Sammy's Musings and Insights

This was taken from my previous blog, written in 2011 when I decided to go back and get my bachelor's degree.  Enjoy!!! It's been a long time since I have done anything with this blog, in fact I have ignored it for a long time, but now it is time to get the juices flowing and get back to writing again. I have decided on something that has been on my mind for a long time. For the last couple of years, okay the time, I have been not writing in here, I have been attending college in a library tech. program. Well, after some thought, and some inspiration from my lit class, I have finally decided to go back and get my bachelor's degree (in Liberal Arts, with English minor). The reason for this goal: I have always been the type who that liked learning, but what scared me was being stuck in the same field all my life, never moving forward. Most of my friends went to college as business majors or as education majors, which never appealed to me. I wanted a career that woul...

Flannery titled her poem “Half-Baked” because she is describing her life as she is writing this poem and remember how her grandmother baked her bread. Before baking, dough must be prepared by mixing the ingredients, forming into a mound, and kneading the dough so it is just right for baking. If one thinks about it, preparing dough is just like preparing for life, learning and growing and making mistakes. In the first stanza, Flannery description of kneading “life's dough/with one hand only” how she is slowing evolving and turning and making adjustments to life and it's lessons. It is described again as she is “holding the pen to cross out words,/ glutonous, glossy, leavened, vicious,/ record[ing] the memory of fresh bread”. Flannery uses the imagery of her grandmother's baking to make the reader understand the kneading of life.   Flannery starts her poem in the first stanza describing her life as kneading through dough, comparing it to kneading and preparing the dough ...

As part of my contribution to blog writing world, and so I don't lose these findings as I write them down, I am going to be posting some entries from school of literature and ideas that I find fascinating.  Some of these will be edited for content.   Nicole Homer  titled her poem “Pandora's Box” because like the mythical box of the Homerian era, this Pandora's box contains a secret that is feared. However, it is a mystery that is waiting to be discovered, while frightening, is also exciting. In the first stanza: “& the whole world feared/what Pandora kept in her box/& if they only knew/if they only knew/ it was only perfume/ & sweat inside.” The mystery people fear is not really a mystery at all.   At the first glance of the title, I thought the poem would be an epic like the Homer epic Iliad. However, the narrator is only describing Pandora's box with the first sentences how mysterious it is and at the same time intriguing. This poem is not an...

Note: another review from my previous blog back in 2009. Enjoy!! That's right--a chick lit novel, Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin. Chick lit is a new kind of genre for me, something I fairly like on occasion, but I never like to admit personally. I'm more into more serious, thoughtful book myself, but it never hurts to once in a while read a more fun-loving, original story about your life as well. Anyway, the heroine in the book, Rachel White, a 30 year old attorney in Manhattan, has just slept with her best friend's fiance, Dex, and has no regret over it. I wasn't sure I was going to have much sympathy for Rachel, basically for the misdeed itself, but after reading her point of view, and learned more about her "best friend" Darcy, who is a shallow, brainless twit, yet pretty and charming at the same time, the kind of girl we all hate, you can't help but feel more compassion for Rachel than Darcy, esp. since Rachel tries to do the right thing by ...

Note: This was from my previous blog written in 2009, hope you enjoy!!! My friends and I, even after two months of finishing this book, are still discussing this great novel: Atonement, by Ian McEwan. I mean, usually when we have read a book, we only discuss it for one day, two to three days tops, but for Atonement--almost two months. I won't give away the plot for those who have not read the novel--however, part of our debate has been on the plot and some of the subplots and of the character Briony, herself. Was Briony mistaken or was she lying when she saw Robbie and Cecilia together in the library? Was she driven by jealousy or naivety of what she saw? When did she start to feel guilty after making false witness to the police? If she had not noticed them by the fountain the first time, what would she have thought when she saw the pair in the library, and would her statement to the police be different? Then we go on to the other characters: Paul Marshall, ...

Note: This posting is actually from an assignment I did for my Latin American Literature class (no plagiarism involved or intended.)  I was so pleased with how this turned out I decided to share with all of you.  Enjoy!!!  Roberto Bolano's story of “Clara” is a Latin-American romance. It is a story of a man who is infatuated with a very mercurial woman, Clara. It even starts out as a typical, sensuous love story: “She had big breasts, slim legs, and blue eyes. That’s how I like to remember her. I don’t know why I fell madly in love with her, but I did, and at the start, I mean for the first days, the first hours, it all went fine.” (Bolano, 1) It is the same love story that one has read before: the male in love with a woman he cannot have, and the woman very disturbed in her thoughts and her actions. This would be the type of story any American would love to read because of the plot itself. When reading the article, “What Defines Latino Literature?”, I had trouble fi...

Today I was looking at articles for inspiration for a budding writer.  Yes, I say budding writer because I have been trying to find my literary voice for the past eight years.  As I was looking in the articles, I came across a story in the Forbes titled " Why You Shouldn't Be a Writer ".  I was shocked by the title, and wondering why on Earth anybody would tell it's audience, especially those of us who are creative thinkers, why we should not be considering a writing career.  At first I thought, maybe it is because this is a business/entrepreneurial magazine, therefore focus on business or economics, but the tips that were inside the article really struck a nerve with me--who in the world has the right to say I should not consider being a writer? The first tip was "You're not good at it."  Hold the phone--who says I am not a good writer?  Was that person in my freshman English class in high school while I was learning to write haiku or sonnets o...