It is interesting that Malcolm X was
self-taught and was a major figure in the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement,
especially for only having an eighth grade education. Also the fact that he
learned a majority of it from copying the dictionary from front to back was
amazing. His friend Bimbi was his inspiration for wanting to expand his
knowledge and sparked his determination to better himself so his ideas can be
heard and expressed through his writings. Malcolm X is pretty inspirational
because of his tenacity and tactfulness in the face of adversity. He proves to
be pretty resourceful in his ways of learning like his use of phonics and other
writing skills that we use now as students is pretty intriguing. The repetition
and concentration is definitely outstanding especially how he remembers that
aardvark is the first word of the dictionary as well as its description in
detail. The writing he learned while in prison gave him a means to fight back
against society in his own way and establish himself as an important figure of
the 1960’s. He goes on to explain how the prison helped him focus his mind to
learn from books and how if he was to attend college instead that he would have
been involved more with fraternity pranks then actually studying his homework
or in the least bettering himself. In that matter I cannot help but agree with
him given that most college students these days spend a majority of their time partying
or clubbing instead of learning or taking their homework seriously. It could
also be said that people today can find it harder to do what he did due to the
fact that most prisons nowadays give prisoners access to Facebook accounts or
television as reward for good behavior rather than giving them books. The
upside is that most prisons offer education programs that way inmates do not
have to go it alone. Malcolm X’s reference to how reading books opened new
vistas for him to reflect on while in prison showed how far he had gone in his
journey for knowledge is impressive to say the least. I just think that these excerpts from his
autobiography show just how intelligent and dedicated Malcolm X was and that he
had the tactfulness to lead and be considered one of the greats right there
alongside Martin Luther King Jr. I also don’t think that it was coincidence
that Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. were friends but disagreed greatly on
the direction the Civil Rights Movement should take.
Monday, January 21, 2013
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Blog #3 Shitty First Drafts
I enjoyed reading "Shitty First Drafts" by Anne Lamott and found how she explains that everyone's first drafts are shitty. She also went on to mention that writing horrible first drafts is part of being a writer and that when you write your first draft just write what comes to mind at the time, because what you write at that time may not make any sense then but later will end up making sense. Like before writing this blog I wrote a pretty shitty first draft while riding the forty-three bus from the Eugene station to my home. I find it nice knowing that there is actual writers out there that have to go back re-write their works multiple times. I always had this preconceived idea that they always knew the right way to write their stories and it only took them once or twice to get it the exact way that they wanted it. The way her friend explains what a first, second, and third draft is to them is one of my favorite parts of this article. Finally I just found that this whole article was filled with good advice and interesting facts about writing and can't wait to put some of it to use in our writing 95 class
Friday, January 11, 2013
Blog #2 The Price of Reading is Eternal Vigilance
I find reading " The Price of Reading is Eternal Vigilance" an interesting read and would of never thought much about the authority of books and the effects of books on my reading before.When I read books I always find myself questioning what the authors reasoning for doing the things they do to characters in their books. I did that recently with a fantasy series that I have been reading for a long time. The author over the years created four protagonist that you really grow to like because of their intricate ties to the main character of the series. He recently decided that the four needed to be killed off over the last set of the most recent series of stories before he started with a new one and i found myself getting very agitated over their deaths. Just as Anatole was getting angry with the authors he was reading. I think that Anatole Broyard makes really good use of analogies in his writings; one my favorite ones from this writing is when Anatole compared most writers to that of beggars that are willing to lie to take advantage of the unsuspecting.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
A Little About Me
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A map of the Samoan Islands where my dad's family is from. |
A picture of a little harbor that is on Klamath Lake across from Moore Park. |
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One of my favorites it has a good mix of comedy and horror. |
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