Response to the first half of Maps To Anywhere

After reading the first half of Bernard Cooper's Maps To Anywhere, the piece that stuck out to me most was "How To Draw". For the most part, it stuck out because it gives an opinion on which kind of art is better and why; professional art and amateur art. Bernard Cooper feels that amateur art is superior to professional art because of the root of the motivation. With professional art, the artist is motivated my money, and fame. It is commissioned by someone and taken time with, with money in mind. He compares them to a dull fifth generation Xerox Amateur art is something done in the spur of the moment, hardly ever done by one that would proclaim themselves to be an artist. An example he gives is the Christmas gift given to neighbors by Mrs. Minn, "a little Santa, his head askew, made of Styrofoam balls and scraps of felt".

 In my opinion, both can be equally passionate, both can be equally "good". Though, I can see what he means by art being done in the spur of the moment being better. I don't necessarily think that a professional piece of art is not capable of being done in the spur of the moment. Not all professional art is done with money or fame in mind, especially considering the unstable, wavering definitions of "professional", "amateur" or even "art". Even what defines "good" is a debatable opinion. All in all, what makes art good is all in an individual's opinion.

Essay Packet 1 Response

The essay I focused on in this packet was Kristen Prevallet's Essay On The Sublimation Of Dying. In Synthesis I there is a lot of interesting use of homonyms, especially in the section titled "Homonym" naturally. She first uses the words sun and son comparatively in Mythology, as well as the words I and eye,and see and sea in Homonym. I really enjoyed the last bit of Mythology, how both the sun and the son are "...crowded by thoughts of mourning". The double meaning is so well executed, following through with the promised topic of death given by the title. Kristen Prevallet plays around with words a lot in this poetic essay, and since it is so poetic it is a little hard to follow. Even so, I enjoyed reading this essay the most of all the others in the packet. It interacts with the reader, and challenges us to think about what is being said. Death is the main theme of this essay, and it is apparent throughout. Prevallet even sort of narrates the killing of a fly on the very page in which she is writing.

Fiction Packet 3 Response

The short story from Fiction Packet 3 that I focused on was The Falling Girl by Dino Buzzati. The story is about a girl named Marta going through life rather quickly in a figurative sense. Literally, it is written that she jumps off the top of a very tall building to her death. She starts the story a 19 year old girl, but it ends with her an old woman. It is just a metaphor for the passing of life, missed opportunities and so on. Marta herself lives her life more on the quiet side, and she dies of old age. Her death doesn't have any impact on people as she wasn't all that important. She hits the ground, but no thud is heard by anyone. Marta definitely did not want her life to turn out this way. She's frightened and looks back on her life with regrets. The story is written with a lot of creatively detailed imagery; "...the city became a sweet abyss burning with pulsating lights.".