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When reading Joan Didion’s “In Bed” I was immediately intrigued by her essay as she introduced it. It takes you on a journey of her migraine from thinking something was seriously medically wrong with her to her first time ever having one at a young age and discovering it something passed down by her family. When it goes into medical terms, I immediately had a growing headache. It cooled when I learned the effects of the drugs she took and how having migraines is seen with romantic and medical relationship(s). It made me sad knowing how she got the migraines at the most inconvenient time, but immediately was turned around when she shows how she has outsmarted the migraines all on her own. When reading Pico Iyer’s “In The Dark” I picked up how the mood changes when he leaves his romantic interest for the first time and how it changes when they meet again. When they meet again there is a shift in her and it impacts him physically so much to the point he felt unguarded and knew he had to leave. I had confusion understanding the whole owl situation and I hope we can discuss it in class because I’m trying to find the point to it. In Dinty W. Moore’s “El Toro Rojo” I notice the author is watching a bull show and watching the final moments of the bull dying. In just how short this is, you can see how the death is already starting to impact him as he whispers to himself quietly almost as though he is in utter shock. I noticed all three of these connect in terms of having final moments and how they impact you. “In Bed” shows a somewhat positive aspect as to where she outsmarts her migraine. “In The Dark” shows how going back to see a romantic interest ends up being the final moment and the way things played between the two affected the author. In “El Toro Rojo” we see how the final moments of death leave the author paralyzed with fear. There was be negative factors in all, but I see it more as one one positive and two negative because Didion found a segway point for herself unlike the other two others. Nonetheless, they all connect with the impact of final moments from an experience.
ReplyDeleteFaith Ortiz
With both of my parents who suffer from extreme migraine’s, I felt Joan Didion’s “In Bed” resonated with me the most. Her description of the afflicted and their “common conviction that we are perversely refusing to cure ourselves”(222)para.3 is something my parents have dealt with, and I felt it was a perfect representation of the flawed notion that a migraine is just a common headache when it is quite the opposite. Additionally, Didion’s conclusion in which she now counts her blessings (223)para.2 takes the idea of a migraine one step further, by relating it to something of a sort of cold or flu in which you become appreciative of the days you could use your nose to breathe, something of which you would otherwise take for granted. She doesn’t value a good day like the average person, and instead she sees her migraine as more of an “uninvited friend.” Pico Iyer’s “In the Dark” felt like an adventure to me, and took me on a trip to Bali with a dark twist. In his depiction of Bali as unsettling, I felt the most uneasy when he stated that “a foreigner in a place like Bali is that you can’t reduce the signs around you to an everyday language.” This stood out to me because most people are afraid of the unknown and often the very things they cannot see, which alludes to the dark energy resonating in the owl souvenir. It also gave the impression that we are blinded being so far away from nature. Dinty W. Moore’s “El Toro Rojo” was very colorful and fast paced for me to read. It seemed to start off with an excited tone and ended with sorrow, and maybe a hint of shame. The second to last sentence “The bull on his knees” humanized the bull, which led me to a sense of shame when he whispered “Toro!” after its death, almost regretting the unnecessary execution of the bull.
ReplyDeleteAlyssa Campos
One thing I enjoyed while reading ‘In Bed’ by Joan Didion was that she used such strong words when retelling her experiences and included medical terms too. I’ve never experienced a migraine before but my mom has them pretty often. I always assumed that a migraine was another way of saying ‘bad headache’ but reading through this essay made me realize just how severe these migraines are. The way that Joan Didion writes makes it easy for people who aren’t familiar with the experience to understand, both from a medical and a personal view, just how bad it really is; that these aren’t just ‘bad headaches’. ‘In the Dark’ by Pico Iyer had the strongest imagery out of the three, in my opinion. I honestly loved the references to the different mythologies and stories. The owl mask is still somewhat of a mystery to me. There’s no doubt about the cultural ties to it, but I’m interested in seeing how it really plays a part in the essay. Dinty W. Moore’s ‘El Toro Rojo’ was a much shorter essay, if not the shortest essay, we’ve read so far but it had no shortage of action and movement. It was when Moore began to describe the bull’s anxious breath (p. 226) that I felt a shift. It was there that I began to feel sorry for the bull. The creature didn’t expect to die and yet there it was, crumpled on the ground. Bulls used in bullfights were bred for the sport, and in that moment it’s a matter of life and death for both parties. Survive one day to die the next. Me reading that deep into this might seem silly, but I can’t help but feel bad for an animal that’s been bred to fight and die for entertainment.
