Bret Lott's Fathers, Sons, & Brothers is much different from The Liar's Club that we previously read by Karr. Focusing more on the minds of men, Bret talks about how important a garage is as he states that "a house is not a home, at least in my mind, until the garage has been put together" (2). As I've been told by society, television, etc., the garage is where a man enjoys life with tools, cars, and whatever outdoors-y thing you could think of. Starting the memoir with the meaning of a garage shows how Mary's father in The Liar's Club and the rest of the club would take refuge in a garage; her father would drink to help calm him down when he would get into a fight with their mother. Onto Lott's memoir, I love Mrs. Lott's reaction to Bret's garage idea by shaking "her head, let out an exasperated sigh. 'Men,' she'd say" (2). This dream house that he describes for his family brings us into his memory of his very own father and family when he was younger; this I found quite creative.
After moving for his father's job from California to Arizona, we find that things were much different in Arizona with cacti and coyotes. It reminded me of when I moved from one home with a basement, then to one without one. Anyway, he states that "there is no there there in a carport, no sense of place other than one to park the car in" (4), that I found odd with his writing. Once you're used to things being a certain way, I know it's hard to transition into something new. With the lack of a basement, it was harder for our family to store seasonal decorations, etc. It's not too frivolous other than just the detailing of things that matter to him such as the picture of Brad and himself from 1980 (27). A behavior that surprised me was "we couldn't understand why they [Mr. and Mrs. Stahl] let both Wade and Cody say things like 'damn' and 'shit' and 'hell' right there in front of them" (18); that quote immediately made me think of The Liar's Club with Mary and Lecia cussing up a storm when they were at a young age. Lott thought that the "smallest sounds, the highest pitches" (22) were just something that he found a mystery at the time. When we are younger, the smallest things amuse us like gravity or bubbles and Bret jumps "ten years later I knew what that sound was: I'd read somewhere it is the noise blood makes rushing through one's head" (23) and that he shouldn't have focused on something that ridiculous compared to a shooting star; that thought amused him, even though he could've focused on other wonders of the world. Lott found that focusing on something that affected him and was a mystery at the time is what he missed about being a child.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Family Memories
Just a few family memories....
At the end of the memoir, Karr talks about fireflies and brought about this memory when I was seven years old in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Our family moved to Pittsburgh from California and the first thing that was totally different was that we saw this little lights near dusk and didn't know what they were. My father explained to my three brothers and I about lightning bugs and we were totally amazed by them we had fun catching them out in the small backyard and I could remember how I was so scared to catch one because once clasped into both hands, you could feel the lightning bug flutter around, trying to get out; their wings would tickle inside my hands. We decided to keep a few in the jar with pieces of grass in it (I'm not sure why we put grass in there, perhaps we thought it would make them happy somewhow). That was one of the cool things about moving to Pittsburgh.
What also was a good memory was our first snow. We, obviously, never seen snow before so the winter in Pittsburgh was a delight. You could watch the snow fall, although it was just a few inches, and play in it. The snow was so cold as we were all bundled up into winter coats as we tried catching the cold snow in our mouths; after hitting my hand, I would watch the snowflake slowly melt away into very cold water. My dad taught us how to make snow angels and we made a little snowman with twigs for arms, a little hat that was my little brother's, Danny's, and with a little carrot for a nose and pepperoni for eyes. It was the funnest time, especially after the snowball fight around the house and our tradition of playing football in the snow.
I remember a family trip that we decided to take at the end of my junior year of high school to Niagara Falls. We drove up north through New York, with its beautiful flower smell with vineyards all around, along with Buffalo's awkward smell of some sort of gross food kind of smell (fastfood, more specifically) and once we finally got there, it seemed surreal. We go to the hotel, as in my parents, my brother, and Lisa --our foreign exchange student and my brother's girlfriend (I know! Weird right?)--and the hotel is located right next to the Canadian Falls and could see it just outside our window. It was so beautiful at night when they had a lighting display showing several different colors through the falls with fireworks going off around it. The different shades of blue, yellow, orange, pink, into purple and red, it was kind of like a northern lights effect through the water. And we all stood around the window while my mother took pictures from her new camera that she was just so excited about. I just remember the beautiful display and just through our hotel window was so unbelievable.
