Category: LIL420 Journals

I met with Donna Gaspar Jarvis on 3/28/2023

This meeting was incredibly helpful for me. We discussed a lot about building my résumé as a writer. One of the ways she suggested was to look for experience as a volunteer. Donna pointed me to multiple online sources ranging from volunteer tutoring to working with nonprofits. We didn’t go over the specifics of creating a résumé, as I felt comfortable with the process already, but we did have a discussion regarding work skills and how to present them during an interview. After our meeting, she sent me links to multiple tests, like a work and life values inventory and core strengths and skills. Overall, this meeting was helpful for me as it has given me sources and opportunities to look at professional development.

“This lasted until the night that the damn thing discharged under my ear. If I’d been sleeping with my head on the other half of the pillow, I would probably not be telling you this story now, but I escaped unharmed. The pillow exploded into a blizzard of feathers and the bullet took out the lamp and buried itself in the closet door…I have, as I told you, reader, the psychic sensitivities of mud” (What Moves the Dead, Kingfisher, 54).

I’ll try my best to analyze some aspects of the above quote, but it’s a little difficult as my source is a work of fiction and is not countering any topics. This work serves as a source for me in two ways. First, it is written in first-person, which is the same point of view that I’m writing my novella in. Secondly, it has aspects of a horror/thriller, and while my work isn’t entirely focused on that genre, it does have some horror imagery. I’ve decided to analyze Kingfisher’s use of first-person narrative, as shown by the paragraph above. Her novel, What Moves the Dead, is a retelling of Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher. Like in the original story, the narrator in Kingfisher’s retelling speaks directly to the reader, as though he were writing a letter or directly recounting the events in person. While addressing the reader is not uncommon, I feel that it must be done frequently enough to remind the reader of their “participation” in the work, but not frequently enough that it becomes overbearing. I haven’t completely finished Kingfisher’s work, but it seems that the narrator very rarely addresses the reader and when he does, it feels almost jarring, as though you were suddenly reminded that the narrator is aware of you. Although it may work to add tension/mystery into a horror/thriller genre, it feels of little significance in Kingfisher’s work. In my (limited) experience, I’d suggest writers to make a decision early on if he/she/they want to address a reader directly. It’s more common in contemporary works to not address the reader, which tends to be a safer option. If an author decides to address the reader within a first-person narrative, I’d recommend establishing that connection early on, either in the form of a letter or by directly addressing the reader within the first chapter/section to avoid jarring the reader later by their sudden participation.

I took UNE’s Citizenship course during the Fall 2022 semester. The course’s main purpose was to direct students to engage in civic contributions and to reflect upon not only their rights as citizens, but their responsibilities as a global citizen. While I was familiar with a lot of the information presented in this course, I believe it was an important step in my transition from a student life to an adult life. The course also touched upon the importance of self-education and being able to formulate your own opinions based on information from multiple sources with different viewpoints. In her first chapter, Nussbaum outlines the main abilities/traits that are synonymous with the humanities. “The ability to think critically; the ability to transcend local loyalties and to approach world problems as a “citizen of the world”; and, finally, the ability to imagine sympathetically the predicament of another person” (Nussbaum, 7) are all abilities that were insisted upon during the Citizenship course. As members of a democracy, we must be able to, as stated above, formulate our own opinions using critical thinking skills and sympathize with others in our nation that have differences in political leanings, gender, religion, etc. The arts and humanities assist in developing these skills. Within my own major and minors, I’ve been expected to use critical thinking skills to approach problems. I’ve also been able to express my own beliefs and ideologies through written and visual works while also being exposed to works that sometimes counter those beliefs. The experiences I’ve had within the humanities have helped me become a conscious citizen, not just within my country, but globally. The curiosity and acceptance fostered by humanities courses have helped me look at issues from multiple viewpoints while also allowing me to have my own opinion based on personal values. This idea of the humanities fostering civic engagement is something Nussbaum discusses in chapter six. The arts, she says, are directly “descended” from our early experiences of playing as children and that “this curiosity contributes toward the development of healthy attitudes in friendship, love, and, later, political life” (Nussbaum, 100).

