I learned a lot reading the essays from Vowell, Lowry, and Bellow. Personally, they were not my favorite reads. "What He Said There", had its moments of sentimentality and clever lines but I was not at all intrigued by the abrupt breaks from glorifying this experience to popping back into modern day where the term 'Dude' is more commonly used. It made it lose a sense of fluidity which may very well have been the writers purpose considering this history enthusiast is trying to soak up an experience that is adulterated with people that may not even know what their purpose is at this historical site. So perhaps this is a device to rip the audience out of the past just as she was ripped out during her experience.
I also thought it interesting to write about this sort of nonfiction: Narrative of a real human experience involving a historical milestone. It's almost like Non Fiction squared. The idea of documenting an event about an event is interesting and layered.
Bellow's essay seemed more self absorbed than anything. It probably had to do with the language, amour propre meaning "self love" or "self esteem" and his subject matter, although it was meant to pertain to everyone's individual view of self, I couldn't shake the fact that underlying all of this, he was talking about himself. And if there were any doubt in your mind, a paragraph of having a bronze bust created of him while he watched a Bears game was enough of a give away. Somehow this essay, although bringing many poignant points was ultimately brought down by this underlying desire to talk about himself. Citing Freud's mother and politicians was a good attempt at dulling the sharp hints that underneath it all, it was really about him. What really got me absorbed was this universal want of our virtues and how we see ourselves to convey itself on film. I could relate to that as having almost never taken a good picture in my life besides my drivers license. But then to take that idea and having a glorified sculpture put in a library while you are too busy to watch a game seemed, frankly, UGLY to me. It made me feel as though he deserved the shiny bald spot poking through, the huge pores, the bags under the eyes. Something about ending the piece with himself doing something ugly made feel the overall piece was a self absorbed essay of what the writer thinks he deserves which frankly makes him look like er...how do I put this softly? An ass.
However, there is something to be learned through this essay. Many might like it. I wish to like it as well so if there's any insight that others think I have missed I feel completely open to accepting that. So far only consulting myself, this is what I have taken from the essay. There is a fine line between writing about yourself and universalizing is and being simply self gratifying. It will show, it will seep through and ooze ego. And it is definitely something one should be careful of. In light that nothing written is never done on accident, perhaps the paradox of a flawless bust being created for a man watching a game being the same man who's photo was ugly for a beautiful book he wrote is what the writer was trying to express. The idea of mediums in which beauty can contradict themselves to the eye.
Lastly, we have Lowry. This essay i feared was not long enough to delve into the amazing depth that this was heading. The obsession with death, the idea of change, and the evolution of judgment through horrible experiences in life. I felt that this essay had so much to offer that I wanted to know about. This piece also struck me because I am a sucker for relationships. Any way in which two people find themselves entwined in ach other's lives is always a unique and complicated concept. There will be so much not absorbed by the people who observe it. And this piece was also layered: It was about several relationships. It was about marriage, friendship, Karla's relationship with God and the evolution of even the author's relationship with God, having gone through the loss of her own son. The common relationship that was only grazed upon but was always present in the essay was everyone's relationship with death, some more obvious than others. Karla's relationship with death looms over the whole essay because she is sentenced to die. The author's relationship with death is a clear obsession based on trauma. And even Dana's relationship with death is subtle but it is there. Dana is a minister on death row having interacted with the condemned as part of his daily life. And if Karla indeed does get executed that will alter something within Dana about the end of life and wanting to be eternally bound to someone who is no longer in this world.
This essay was extremely helpful in expressing the use of themes. These themes seem more embedded psychologically because each character is tied to them in some way and since it's Non Fiction, these are not merely artistic choices they are real afflictions. This seems important because themes tie people and characters together, which makes the narrative more relative. It conveys to the audience that, even if it refers to deviant behavior, that it exists in more than one person, in more than one realm.
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