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"The mute sense" by Diane Ackerman caught my attention because a sense of smell is something that almost every human being can relate to. When she mentions how we connect a smell with memories I can completely agree with that. The thing I liked about this selection was that at the end there was a shift in the tone of the passage. She started mentioning the reality of how smelling is also a breath and introduces death at the end of the passage. This really caught me by surprise with her being so blunt about how we can all just cease to exist. The second selection " My Papa's Waltz" by James Brown confused me. I couldn't put my finger on how he was trying to organize it and I only understood bits and pieces of the text. The connections that he made to his writing and his personal life was not something I could relate to. When he mentioned having read this selection in college it made me wonder if this text was his response to the already existing selection. The last selection "Westbury Court" by Edwidge Danticat was very dark and brutal and I loved it. This was the one that I felt the most emotion from and even visualized the smoke in a room. I can appreciate when a writer includes some of their darkest experiences because it exposes them and allows a reader to see their true character. Since the author told us what they felt after the fire knowing that it could've easily been her and her brother you know that the feelings in this are real and the writing is crafted from pure emotion.
ReplyDeleteLianna Andrade
I found that James Brown’s “My Papa’s Waltz” and Edwidge Danticat’s “Westbury Court” both use the idea of an imperfect memory to show uncertainty and an undefined concept of the events that truly occurred. Brown achieves this on the third paragraph on page 217 at the end of his story by questioning himself about the year it was and how old he might have been while Danticat uses this same strategy in the fourth paragraph on page 220 coming to the startling question as to if the boys, who presumably died in the fire, were even boys at all. “The Mute Sense” takes on a much more assured tone by restating the power of smell, going as far as to say that a smell cannot be described to someone who has never smelled it. Diane Ackerman continues to reiterate that a sense of smell is something that is indispensable by comparing covering your ears to covering your nose and the dire effects that ensue afterward. Brown and Danticat both seem to successfully bring their creative non-fiction to a close without giving closure of any sort, and even begs the reader to question if the plot is imperfect or a miscalculation of a memory in its entirety.
ReplyDeleteAlyssa Campos
I found that James Brown’s “My Papa’s Waltz” and Edwidge Danticat’s “Westbury Court” both use the idea of an imperfect memory to show uncertainty and an undefined concept of the events that truly occurred. Brown achieves this on the third paragraph on page 217 at the end of his story by questioning himself about the year it was and how old he might have been while Danticat uses this same strategy in the fourth paragraph on page 220 coming to the startling question as to if the boys, who presumably died in the fire, were even boys at all. “The Mute Sense” takes on a much more assured tone by restating the power of smell, going as far as to say that a smell cannot be described to someone who has never smelled it. Diane Ackerman continues to reiterate that a sense of smell is something that is indispensable by comparing covering your ears to covering your nose and the dire effects that ensue afterward. Brown and Danticat both seem to successfully bring their creative non-fiction to a close without giving closure of any sort, and even begs the reader to question if the plot is imperfect or a miscalculation of a memory in its entirety.
ReplyDeleteAlyssa Campos
In "The Mute Sense" by Diane Ackerman, Ackerman describes all of the examples about sense and I myself smelled them. I definitely agree with Ackerman; smell does bring back memories. An experience I have had with this feeling of nostalgia is the smell of tamales. The smell of tamales always takes me back to Christmas in 2005, when my cousins and I would play around my grandmother's house. They were great times. In James Brown's "My Papa's Waltz," Brown discusses how memory plays a huge role in in creative writing. He explains how it's difficult to differentiate what you wanted to happen, what should have happened, and what actually happened. The same thing is discussed in "Westbury Court" by Edwidge Danticat. Danticat's story was very visualistic. I can see the fire and the brothers. This story was dark and creepy. These short creative nonfiction stories were really interesting and I very much enjoy reading them.
ReplyDeleteIn "The Mute Sense" by Diane Ackerman, Ackerman describes all of the examples about sense and I myself smelled them. I definitely agree with Ackerman; smell does bring back memories. An experience I have had with this feeling of nostalgia is the smell of tamales. The smell of tamales always takes me back to Christmas in 2005, when my cousins and I would play around my grandmother's house. They were great times. In James Brown's "My Papa's Waltz," Brown discusses how memory plays a huge role in in creative writing. He explains how it's difficult to differentiate what you wanted to happen, what should have happened, and what actually happened. The same thing is discussed in "Westbury Court" by Edwidge Danticat. Danticat's story was very visualistic. I can see the fire and the brothers. This story was dark and creepy. These short creative nonfiction stories were really interesting and I very much enjoy reading them.
