WHY NOT?
Blog
Post #2
Due:
Wednesday October 24th, 2012
Analytical Writing
Select
THREE essays from Ray Robertson’s collection. For each essay write a 1-2
paragraph response as below. Use at least 3 quotations for each response:
a)
For ONE of the essays, comment on how you are able to relate to the ideas
therein.
WORK
At
first, before I had a job, I imagined it would be an endless droning monotony,
with every break being savoured and looked forward to. In reality, the result
was more like what Mr. Robertson says; although breaks are welcome, work is
something to look forward to. He provides some astute observations “My mother,
at home and finally free of work for a couple of precious days, gabbing on the
telephone to someone she worked with, talking about – what else? Work.” I never
thought that I would want to use my day off a week to talk about work, but
that’s what I did. And what he says about wanting to go back to work – “It
sometimes seems as if people were actually, if not quite glad, then relieved to
go back to work, back to the very same jobs they were just grumbling about” –
is absolutely correct. It seems awful as we’re doing it, but in fact, without
the structure and discipline that work provides, we quickly become unhappy.
Mr.
Robertson also knows the best way to work – on page 35, where he describes how
each sentence you type is like “a climber’s spike driven into the mountain
side”, giving you inspiration for your next idea and laying a foundation for
the next paragraph. Usually, big assignments are like towering golems,
terrifying and looming. But as you begin to chip away at them, the work becomes
easier and the project seems smaller until finally it’s done.
b)
For ONE of the essays, comment on Robertson’s style. Consider the way he has
structured the essay, his effective use of figurative language, and the other
writers he has cited therein.
LOVE
Mr.
Robertson begins this piece speaking of familial love. He makes salient
observations, like, “eventually, we all
become our parents”. He draws on examples from his own life as well as
citing renowned poets, and literary figures. Similar to the other stories in
the book, he uses these quotes liberally, often on the order of one a page.
Unlike the others, he uses several quotes from the same source, the tanka. Like the other pieces, he covers
a few different topics, devoting a few pages to familial love, some more to
lusty love, and the rest to romantic love. He transitions smoothly through
these phases, eschewing titles and transition words to a series of subtle
segways. An example is found on page 41: “Your
father’s and your mother’s and everyone else’s father’s and mother’s. And
ultimately – miraculously – your own. / Yet, as Emily Dickinson wrote, ‘The
soul selects her own company’”
This
is a somewhat unusual, but effective, style. It does not give it the
traditional feel of a structured essay, but rather the sense of a free-flowing
discourse on human nature and literature. Although I found this a little
disconcerting at first, once I adapted to it I realized it was better than I
thought. Robertson has a number of intriguing ideas here, and has managed to
express them with great clarity. His statement that we need not a mistress when
we’re young, a companion when we’re middle aged, and a nurse when we’re old,
but “someone who is all three and all at once” Is a good insight on what we
need in our romantic lives.
c)
For ONE of the essays, write an original piece related to the same topic. Mimic
Robertson’s style.
HUMOUR
Humour is the glue that holds together
human interactions, the cartilage that lubricates our actions, the oil that
greases awkward conversations. As Bill Cosby said “You can turn even painful
situations around through laughter. If you can find humour in anything-even
poverty-you can survive it.” Even in the worst, most glacial of conversations,
laughter can break the ice and make it more palatable. But laughter is more
than a tool for soothing inflamed discourses. Laughter is the mortar which
holds relationships together. I’ve never had a friend that I didn’t share jokes
with, and I don’t know anyone that I dislike that can’t regularly make me
laugh. But there is more to laughter than social interactions. The ability to
laugh, and the courage not to take oneself seriously are essential qualities to
living a happy life. As E.E. Cummings said “The most wasted of all days is one
without laughter” a man who does not laugh is a man who is not getting all he
can out of life.
More than this, however, is the fact that
laughter is one of the most mundane activities on earth, concerning itself with
the most mundane activities on earth. We laugh several times an hour, the jokes
often being about something only relevant in that moment. And yet, that is what
makes it so special. Laughing at the daily absurdities, irrationalities, or
simply oddities is how we can deal with and accept them. Of course, it’s
important not to look into it too much – the saying “Analysing humour is like
dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it” by E.B
White is true.
