Final Blog

This semester I have definitely experienced, experimented and expanded my literary horizons. From last semester of Stephanie explaining what her vision was of this class, to actually experiencing and becoming a guinea pig , all in the name of higher education! What we get out of the study of literature goes beyond the "technical terms" that are in the book, it flows into the power of the written word. Spoken words are often mis-understood and easily forgotten. Whereas there is so much power in what we write. Think about all of the recorded history about us, our lives are recorded in birthday cards, report cards, notes our teachers, friends, family have written to us and about us. Then expand that into the recorded history of the world. Even heiroglyphics are like written history because they are tangible records. You have to be a voyeur and an adventurer to read literature.

R. S. Gwynn says that, "Our experience of the world is limited by time and place, and even the most resolute traveler can only superficially come to know the complex blends of cultures that make up our world". I get that completely, and that is why I love to read. Reading takes me to places I will never have the opportunity to experience first hand, and allows me to do things that sometimes I only dream of doing. The first thing we studied this semester was fiction. We were assigned 1000 pages of whatever we wanted to read. Because I am a voracious reader, I passed my 1000 and just kept on going. I would assume that the purpose of the study of fiction and the 1000 page assignment were really closely related. We study fiction to experience different places and people, and expand our minds, maybe get a different perspective on life and experiment with different points of view. My choice of books were not anything I would normally have read. My usual criteria for a book is that someone has to die violently in the first 50 pages, preferably within the first 10 for me to be interested. I guess what I'm saying is that my taste in literature falls into the Noir category. The Secret Life of Bees was a great "feel good" book. I made some friends in Tiburon, South Carolina. Run, was different for me too. It too was a "feel good" book, but moved much slower than Bees did. I Run, I experienced Boston in the winter and cried right along with Kenya when her mother died. Speaking of crying (or sobbing), the book For My Daughters had to be dried out when I was finished with it. It is a wonderful story. I traveled to Maine and sat on the beach with Leah St Clair, closed my eyes and smelled the beach roses and Atlantic Ocean.

I can't forget the mini book clubs. In the short stories I was able to make the last meal of death row inmates, and zip up a catskin suit and flounce around with my tail in the air. The rage I felt in reading Party Down at the Square took a bit to wear off. But Betty was alright by me and left me shaking my head up and down with her advise.

Performing in the play was quite an experience that encompasses both experience and expand. I have not been on a stage of any kind since High School (we all know how long ago that was), and I was in the chorus in a musical. I am not the person who likes to be front and center in anything. I love to sing, and when I karaoke I would just as soon do it as part of the audience, instead of up by myself in front of everyone. Speaking of plays being able to attend the Shakespeare play was a great experience. Not only was the setting awesome, but getting out of the classroom was too.

I liked writing our short stories. The bubble technique helped me focus and narrow down my ideas. Of course I would have liked more time to write and re-write and edit what I wrote. However, I do understand that the shortened semester makes that an impossibility. I could have done without writing the poetry. Even when I wrote poetry it didn't rhyme. The poetry slam was a great experience and allowed me to expand outside of my comfort zone.

The lit salons were interesting. Being able to see different authors from the past and "tie-ing" it all together with what was happening in the world was great. I love to get the big picture of things. I was able to once again step outside my comfort zone and read about real people who have directly impacted my world and talk about them. Specifically if Anais and Henry had not written and published the things they did what we deem as acceptable literature versus pornography would be different. Henry went in front of the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land to defend his beliefs. How utterly empowering that must have been. If he hadn't, some of what I normally read would never have been published. He pushed the boundaries. Of course the experience of reading and hearing about all of the authors expanded my views of them and gave me an understanding of their impact to our world.

To sum up my very long blog here, experience, experiment and expand are all related. Without expanding our views we would never be able to experiment and therefore experience anything new.