes the author and adds realism, one of the aspects of creative non-fiction that helps sell a story as truth. Similarly, this lack of confidence can be seen in “Westbury Court”, as the author comes to questions the truth of the events in the story to his memory. The descriptions and tone of the piece are dreary, evoking a hard hitting feeling of dread and death. Insecurity helps feed this tone, such as the author being glad to have less responsibility after being moved out of his old apartment, and the realization later in the piece that when looking at all of the events that transpired he does not live in a safe neighborhood. Notably, these two pieces end with a callback towards a point towards the beginning of their work, but in different ways. In “My Papa’s Waltz”, the author reaffirms that the song his father danced to was always “Crazy” by Patsy Cline. This shows consistency in a memory that the author believed was vague and dishonest. Though the authors feelings towards his father evolved from irritation to a manic tranquil, the truths of the dance was wholesome. In Westbury Court, “sometimes it is too late to say, ‘I shouldn’t have’” is much more somber, to illustrate how before, the authors mother used the fire as a lesson, scolding the two boy’s mistake. After time passes, the mother is seen to understand how much more painful and pitiful the incident was. This difference of reflection is inspiring, and draws my attention, perhaps so that I can also think harder of a fetching, meaningful conclusion to my own writings.
ReplyDelete-Kedrick Wyatt
Something that I found interesting in this reading is how creative non-fiction is unlike regular non-fiction in the sense that it is more personal. For example, in writing creative non-fiction, writers are encouraged to add their personal flair by allowing their experiences, feelings, and interest to guide them and be shown in their writing. Such elements can be seen in Diane Ackerman's "The Mute Sense." For instance, Ackerman utilizes literary devices such as imagery and by doing so she is able to share her personal memories that have attachments to certain smells. She is able to bring along the reader to experience these sensations by creating images of how scents have a vital connection to the recollections that we have. By the author incorporating this technique and introducing the subject of smells' connection to memories in this way, she creates for a creative non-fiction piece that captures the attention of the reader in a way that traditional non-fiction most likely would not. In addition, the author also demonstrates the importance of research when it comes to providing information to the audience. Ackerman wisely chooses to briefly include information on a study that shows just what kind distinctions we are capable of making by using our sense of smell. This supports that the author has conducted an adequate amount of research and that they are well informed about what it is that they are writing about.
ReplyDeleteKimberly Cervantes
After reviewing the different methodical approaches in David Starkey's "Creative Writing: Four Genres in Brief" section on writing short creative nonfiction you can clearly decipher the intriguing elements of creative story telling based off of memory or fact through the 3 short creative nonfiction stories by Ackerman, Brown, and Danticat. In Diane Ackerman's "The Mute Sense", Ackerman talks about the importance of smell and how intrinsic it is to our quality of life. We underestimate the importance of smell, but as Ackerman mentioned "we smell always and with every breath. Cover your eyes and you will stop seeing, cover your ears and you will stop here in, but if you cover your nose and try to stop smelling, you will die." Although, a bit extreme to put such a regard on the importance of smell, it also delineates Starkey's idea that if you decide to write in creative nonfiction you must be "passionate about [your] subject and committed to seeing them from as many angles as possible." Which leads into the story "My Papa's Waltz" by James Brown, that covers the elements of memory. A memory can be factual, but not all memory is correct. We sometimes illuminate a new theory, or perhaps multiple, from this memory that then can create a new story to tell, which is also something Brown mentions, stating " that as storytellers we basically spend our lives telling the same story over and over, only we do it from different angles. The trick is disguising it, so it doesn't seem the same. The trick is how you well you keep doing it, not once or twice, but hundreds of times, page after page, with one wheel detail after another. The hardest part is to make it appear seamless and Vivid in the end as if it all came naturally." Lastly, we jump into "Westbury Court" by Edwidge Danticat. This story talks about a factual memory that delves into a more common theme of fiction: guilt. Danticat recalls her realizion of life's unpredictability, while also making the audience understand and sympathize with that same fear of fate. Fiction is telling a story while non fiction is in the most basic of meaning, a fact, and puting the two together not only can help the writer feel a sense of release, but as with any story it also may help the audience feel a sense of release as well.
ReplyDelete- Michaela Gomez
Reading these short non fiction stories is odd. Because they sound so fiction but yet they are real. It's a genre that I never read or maybe I have but it didn't click in my head at the time that there was a genre. Like in the story of The Mute Sense it comes off as imaginary and while I was reading it I was like "this cant be real memories" yet they are. That's what I can good story telling. And I like how one of the author uses one of our senses on us maybe that's why its called the The Mute Sense. They use our sense of smell to tell their story. So it's very interesting. And then the The Papa Waltz uses memories which many people don't have a good example my brother but that's not important but the memories part is the author uses to tell the story. Which then all the three authors use something that is part of us to help us get us immerse ourselves to the story.