At the end of the memoir, Karr talks about fireflies and brought about this memory when I was seven years old in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Our family moved to Pittsburgh from California and the first thing that was totally different was that we saw this little lights near dusk and didn't know what they were. My father explained to my three brothers and I about lightning bugs and we were totally amazed by them we had fun catching them out in the small backyard and I could remember how I was so scared to catch one because once clasped into both hands, you could feel the lightning bug flutter around, trying to get out; their wings would tickle inside my hands. We decided to keep a few in the jar with pieces of grass in it (I'm not sure why we put grass in there, perhaps we thought it would make them happy somewhow). That was one of the cool things about moving to Pittsburgh.
What also was a good memory was our first snow. We, obviously, never seen snow before so the winter in Pittsburgh was a delight. You could watch the snow fall, although it was just a few inches, and play in it. The snow was so cold as we were all bundled up into winter coats as we tried catching the cold snow in our mouths; after hitting my hand, I would watch the snowflake slowly melt away into very cold water. My dad taught us how to make snow angels and we made a little snowman with twigs for arms, a little hat that was my little brother's, Danny's, and with a little carrot for a nose and pepperoni for eyes. It was the funnest time, especially after the snowball fight around the house and our tradition of playing football in the snow.
I remember a family trip that we decided to take at the end of my junior year of high school to Niagara Falls. We drove up north through New York, with its beautiful flower smell with vineyards all around, along with Buffalo's awkward smell of some sort of gross food kind of smell (fastfood, more specifically) and once we finally got there, it seemed surreal. We go to the hotel, as in my parents, my brother, and Lisa --our foreign exchange student and my brother's girlfriend (I know! Weird right?)--and the hotel is located right next to the Canadian Falls and could see it just outside our window. It was so beautiful at night when they had a lighting display showing several different colors through the falls with fireworks going off around it. The different shades of blue, yellow, orange, pink, into purple and red, it was kind of like a northern lights effect through the water. And we all stood around the window while my mother took pictures from her new camera that she was just so excited about. I just remember the beautiful display and just through our hotel window was so unbelievable.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Two Images of a Hero
Mary Karr's view of her own sister has grown towards a positive light from the mixed feelings she first had about Lecia in the beginning of the memoir. Through the traumatic events that occur, Lecia becomes prevalently an adult figure to take care of Mary and herself when neither parents could.
Lecia was the one who has to show no emotion when their Mother started the bonfire of all of their belongings behind the garage. “Lecia’s hand clamps on booth my shoulders to stop my rising, (150)” as Mother lights a match to burn all the toys, books, and furniture. Mary’s sister “could be watching the weather on TV for all the feeling her face shows (150)” because she knew that Mother burning their things wasn’t the main problem to her; it was to make sure they will survive. Lecia is the one who takes them out of their reverie to settle on the quilt that Grandma made out of male suit samples. This calmed Mary down by concentrating on hop scotching “from square to square in finger tag--black gabardine to charcoal flannel to gray pinstripe (154).” Because of her seriousness in concern towards their survival, Lecia tries to figure out why Mary was grinning when they were trying to hide away from their knife-bearing Mother. Lecia makes sure she is aware of everything surrounding her such as Mary’s state along with knowing how to react when Mother walks in with the knife by telling Mary to be quiet with one single movement of a finger to her lips.
When in Colorado, Mother decides one night after drinking, of course, decides to pull out a gun she thought she needed to protect herself in the disgusting town of Antelope. This drinking spell made Mother threaten to shoot Hector, the step dad, after he himself had been drinking and was trying to pay Lecia to play “America the Beautiful,“ but refused. This made Hector call Lecia a “bitch;“ Mother’s nervous came to the point where she really wanted to kill Hector, but because Mary blocked him with her body, somehow stalled the murdering mind. Lecia’s valiant efforts were focused on saving Mary and herself by staring “up with an expression that struck me [Mary] as lawyerly, like Perry Mason’s at the jury box (251).” And once that didn’t work the following quote struck me as valiant:
“She was off on another tack. The look in her brown eyes under the shiny blond shelf of bangs was no longer set. It was weary. And the accent she used next was pure Texan… She was buddying up, appealing to Mother’s fury, which she’s apparently adjudged immovable (252).”