American society and culture is driven primarily by capitalist ideals and market-based values, which is reflected prominently within our education system. As an interdisciplinary major, I’ve had to think a lot about the value of a humanities-based education as well as how that education plays a role within my daily life. Many people believe that the humanities have no “instrumental” value within society, meaning that they offer nothing (or very little) in terms of economic gain or give people the skills they need in order to be successful in a capitalist society. Brody describes this way of thinking as “economism”, “It represents the intrusion of economic ways of thinking into areas of human existence for which such thinking is ill suited”. While the humanities can expand upon professions (such as Brody’s example of merging the humanities with medical studies in order to strengthen the teaching of ethics), I personally view the humanities as having more of an intrinsic value. This isn’t to say that I view my humanities-based education as less than say STEM-based education. For me, I pursue the humanities because the challenges and the things I learn about make me happy and allow me to look at the world and myself in different ways. I see my education as one that allows me to strive for personal growth and development, and to me that holds more value to me than then pursuing a major/profession, etc. solely for economic gain (although that is an entirely valid motivation). Clune, I feel, describes the intrinsic goal of a humanities-based education by saying, “It’s [education] to enable you to see things that were invisible, to hear new sounds, to understand what didn’t make sense”. The system of constant learning and personal growth that Clune describes is part of what makes the humanities valuable to me, regardless if it is assisting our economic system.

Most of Scarry’s work examines the idea of beauty, especially in the artistic and literary sense. The first section of the reading really stood out to me, as Scarry specifically talks about beauty within “error”. Scarry writes, “So far error has been talked about as a cognitive event that just happens to have beauty–like anything else–as one of its objects. But that description, which makes error independent of beauty, may itself be wrong. The experience of “being in error” so inevitably accompanies the perception of beauty that it begins to seem one of its abiding structural features.” (Scarry, 19). I believe that Scarry is describing the beauty of growth and revision. This is something that Jesse Miller has discussed a lot during his creative writing classes. As someone who focuses a lot on writing, I find a lot of beauty in first drafts, attempts, etc. All of the errors within these first tries are products of a mind in motion, yet when people look upon their first drafts and the magnitude of errors within them, they typically cringe and think it’s the worst thing in the world. I’ve definitely thought this way about my own work, but like Scarry says, error inevitably accompanies beauty, so I’ve been trying to rework how I think of first drafts. When I look back on my previous works, especially some of the earlier sections within my novella project, I see simple mistakes and things that I wouldn’t have done now, yet I find it almost humorous. It shows the amount of growth and the knowledge I’ve gained, and I personally think it’s a beautiful thing. In terms of Mourning Picture, I think Scarry would focus on how different perspectives bring about new layers of beauty, even if some of the perspectives are imitations.

Quotation 1: “This imitation is reinforced by the analogies which exist between the painter’s “language” of expression and that of the poet. We can “read” a canvas, notice metaphors, symbols, even spatial or color “rhymes” within it. Conversely we can “look at” a poem, observe its shape on the page, discuss its “imagery” and “texture.” The interrelatedness of these terms underscores their appropriateness in both poetry and painting and makes it easy to relate the two”. (Moramarco, 25)

Comment 1: This quote made me think of how we discuss written works and visual “artistic” pieces. While I understand the first viewpoints discussed in Moramarco’s text, I believe that artistic expression, whether in the written form or painted/drawn/etc, can open new insights into human thought by being compared/contrasted with one another. As Moramarco states above, poetry and painting are easily relatable through terms, once again bringing to mind our conversation of the inherent interdisciplinary aspect of the humanities. Each piece on its own can encapsulate a message and feelings, yet when combined, there’s an added layer of thoughts that one may not have considered by just looking at a single piece. I think, in a way, some people may find the idea of this combination uncomfortable, as it also makes them question their own ideas of originality.

