MLK Day

What did you do to celebrate Martin Luther King day? Did you throw a party? Buy a cake? or did you spend the day doing stuff you didn't get done yesterday? It isn't too late to take a few minutes to think about the meaning of today and how it personally affects who you are today and why.

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--
Rachel Smydra
Department of English
Oakland University

Almost Here...

I am adding a last minute entry here in order to keep this blog alive; posting got away from me this summer, but I hope to update with great frequency fall semester....

Renew

I have a hard time believing that it was so long ago that I posted to this blog. I was using it as a part of a blogging class that I taught for the Honor's College. I hope to renew my committment to developing this blog as part of my Advanced Writing class this fall.

Writing Your Own Translation

"All mankind is one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and ever chapter must be so translated..." (John Donne)


I've been reading in article in Harper's Magazine (2007 edition) called "The Ecstasy of Influence" in which Jonathan Lethem notes that a number of the books in the so called "Canon" are variations on early books or ideas. Some call this stealing; others call this writing with influence. Does the notion that everything has already been written mean we can't produce anything original? Has every story been told?

Remember the game where you would sit in a circle and whisper an idea to each other and then each person would repeat the story, passing it around the circle. The last person to hear the story had to recount the story so that participants could hear how the story had been, sometimes, totally rewritten. To some degree, literature is like that. We read, and then we write, but is what we write original or is it rewriting a prior idea or story that we have heard or read elsewhere? Is there anything wrong with this; does it constitute plagiarism or is that something completely different?

Are you a writer who depends on influence?

The Power of Hate and a Four Year Old

No one knows the power of the word hate like a child, especially a four year old. At about four years old, most kids start to use the word hate with great frequency because it is an age of great frustration. As they become frustrated, kids mimic those around them and react in a similar fashion. Conseqently, it is not uncommon to hear "I hate this boot," "I hate crusts," or "I hate this shirt." However, when your child turns to you and says - with extra stress on the "I" - I...hate you" you realize that you are at a very important juncture. How you react to the moment will begin to formulate how your child learns the power of words.

At this crucial moment, a parent is faced with a few options: 1). walk away 2). redirect the child, so in a sense you ignore the issue, 3). tell the child that "hate" is a strong word and that he should use "not like" instead of hate, or 4). scream back "I hate you, too." I have tried 1-3, but for some reason yelling "I hate you" at a child is beyond me. The experience does allow a parent to rethink how the meaning of hate has changed.

According to Wikipedia, hate can mean several different things: "Hate can mean
the emotion of hate; a feeling of dislike so strong that it demands action
dislike intensely; feel antipathy or aversion towards; "I hate Mexican food"; "She detests politicians." However, it can also mean "an emotion of intense revulsion, distaste, enmity, or antipathy for a person, thing, or phenomenon; a desire to avoid, restrict, remove, or destroy its object. Because language is dynamic, the intensity and use of "hate" and "dislike" are more commonly linked than ever.

Are there things I dislike? Yes. But are there things I hate? Not many. I can't think of an intense hatred for anyone that has carried itself from my past into my present. Do I use the word? Yes, but not as much as I used to.

Raising a child allows a person to reconsider the power of words and actions. Sadly or ironically, I don't know if we can learn these lessons in many other ways other then the case where you find yourself responsible for fostering hate in a child.

Blogging Resources

I will be adding links about blogging tools. You can design your blog anyway you want, so feel free to add music, pictures, etc.. anything that helps personalize your blog.

Blog Away!