Lecia then offered herself to help cover Hector up, but instead of doing it with Mary, she did it for her. “When Lecia took her place beside me looking wholly empty of herself. She was telling me to run. But in her pass-the butter voice (253).” This “pass-the-butter voice” was Lecia’s way of concentration as she was trying to be calm through the whole situation with their Mother’s gun pointed towards them; her goal was to make her to go get help and wasn’t noticed when she ran towards the Janisches’ house.
Furthermore, Lecia stuck out as the strong, static character that Mary need for support. “Her sudden solidity and power, the sheer force of her will (257)” was pronounced and concludes Mary’s want of a relationship as to the lonesomeness her parents made her feel throughout the divorce. Lecia became the adult she needed at such a young age that never would again be viewed as a child through Mary’s eyes.
Lecia was the one who has to show no emotion when their Mother started the bonfire of all of their belongings behind the garage. “Lecia’s hand clamps on booth my shoulders to stop my rising, (150)” as Mother lights a match to burn all the toys, books, and furniture. Mary’s sister “could be watching the weather on TV for all the feeling her face shows (150)” because she knew that Mother burning their things wasn’t the main problem to her; it was to make sure they will survive. Lecia is the one who takes them out of their reverie to settle on the quilt that Grandma made out of male suit samples. This calmed Mary down by concentrating on hop scotching “from square to square in finger tag--black gabardine to charcoal flannel to gray pinstripe (154).” Because of her seriousness in concern towards their survival, Lecia tries to figure out why Mary was grinning when they were trying to hide away from their knife-bearing Mother. Lecia makes sure she is aware of everything surrounding her such as Mary’s state along with knowing how to react when Mother walks in with the knife by telling Mary to be quiet with one single movement of a finger to her lips.
When in Colorado, Mother decides one night after drinking, of course, decides to pull out a gun she thought she needed to protect herself in the disgusting town of Antelope. This drinking spell made Mother threaten to shoot Hector, the step dad, after he himself had been drinking and was trying to pay Lecia to play “America the Beautiful,“ but refused. This made Hector call Lecia a “bitch;“ Mother’s nervous came to the point where she really wanted to kill Hector, but because Mary blocked him with her body, somehow stalled the murdering mind. Lecia’s valiant efforts were focused on saving Mary and herself by staring “up with an expression that struck me [Mary] as lawyerly, like Perry Mason’s at the jury box (251).” And once that didn’t work the following quote struck me as valiant:
“She was off on another tack. The look in her brown eyes under the shiny blond shelf of bangs was no longer set. It was weary. And the accent she used next was pure Texan… She was buddying up, appealing to Mother’s fury, which she’s apparently adjudged immovable (252).”
Lecia then offered herself to help cover Hector up, but instead of doing it with Mary, she did it for her. “When Lecia took her place beside me looking wholly empty of herself. She was telling me to run. But in her pass-the butter voice (253).” This “pass-the-butter voice” was Lecia’s way of concentration as she was trying to be calm through the whole situation with their Mother’s gun pointed towards them; her goal was to make her to go get help and wasn’t noticed when she ran towards the Janisches’ house.
Furthermore, Lecia stuck out as the strong, static character that Mary need for support. “Her sudden solidity and power, the sheer force of her will (257)” was pronounced and concludes Mary’s want of a relationship as to the lonesomeness her parents made her feel throughout the divorce. Lecia became the adult she needed at such a young age that never would again be viewed as a child through Mary’s eyes.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Eight Images
"A spotted butterfly settling in the middle of a daisy (105)" was what Mary
thought to be Mrs. Hess' vision of prettiness, which wasn't what Mary felt with
her family.
"Her black hair pinched and shining in twin plastic barrettes, her petticoat
sticking her pink skirt sideways (106)" relates to the Carol Sharp image that
Mary would see as she came home from her Sunday Bible School.
"Sitting cross-legged, dribbling wet sand through her fingers to build up the
squiggly turrets of a castle (108)," refers to how her Mother used to be when
going to McFadden Beach.
"This gave it a deep, snaggle-toothed frown and kept it from looking very smart
(111)," is the way the hammerhead shark looked to Mary when her mother left to
go drink in the Inn.
"It floats on top of the water, clear in places, but full of sunset-type colors
in others (112)" is what the man-of-war's head looked like.
"Sat on the sand with her legs straight out in front of her like some drugstore
doll (115)" was Lecia's reaction to being attacked by a man-of-war she had such
a glazed reaction.