ReplyDeleteJuan Carlos Guerra
Upon reading through Ackerman’s short story, it must be said that the reader’s “mute sense” comes alive and becomes aware of it. When reading the descriptions such as the glossy pages of a new book or the family dinner of pot roast in August, it reflects the memories the reader has that they could possibly relate to. As important as touch, sight and taste are, Ackerman discusses on how vital smell is for humans, especially with the fact that we need smell to live and to enjoy living. With Brown’s “My Papa’s Waltz”, it shows Brown’s process of writing and possibly for any writer, when it comes to recollecting our past for inspiration and maybe even changing it each time we recollect it. There are personal details he can’t remember but where it all happened hadn’t changed or as brown states “The generation has changed. The clothes are different. But the pose is the same.” Brown is saying is that the only difference is that the people have changed, not what is happening there in the present. When Brown brings up the storm drain, it shows what fiction storytelling can do for the mind. It takes you somewhere else and away from your problems for a moment. Brown would imagine another life where he and his father plan the ‘Great Escape’ for his mother and that life would finally be good. Lastly, Danticat’s “Westbury Court” tells the story of how our perspective, especially on the past, changes as we grow. The apartment that they lived in is a symbol of poverty but Danticat never saw it as living poor, it was his “high castle” and the neighborhood was his kingdom. One thing that was noticed after reading these stories is how each one connects to the theme of memory and it’s different types. “Mute Sense” covers memory by recognition through one of the five senses, smell. “My Papa’s Waltz” shows how our memory changes as we try recollect it, as Brown struggles to get the exact details such as the year or his age. “Westbury Court” is the purpose our memory serves when it comes to our perception of things, especially of our past.
ReplyDelete-Michael Lucio (364)
As a communications major, I am more inclined to writing facts and stories about real life events without being biased or with it being fictional to the public. Being in this creative writing course will allow me to explore the depths of my imagination as well as allow me to go places in my mind that I have never really been exposed to. Reading “The mute sense” I realized how important smell is. Smelling something even if it is from a complete stranger will bring you many memories from your past experiences or from your past relationships.
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading “My papa’s waltz” I could not help but think of my mother and father. They both had conflicting relationships with their fathers. They loved their dads but feared them at the same time and they say they couldn’t explain it but they just yearned to be loved by their fathers. They know understand that their fathers were alcoholics that always came home drunk and violent. However, they would still want that hug or that “Hola mijo” or “Hola mija” from them. There is a line from “my papa’s waltz” that say’s “You beat time on my head With a palm caked hard by dirt, then waltzed me off to bed, still clinging to your shirt”. To me that meant that the little boy was trying to ignore the fact that the dad was being abusive and try and play the situation off and remember him as a good memory.
-Merary De La Fuente
The “Mute Sense” exposes segments of the author’s life that are relatable to the reader, although the details are strange and otherworldly (the wild blueberry bushes, for example, are not a common detail in South Texas, and noodle pudding, according to a Google search, is not the same as rice pudding). While the author sets her hook with passing glimpses of her own life, she develops her opinion for the importance of smell by leaving her life-examples behind and taking up examples in history and shedding random scent-related facts.
ReplyDelete“My Papa’s Waltz” is sweet, and little more can be said about it without ruining its sentiment. Dwelling on the author’s writing advice sacrifices the story he has to offer, and preserving the translation of his childhood means overlooking the author’s practical writing lesson. When I first started reading it, I thought that the author was a woman. I didn’t look at the name. When I realized that it was a man, I was well past the beginning and then couldn’t imagine the boy’s embarrassment. Even though the author has overwritten his memory of his drunk father with different versions of the story, the most true version, I believe, is the one where he does dance with him. It is the mummy of his childhood, with himself, now, inside of the wrappings instead of a ghost of his past. If that makes sense.
The last short story, “Westbury Court” emphasises and strings together, like beads, itself and the first two stories to the theme of memory. When the author tries to recall the children, it is the quietness of the memory that blurs itself in his mind. The children lurk in the everyday happenings of his life like a fact, not haunting him or ruining his castle (the extremely violent building, regardless of his past perception). However, they remain unspoken. While the previous author spoke too much of a memory and altered it, this author speaks too little. Only in the “Mute Sense” do memories seem to stay intact.
Raquel Williams
I’ m a fun of fiction and non-fiction stories. I enjoy both. I'm with those who feel that you learn as much about life and, especially, gain insight into human nature and emotions in well-written fiction as in non-fiction. All non-fiction depends upon the research skills, integrity and organizational abilities of the author, as well as his or her judgment in terms of how to understand, interpret and present the information at hand. Only to the extent that these things are done well do histories present us with reality. Fiction stories will make leave in an imaginary place or daydream. I didn’t know there were six different type of creating nonfiction. When I was reading Starkey’s book I was recapped that nonfiction is a place that can allow for some very persuasive stories, because reality itself isn’t confined to some format or page count, so when Starkey says that nonfiction goes beyond genres I agree with what he is saying, not every story is ending happy, but also not every hopeless story ends sad, the real world is weird and writing nonfiction is a great place to explore it. Every stories has its own ending and also are subject to the memories, interpretations and agendas of their writers.