ReplyDeleteTeresa Villarreal
In the essay, "In Bed" by Joan Didion, she describes the awful feeling of a migraine throughout and makes sure to include very detailed sentences to get the reader to experience a migraine. I have never gotten a migraine so I can't say that just by reading an essay I can relate to all the pain that these people feel. The way that she discusses her situation makes me feel sympathetic because she had no control of when she would get a migraine and no actual illnesses at all. In the essay, " In the Dark", Pico Iyer made a lot of connections to culture as well as showing significance behind things that can easily be overlooked. The way the author described his adventure in Bali seemed like it was overruled by the feelings of enchantment and spirits. It's something that not everyone will allow themselves to experience because they have a fear of surrendering themselves to nature. When he brought the owl from his trip to his home he began to notice signs of hauntings and with that he decided to bring the owl down. It was a fear of him not knowing that things are more than they meet the eye and can have more of a story to them than you think that caused him to make this decision. In the last essay, "El Toro Rojo" we are taken to a scene of a Spaniard tradition, known as bullfighting and being placed in that arena. This story was very simplistic but included a divine beauty describing these movements in eloquent words that really transformed the experience into something serene rather than fatal.
ReplyDeleteLianna Andrade
In Joan Didion's "In Bed," Didion explains how a migraine impacts her day to day life. This essay was so intriguing to me; it goes on and on about the scientific side of migraines, including how they are hereditary, how they occur randomly and not in extremely stressful situations, and how she eventually found peace in having them. "In Bed" actually kept my attention and had me paying close attention to every detail. I got a migraine just reading it. In "In the Dark" by Pico Iyer, Iyer confused in the first paragraph. I didn't really understand why he was giving so many examples that were just too overwhelming. At first, I didn't like it. After reading it all, I wasn't happy. I'm the type of person that likes things straight to the point and this essay was way too much for me. I completely lost track of what he was trying to say! I understand that it's supposed to be something of symbolism, however, it was too overwhelming and I didn't enjoy it. In "El Toro Rojo" by Dinty W. Moore, I really did not understand the symbolism, but it sounded so interesting, so I obviously had to research. What I found out was that the essay is trying to explain that death is inevitable and that even if it is inevitable, we should try to focus on life rather than death.
ReplyDeleteSidney Carranco
Didion’s implementation of research about migraines, personal symptoms, self-reflection on her personality, and insight of the “friend” of the migraine all make this an effective essay. As we mentioned in class, this piece will make you feel what she feels! It’s true. My favorite part is that the author uses this painful migraine to her advantage by writing about it in such detail. She “overcomes” her disability with words.
ReplyDeleteIyer records details from the island of Bali, but in a way that diverts focus from a direct step-by-step explanation of what he’s doing there, to a focus instead on the spirituality in Bali. I found his implied romance interesting, because he never directly states that it’s happening. Instead, the walk on the moonlit beach feels spiritual instead of romantic. His journey (twice) home evinces the same spiritual sense. (E.g. the symbolism of the owl and the darkness it exudes, at the end of the essay pg. 225.) I interpreted this piece as an emphasis on the demonic activity on Bali. From the drug-like behaviors (dazed “asses” like in A Midsummers Night Dream), communicating with the dead and seeing ghosts at night, this essay screamed darkness… Iyer’s conclusion about going into the dark far enough, “you’ll never really make it back into the light” is incredibly honest, as those who have such experience will know.
Moore’s essay made me feel the insertion of metal darts into my neck. With its minimalistic detail and emphasis on the Spanish words and the meta of death, I could feel the blood-draining sensation as the author sits, mesmerized, saying “toro” almost with the words escaping his lips as a sigh, in parallel of the bull’s last second of life.
Natalie Roeglin
All three of the published essays reflect the author’s journey through a difficult time where their soul is in deep contradiction of their surroundings. The simplest representation also happens to be the shortest of the three, Dinty W. Moore’s essay, “El Toro Rojo,”where he leads his audience through a whimsically disguised execution that is common in Spain and known as bullfighting. Although its word count is less than most, Moore still packs a punch with through detail and imagery where he instills emotion by the explanation of the slaying of the bull and especially by the recognition of the passing of his father, and all concluded with an ending that makes the reader think about life and the vastness of death.
ReplyDeleteThe personification of Didion’s migraine in her essay, “In Bed” showcases how daunting her daily struggle is when her migraine decides to make a return. The severity of pain instilled by a migraine is unknown to someone who does not suffer by this fate, which is why she meticulously explains the physical and mental effect it conjures, so that migraine may become a universal understanding after reading this essay. I am an annual migraine sufferer and Didion’s depiction is one I am all too familiar with considering it is passed down from the many generations of women in my family. Didion’s depiction of the unafflicted has me linking arms with her in solidarity because of the easy, offhanded deflections non-migraine havers spew from the sidelines. Didion clearly had a bone to pick in this essay and it shows through her writing.
