Fathers, Sons, and Brothas (expanded)

I am beginning this memoir, Fathers, Sons, and Brothers, with optimism and an open mind. So far it seems pretty good and easier to read than The Liar's Club. Brett Lott makes much smoother and more obvious transitions between time periods than Mary Karr did in her novel. I thought the whole garage scene to start the book was kind of weird, in the sense that I don't think many people would have gone in this direction with their writing. However it did reveal a lot about the past and was very symbolic and a dominant institution in his life. He was able to set the entire exposition of the book around garages. It was something that gave continuity to his writing even when he would jump around in time. Whether he was in California or Arizona or Carolina, the garage was always a part of it, and I think this helped to pull everything together. It also shows how big of a role the garage played in his life. Lott even goes as far as suggesting that the reason for him and his brothers growing apart was because of the lack of a garage (pg 5). I believe I may be able to relate to this book more than the last one. Like Brett, I also have two brothers and can already understand some of the things he is writing about. As I read the second section, I found myself relating to it more and more. One part in particular was with all of the fighting that took place. I liked where he talked about his older brother giving him titty-whistlers, which led to him beating up on his younger brother, which in return got him beat up again by his older brother. This is definitely something that has happened time and time again at my house. These similarities are compared to the The Liar's Club where I didn't have a lot of relation to an eight-year-old girl growing up in Texas beyond the experiences that every eight-year-old has. Even though California and Arizona are not like my home of Pittsburgh, they are more similar to it than the area of Texas where the last memoir took place. Another thing that stood out to me was the casualness of how they decided to move. One day the dad just comes in and says "how bout Arizona" and the next thing you know they are in AZ. This is way different than my two experiences with moving in the past. The first time I moved there was huge planning, debate, and argument, and I was only moving 15 minutes away. The second time I moved there was just as much thought put into it, and this time I moved within my neighborhood. So I don't understand how such a decision could be made with that little discussion or planning. These are just some initial hopes and thoughts from the first (and second) section of Fathers, Sons, and Brothers.

Memory List

- The first memory that comes to mind is playing roller hockey through out elementary school. I came up with a lot of sports related memories, but this one seemed to stand out to me. Everyday after school we used to round up a couple people and play hockey on roller blades for hours. We would always play in the driveway of my friend Jimmy, who lived directly behind me. Jimmy was a year younger than me and a smaller kid, but extremely athletic. He was the only one out of us who had any really ice hockey experience. Usually we would play 2 on 2, and I would team up with him. Our opponents were always the same. My younger brother Sean, who was really big for his age and also very athletic. However, he was always kept down by his partner. The kids name was Eric, and from what I remember he was not much of an athlete. We used to have to drag him out of his house on a daily basis and make him play with us. As you can imagine Jimmy and I used to crush them day in and day out. Even though the games were extremely lopsided they were always a ton of fun. This was a big part of my early childhood, and something that I will never forget.

- Another memory I had was going to upstate New York for some kind of family reunion. It was at my Uncle Jack's house which sits on huge piece of land with a large pond. I remember how different that area was from what I was used to. He talked about bears and coyotes and how you could here them at night. He drove us around on his tractor which my brothers and I thought was so cool for some reason. One memory from that trip stands out above the rest. My brother, Sean, was running around the yard when all of a sudden he started freaking out and crying. Apparently he had stepped on a yellow jackets and was being swarmed by their stingers. The next thing I remember is my dad scooping him up and sprinting to the pond. He hurdled Sean in with him in order to make the bees quit their attack. This might be the first time that I can remember being legitimately scared for either of my brothers. This is probably why it sticks out to me.

