In Response to Essay Packet 2

I found this packet of essays to be somewhat different in a way I wasn’t exactly fond of. Don’t get me wrong I definitely respect the works and I find the Synthesis essays with the small remarks at the bottom divided by the lines to be more than interesting. Though there wasn’t much of a relationship I thought this was very profound and unique.

Language is extremely important in these essays because it’s what separates them from fiction and factual ideas. Essays like the ones from this packet use a combination of storytelling, ideas, imagination and fact to create the writings we see before us. Words like ‘Dream’, ‘Homonym’, ‘Maxim’ and other such words typically don’t appear in works like this, but I do find that really cool that they are separated from the rest of the essay they fall under. The word trickles down the essay and becomes the writer’s ideas (abstract for the most part) in which I believe they begin talking about themselves or a daydream they have experienced.

The essays that divulge into language use not only English but even outside of that and more, for example the essay: The Three Voices plays with Spanish (yes only using Naranjo, but still a very unique use and mesh of two languages to become one essay).

There is an odd way of confusing the reader in my opinion. To my belief there isn’t really a relationship between those poem-like writings below the lines of the synthesis essays. If there is some kind of relation it is little to none. As such in Synthesis VI where the essay speaks of a self-conscious writer (themself I believe) and in the small remarks the writer asks about where things have gone. Could this possibly refer to the writer’s mind and things they have lost?

In Response to Essay Packet

These essays are hard to read at some times, but for the most part they are pretty straight forward. I myself haven’t encountered writings like this until now, but I definitely enjoy them. I like how they begin with mostly factual sentences and statements as an essay normally would, but they have the backbone of a story, which of course follows their factual statements. They mesh together at such a great medium. Though some are on the more extreme, “pushing the envelope” kind of writing, side it is extremely intriguing to read. I found the story by Diane Ackerman, ‘Mute Dancers: How to Watch a hummingbird” to be one of these cases that I have to read it over a few time. It like most of the other essays in this packet begins with statements, descriptions of something in a factual way. In this case facts about the hummingbird. What they do, how they fly at high speeds, going from flower to flower stealing the rich nectar of blossoms, how they prefer red, trumpet-shaped flowers and so on. There of course comes in the opinion though, as she begins to explain why the humming bird apparently does not like to sing. This is interesting because there is no fact behind this, it just seems like a straight out opinion, but it flows into the story she tells next about her neighbor and how she had been needled by hummingbirds.

I like the way these are taken into account as a fictions story that happens to also be an essay or in essay form. It definitely changes the perspective of writings, and has definitely changed how I look at writing. I must say that even though I may not have noticed, it’s very much possible, and probable that I’ve read all sorts of essays but have taken them as a story where the author decided to throw in a few facts.  For the most part these essays are very forward, not hesitating to explain whatever it is the author is writing about and more, this I found in Sunday, especially with the first sentence, “White people couldn’t cook” but then again to truly write one’s thoughts and manifest into a proper writing, one must give into their thoughts to write something that comes from their mind and heart, not something society will necessarily accept right away. These essays are definitely something to be looked into more.