"White chiffon scarf over her mouth like a mask in that second...her red
lipstick through the chiffon and ...'the loneliest eyes (130).'" Mother talks
about Marlene Dietrich in New York City, but deeply relates to the lonely eyes
she shows, just like how her Mother felt I believe.
"Wild tangle of auburn curls (137)" was Mother's hair and is relevant to her
wildness that she had been becoming and could've brought out the Nervous.
Monday, January 12, 2009
More on Central Object
I could probably further explain the scene with my father lying on the floor next to my Uncle Marc. While my grandmother, with her dyed red hair now a white color sitting next to my mother and my two brothers on the long couch directly in front of the television. And how I sat next to my older brother with his scruffy beard and the small gold chain around his neck while my Uncle Brian was on the floor behind the couch I sat on, somehow still seeing the television with his back against the wall next to the corner.
Quiz
Mary used to, at one point, very much despise her grandmother; Grandma was the the blame for her family falling apart. Her grandmother would always have to comment on everything that the family does, including sitting on the bed in Mary's parents' room to eat dinner or would always tell the mother that she should spank her children. The grandmother suffered from melanoma and, eventually, had her leg amputated, but was no use. Grandma thinks that Lecia is the "good" child who complies with everything and that Mary was an intolerable troublemaker. Once Grandma got Mary alone, she showed Mary that she has a half sister and half brother of the names Belinda and Tex.
Mary and her family left Leechfield because the terrible Hurricane Carla that made the National Guardsman to get them out. Mother was driving up the Orange Bridge, with the horrible rain and wind that made it very hard for them to get up. Mother sped up the car; it got to the point where Mary was said to be screaming and crying along with Lecia getting scared to where they hit a guard rail on the bridge. The only damage was to the front fender being smashed in.
Mary and her family left Leechfield because the terrible Hurricane Carla that made the National Guardsman to get them out. Mother was driving up the Orange Bridge, with the horrible rain and wind that made it very hard for them to get up. Mother sped up the car; it got to the point where Mary was said to be screaming and crying along with Lecia getting scared to where they hit a guard rail on the bridge. The only damage was to the front fender being smashed in.
Liar's Club Weekend and family event
Thankfully, Mary let us become closer with the rest of her family within the next few chapters of The Liar's Club. What really stood out to me is the middle paragraph on page forty-nine, "And from that silence in your skull there will develop--almost chemically, like film paper doused in that magic solution--a snapshot of cold horror. " She says this trying to forget "an ugly illness," even though it's difficult to block that from memory. Whenever you would see something awful happen, people try to cope with pretending it never existed, even though you will still suffer from it. Mary never really experienced what suffering was until she saw Grandma after having mustard gas piped into her leg to decrease the melanoma; this, surprisingly, really impacted Mary. "Real suffering has a face and a smell. It lasts in its most intense form no matter what you drape over it,(49)" further explains that it isn't possible for someone to try to hide away their suffering or make something painful look pleasing. As we read on, Mary's mother is found to have hid her suffering with "blank" stares and with little emotion, which is the opposite of the message of this specific passage.
A family event that comes to mind is this past Christmas. My parents, my two brothers, and I drove to Pittsburgh to have a type of Christmas "lunner" with my two uncles, brother, and grandmother. We were relaxing in my uncles' living room and somehow we got to watching Sydney White, which is a modern based Snow White that took place on a college campus. We were watching it on their fancy big screen television with many little trinkets on the coffee table and side tables that my Uncle Marc bought off ebay (Which is funny, because he's obsessed with frogs; he has a pond in his backyard--which takes up almost all of his backyard--and has little statues of frogs). We were watching the movie, and there was a funny part of the movie where the "Seven dwarfs" in the movie were looking at a hanging sports bra and they were all baffled by it. We were all laughing and having a good time; it was like everything just went away as we batted all the problems we were having with my grandmother growing ill and all the financial stuff, out of the park as it felt like we hit a homerun into happiness.