ReplyDeleteSidney Carranco
“When we breathe we pass the world through our bodies…” says Ackerman in The Mute Sense. This is so profound. Ackerman undertook a hefty topic, because of the lack of descriptive words for scent, as pointed out (215). Instead, the author lists scented things, like a variety of flowers, to conjure up experiences for the reader. I wanted to know the exact flora mentioned in the piece, because I don’t know what bee balm or dogwood smell like.
ReplyDeleteMy Papa’s Waltz is different from the Mute Sense in that it’s not primarily a researched piece: it’s a memory. The issue of truth-telling in creative nonfiction is well executed by Brown, because it’s not so much about the exact detail as being honest with yourself. I liked his zig-zag movement between the novel he attempted before, the current essay, his past and reconciling the present with his words.
Westbury Court is similar to My Papa’s Waltz in dealing with the potential of inaccurately remembering facts, and in addressing bigger themes of death and meaning. It seemed to me that Danticat ascribed senselessness to death, but at the same time, not a lack of sensitivity. The author is not being sentimental even when he’s sensitive, either; he confesses that he tries to block out the memory of the children killed in the fire, as a coping mechanism (220). I like what Lianna said in her post, that the dark experience of the fire “exposes” the narrator’s “true character.” The way she phrased that is so perfect, because it could be easy to not realize the full implications of what Danticat is saying about himself. His confession to apathy and self-preservation weren’t immediately apparent.
Natalie Roeglin
In all three stories, I noticed there were many things that were similar. One of the things that caught my attention was the use of imagery. In Diane Ackerman’s “The Mute Sense”, the first thing you read is about how a certain smell can bring back memorable moments and it then goes into the narrator explaining a moment that was most likely from her childhood. In each of those examples that she explains, they all deal with having a certain smell whether it be at a lake, at a beach, or even at a dinner with family. In James Browns “My Papa’s Waltz”, the narrator explains how his father would get drunk and asks him to dance, and even describes the way his father’s hands felt and how he would pick him up from a chair in their kitchen. In Edwidge Danticat’s “Westbury Court” the narrator describes where she lives, where her building was, and even her surroundings which was the subway and the trash in piles. I feel like each author purposely did this to have the reader more engaged and more interested. I always picture myself as the narrator in a story so the strong use of imagery really had me hooked on these stories. Another thing I noticed was that all of the authors followed Lee Gutkind’s “5 R’s”. After reading the chapter on creative nonfiction, I don’t find it that boring anymore. It’s actually interesting and getting to read these stories made creative writing a lot more interesting as well.
ReplyDeleteIlene Guevara
In Diane Ackerman’s “The Mute Sense” I was particularly attracted to how she described smell to easily connecting to a memory and gave such specific examples. It’s crazy how one smell can do so much and give off such a strong memory. I really liked how she used this phrase. “Smell is the mute sense, the one without words.” It brings a deeper importance to smell. She deepens it more by showing how smell and breathing go hand in hand because when you plug your nose to stop smelling, you die. In James Brown’s “My Papa’s Waltz” I couldn’t quite differentiate it between being a positive or negative tone, so personally I would establish it as neutral in the sense they alternate. When it is first introduced it seems like a happy memory until you get through most of the work, so when you go back it can also be perceived as quite sad because dancing with his father is something that only happens when he is drunk. He used this memory to inspire his works to the point he could barely differentiate reality from fiction as he got older. It became so complicated, he found himself becoming dishonest with what he wrote. Then we get a glimpse of how he makes up stories of saving his mother from prison as a child because that’s all he could do because he didn’t know the full story of her being jailed. This can be seen as the starting point of him becoming dishonest with himself. Then the dishonestly would pile up as he danced with father as he gave him falsehood of his mother coming home, and even though he knows it’s not happening, he gives in. In Edwidge Danticat’s “Westbury Court” We see the life of the writer living in this apartment building and everything that happens in it, mainly negative aspects. The one trigger to carry on is the fire in an apartment causing the death of two boys and their mother possibly being jailed for negligence. With everything that occurs such as new tenants to the apartment after being fixed up to deaths of multiple people in the building, even when they move out, they always reflect on the two boys and the mother and what could’ve been. All three stories reflect on memory and how it can impact you. Memories can be impacted by multiple instances from smell, to a song, to a fire. Everything carries a significance to how you choose to live and impacts your life in different aspects whether it be positively or negatively.