Quotation 2: “This was our world./ I could remake each shaft of grass/ feeling its rasp on my fingers, /draw out the map of every lilac leaf /or the net of veins on my father’s /grief-tranced hand”. (Rich, 7-12)

Comment 2: I was drawn to these lines because of their “humanness”. Based on historical details of the painting, and thus the inspiration of the poem, Effie has passed away and is no longer part of the world. Despite her literal dehumanization, this section of the poem reminds the reader of her connections with the physical world. The intimate details of “each shaft of grass” and the veins on her father’s “grief-tranced hand” allow us to see parts of her world that we may not have been able to see by merely looking at the painting alone. Overall, I just think this is a beautiful section that puts the humanity back into a dead child.

Comment 3: The lines from Rich’s poem directly correlate to the ideas brought about by Moramarco. By being able to regain some of the intimate details that Elmer did not portray in his work, Rich’s imagery adds on another layer of meaning to the work, such as why we can see the father’s hands more clearly than the mother’s.

Question: While I can’t think of any off the top of my head, I’m wondering if there are any downsides to intertwining poetry and visual art. What if, in connecting a piece of prose to a painting, we misinterpret the message that either the author or the painter wanted to express? I feel like that question can stem into the realm of separating the art from the artist, which isn’t one that I have a confident answer to yet.

Prompt: For Journal #3 Look back over your past humanities courses and assignments and identify three to four of the following: most memorable work(s) you encountered, questions you still think about, a sample of your work you’re most proud of or one you wish you could do over. Write a post that describes what you did then and what you notice about that work now. You’ll drawn from this initial “inventory” (to anticipate a term from Newstok) when you select a revision project.

Response:

1. Most Memorable Work: I think my most memorable work was probably a short story I wrote in Jesse Miller’s advanced fiction writing course. It was my first time being in a course where people were as passionate and serious about writing as I was, so I wanted to really try and do my best on our first assignment. The short story I wrote was title, “Allan Nash”. It was set in the 1960s and focused on the protagonist, Allan, and his relationship with one of the old men he delivers newspapers to. At the time, I got a lot of nice comments and helpful critiques that helped me grow as a writer. Even though my final assignment in Professor Miller’s class was to revise this story, I feel like there are things I can change to improve it. One of the biggest things I wish I could change regards the characters. I feel like I tried to include too many people and too many subplots to make a meaningful work, yet I’m proud of the dialogue.
2. Questions I Still Think About: Last spring, I took a course with Dr. Frank called “Victorian Monsters”. During this course, we would look at monster literature from the Victorian era and analyze their themes. A question that came up a lot during class discussions was, “What makes something a monster?”. To answer this question, the class did weekly QCQs on books/materials we read. The QCQs I created brought up a lot of questions for me based on different quotations and my comments to them. I won’t list all of the questions I had, but one that still sticks with me from this course was about how monster literature changed readers’ perceptions of sexual assault and if it had allowed individuals during the Victorian era to freely talk about those issues without it seeming “monstrous”. When looking back at the QCQ assignments, I noticed that I asked a lot of questions regarding Victorian society, so that could be something I could look into more.
3. Work I’m Most Proud Of: The work that I’m most proud of is from an independent study I did with Jesse Miller. The goal of the independent study was to look at what goes into writing a novella, such as character design, outlining, finding agents, etc. While working on smaller reflections and exercises, Professor Miller had me write about 70 pages of a novella. The novella I wrote is called “Caim and Abel”. It follows a man, named Abel, as he tries to navigate his life while being haunted by a demon named Caim. I’m proud of this work because it really pushed me to write regularly and to have confidence in my own creative choices. One of the things I noticed when looking back at some of my earlier chapters was just how dialogue heavy it felt, but in the later chapters, the amount of dialogue decreases without losing its meaning.
   • Sample: “It would have been easier if Quinn had been disappointed or angry at me for not going in, but he wasn’t. He never seemed to be angry with me. He never seemed to be disappointed with me. Quinn was nothing but supportive and understanding, even if I didn’t deserve that from him sometimes. Nevertheless, he smiled at me and stretched his arms in the air, soaking in the heat from the sun. God, Quinn was beautiful. He wasn’t necessarily fit, but he was lean, and tall, and his hair practically turned into molten bronze at the hint of sunlight.”
4. Work I Wish I Could Do Over: Honestly, I really wish I could redo most of my creative writing assignments based on feedback I received. If I wasn’t already working on the second manuscript of “Caim and Abel”, I would say that I would redo that project. I wrote a story in my short fiction writing class that could’ve been better. The story, called “Six Bullets”, was about an FBI-type agent who has her proposal interrupted by assassins. I rewrote it for my final and changed it to focus more on the characters rather than the action side of things, but it still has a long way to go. On the other hand, I took a grant writing course with Professor Miller a few semesters ago. While I got a good grade in the class, I felt like I could’ve done better on the semester-long project. We had to create a nonprofit and went through the grant seeking process step by step. I wish I could redo that project as I feel like my group tried to add too much into our nonprofit, so there was a lot of miscommunication when it came to the writing process.