- A more recent memory is of something that happened nearly a year ago. I was at a place called the Ice-o-Plex playing an indoor lacrosse game. These games are usually a joke and generally used for conditioning and bettering your stick skills. But this game was against our arch rival, Bethel Park, so the intensity was kicked up a notch. I can remember sitting in the box getting ready to sub in when one of my friends came up to me and asked if he could go in for me. I told him no and that I wanted to do this. To this day I wish I would have let him take my spot. By the time I got subbed back in, there was only around two minutes left. The shift was going great until about 15 seconds remaining on the clock. One of Bethel's best players picked up a ground ball in our corner, and I went in for a hit. The problem was so did a couple other players and we all collided at the same time. I remember the most awkward feel in my knee. I didn't even fall down but something wrong took place down in my leg. I had messed up my knee a couple times before, but I had never experienced that. It didn't hurt but I couldn't walk right. I was instantly filled with a mix of anger and some sadness and I threw my stick and gloves down and limped away. It tuned out that I tore my ACL and had to miss my senior year. This was the worst experience of my life, and something that I still hate to think about today.

600 words on imagery

The author, Mary Karr, loads this book full of heavy and moving imagery. Through out the entire time we have been reading The Liars Club we have been discussing imagery and the role it plays. We have blogged about different images and how they make us feel about certain characters. For example, the father is a heavy drinker and a liar, but because of the way he is described and the imagery that is used I seem to like the guy. I believe imagery plays an especially important role in her writing when talking about her mother and her fits of nervousness. Her breakdown was what stuck with me the most after reading this assignment.

The first image of her mother in this reading section that really stood out to me was the following, "Mother turned around slow to face me like old Tony Perkins. Her face came into my head one sharp frame at a time. I finally saw in these instants that Mother's own face had been all scribbled up with that mud-colored lipstick. She was trying to scrub herself out..." (148-149). This is the part where you see how full blown crazy she really is. Before reading this I thought maybe she just struggled with occasional nervous breakdowns fueled by binge drinking. However, after this passage you can tell that she has absolutely lost her mind. Visually she strikes me as a mix between a zombie and the joker as portrayed by Heath Ledger in the Dark Knight. I imagine her makeup and hair is just as wild and out of control as Ledger's. I see her movements in my mind resembling that of a zombie. She slowly turns her head around and incoherently stares at her daughter. This is a really creepy image that Karr draws up and is a little frightening. I can only imagine how a little girl would react to this. I'm sure it would be extremely scary and put a person into shock. This image sets a tone for the rest of her breakdown that day as she sets things on fire and comes in with a knife.

A second passage the I found to be very powerful was, "Then a dark shape comes to occupy that light, a figure in the shadow. She has lifted her arms and broadened the stance of her feet, so her shadow turns from a long thin line to a giant X. And swooping down from one hand is the twelve-inch shine of a butcher knife..." (155). This selection shows the full extent of the mother's "nervousness." We all knew that she was crazy and was even willing to drive everyone of a bridge, but I did not think that she had it in her to savagely butcher her own young daughters. This part of the book really had me on the edge of my seat wondering how far she was going to go. The suspense and curiosity I felt was because of Karr's ability to paint a vivid image. She does this extremely well when dealing with her mother and events that seem particularly frightening or gruesome. The first part of this quote that talks about her entering the room is probably the best part. It seems as if the mother is some evil figure whose darkness is so great that she absorbs the light. Rather than saying she walked in the doorway, Karr uses this description. This portrayal is way more powerful and better at painting the picture of someone who has lost everything including their own mind. The mentioning of a knife is scary in itself, but when she introduces the knife as a shadowy outline it is way more effective.

Mary Karr does a great job of creating and utilizing powerful imagery. Without her ability to do this The Liar's Club would not be the entertaining book that it is. Karr's writing is at the top of its game when describing and her family and in particular her mother. The scene and passages retelling the breakdown show how effective strong imagery can be. I hope there is more great imagery to come in following novels.

My 8 Images

1.) "we'd watched Grandma achieve whole new levels of nervousness as the cancer ate out her brain." (103) I think this image paints a realistic picture of what was actually happening to the grandma. It also shows how Mary doesn't care for her grandma because of the lack of sensitivity she uses.