As for Pico Iyer’s, “In the Dark,” I’m left with questions of understanding. Reading through it a couple of time left me even more confused because I felt that there was too much detail crammed into one minute essay. It overflowed with commas trying to add more than what was necessary. Sadly, this essay is one of my least favorites, but perhaps it could grow on me with time as I get a better understanding of the genre.
Kimberlee Salas
The story "In Bed" was very interesting due to the point of view being told by a woman with a serious medical condition. this point of view helps give the readers a perspective into the life of an afflicted person. I also liked how the character explained how her condition works and what drugs will or won't work for her. I found the "In the Dark" story to be interesting due to the fact it describes the spirituality of Bali instead of the physical beauty or vacation attractions. The romance was a nice touch because it draws the readers further into the plot. The "El Toro Rojo" is intriguing due to the third person narrative addressing the reader. I like how the author addresses the bull as a sympathetic figure. I also liked how the author included Spanish words in order for the reader to understand the culture in which the plot is based on.
ReplyDeleteKatia Garcia
Upon reading “In Bed” by Joan Didion, I could physically feel her pain. While describing in great detail her own struggles with migraines, she also discussed the science behind them. The way Didion clustered all of the medical terms in the fourth paragraph made me feel completely overwhelmed. Didion mentioned that she has yet to discover the reason for her migraines, but discussed that it might be due to her perfectionism with writing. This makes me wonder if she experienced a migraine while completing this essay, or if this piece just came naturally to her because this is a topic she has experienced since she was eight. In “In the Dark”, I was amazed at how well Iyer recollected specific details from her time in Bali. At first I was a bit confused because memories were just being poured out, and it was difficult for me to piece together what Iyer was trying to discuss. Iyer’s essay seemed a bit fictional to me, due to the fact that the events that occurred to him were so unique and hard to believe. Iyer describes Bali as a magical, romantic place, but it didn’t appear to me as such. I would be terrified to travel there, but Iyer fully submerged himself into a foreign environment, and for that I applaud him. In the third essay, “El Toro Rojo”, Moore gives few details of a bull fight, yet I could feel the intensity of the moment. I was happy to see the inclusion of Spanish words, being that he was discussing a Spanish event. Moore concludes the essay by stating “In your own life, death has lingered.” meaning that death could happen at any second, during an given moment.
ReplyDeleteValerie Jackson
In Joan Didion's The Bed, the author of the essay describes what seems to be a raging war between her and her migraines. Her use of words such as "attack" (222), "guerrilla war" (223), as well as "fight" (223) demonstrate just how she feels about her migraine and how she fights it. In the end, however apart from the medication, the author chooses to accept her infirmity.I can honestly say I'm not to sure about the theme of the essay, but rather I see a candid conversation about an inherited disease. In In the Dark, by Pico Lyer, there is an emphasis on light and dark in the essay, wherein the author states, "You go into the dark to get away from what you know, and if you go far enough, you realize, suddenly, that you'll never make it back into the light." (225) The author describes his constant shift from light to dark, reminiscing on the darken walks with a stranger in a far away land. I can see his mention of dogs. Is this symbolic of something? I'm unsure. The author presents his issues with being at the island, to where there was a sense of danger, as well as mystery which he gave in to, per say. In El Toro Rojo, Dinty Moore... the essay is rather short. A dance with danger, both parties injured. The joviality that was once there is gone. It is interesting too see that each of the stories contain an character who faces a battle of some sort. The Bed's character fought her migranes, El Toro Rojo presented the matadors, and In the Dark had an inner conflict.
ReplyDelete-Jose Montoya
“In Bed” by Joan Didion, you can feel the immense sharp pain on your temples as soon as you read the word “migraine”. As the essay continues, you can picture yourself, remembering a time where you were lying in bed with an excruciating pain that’s known as a migraine. I really enjoyed this story not only because you can literally feel a headache forming, but because there’s also a lot of research embedded within the essay. For example, on page 222 it mentions that Methysergide is a derivative of lysergic acid. I wouldn’t have known that even if I Googled it, so I find it interesting that data is mentioned in there.