Prompt: Part 1: We’ve been working towards a definition of the Humanities. For your second journal entry, think about how you’d explain their significance/why the humanities matter: what do you feel you gain personally by studying and working within the humanities? What do you think you gain professionally? What do you think of claim(s) for the broader social value of the humanities? Use Helen Small’s introduction to The Value of the Humanities as a starting point for your response. Part 2: Part 2 may feel somewhat disconnected, but one of our course goals is precisely to create bridges from your academic study to your professional work. Write a brief description of the kind of work you enjoy doing and/or think you’re well equipped to do. If you could invent your own job, what would it be? What kind of job is this, or what is the main purpose of this job? What kind of tasks would you perform? Which of your skills, training, or experiences would this job call on? How might you explain how your undergraduate study (including your humanities degree) has prepared you for it? In general, you want to think about the nature of the work, its specific responsibilities, the environment you’d work in, who you’d work with, and your qualifications and temperament/disposition.

Part 1: The introduction to Helen Small’s, The Value of the Humanities is primarily comprised of defenses for humanities. Many of these defenses discuss the meaning and (obviously) the value of the humanities within cultural, societal, and political contexts, yet I was drawn to Small’s third defense. The “least trusted line of defense” of the humanities regards the contribution the humanities make to our individual and collective happiness (Small, 5). This can also go along with her ideas of the humanities’ ‘intrinsic value’ on page 6. The humanities, unlike natural sciences, have meaning because of the people who engage with them. The passion and values that people assign to disciplines within the humanities are endless. Explanations and theories can never truly be right or wrong, as the humanities allow for a variety of viewpoints. In a personal sense, studying various disciplines within the humanities has not only brought me a sense of happiness and belonging (similar to Small’s third defense), but it has also helped me grow into a multi-faceted individual. I can see problems in the world that can have multiple solutions and consequences for different groups of people, and I honestly feel as though I’ve grown more empathetic towards people that I don’t necessarily agree with in political, ideological, or social settings. I think that my personal gains are also valuable within a professional context. I’m able to work with others and mediate problems that arise by looking at each solution carefully. Especially within an interdisciplinary context, the humanities has challenged me to use critical thinking skills and different areas of my brain that I feel I am able to adapt to different professional environments and ways of thinking. As our discussion said last week, the humanities, unlike sciences, is expansive and can bring heighten our perspectives and ways of viewing the world around us.

Part 2: I’m not sure I have a great answer to this prompt. My dream job isn’t exactly a job, but it’s something that I feel well-equipped to do. I want to be an author and publish books/works that mean something to people. I love creating characters, worlds, and problems that people can get lost in, especially when they need an escape from the world around them. It feels a little silly to write it out, as it feels like I’m a kid answering the question: “What would you like to be when you grow up?” I don’t know if I can really say what the purpose of writing is. For me, I think the purpose of writing (in the context of fictional works) is to connect readers to different ideas/themes/people/settings that they may not be exposed to in their day to day lives. If I were to answer in a regular conversation, I guess I’d say that there really isn’t a purpose to writing (again, in the context of fictional works. Non-fiction works have a purpose in exploring and passing on ideas/knowledge). I write because it feels right. It makes me feel whole and it’s something I genuinely love, even when the process of rewriting, drafting, editing, researching, and rewriting again gets frustrating. I’ve had a lot of experiences and classes regarding creative writing (and writing in general). The classes I’ve taken at UNE have ranged from creative non-fiction to grant writing, which emphasizes the variety of writing forms. Classes such as these have enabled me to take on different forms of writing without sacrificing my own personal voice. As an interdisciplinary studies major, I’ve taken many classes in the English, history, and philosophy disciplines as well as many natural science courses. This variety has forced me to use different parts of my brain and helped me understand different viewpoints and ways of thinking. As a writer, an interdisciplinary background not only helps me create plotlines, but also helps me develop realistic characters that have rich backgrounds and ways of viewing the world. It also helps me write characters with identities different than my own. Most of the time, writing is solitary, but I’ve learned how to incorporate others into the process through my classes with Professor Miller. The act of writing can be accomplished alone, but I’d love a space to collaborate with others through editing, brainstorming, or reading sessions.

