Anzaldua

Anzaldua:

Summary:  Anzaldua's essay discusses ideas about writing processes and how writing is effected by different up bringing. She talks about her own writing style which is very different from most of the authors we have read in the class before. Her style is more like an art in that she uses images to evoke her thoughts, she sends herself into a trance state to feel what she is going to write about before she actually writes anything. She uses metaphors as a way of expressing what she is trying to explain about writing and her connection to writing but in deeper meaning.

Synthesis: Anzaldua can be synthesized with Maurry first of all because both authors talk about their writing process, and each have a different style of a process, Maurry was the one who took notes and then dictated to his wife what to say, and then would read what she typed while taking more revision notes. Anzaldua looks at writing as art, she visualizes what it is she wants to say before writing it. This essay can also connect to Hooks, Lammot, and Diaz, all authors that struggled to write when they wanted to write the most, they all mention how you must persist with writing in order to become good at it. I think this can also connect to Allan's inspired writer  you have to find that writer inside of you to bring you to the words you need to write.

Response	Quotation
I connected to this quote right away because when i was seven, eight, nine, fifteen, sixteen years old, I would lay awake at night in bed with a flashlight and read until way late in the night but hiding from my mother so i wouldn't get my book taken away.	"When I was seven, eight, nine, fifteen, sixteen years old, I would read in bed with a flashlight under the covers, hiding my self imposed insomnia from my mother."
I liked this one because when you think about it,the stories that you have are not known about or "seen" until you talk about them with others or until you write them down to be read.	"my stories are acts encapsulated in time, enacted every time they are spoken aloud or read silently."
I thought this was an interesting point. living in a westren culture i definitely see how society does these things to art. I think it takes away the value of the art when you go to such lengths to protect it, there is no personal connection to the art when you go to a museum and look at a painting behind class, because there is no story to go with it.  in the native cultures their art hangs in their homes, they treat in like a person, and sometimes even worship the art. But it has a story, and it has meaning to them which is what makes it special.	"westren cultures behave differently toward works of art than do tribal cultures. The sacrifices westren cultures make are in housing their art works in the best structures designed by the best architects and in servicing them with insurance, guards to protect them, conservators to maintain them, specialist to mount and display them and the educated and upper classes to view them. tribal cultures keep art works in honored and sacred places in the home and elsewhere. "
This quote caught my attention as well, because it was thought provoking. When you think of black and white in terms of color you think white is pure, black is evil, but in your dreams, white is associated with death, and disease.	"Though in the conscious mind, black and dark may be associated with death, evil, and destruction, in the subconscious mind and in our dreams, white is associated with disease, death and hopelessness."
All things lost or forgotten become the most powerful, I think this quote really speaks to that idea.	"It has become a conquered thing, a dead "thing" separated from nature and, therefore, its power."
I really liked this one. I love the metaphor used because of the image it puts in your mind. Also it makes since, when you see an image you are going to have feelings about that image rise. and then the words you use to describe those feelings are the cables to the bridge in this case. .	"An image is a bridge between evoked emotions and conscious knowledge, words are the cables that hold up the bridge. Images are more direct, more immediate than words, and closer to the unconscious. picture language precedes thinking in words, the metaphorical mind precedes analytical consciousness."

Thoughts: I enjoyed reading this essay, I liked the emotion in her writing, I liked all of the metaphors used in the piece because it gave the piece voice, and for me made it easier to visualize what she was explaining about her writing process  I also enjoyed reading this because reading and searching for meaning in her metaphors reminded me of my last years english class where we would analyze metaphors. I thought that this essay hit some good main points, I think maybe the author goes to the extreme case with her writing process being but in a trance to visualize her writing, but i think visualization is something that is helpful when writing or planning to write because you can give your writing a sense of direction, or map out where it is you want to end up at the end of a piece.  All in all I thought this was a good essay to read.