ReplyDeleteFaith Ortiz
When reading The Mute Sense by Diane Ackerman I was in kind of an awe state and I found it super relatable. Almost everyone could agree how a scent could remind him or her of one place or a certain memory. The way Ackerman wrote this story was intriguing she brings you in with the beauty of nature and just says if you don’t breath you die it’s a mute sense but the most important… I enjoyed the dark twist in the end. James Brown’s “My Papa’s Waltz” was a bit confusing for me at first I did not read the name and I thought how sweet a girl dancing with her father but the story took a weird turn and I read he was a guy so I went back to check the authors name (dumb I know) but his work showed how imperfect our memory is I felt as if he was going back and forth on his story which confused me. With “Westbury Court” by Edwidge Danticat story itself was great to read it kept the reader entertained for a non-fiction story to me. He kept the story going even though it was dark with death and in the end he says he doesn’t remember if the kids dying were either boys or girls, which shows again how our memory can be incorrect. I really believed I would not enjoy non-fiction stories but after these last reading I am actually interested.
ReplyDeleteAndi Rubalcava
I enjoy how all three of the stories had something to do with memory. Normally with stories I find myself skimming through the words until I reach the end but I couldn’t do that now. ‘The Mute Sense’ by Diane Ackerman felt almost familiar. We’ve all had an experience where we come across a smell and we’re instantly transported back to that time, or said smell brings on such a strong wave of nostalgia that we can’t help but remember something we thought was previously buried away. ‘My Papa’s Waltz’ by James Brown was the one I most related with. It’s always hard to recount certain events because we have, I think, a tendency to work a memory in a way we most agree with, or we cling to the clearest part of the memory and begin to build around it until we say, “Yeah that sounds about right.”. This happens a lot with people too. We’ll have someone who we didn’t really know or wanted to know more and we’ll shift that person into an idealized version of themselves. ‘Westbury Court’ by Edwidge Danticat was interesting, which may sound like a cop out when it comes to describing the story but I truly found it interesting. It was after the deaths of the children that caused the author’s overall awareness and near perfect memory of the tenants and events afterwards, yet she couldn’t even remember their genders. In a darker sense, it’s almost funny how that worked out.
ReplyDeleteTeresa Villarreal
The three short creative non-fiction works presented to the reader all contain intricate details which allow the reader to almost relive the moments which the authors create and attach the reader's personal feelings to them. David Ackerman's The Mute Sense presents the readers with strong details which helps to bring the memory of smells to the reader. The author presents contrasting scents, such as Italian leather shoes, India ink, lilacs, and glossy pages along with other items which each contain a strong odour. By demonstrating these, the author is trying to pull scents from the reader's memory, scents which bring to their recipient "inarticulate pleasure and exaltation" (Ackerman 215). James Brown's short work also creates a scene which can be relived by use of intricate detail. The music, the smell of sawdust, whiskey and sweat invite the reader to reminisce on their own encounters with these odours. The author does not solely focus on presenting senses, but rather linking them to feelings, to emotions which the reader can internalize and reminisce on. For Brown, the story does not solely centre on what can be felt or smelt, but rather on the re-evaluation of moments. The story does not revolve on scent, but rather the emotions associated with scent. For Brown, through the scent and sounds remain the same, the emotions have changed as time passed on, creating a fond memory rather than an uncomfortable stumbling of their drunken father. (Brown 215) Edwidge Danticat uses visual details to help the reader step into their shoes and see the world as they did as a child. Words such as "bright flames" or "murky smoke" help create a scene which the reader can create in their mind. From the burly firemen, to the "pliant and lifeless" bodies of the children who expired in the fire, the reader is able to create a better image than if the author had written, "some firemen and some dead kids." By using strong adjectives, the reader is able to create a better scene and almost step into the scene of the fire and life thereafter. Danticat's longing description of the "welcoming arms of mommies and nannies"(Danticat 219) in places where "there would be a remedy" for sad or troublesome moments, helps the reader understand how contradicting these scenes were to their reality and all that surrounded them.
