Post # 10 Maps To Anywhere Cont.

For this post, I will continue my evaluation of Bernard Cooper's Maps To Anywhere. In my earlier post, I stated how I had mixed feelings about the book. After reading through about half way, I couldn't determine whether or not I liked the book. However, after reading through the rest of the book I can now say that I enjoyed reading Maps To Anywhere.

One of my favorite passages from the second half of the book is Don't Think About Breathing. It starts off calm and peaceful talking about the air. The writer goes into great detail describing the air and its contents and a got a feeling of tranquility from it. That's when things change dramatically. The writer continues describing the air, but in a much different light. He begins talking about plague and war within the air and all the toxins that can be found. I think this approach is very interesting and ultimately, the writer's intention was to describe life by comparing it to breathing. He wanted to show that there is good and bad and you go through it all, just like taking in a breath of air.

Another one of my favorite passages from the second half is Under Water. In this passage the writer talks about a family a the summertime. The family consist of a mother, a father, and their child. He never states the gender of the child, but based on the dialog in the passage, I get the feeling that the child is a girl. Throughout the passage the writer describes everything in great detail, especially in the beginning when the writer describes what the child is seeing under water. Throughout the passage I get the sense that the writer is promoting relaxation and the importance of family. The family in the passage do nothing but play in their pool and enjoy themselves all day, and even go into the night.

In closing, I didn't care too much for Maps To Anywhere at first. There were a few passages I liked, however, there was pretty much an equal number of passages I didn't like. After reading the rest of book, I've come to like it a lot. There are many passages I like and they far out number the ones I didn't care for. Overall, Bernard Cooper's Maps To Anywhere is definitely worth reading.  

Post # 9 Maps To Anywhere

For this post, I will be discussing Bernard Cooper's Maps To Anywhere. At first, I didn't care for it too much. I found it be tedious and I didn't like reading it. The book opens with a section entitled By Any Other Name and it talked about kids making crank calls. I found this to be pointless and it was hard to continue reading. On the other hand, I do feel like this section must have held some significance, and I must not be seeing it.

Moving on, I found the section Atlantis to be totally different. I like the way it started out. I like the second line a lot and feel like it was powerfully descriptive. Overall, this section took something as simple as a barbershop and getting a haircut and through description, made it appear to be so much more. I feel that this really shows a writer's skill, and those that can do this effectively are truly great.

In closing, I've been having mixed reactions to Bernard Cooper's Maps To Anywhere. Some of the sections haven't peaked my interest. However, there are a few sections that I really enjoyed reading. On the other hand, I feel that in order to fully analyze Maps To Anywhere, I have to finish reading all of it. I look forward to completing it and hope there are more sections like Atlantis left to be read.

Post # 8 Creative Essay

For this post I will address the topic of creative essays. I found them to be really interesting and much different from what we have been reading thus far. For instance when it comes to poetry and fiction writing, the best pieces of literature are those that take the time to explain things in great detail. They are lengthy and use a lot of imagery. However, essays are much different. They are written to be concise and to the point. They are much shorter in length and are designed to get straight to the purpose of taking the time to read them.

In my writing background I have been given many opportunities to write creative works of art that could be placed in a book but never have I thought about creative essays. As the reading continued to shape the idea of writing in such a specialized way for essays I began to think of how my writing could be placed in the category of creative essays. Which is very surprising because writing and reading are my favorite subjects but essays surely wouldn't be seen as one of my favorite variations of the two. However, creative essays sound like a really good challenge because through the strict rules and small room to venture I feel that my writing skill could improve. When I write my stories they seem to linger into each characteristic of every character because I'm obsessed with detail even though that usually changes the length of my entire story. In time though I feel that essay writing is also seen as boring because it usually leaves no room for imagination and only lots of facts.

As I read the story that is describing creative essays I see that creativity can make all works of writing more compelling. This is one of the reasons that I want to become a writer. To give a new approach to the way writing is done and how it is further perceived. The editors outlook on the article made me feel that essays are actually more complex to writers which gives readers the advantage of enjoying what writers made simple. Even with that being said, it is still an art form so interpretation and meaning can still be entitled to complexity which makes essays a get in and get out style of writing.