2.) "When Baptist girls standing next to me on their choir risers got all misty-eyed singing about the purple mountains' majesty," (106) This image shows how Mary is not a fan of religion and the level to which her neighbors raise it up to. I also sense a mocking undertone in this image.

3.) "She just waggled her head in a loose way, like one of those dogs you see on a dashboard with a spring neck." (107) This image describes how worn out and beaten up Mary's mom appears after the funeral. It does a good job of portraying her state of mind.

4.) "there was a knot of iron-blue shrapnel under the skin left over from the war." (110) The image of the shrapnel gives me an idea of how tough the dad is without actually coming out and saying it.

5.) "Just being out of the house with Daddy like this at Fisher's lights me up enough for somebody to read by me." (120) This image shows me how much Mary really loves her dad and enjoys spending time with him. It makes me believe that the dad is a good guy despite his flaws.

6.) "Back when the trees was so thick a cat couldn't sneak through." (121) After reading this line, I can get a feel for what the environment is like there and how much man power it took to build the roads. It shows where Mary's dad gets his toughness and dedication from.

7.) "Then I walked as slowly and miserably as any mule through any cotton row to assemble that drink" (126) This images shows how much Mary resents her mothers drinking from the onset. Right away you can tell that her drinking is going to take a toll on the family.

8.) "... him howling like a banshee." (133) This image just gives me a feel for the culture and language of 1960s' Texas. It's interesting because I would never even think to use that expression.

Central Image

If I were to rewrite this blog post I would definitely go into greater detail and talk more about the time leading up to it. It's just that there are so many memories and not enough words to do it justice. I do feel a lack of a central image in my post, and I would have to compose something to fill that void. Something that sticks out in my mind from that time is when the priest would come over and all of the adults would go into my grandma's bedroom. My younger brother and I would be left playing somewhere else in the house just wondering what was going on. I would go into great detail about that particular situation because it sums up the entire ordeal at the time. I was only four or five so no one really bothered to fill me in on all the details and it left me confused. The central image of the priest coming would serve as a great descriptor and universal theme that would bind the entire story together.

Quiz

Please write specifically about Mary's feelings about her grandmother. What are some of her grandmother's habits? What does she suffer from? What does she think about Mary and Lecia? What does she reveal to Mary about Mary's mother?

Mary has very distinct and developed feelings for her grandma. It is extremely obvious that Mary does not hold a very high opinion of her. I believe that she went as far as saying that she did not care whether she lived or died. On page 46 Karr writes, "I remember not one tender feeling for or from her." This quote shows the relationship that the two had and their mutual feeling of disdain for one another. Mary even profited in the form of Kool-Aide and cookies whenever retelling her grandmother's death to the neighborhood ladies. It is clear that Mary has very little respect for her grandma and thinks of her as a nusance rather than an older figure to look up to. One of the reason's Mary does not particularly like her grandma is because of her habits. One such habit that Mary, and probably the entire family, dislikes is her grandmother's bossyness. She is always telling to people to do things, such as make new curtains becuase the old ones are ugly or telling the mom when and how to punish Mary and Lecia. The grandmother's worst habit is probably telling everyone how to live their lives. After she moves in, the family's traditional ways of doing things are changed. The family no longer eats dinner in bed with their backs to one another. Mary grows to resent how her life was forever altered by the presence of Grandma Moore in the family's life. The reason her grandmother has moved in with them is because she found out that she had cancer. The cancer seemed to start in the foot and after a crude treatment with mustard gas had to be amputated above the knee. The cancer eventually spread to her brain. However, she was able to keep on living while most people with the same ailment would have died a long time ago. Through the reading it is to pick up on Grandma Moore's favoritism of Lecia over Mary. She seems to find Mary a wild almost barbaric child. At the same time she seems impressed with Lecia because she was able to quickly learn the skill of tatting at a young age.