ReplyDeleteAlso, while I was reading “El Toro Rojo” by Dinty W. Moore, I pictured myself in the situation of the narrator. I pictured myself in the crowd, watching the matador dance with the bull. Again, the use of imagery makes me feel like I’m actually inside the essay and I feel as if I am the narrator. I really enjoyed these two essays the most and was very interested. I even got a migraine while reading “In Bed”.
Ilene Guevara
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ReplyDeleteIn the essay “In Bed” honestly reading it made me start getting a headache. The whole time I was reading it I constantly kept thinking how can someone manage that pain, and I say manage because she says that she must have to put up with it. With any small headache I receive I take an advil to get rid of the pain, because I am not able to tolerate it. Joan writes “both my grandmothers had migraine, my father has migraine and my mother has migraine.”(221) reading this part made me a little sad knowing that this family was going through this pain and they didn’t know what they had inherited. In the essay “In the Dark” Pico writes of the many memories that has happened while adding a little bit of romance, with very much detail I couldn’t really tell as to why the essay was written. In “El Toro Rojo” Moore writes about a bull fighter and the suspension he is about to endure before going out onto to the field. A bull fighter has so much courage and your life can be taken at any moment. So what I got out of the story was that maybe you shouldn’t take life for granted and to live each day as your last.
ReplyDelete-Krystdamayne Guerrero
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ReplyDeleteOne of the first things that I noticed about all three essays was that they were different lengths. What really impressed me about the first essay "In Bed", was the fact that the whole essay is describing what would be a migraine headache. It impressed me that Joan Didion wrote that much detail, that in fact it felt like I was having a headache myself. The second essay "In the Dark" also uses a lot of details to describe how the author visited Bali more than once. The detail used paints a clear picture in the readers mind of how the beaches that are in Bali look like. During the trip to Bali, Pico Iyer mentions that he met a woman on the trip, and I like the fact that he goes from describing the beach to describing how he is feeling and how special she was to him. The last essay "El Toro Rojo was my favorite out of the three. I like the way Dinty W. Moore uses the least amount of details possible to describe how a matador kills a bull, and still manages to do a great job of creating the imagery. All three essays did a really good job with helping the reader with the imagery, even though they two of them were long and one of them was very short.
ReplyDeleteFrancisco Rosales
The essay "In Bed" is about the life of a person living their everyday life with migraine's. Up until this point in my life, whenever I heard someone say that "I'm having a huge migraine" I always thought that it's just a common headache that everyone gets. After reading this essay, I actually found myself wanting to know more. I loved how the essay didn't just talk about the experiences one has with migraines, but also the fact that it goes in depth into the science to it. "In the Dark" in my opinion is very simple, with a sense of beauty. I like the message behind it which it's basically saying to experience what's happening around you, not just in nature, but in life. "El Toro Rojo" is about the experiences that a bull fighter will go through in that career. I like how it uses imagery throughout the essay and it makes you live those experiences alongside with the character.
ReplyDeleteOut of all the essay's I have to say that "El Toro Rojo" was my least favorite, just because it didn't really interest me like how the other essays did. "In Bed" by Joan Didion has to be my favorite of the three, because I believe that to me that is an essay that made me realize how important a migraine can be.
Caesar De Luna
Both "In Bed" and "El Toro Rojo" portray a story detailing one's personal struggles, both drastically different in terms of the struggle's nature, when it begins, when it ends, and how the struggle endures. That sort of deal.
ReplyDeleteThe first story "In Bed," written by Joan Didion, presumably details the story of a woman struggling with the offset of migraines since childhood. The woman is at lengths with herself, as the struggle's nature is internal, whereas her body will present itself in conflict with her personality. It is violently intensive, yet little of it is violently visible to others. It is the struggle of herself, one that others can most certainly almost never quite understand; it is one where the woman herself has settled and given in to the ailment; she is unable to prevent this ailment, she is unable to impede its progress, and so she is only able to lend herself out in toleration of its presence.
The second story "El Toro Rojo," written by Dinty W. Moore, presents the struggle through the archetype of Man versus Beast, where the struggle is an external one, a physical one. The struggle between man and beast, where the lives of the two are likened yet obviously exist drastically distinctive, all is portrayed in the arena. This story is the portrayal of a trial, one that is very much important to the man of the hour. It is of man overcoming nature itself, to present and uphold itself as one to endure and overcome such a trial. Although the trial is but a smaller part in one's life, its significance is of utmost importance, as it is the championship of character, one who has endured the tusks of death and lived.
As for the third story "In the Dark," I've not been able to find it inside my digital copy of the textbook. Weirdly enough, between the first and second stories I've mentioned there is only another story "The Raven."