ReplyDelete-Jose Montoya
Upon reading the three short stories, I was at awe with amount of imagery used. It was so pleasing to feel as though the authors were holding my hand and guiding me through their experiences. In “The Mute Sense” by Diane Ackerman, she discusses how “nothing is more memorable than smell.” Her usage of olfactory imagery is incredible, and displayed just how powerful a scent can be, as well as how it can be attached to memories and time periods. I remember reading a portion of “My Papa’s Waltz” when I was in High School so it made me extremely nostalgic when I discovered it again. The author describes a memory of his drunken father, a memory in which he ponders over endlessly. He struggles with deciphering whether a memory is true, or if it just what he imagined what happened. Brown states that he tends to “...worry about time.”, a statement which I can truly relate to. I often worry about time when I notice my parents aging; when I was younger it seemed as though they would live forever. Already in an emotional state, ‘Westbury Court” by Edwidge Danticat opened my eyes to real world tragedies.The author takes us back to his time at Westbury Court, and recalls fatal events that occured in and around his apartment. Towards the end of his stories, he brings up the idea “maybe the two kids never died in the fire” to add to the idea that this memory could have been something he imagined happen. Since this event took place years ago, his memory could have been altered due the amount of time that has passed. These three stories are all recollections of memory, and all question the validity of their events that actually occurred.
ReplyDeleteValerie Jackson
Of the three creative nonfiction works read, Edwidge Danticat’s “Westbury Court” instantly brings me to a place of understanding, and even kinship in the way that we recall our childhood memories stemming from the home we grew up in. James Brown does this as well in “My Papa’s Waltz,” but in a way that reflects more upon his father than the home he grew up in. All three authors use a mix of the five senses to get the reader to feel the truth of the author’s childhood, especially through the way of smell. For example, in Diane Ackerman’s “The Mute Sense,” she begins with the blatant notion that “nothing is more memorable than a smell” which further drives the reader to take notice of the smells she will soon discuss (214). This approach leaves the audience to become more aware of a sense that is usually overlooked; humans are continuously viewing, touching, tasting, and listening, but we tend to forget the most important sense which is the act of breathing. Which is why I loved when Ackerman points out “if you cover your nose and try to stop smelling, you will die” which is so deadpan and even laughable, but is completely true (215). Sense of smell is the epitome of nostalgia, and a quick waft of a certain smell can even bring about a wash of peace over certain individuals, or a distinct memory of hopelessness like James Brown in his essay. Brown acknowledges the intermingling of whiskey and sweat and how he instantly pictures his father and the difficult times he recalls from a childhood where his mother was not present and he, himself, acknowledges how he once tried to ignore the influence it had over his life. He speaks of his drunken father putting on Patsy Cline’s “Crazy” and how it reminds him of his father trying to get him to dance with him. Like in Danticat’s essay, there is a certain piece of entertainment that influences the story, for Edwidge it’s General Hospital. He opens up about how consumed he was by the show that he misses the screams of his neighbors and the smell of the smoke. This gives the reader the opportunity to chastise him for missing such obvious circumstances because the audience catches onto the heaviness that will soon follow Edwidge for not paying attention. The three authors pull in the reader with something as simple as a smell or a sound, and this concept showcases how the describing and acknowledging of the senses can elevate the genre of creative nonfiction.
ReplyDeleteKimberlee Salas
In all three readings, there is strong use of imagery and details to give the reader a mental picture of what is going on. One of the things that stood out to me from "The Mute Sense" was the fact that they use the sense of smell to portray the imagery, which a lot of authors do not commonly use. The big picture is painted for the reader in such a short story. In the second reading called "My Papa's Waltz", I noticed that the author also used a little bit of the sense of smell like in "The Mute Sense", but not as much. The organization in this story was a bit strange and made the reading for me hard to follow. At times I thought that the author was talking from personal experience and at other times I felt like he was talking about another story that he had read. The point of views changed too fast for me. In the last story called "Westbury Court", one of the things that caught my attention was that the author uses so many details that sometimes I felt like some of the stuff that I was reading could have been left out and made shorter.
ReplyDeleteFrancisco Rosales
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First off I have to admit I enjoyed all three short stories. The stories all had well written imagery that while I was reading I could feel that I was in the story. In "the mute sense" Diane writes "our sense of smell can be extraordinarily precise, yet its almost impossible to describe..." (pg.215) I completely agree with this everyone gives off a certain body odor that when you smell that odor you're able to tell who the person is if you were to be blind folded. When people say that they can smell its going to rain how would you explain that? You're not able to because only you're aware of what it is you're smelling and since you cant physically touch or see it how can you show it someone so that they may understand? "Westbury Court" brings out the whole "you don't realize something until its gone" sadly to say that this is very true. Edwidge writes how the oldest brother didn't notice any signs of the fire or even who exactly was living across the hall, but once a horrible tradagy occurs his eyes open up to a different world to where he pays more attention to his surroundings. I kind of felt the sense of guilt from the older brother towards the end of the story when he says "but the fear that their destiny could of so easily been mine and my brothers" (220) Being the oldest sibling myself whenever I was put in charge of my brother and sister you learn to be more cautious, because you're having to care for someone else's life other than your own. For this boy he wasn't expecting this to happen but it did and rather than him just forget the situation he constantly thought of the what ifs and what could have been. In "My Papa's Waltz" personally I was confused as to if the story was real of if the author was still referring to the story he had read once. Towards the end of the story james writes "dance. your momma's coming home tomorrow."(217) I think this sentence was written by the author and not a reference from the similar story that he mentions, and I say this because the author knew his mother was in jail and his dad was drunk he felt he needed to make his father happy by simply dancing with him. All of the stories made me realize more than what I was expecting. I learned that everyone has their own scent, people can be naiive until tragedy occurs, and sometimes a memory isn't always a good one and we as humans like to rethink our memories to something good rather than remember what really happened which is the bad.