The Liar's Club round 2

"For a long time Grandma's entire slow death from cancer stayed fenced inside that pat report. It's a clear case of language standing in for reality. Perhaps the neighbor ladies who heard me tell it back then were justly horrified by my lack of grief instead of being wowed-- as I intended them to be-- by how well I was bearing up. To them, I nod mea culpa for this lie. Believe me, I fooled no one worse than I fooled myself by blotting out the whole eighteen-month horror show." (page 48)

Out of all the passages in this book, this one seemed to stick out to me. In a short amount of words I think it is able to capture and tell a lot about how the author feels. The most blaring part of this passage is the last line about "blotting out the whole eighteen-month horror show." This line brings back the recurring theme of the author blocking things out of her memory. Like in the first chapter when she cannot remember who took her in when her mother was taken for being nervous. It shows a repeated pattern of Mary Karr trying to forget some of the bad things that have happened in her past. I think it is strange how someone can completely forget memories that were so instrumental in shaping her life.

When trying to think of a family memory a couple of them came to mind, but this one stood above the rest. When I was five-years-old I lost my grandma to cancer. This was an event that I immediately thought of because she was the only person close to me to have died. Eventhough I was fairly young I vividly remember the entire process, from visiting her nearly everyday to her funeral. At the time I don't think I found the entire situation real nor did I understand the severity of her illness. It just didn't feel real. I had seen her half-a-hour before she passed away and she acted normal, not like someone who was on the verge of death. The entire sitaution just puts perspective on life and how it can be so fragile. One moment someone is alive and by the time you leave their house and get home their dead way before their time.

The Liar's Club and the Memoirist

The first memoir that I started to read was The Liars Club by Mary Kary. When I first started reading this piece, I was a little confused. I wasn't quite sure who the main character was, and I did not know exactly what was going on. I had no idea how old the girl was or what time period it was set it. However, once I got through the first couple pages or so I started to find the book pretty interesting. There are some really good stories that the author starts to tell. One of these stories that I liked was the one about how the guy killed his family and then himself. This is a really disturbing story, but helps to add to the memoir. It shows how detached the author is and how little she cares or even thinks about the fact that some guy killed people she knew. Another thing that I liked about this book was the character introductions. I thought the mom's background was a good story in its own. Her seven or eight marriages show a difference between the time of when this took place and now. She was virtually sold off to the highest bidder by her mom. Now a days that really wouldn't happen.
I did not find the second memoir, The Memoir and the Memoirist, as good as the first. Maybe this is because it was a smaller selection and I didn't have enough time to get into it. More likely though I didn't like it because the subject material is just not as interesting. Some parts such as the part about his family held my attention and entertained me, but on the whole I was slightly bored. Hopefully as the story progresses I will grow to like it. Overall, I think I will really enjoy reading The Liars Club and am optimistic about The Memoir and the Memoirist.

First Blog

My last English experience was kind of a joke, but it was probably my favorite class. My teacher, Mr. Wood, was the man. He was an old teacher who refused to dress up for class, and always showed up in sweat pants and a tee-shirt. He never taught for more than 20 minutes out of the 40 minute period. Mr. Wood loved movies and would show us one at every chance he had. One time we read a page about King Arthur and he then proceeded to show us three full length movies about King Arthur. The class was also extremely easy. To not get an A in the class you had to be kind of dumb. He always let us make up any test by writing one page about anything we wanted. I come from a pretty typical family. I have a mom and a dad and two younger brothers, nothing out of the ordinary. When I came home for break I was treated virtually the same. Break for me was very chilled but fun at the same time. Since I room with three of my friends from high school, I always had people to hang out with for the first three weeks. After the initial three weeks break became even better, and I got to see a lot of friends who I hadn't seen in months. I was definitely excited to get back to Athens though. I really like being at OU and being in college in general. What I hope to get out of this class is an A. I would also like to become a better writer as well. So far it seems like this will be a good class that I will be able to enjoy.