Prompt: PART 1: During historicizes the term “humanities” in order to arrive at a suitable definition. By discussing what the humanities were, he attempts to describe what the contemporary field (or set of disciplines, or objects of study, etc.) is. Bod et al also work toward a definition of the subject whose history they set out to write. For this post, think about how you would describe the humanities to someone outside this area (how this field is different from, say, the social sciences or natural or physical sciences) AND think about the part of During’s or Bod’s articles that best helps you do this. Feel free to discuss parts of the article that muddy things for you, too. Which ideas might benefit from a little ventilation in class discussion? PART 2: Your annotations and work in Part 1 lay the groundwork for this activity, so this is a short one. Focus on “Projects” (p. 25) in Harris and write a paragraph that “expresses your understanding of [During’s and/or Bod’s] project.” Harris wants you to paraphrase and use at least one direct quotation. Makes sense. Since you’re reading two attempts to define the humanities, consider finding passages to make a text-text connection between the two pieces, and/or use one piece to note differences between the two projects: how does reading one article clarify what the other is trying to do?

Part 1: There isn’t one true definition for what the humanities are, as the term “humanities” denotes different subjects in multiple different countries. With an American point of view, I consider humanities to be the study of subjects that enhance our worldview while also leaving room for various interpretations of evidence, whether that be from historical and cultural studies, or from primary sources like literature or art. As During says, “there is no “idea of the humanities”. There is instead a humanities world: a loosely linked conglomeration of practices, interests, comportments, personae, moods, purposes, and values, and the various settings which these practices, interests, and so on inhabit” (During, 2). This is evident in the inconsistencies regarding the humanities throughout the world. Bod gives multiple examples of the humanities on a global scale, from a Westernized viewpoint to Islamic scholarship and Chinese practices (Bod, 3-4). Considering the multiple definitions and viewpoints regarding what the humanities truly are and what they encapsulate, I think that there isn’t a correct definition, or rather, all definitions are correct. It makes me wonder about the scope of how interdisciplinary the humanities are. If the humanities are interdisciplinary, is there a point where we have draw a line between it and social/natural/physical sciences or is there a way that humanities can be all-encompassing?

Part 2: Both the During and Bod pieces insinuate that there is no true definition of the humanities. However, where as During takes a broad approach to the humanities, Bod discusses cultural differences in how we attempt to define it. One of During’s attempted definitions states, “We must allow that the humanities can potentially focus on anything at all: things, texts, actions, performances, natural forces, individuals, animals, concepts, artworks, moods, money, beliefs, social structures, and so on” (During, 4). The claim that anything can be considered a part of the humanities is something that Bod touches upon, though not as explicitly. Bod attempts to ground the reader through Wilhelm Dilthey’s definition of the humanities, “Rather than explaining (erklaren) the world in terms of countable and measurable regularities, the humanities attempt to understand (verstehen) the intentions of historical actors; the specific objects investigated by the humanities are “the expressions of the human mind” (Bod, 3). After this grounding, Bod discusses the concept of humanities, especially from areas outside of Europe and America. Similar to the definition posed by During above, Bod’s recounting of humanities in a cultural/global context supports the idea that the focus of the humanities can be “anything at all”.