ReplyDelete-Krystdamayne Guerrero
All three stories depict a theme of reminiscence, though how they go about explaining such differs substantially from one another. "Mute Sense," written by Diane Ackerman, talks of how especially important our sense of smell is, so important that "if you cover your nose and try to stop smelling, you will die." It talks of how life literally cycles through our body, how we never truly forget the memory of the smell - the significance of it - how it is the one sense that cannot be accurately described in many moments, only by, "I know that smell," and so on. That's what I pretty much think of it.
ReplyDelete"My Papa's Waltz," written by James Brown, is a bit of an infamous story for me, as I've read it several times, and, when first introduced to its writing, thought it could only be interpreted as a tale of domestic abuse between a father and child, when really it could also be thought of a tale between a father and child playing roughly while the mother is around, yet absent other than by her observations. As the author stated - and I might be taking this out of context - "The trick is disguising it, so it doesn't seem the same."
"Westbury Court," written by Edwidge Danticat, tells a tale of how while life goes on, finding replacements for older tragic stories to tell of, there is a lingering regret in place for the protagonist; one that wonders if they ought to feel responsible, one that wrestles with the ego and memory of the events that transpire - one that isn't so sure if any of the events actually happened as foretold. The author makes a sure comparison between the fire and "General Hospital," a metaphorical acknowledgement of the protagonist's lack of responsibility for taking action, which is ironic, as the character fantasizes about such tragic events and people taking responsibility during such events. On another note, there is a comparison to be made between Westbury Court and Mute Sense. The former reminisces through the conveyance of imagery and sound, and the latter reminisces through smell. While I'm not going to expand further upon this observation, I still find it interesting from where it's left off at.
- Gary Tolar
When the author of "Mute Sense" says that "scent is the only sense that cannot be described with words", the only thing that came to mind while reading that is, "no it isn't". All senses are subjective, and can be described only when there is a point of reference, something that someone can relate a sense to based on past experience, this is not something exclusive to smell. One cannot describe a smell to someone any better than one can describe a color... unless they have a common point of reference.
ReplyDeleteWith "My Papa's Waltz", I felt that the reading was very "loose". The author was always so unsure of himself, ending so many of his paragraphs with sentences doubting his recollections of the events that occured. Because of this, because the author's writing wasn't cemented in absolute certainty, but rather these "what ifs", his writing didn't really have an impact on me.
Finally, "Westbury Court", was definitely my favorite of the readings. The whole story was filled with an almost palpable melancholy. Though lots of the stories were sad, I found the stories of the people mentioned interesting. I don't want to say that I feel that this is a good piece of literature because it makes me feel sad, because that has become a recurring theme with today's youth. The idea that, if something makes you feel, especially feel sad, it's good art. But this is exactly what this reading does with me, and it's exactly why I like it.
Ricardo Garcia
The "Mute Sense" was a very captivating story due to the intimate details of one human sense. The author stating "Our sense of smell can be extraordinarily precise, yet it's almost impossible to describe how something smells to someone who hasn't smelled it." This quote is used to describe how our sense of smell is more important than we take for granted. The story uses a pop culture reference to further support the authors intentions. The story uses a Sherlock Holmes quote to attract readers who defy real world values from watching or reading fiction.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read "My Papa's Waltz" I felt a connection to the author due to his frustrations as a writer. I am an English major who hopes to become a New York Times Bestselling author but there are moments when I'm frustrated at the amount of detail that I must write to inform the reader. Up until I read this story I thought I was the only frustrated writer but clearly I was wrong.
The final story "Westbury Court" is a story of survivors guilt. The main character left the burning building of his apartment complex along with his parents. Afterwards he felt guilty for leaving 2 children to die and subsequently the mother was arrested. This story is told by a man who survived a traumatic event.