Gary Tolar
In the essay “in bed” by Joan Didion, was a personal and interesting essay to read and feel. The imagery in Joan’s essay was so powerful that I felt her pain, she explained the unexplainable of the true feeling of pain and sense of uselessness at times. The imagery in page 221 second paragraph showed detailed, descriptive, and painful imagery that I saw her in class in pain and felt that pain of a migraine while reading how she explained it as. I see forms of parallelism in page 221 second paragraph in the lines where she states, “for I had no brain tumor, no eyestrain, no high blood pressure, nothing is wrong with me at all: I simply had migraine headaches, and headaches were, as everyone who did not have them knew, imaginary. I fought migraines then, ignored the warnings it sent, went to school and later to work despite it, sat through…”. On page 222 the second paragraph shows powerful imagery as well and I admire that she was able to explain her painful migraines. “In the dark” by Pico Lyer was extremely fascinating and mysterious, it was almost unbelievable that it wasn’t a dream. The escape from “the light” as he mentions in the end on page 225 seems to be reality and his home on Manhattan, however, why is that he saw the Island of Bali as the dark? My assumption was that he had the most memorable experience with a woman in the dark, and how everything on the island was mysterious at night such as the rumors on the spirts, dogs being loose, and the caves and temples guarded by snakes, the dark for him is now a new form of symbolism to those days on the island, and the light is where is most likely awake during his time in Manhattan. I enjoyed the essay as whole because it made me realize that we can step away into a whole different world. the imagery however just as the previous essay was extraordinary as if I was watching this in a film. In “El Toro Rojo” once again powerful imagery was made given on how a bull is killed. Its poetic and beautiful art on how ones sport or this hobby these people do for a living in another cultural place fighting and killing bulls for entertainment, however, we are able to see from this persons perspective firsthand on how a bull is killed, it takes strategy, there are certain terminology used for these specific tasks, they had their own language such as “veronica” I see a name, but they see a specific move the bull will take. The second paragraph on page 226 explains the most strategized techniques the bandilleros use to defeat a bull, and the sight of reading and seeing it in imagery is a form of art Moore was able to perform.
ReplyDeleteStephanie Ruiz
When reading the essays I found “In Bed” to be one that I enjoyed reading the most. My older sister had always had issues with migraines and while at times I thought she just wanted an easy way out of going to school I could see how they would take a physical toll on her. I never once had this issue and after reading I felt a bit sympathy towards my sister when Didion says the symptoms people have I was comparing them towards my sister and it was a bit saddening. I really enjoyed reading that insight. “In the Dark” by Pico Lyer I liked how instead of reading how beautiful the scenery Bali is that there is much more than that. He finds a simple romance in the dark and lets it guide him. It was a sweet romantic but it some how it changed and made me confused not matter how many times I read it. Moore essay was a bit different it was short but very vivid it made me want more of this fight that the matador is doing.
ReplyDeleteAndi Rubalcava
"In Bed" was very emotional for me. I genuinely felt a lot of empathy for the author while she described the horrors that accompany having migraines. I've never experienced a migraine or experienced someone experiencing a migraine, nor have I ever looked into what a migraine is. I always understood it as "just a really bad headache", but now understand it can be much more severe. I almost felt like I was going to have a migraine while reading this because of how well she was describing all the symptoms.
ReplyDelete"In the Dark" was very interesting to me. While reading this, I thought of this scenario that I heard of in my language acquisition class, where if you're thrown in the middle of a jungle, you wouldn't be able to make sense of any of the noises you were hearing. But given time, you would be able to understand, "this noise is made by this", "this noise doesn't mean anything". And here it was. The author specifically mentions that him and Wayan were in two separate worlds, that she understood the intrinsicness of every little thing that was going on around her, while the author couldn't make out left from right. One other thing that caught my attention in this story was the last sentence, with which I don’t agree. The last line talks about how if one goes into “the darkness” to escape what they know, at some point one will realize that they went to deep in and can no longer leave the dark. I believe, that we as human beings are always in the dark. We’re never in the light. We may catch sparks and twinkles of light here and there, but there is no true constant light in our lives.
The last story really caught my attention, as I don’t really know much about bull fights, though I’ve always wanted to know more. The story talks about two matadores; one who suffers a horrible mauling by a bull, and another who elegantly finishes the dance that is the bull fight. It’s also interesting how the author uses Spanish vocabulary. The reader has to remind themself that bullfighting was created by predominantly Spanish speakers, so the vocabulary that is best suited for discussing bullfighting has to be in Spanish, and it’s understandable that the specificity of the words describing the techniques and tools used is not directly translatable into English.
Ricardo Garcia