A family event that comes to mind is this past Christmas. My parents, my two brothers, and I drove to Pittsburgh to have a type of Christmas "lunner" with my two uncles, brother, and grandmother. We were relaxing in my uncles' living room and somehow we got to watching Sydney White, which is a modern based Snow White that took place on a college campus. We were watching it on their fancy big screen television with many little trinkets on the coffee table and side tables that my Uncle Marc bought off ebay (Which is funny, because he's obsessed with frogs; he has a pond in his backyard--which takes up almost all of his backyard--and has little statues of frogs). We were watching the movie, and there was a funny part of the movie where the "Seven dwarfs" in the movie were looking at a hanging sports bra and they were all baffled by it. We were all laughing and having a good time; it was like everything just went away as we batted all the problems we were having with my grandmother growing ill and all the financial stuff, out of the park as it felt like we hit a homerun into happiness.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
The Memoir and Club
After reading both The Memoir and the Memoirist and The Liar's Club, I've noticed a few similarities between the two so far. Mary Karr is a professor of Literature at Syracuse University as Thomas Larson taught how to write memoirs for a small, interested class (as far as I know). It's very evident that they are highly educated by the vocabulary that is used such as Karr's words of "pseudo-demonic" and "segue", and Larson's "monolithic" and "elan." But Karr used much more intriguing vocabulary that is more relatable to how people may have talked in Texas like "mulligrubs" and "guarangoddamntee," especially; the words are amusing and get the reader into the story.
Focusing on The Liar's Club, this is the actual memoir of a time in Mary's life. She uses incredible detail to conveigh the experience as she remembers it. As Daddy tells his story of running away from home there's a point that she calls "the turning point. Daddy cocks his head at everybody to savor it. . . The domino tiles stop their endless clicking. The cigar smoke might even seem to quit winding around on itself for a minute. Nobody so much as takes a drink." Karr looks up to her father at that young age, saying that he was a talented storyteller and the other men of the so called Liar's Club thought so to when they would all turn to silence as he started a story.
Karr was always "spoiled" by her father as Larson was by his own father when he was young. It was interesting to me because I'm the only daughter amongst three brothers, so I definitely was spoiled myself. Thomas focused more on the psychological aspect of writing about real life, which was interesting. He talked about Julie who was "surprised by what she didn't know or half-remembered" which was related to Karr's one memory that she thought so crystal clear that she had to write in present tense; only that one memory.
Focusing on The Liar's Club, this is the actual memoir of a time in Mary's life. She uses incredible detail to conveigh the experience as she remembers it. As Daddy tells his story of running away from home there's a point that she calls "the turning point. Daddy cocks his head at everybody to savor it. . . The domino tiles stop their endless clicking. The cigar smoke might even seem to quit winding around on itself for a minute. Nobody so much as takes a drink." Karr looks up to her father at that young age, saying that he was a talented storyteller and the other men of the so called Liar's Club thought so to when they would all turn to silence as he started a story.
Karr was always "spoiled" by her father as Larson was by his own father when he was young. It was interesting to me because I'm the only daughter amongst three brothers, so I definitely was spoiled myself. Thomas focused more on the psychological aspect of writing about real life, which was interesting. He talked about Julie who was "surprised by what she didn't know or half-remembered" which was related to Karr's one memory that she thought so crystal clear that she had to write in present tense; only that one memory.
Monday, January 5, 2009
English History
In my years of being a student, I've always enjoyed English. Elementary school was very nontraditional; I lived in four different places before I was ten years old. I learned the overdrawn subject of grammar and actually was used to great advantage when I took AP Literature and AP Language in high school. Maplewood high school was located in the middle of nowhere of Mecca,Ohio; three townships to one school with the graduating class of 2008 being eighty-four students. So, it was hard for students who have been there all their lives to learn grammar later in their student careers than it was for me. I started to thoroughly enjoy English when I took AP Literature my junior year. We had to read several novels--not quite sure how many-- and different plays by Shakespeare and Arthur Miller and so on; so basically all the classics. After having to write essay after essay, paper after paper, about all the literature, it was very rewarding to get better and better grades on assignments. We also had to do speeches and presentations where I was Elton John, but that's irrelevant to this class. Anywho, I took the AP exam and I passed it! I was pretty excited about it, until I took AP Language my senior year. The course focused more on writing styles and reading nonfiction such as Billy Budd and more interesting books like 1984. It was extremely difficult for me to focus on writing because I can't reread what I have written, for some odd reason. It would always just be a pain to reread my writing. Oh, and one time, we wrote like one of the authors', and my mind is failing me on which one, but we wrote a whole essay talking like a teenage boy with awkward words and I somehow got through it and proved my thesis. Well, that's all that I can think of on my English history, this being my first English course this year.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)