Assignment #9

“You were the wind and I the sea.” (From “After Love” by Sara Teasdale)

Teasdale metaphor about her and I'm assuming her lover depicts what I believe is not a typical "fairy tale" love.  Perhaps she is physically or verbally abused by the one who the line is directed at much like the wind tosses about the sea.  Or maybe it IS a happier, more mutual love in which the wind is guiding the waves of the sea to the shore.

Assignment #8

I must weave in, out, around, and through traffic but within the hour after white-knuckling my way up the Grapevine the smile returns as I take exit 205 Frazier Mountain Park Rd., we’re almost there.

Assignment #7

1.  What will be the subject of your profile essay?  What place will you profile? 

Mt. Pinos, a hiking trail a couple miles West of Frazier Park.

2.  What will be the dominant impression your essay will evoke?

The dominant impression of my essay will be the therapeutic benefits of the "great outdoors" and how being outside is enjoyable.

3.  What narrative perspective will you choose?  
First-person ("I" or "we")? The first-person perspective provides a sense of intimacy. 
Second-person ("you")? The second-person perspective provides a sense of immediacy. 
Third-person ("he," "she," "it," "they")?  The third-person perspective provides a sense of objectivity.

Each perspective is acceptable, but each perspective will shape the essay in a different way.  Regardless of the perspective you choose, be consistent.
Reread the "Profile" attachment on Blackboard for clarification with the next questions.

First person.

4.  What will be your "Beginning"?

Describing the beautiful scenery of the hike.

5.  How will you structure your "Middle"?

Letting the reader know how much fun the hike is and how great it made me feel.

6.  What will you use in your "Conclusion"?

I will conclude by convincing the reader to partake in such events.

7.  How will you use dialogue?

My dialogue will describe Mt. Pinos vividly and make the reader either want to go or feel as if they have already been.

8.  What "Characters" will your essay feature?

There will be little characters as my profile will focus on a vacation from the everyday grind.  But it will possibly include my dog, my fiance, and the occasional fellow hiker.

9.  What "Illuminating Details and Anecdotes" will you use?

I will be extremely detailed in my description of Mt. Pinos but it will be impossible to completely describe the screen without going on and on so I must be weary of that.

10.  How will you use all (or most of) the senses?  What visual images will you use?  What auditory images?  What tactile images?  What gustatory images (tastes)?  What olfactory images (smells)?

For visual images I will describe the drive, green trees, the soil, and sometimes the snow.  For auditory I will describe the sound of the wind through the trees.  Tactile- the feel of the soil beneath my feet while hiking the trail, the crisp fresh air on my skin.  Gustatory- none that I can think of.  Olfactory- the smell of fresh pine trees.

11. What verb tense will you use?  Past tense?  Present tense?I will use past tense

Assignment #6

In "California:  Desert Byways" Peter Garrison writes to appeal to the senses vividly, or as Roy Peter Clark would describe in Chapter 14 of Writing Tools Garrison is "getting the name of the dog."  Garrison does not simply describe what he sees in Death Valley but also what he feels while traveling through it.  For example, when describing his journey down Lippencott Road Garrison writes that his vehicle "jounces and teeters over mammoth rocks and tiptoes across washouts."  Personally I thought it was not only very descriptive of the scenery but also how driving on the path felt physically.  Garrison "got the name of the dog."

Thesis

Photography has become a massive art form and done much for the industry, but without effects, in its most basic form it is simply evidence or a reminder of what has occurred.

Assignment #4

“The equivalent of its temporal photography would be a giant film depicting the temporally interconnected events from every vantage point.” – Kracauer p425

            It may have taken four pages of reading but I finally understood a concept that Kracauer was conveying.  The historicists believe that an event cannot be truly depicted unless EVERY aspect is presented.  I like the example he gives in relation to film that the equivalent would be film with different points of view of the same event.  It reminded me of the movie Vantage Point in which a bombing was replayed over and over from different characters’ points of view.  The movie was fairly annoying to see some the same parts but it was an interesting effect that I had not witnessed.

“A portrait painter who submitted entirely to “natural necessity” would at best create photographs.  During a  particular  period,  which began  with  the  Renaissance  and  may now  be approaching its  end,  the ‘artwork’ is  indeed  faithful  to  nature  whose specificity reveals  itself more  and  more  during this period.  But by penetrating this nature the artwork orients itself toward ‘higher purposes.’” – Kracauer p427

            I understand the point that Kracauer is making, that to paint something that duplicates the actual object is not too different than a photograph.  But I do not agree that it is any less artful.  Sure, it may take less of an artistic mind to create such an image but they are both still art.  I guess to summarize my feeling about this excerpt is that they are separate but equal forms of art; neither has a “higher purpose.”      

The newest purchase for my truck to make it G.O.O.D. ready- 5 1/2 gal. jerry can

Assignment #3

“What is the signifying structure of ‘illustration’?  Does the image duplicate certain of the informations given in the text by a phenomenon of redundancy or does the text add a fresh information to the image?” – Barthes p273

I have never really given thought to this question asked by Barthes.  What came first the chicken or the egg?  I’ve always thought the illustration added to what the author has written, but it seems that we place a very large emphasis on images that we might depend on them to substitute our imagination.  Obviously, I’m on the fence with this question.  What do you think?

“the operation of the drawing (the coding) immediately necessitates a certain division between the significant and the insignificant:  the drawing does not reproduce everything (often it reproduces very little), without its ceasing, however, to be a strong message; whereas the photograph, although it can choose its subject, its point of view and its angle, cannot intervene within the object (except by trick effects). In other words, the denotation of the drawing is less pure than that of the photograph, for there is no drawing without style. – Barthes p 277

            This reminds me of a comment I posted on someone’s first blog assignment.  It brings up a thought that I have had before about photography being an art.  I feel that painting, drawing, sketching, etc. a scene or an object to be more of an art than just photographing it.  That is not to say I don’t appreciate photographs of pretty scenery, because I do and I will often purchase them in forms of postcards.  I just believe that the time, effort, and talent that it takes to create such a picture is more valuable than a photograph.

 A little off season adjustment that had to be made... I wasn't very happy at first, but I'm still excited to watch football in the fall