ReplyDeleteFatimata Traore
There is a point in the the book where Starkey that there are liberties when composing a creative nonfiction, and later pointing out that n author or two got into some hot water with the libraries that were taken. I though that was a bit confusing as to what point is too far. especially when it was not intentional as stated in the readings the author is relying on memory. Jesus shaves was my favorite out of the essays I read the description of each character helped with the imagination of a class having trouble with new language. The discussion of the difference between the people may celebrate Easter was entertaining. The life rower was only confusing when Starkey pointed out something I completely missed. I went back to reread it and sure enough there it was leading me to believe that I may need to read more carefully and read more than once. The essay about humming birds had great comparisons of size, life expectancy, and rhythm to other mammals.
ReplyDeleteKristopher price
There is a point in the the book where Starkey that there are liberties when composing a creative nonfiction, and later pointing out that n author or two got into some hot water with the libraries that were taken. I though that was a bit confusing as to what point is too far. especially when it was not intentional as stated in the readings the author is relying on memory. Jesus shaves was my favorite out of the essays I read the description of each character helped with the imagination of a class having trouble with new language. The discussion of the difference between the people may celebrate Easter was entertaining. The life rower was only confusing when Starkey pointed out something I completely missed. I went back to reread it and sure enough there it was leading me to believe that I may need to read more carefully and read more than once. The essay about humming birds had great comparisons of size, life expectancy, and rhythm to other mammals.
ReplyDeleteKristopher price
I’ll be the first to admit I wasn’t familiar with what the meaning of creative non-fiction meant, as when I think about non-fiction I just assume straight facts and forwardness. I did not think to believe there are different methods in which one can work with in regards to non-fiction, and especially in the creative sense, however upon reading this section and the stories provided I have come to better understand the meaning of it more. Though I may not have noticed I more than likely read multiple versions of creative non-fiction, the one work that comes to mind and was mentioned is Truman Capote’s In True Blood. Of which at the time I read it did not come to consider it a version of creative non-fiction but nonetheless is a good example of one of the versions Gutkind defines. Along with the section were three short creative non-fiction stories that were all very different and showcased how creative non-fiction can take on numerous forms and styles. Of the three, I have to say that Edwidge Danticat’s “Westbury Court” held the most interest to me because despite James Brown’s “My Papa’s Waltz” also being a personal narrative, Danticat’s touched up more on just herself but the impact that the place she lived in previously had on her after the fire incident and almost had me feeling like I was reading more than just a narrative. This genre of creative non-fiction is interesting because it’s not fiction yet it is able to draw you in just the same by the techniques the author uses such as a distinct smell that might trigger a memory or even finding similarities in certain situations.
ReplyDelete- Savannah Lopez
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ReplyDeleteI've always been a lover of poetry and fiction but have only been introducing more non-fiction into my daily life for the past couple of years. There is a ton of information out in the world in the genre of non-fiction and creative non-fiction to expand our minds. I've never really read creative non-fiction essays like these before. I felt the anthology of short creative non-fiction was well executed and had a way of keeping the reader interested and focused what the meaning of the essays were about. What I really liked about reading these essays was that I felt an immediate connection with the author. As though they could manifest before my eyes and I can hear them having a conversation with me about their thoughts. It seems as writings these essays are a form of therapy for the writer that expose what is dwelling in their minds. Out of the three, I felt that ‘The Mute Sense’ by Diane Ackerman was the most interesting essay to me. The essay really did invoke my senses. I could really visualize the different smells the author was mentioning. What I noticed that even though these are short, they have an incredible amount of detail in description. These examples really did help to open my mind more about short creative non-fiction and how it can be executed in different ways.
ReplyDelete- Valerie Valentin
I made the same mistake as another student in assuming that “My Papa’s Waltz” was the Roethke poem, but I was also pleasantly surprised with what I got instead. Brown’s comment that “as storytellers we basically spend our lives telling the same story over and over, only we do it from different angles” is almost my exact philosophy regarding writing (216). I feel like this fit in perfectly with Starkey’s notes on the genre of creative non-fiction, such as that it “allows flexibility of form and takes a literary approach” and “blurs boundaries between genres” and makes it clearer what Starkey means (171). At first I was a little adverse to the idea of creative non-fiction, because I focused mainly on the word “non-fiction” and assumed that non-fiction dealt with just pure facts, but now I see just how rich the possibilities are (I found this a little ironic on my part, as I’m familiar with George Orwell’s essays but they somehow never clicked in my head as being creative non-fiction). “The Mute Sense” probably resonated the most with me as an example of what one can do with creative non-fiction. As I read it, I was able to recall my own experiences with my own “mute sense”: my mother has always used Clinique cosmetics and I have very vivid memories of the smells of her lipsticks and face powders. After reading “The Mute Sense” I understand how such a seemingly small memory can be expanded into something greater. In fact, I think I even have a newfound greater appreciation for those often overlooked parts of our lives.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth Garza