ALL MISSING WORK FROM LAST MARKING PERIOD DUE IF YOU WANT CREDIT!
Discussion:
Queen of the Fall--Please POST A COMMENT ON THIS BLOG POST that answers the following questions in well-developed paragraphs (write on a word document first and copy into the comment box):
1. What role does religion play in Livingston's life? Give specific examples.
2. What is the significance of losing her virginity and becoming a "bad girl"?
3. Find a strong well-written passage that you like from your reading. What makes this passage effective--the language, the ideas, the imagery? Discuss the writing technique that makes the passage strong (be sure to indicate the page number and quote from the text).
WRITING: Continue to work on Natalie Goldberg Test #1
EQ: What is creative nonfiction?
- Common Elements of Creative Nonfiction
"[Creative nonfiction] can be identified by these common elements: personal presence (the author's self as spectator or participant, whether on the page or behind the scenes), self-discovery and self-motivation, flexibility of form (the tendency for the form to arise from the content rather than the content to be contorted to fit an inverted pyramid or five-paragraph or similarly prescriptive model), veracity (to paraphrase Annie Dillard, rendering the real world coherent and meaningful either analytically or artistically), and literary approaches (drawing on narrative techniques also used in fiction or lyrical language also used in poetry or dramatic rendering of scenes or cinematic uses of pacing and focus)."
(Robert L. Root, The Nonfictionist's Guide: On Reading and Writing Creative Nonfiction. Rowman & Littlefield, 2008)
- Walt Whitman on Writing About Real Things
"Whatever may be the case in years gone by, the true use for the imaginative faculty of modern times is to give ultimate vivification to facts, to science, and to common lives, endowing them with the glows and glories and final illustriousness which belong to every real thing, and to real things only."
(Walt Whitman, "A Backward Glance O'er Travel'd Roads," 1888)
https://www.creativenonfiction.org/
https://www.creativenonfiction.org/online-reading/what-creative-nonfiction
http://barriejeanborich.com/what-is-creative-nonfiction-an-introduction/
https://www.uvm.edu/wid/writingcenter/tutortips/nonfiction.html
HMWK: Read to pg. 86 for Thursday
Well. Livingston sees herself as the Virgin depicted in the bible. Her family and herself are hyper religious, so losing her virginity is kind of like a big "oh no" to her. I don't really see why she thinks it makes her a "bad girl", but religion is weird.
ReplyDelete"But when he stood by my side and said 'I'm onto you' with a wink, I went along with it. I'd long ago acquired the habit of hiding how little I knew and more than that, I feared losing that speck of connection, the small but meaningful space between the Father's wink and his words: 'I'm onto you'." Page 56
This paragraph shows the creepiness of priests. Well, stereotypical catholic priests, at least. I like how she's descriptive and repeating the words 'I'm onto you'.
1. She is very religious. As a baby, she was baptized, and spent much of her time growing up in churches with priests, and in church groups. Therefore, she thinks abstaining from sexual activity until marriage is the only well way to live in life. This leads her to think of herself like the virgin Mary.
ReplyDelete“I’d been baptized at Corpus Christi as a baby…” (Livingston, 54)
“I’d come to Mass willingly, and often on my own….” (54)
2. Sonja losing her virginity means she has “betrayed her religion”, and is now a “bad girl” for doing so. She has been told for a long time not to have sex until marriage, and she has done just the opposite. So, in her mind, she is bad for doing that.
3. “But for all the poetry, for all the study groups and talks of hopes and fears deep into the night. the echo of piano and cello, for all the rallies and demonstrations for peace - the truth is that I lived in the rectory for other reasons. Despite the fact formal prayer felt like a pile of pebbles set on my tongue, in truth, I loved the old building and its many rooms precisely because it was a church.” (55)
I just love this passage. The imagery of a group of people in a big church, late in the night, with classical music playing nearby. It really speaks to me, and I can actually relate to this.
The role religion plays in Livingston's life because it creates her moral and shapes her imagine more because she always looked at herself as a Virgin depicted in the bible, so losing her virginity makes her a “Bad Girl” because it’s going against what she was taught from a child. “I’M NOT THE ONE who placed the virgin outside the priest's office.” This excerpt from page 56 of the book interested me, I can’t tell what it means and it leaves me to try and interpret so much it’s really something that almost jolts your mind with thoughts .
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteYou spelled Livingston wrong
DeleteSonja Livingston sees herself as the virgin she described in her essay Her family and herself are very religious, so when she lost her virginity, it was I want to say “sin worthy”. Her depicting herself as a bad girl was more acceptable at that time. Now that she’s in her teenage years, being a “good girl” was strange. “It wasn’t that I didn’t revere Our lady. I’d always admired Mary, not praying to her so much as finding comfort in her presence” and “But one day something tipped me off, a thing said at church, someone hinting at reality of Mary being pregnant without sex, so that I had no choice to quiz anyone who’d answer, asking about the matter over and over: Do you really believe?” (Livingston, 58) It’s important because now it seems she’s doubting the Virgin Mary. Should she even believe in Mary, because the significance in Mary getting pregnant, is more of a sign that getting pregnant is “okay”.
