"Black Men and Public Space" - Brent Staples

Black Men and Public Space is an essay about a young African-American man’s experience during his years as a graduate student in Chicago.  The man is none other than the author himself, Brent Staples.  In his essay, he details the issue of his placement in the community and his appearance had a great, but negative, effect on the people there.  He provides an example of an incident where he was just walking by someone, a white woman, who took his strolling by her as stalking.  Fearing for her safety, she gave Staples a few awkward glances before quickly taking off.  Staples also tells of how he could hear the sounds of shutting doors and windows as he casually continued his walk and contemplating his situation. 

            Staples, a man who appears to be of a pacifist nature, felt disappointed and embarrassed about how some people could just easily judge him based upon his appearance.  While understanding of their point-of-view and their feelings, he still felt bothered that his very existence in their presence would ignite such fear and resentment toward him.  Brent understood this all too well, as he explains how he, all too often, had to witness how the “tough-guy” image and criminal mentality installed in young black men often let to prison, death, or both.   This was something he wanted to avoid being associated with and he had made significant effort to do so.  It wasn’t until he started openly adapting certain habits that people would begin to tolerate his being in their presence. By reading the beginning of the story I felt immediately sorry for this guy. Prejudice is the basic of human classification and different treatment based on their outside appearance. But how is it possible to see the thoughts and his believes of somebody just be seeing him walking? I think that is impossible. For sure there are tendencies that you can assume how people are thinking but you never know until you know the person. With the believe that every person has something good in mind you are more likely to experience the positive side of the people and you will get treated way more friendly. I think that is important to find real friends and having a happy and satisfied life.

38 Who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police by Martin Gansberg

In Martin Gansberg's story of the tragic murder of Ms. Genovese, he is explaining how society has evolved. The citzens of the neighborhood just watched as the helpless woman was repeatedly stabbed out in public over a 30 min time period. Genovese screamed "[...] help me!" (p12) as people just watched her die. Witnesses claimed they didnt know why they didn't call the police. I think its wrong to ignore such a violent act. It reminds me of the show "what would you do?" and it sort of makes us see what people would do in certain situations. Society is full of violence and people may not want to get involved but I think its kind of ignorant to bypass such things going on. It still needs more appeal for courage to stand up for your believes in right and wrong.

THE DEER AT PROVIDENCIA: ANNE DILLARD

In the narrative it speaks of such painful visions of humans and animals in such horrible pain. Annie Dillard writes this to show the suffering that animals and humans go through, and why such sufferings may exist. She explains as she goes on a trip to observe the native tribes, she is moved by such a scene. The scene was of a deer tied up, helpless and struggling to eacape. It was hung in a tree with only one leg free to barely relieve the rope that was tied so tightly around its' neck. I hate seeing anyone or thing suffer, but we can't really stop it. There's no cure found yet for certain diseases, and u can't control careless accidents, crime, or nature. I try to look at it as the only way we all can adapt and evolve to be better suited people.

Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain by Jessica Mitford

Behind the Formaldehyde is an excerpt from an exposé called The American Way of Death (1963) by Jessica Mitford.  It contains details on the process of embalming, what is done during the process, and what is used during the process.  An example is used to help with the explanation of the process of embalming, which can be defined as forestalling decomposition of a human corpse and making it suitable for public display at a funeral.  The example is used in the attempt to connect to the readers and show them how a deceased human’s body is expensively prepared for a funeral ceremony.  The author greatly details each and every action is taken during the embalming phase from the fixing of tissue, the draining of blood, to the replacement of missing body parts.  The author also mentions the continued restoration process taken post-embalmment.  The author then finishes by explaining how the body is then wheeled to the slumber room where the finishing touches are made to make the cadaver ready for viewership.