ReplyDeleteThe religion had role in Livingston's life. At Corpus Christi church, the progressive priest offered the college students (including her) the rectory. They posted flyers announcing the visit for liberation theologians, also ushering people in the nonviolence study groups, locking the old building, keeping the urban church occupied for the priest to live in a grittier section of the city. She had also been baptized at that church when she was a baby. That church was like a home to her. She thought about searching for peace. She loved being at that church and looking at the sanctuary, and looking at the statues. At Prince Street was the only place where she could find peace in her teenage years. Being a bad girl that wear bad girl clothes, such as rip clothes and losses her virginity. When she losses her virginity, it is a sin. She thought about Mary, the mother of Jesus. She thought about her because she was a virgin, meaning that she did not have sex, but had a child. Now she questions if the story of Mary is true.
ReplyDeleteExamples;
“Some mornings I’d slip out into church before anyone else woke and sit facing the sanctuary.” (Livingston 55)
This means that she enjoyed being at her church. It was peaceful in their where she could think and be inspired by the older characters (statues) in her life.
“I’d always admired Mary, not praying to her so much as finding comfort in her presence. As a child, I’d listend to the stories of our religion…..” ( 58)
This means that she had esteem for Mary, as a young women that went through a lot of things in her life that can be similar to her life.
“But the old wood warmed me, the ceiling beams felt like a backbone and the statues of the saints.” (55)
This means that the statues in the Catholic religion, meant a lot in her life because a backbone is like a sustaining factor, meaning that it inspired her and made her to keep going and not give up, even in tough situations.
“.... Do you believe? I persisted beyond politeness, thinking people too shy to speak, thinking they’d lumped Mary in with Santa Claus, magical stories they safeguarded for children.” (58)
This means that she does not believe the story of Mary as a virgin that had a child. She thinks that it was a fake story that they had to invent Santa Claus to protect the children from reality.
The religion plays a big role in Livingston’s life. She talked about the church off of Prince Street. The wedding was in Corpus Christi Church. They’re Catholic.
ReplyDeleteThe significance of losing her virginity and becoming a “bad girl” is that
Sonja thought of herself as a “good girl.”The significance of losing her virginity and becoming a “bad girl” is because she thought that being pure or good wasn’t good at all. In today’s society the same thing is still happening to many girls. They think that being “bad’’ is a good thing because they see this in people nowadays that other girls portray. She thinks that bad is the new “good.”
Religion becomes something that sets standards in her early life about what it is to be a “good girl”. She spends a lot of her childhood in churches surrounded and influenced by priests. Livingston is highly influenced by The Virgin Mary and she see’s herself as being like her. Livingston had the belief of abstaining from sex before marriage so now that she has done opposite she has betrayed her church and has sinned. So the innocent “good girl” she was is now gone. On page 49 Livingston writes; “It’s no less than miraculous the way the body adapts, so that I found that I was built for closing my eyes, for the tube top I wore, the green bedspread, and the taste of beer in the mouth of another.” She uses an interesting way of describing the events that unfolded in that motel. She writes little but at the same time says a lot. The imagery is strong and gives a detailed picture.
ReplyDeleteIn Queen of the Fall, religion plays an important role. Her family is religious. They're catholic. So doing things that are not part of it (like losing your virginity) isn't good.
ReplyDeleteLosing her virginity means that 'she stabbed her religion in the back' and that she's now a bad girl.
The significance of Livingston losing her virginity made her a “bad girl” because since she was shown since a young age, the difference between good and bad in her religion, losing her virginity was a sin.
ReplyDelete“But that was future and past, and as I sat in the priest’s office on that night, hands resting on the head of the Virgin, I only stared out the window trying to decide the next move in a game I’d lacked the boldness to invent.” (Livingston 58)
This means that this time she was in the office for a sin (bad thing) that she did. Not like other times, she was dragged in their for the humiliation of the family counseling, but this time it was for something that she had done wrong.
Felix Mejias
ReplyDeleteMs. Gamzon
11/9/15
CGS
1.What role does religion play in Livingston's life? Give specific examples.
Religion plays a sort of big role in her life because she talks about it a lot. Like in The Lady With The Alligator Purse, she mentions religion in a part of that section of the book.
2. What is the significance of losing her virginity and becoming a "bad girl"?
The significance of losing her virginity and becoming a bad girl is because she wanted a little bit of excitement in her life.
3.Find a strong well-written passage that you like from your reading. What makes this passage effective--the language, the ideas, the imagery? Discuss the writing technique that makes the passage strong (be sure to indicate the page number and quote from the text).I really liked land of the lost. I thought everything about the passage was effective, the language, the ideas, the imagery. just everything. page 7 “ She’s the girl every other girl wants to be. Ivory skin. Feathered hair.”
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete1. Religion plays a big role in Livingstons life. For example, when she talked about her virginity.
ReplyDelete2. She wanted something exciting to happen in her life.
3. This whole passage is very touching because of the things that she has went through.
Laurie Ernisse
ReplyDelete1) Religion plays a big role in Livingstons life because she often talks about it in her books.
2) Losing her Virginity had significance because she felt like she needed excitement, so when she did lose her virginity, she felt as if she was a "bad girl"
3) My favorite passage was World without End. It's my favorite because the details that she describes. "The persistent press of prayer was like a spell, like something out of "Rosemary's Baby."" It's powerful .
Laurie Ernisse
ReplyDelete1) Religion plays a big role in Livingstons life because she often talks about it in her books.
2) Losing her Virginity had significance because she felt like she needed excitement, so when she did lose her virginity, she felt as if she was a "bad girl"
3) My favorite passage was World without End. It's my favorite because the details that she describes. "The persistent press of prayer was like a spell, like something out of "Rosemary's Baby."" It's powerful .