            After reading this excerpt, I was indeed impressed on how the author was able to detail each step taken during embalming.  I had to look up what embalming was to get a proper understanding, but after finding that out, I was easily able to get at what the author was trying to get across.  The author’s heavy detail on the many actions taken during the process of embalmment and what was used during really helps one understand how expensive such a process could be.  This perspective is also drawn from the part where the author compares embalming to cosmetic surgery.  Knowing how expensive cosmetic surgery is, helped me to understand the author’s point-of-view on the subject and it aided me in seeing how the author would probably urge people to seek alternatives on how to prepare the deceased for their final farewell.

"How to Mark a Book" by Mortimer Adler

In Adler's essay "How to Mark a Book" (1940), he proclaims that, "Full ownership of a book comes when you make it a part of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it is by writing in it," (Adler). To say that this goes against everything I was taught when I was younger would be an understatement. I can remember teachers declaring WWIII if they saw an inch of a pencil mark in our text books. I can even remember kids being put in time out for writing in books that weren't "made for writing in." It wasn't until Freshman year in college that I was told it was acceptable, and sometimes necessary, to write in textbooks. At first I was a little apprehensive, but now I completely understand why Adler and my professors deemed it necessary to write in the books. If you write in the book as you're reading, it forces you to grasp a better concept of what you are taking in, whereas the average reader will skim or speed read through the text and not really come away with much from it. You can better appreciate the author and the text if you get a good understanding of what the text truly means. 

Although I did find Adler just a tad bit obsessive with his point, I completely, 100% agree with him. As a big reader myself, I find it helpful to jot a note here or a scribble there. It helps me to remember any questions that I may have while I'm reading. And if I'm reading with a group I can always come back to the question and I won't forget. Although I  don't feel as passionately about the subject as Adler, I do encourage people to jot down little notes just to help keep yourself on track, But HEY....TO EACH HIS OWN!!!!! Until next time my soul hungry readers........

IM OUT!!!!!!

-Francis

Why Leaves Turn Color in the Fall By Diane Akerman

 
   In Akermans concept essay “Why Leaves Turn Color”, it is quite interesting how she mixes her scientific knowledge with amazing imagery that also appeals to the senses of the reader. Maybe she is writing for a person interested in poetry, but she could also be appealing to the scientific minds out there. I like how she goes through the scientific steps of the leaves changing colors, but it makes it also sound so peaceful and serene to the mind even though the reader is learning. My favorite quote that supports the serenity is when Akerman says: "Walk down a lane overhung with trees in the never-never land of autumn and you will forget about time and death, lost in the sheer delicious spill of color." It brings back memories of my childhood and back when we had no worries but maybe scraping our knees. We got pushed on the playground only to forgive this person an hour later because we all were friends and had nothing to worry about. The author somehow spill science into a wonderful relaxing poem about the most beautiful season of the year.

"That's How I Roll" by Ginny Donaldson

Also Britney Spears is dealing with the "How I Roll"-Phrase

In the concept essay "That's How I Roll" by Ginny Donaldson it is talking about the development of phrases and common speeches. The author is bringing up the example of her instructor to think about the phrase “That’s how I roll”. She did her research online and she noticed that each day the amount of input increased every day. With the help of this example she is explaining that these phrases are used to simplify the proper English and let it sound “cool or less complicated” (p.51). By trying to find the origin of the slang we are more and more likely to use, she found out that some phrases or slang words stick while others cannot resist. We are developing the phrases but we still let the people decide if the word will exist the next day or not. There exists principles how they will be known as sticky but these are not a common rule. Sometimes they just exist without any reason, they are not less important than others with an easily found explanation about their origin.  The audience is more for the folk to illustrate them where our slang English is coming from and how it gets developed.

I can find myself as the author of this text. It is often that I am fascinated and interested in the origin of words. Just looking at the sequence of the letters is already curious. How cool is it that everybody understands what the five letters “bread” means. Also playing with words, joking around and developing new phrases, this can still verbalize in proper English. It is fun creating new words and the people understand what you want to say. It makes your language unique.