"In Defense of Talk Shows" Barbara Ehrenreich

This was a very interesting essay. The way Ehrenreich described talk shows was right on target. I really dont think they are really needed on TV at all. People us them kinda to boost themselves up and realize wow there are people in this world who have it worse than I do. She describes these insane talk shows to be "disturbing and sometimes disgusting" I would have to agree with her on this. The purpose of these shows is to show the people who watch them the drama some people experience. I don't feel it is necessary for people to on TV just to talk about their problems like how they are cheating on the wife or how any partners they have had. Ehrenreich starts describing a scene that would most likely happen on one of these shows. The type of people that go on these shows are the ones who would do anything to get attention. They would do anything to feel like they are important for once when really the fact is that they are going no where in their life. They just wont admit it to themselves. So they go onto talk shows to "get help" from the psychologist that is suppose to help them figure out their problems. The author makes a funny point about the moral of  a talk show "Respect yourself, listen to others, stop beating your wife." this is totally true about how the shows go on. 

She makes a point at the end that if she had her own show that she would put people on it who really have life problems and not worrying about whos the father and what not. She makes a joke that she would bring people on to discuss real problems and some what make fun of the people who make themselves look stupid on TV. I really don't think the name really goes with the essay she isnt really defending a talk show, she is really making fun of it.

"the whole horse" berry

Reading this essay was harder than the other essay we have read. In this type of essay you have to read very carefully to be able to understand and to get what the author is saying. But from my guess of the essay the author was grown up the old fashion way. Throughout the entire essay he referenced and described the life of a agrarian. From the essay I have come to the conclusion that a agrarian is someone that really believes in the farming and agricultural life. They also do not believe in industrialization and want no part of it. It may seem that the author is also a strong believer in this. He is also against large things like government. In the essay it says "The industrial economy alienates people from the native landscape precisely by breaking these direct practical ties and introducing distant dependences." Just by reading this sentence it tells me a lot about how the author feels about industrial economy. He feels that it should not be needed and that it takes us away from our roots and out nature; the nature that makes us who we are. He also goes on to say "nature as the final judge, law-giver, and pattern-maker of and for the human use of the earth." This statement can be true on many different levels. This is true because nature does hold our future and what we are as humans. It is what we came from and what we are.

Later in the essay he starts describing how the economy is going to hurt the world and the fairs with other countries. He believes that the government is trying to show people that the bigger the better and that it will make things better. In his eyes this not a good thing at all and that we should stop worrying about all this a go back to nature. He also goes on to describe about the people who are trying to save the natural resources that this is a good thing that will keep the earth intact and safe from industrialization.  

"Attack of the KIller Cats"

I really dont know what to say about this essay. I dont know what it was trying to show and what the point of it was. I thought the actually experiment or the article was kind of pointless. The study is something that I dont think that is needed at all. I mean do you really want to know how many animals cats really end up killing? I sure don't. I was trying to figure out throughout the essay weather or not it was for fun or it was real. I have a slight feeling that from what the students have written on the side, was that this was a fake and silly thing that this person wrote. 

In the article the author glorifies the owners and describes them as proud owners. If my cat brought in a whole bunch of dead things I would be grossed out and put a stop to it i would defiantly not be proud of him. In the research the owner was asked to store the dead animals or things that their cat brought in. I thought this was a total waste of time and no need for all these dead animals. 

I really did not know what to think about this reading. It was a little odd and I thought that the study was a little unneeded. 

"Why We Crave Horror Movies" Stephen King

King did a good job showing us that everyone has a deep dark side that they need to get out. So to accomplish this they view scary movies. I liked how King gave the essay a edge in a way making it seem like everyone is really messed up in the head but some are more than others. Throughout the years people have always been interesting in things such as death and horror King put it as "the horror film has become the modern version of the public lynching." I believe that is true everyone deep down love to sit in a theater and be scared out of their minds. It helps them escape from everything else in a creepy way. 

He also made a point that everyone feels the need to be good and civilized, but deep down not so much. So this is where sick jokes come in. Everyone tells them to let out that deep and dark side that is deep deep down. We see scary movies as that sick joke to makes us out of our realm for once. Horror movies are like that nastiest fantasies that are deep down in us. King describes that no one sane and that everyone has their side. 

White "Once More to the Lake"

I don't know what to start off and say about this essay. I felt as though White did a great job describing the lake and this place he use to visit as a child. But he also took it to a whole new level. He would go off and just start talking about one thing then he would remember something else and suddenly add that in. I felt as though this made things a little all over the place. When White was describing this place he made it seem as though he was experiencing it again as his son. When he was a child his family always went to this camp up in Maine and he describes this place to be his most favorite place. So when he had a son he wanted to take him there and show him what he experienced. But he also felt as he was going there as a child again. It was hard for him to realize that he for once was not the child but the father. Taking the place that his father had at this camp. He often describes how he has felt that time doesn't exist at this place and that everything is still the same as it was when he was a child. "There had been no years" (23) he is saying that he has never really grown up. At one point he is so confused on whether or not he is the father that he talks about how he doesn't know whether he is the child or the one in his place. I felt as though his trip back to this childhood place really effected him, made him very confused about where he was in life. It really took him back. White wrote a very well written remembering essay.

Writing a Remembering Essay

I felt as though this passage was very interesting and taught me a lot on how to read and write a remembering essay. This passage goes in depth on how to write the essay and how to make it interesting by describing the past experiences that you have had. They describe that an remembering essay needs to be full of very descriptive items like in a observing essay where you need to describe everything that very detailed. Sense you are referring to a moment in the past that everyone was not present at you need to describe as well as you can what happened at this moment and what you were feeling. To write an remembering essay you need to have a main focus to why you are telling this story or what this has to do with what you are writing. 

It is also important to know the main idea and to create an impression on the reader by describing this event that happened to you. When reading this type of essay you need to understand where the author is coming from and what is their purpose for this. It is also important to be able to visualize what the author is describing. It is also important to use compare and contrast in your essay to compare the person you were then and the person you are now. This will help the reader how this event really effected you and in what way. After you are finished with your essay you need to have someone else read it to tell you what they think and if you really got the point you want to make across.

Thoreau "Walking"

I have read some of Thoreau's work before and I just love the way the describes things in his work. I felt as those this essay was very descriptive. Thoreau gave the reader a perspective that you would not evan imagine about the wild and nature. Starting off his essay, Thoreau describes how the wilderness is part of us and always has been even in the past. "Our ancestors were savages."(141) Thoreau uses this as a way to show that everyone and everything that we are as human being was derived from the wilderness itself. He goes on the show that hunting and doing everything like it should be done in the wild is a more convenient way to provide food. He compares hunting in the wilderness to eating stall-fed beef. 

Through out the essay Thoreau tries to express to the reader that the wild and nature is a better environment and asset than civilization. He goes to great lengths to provide a detailed impression of his yard and that he would rather live in a swamp. What i thought was the most interesting part was when he was describing how town upon town just piles onto each other as life goes on. He is trying to show that nature and the wild is always going to be here were as ever so often town after town dies and new ones later come. 

How to Mark a Book by Mortimer Adler

I found this essay to be every interesting and educational about how to correctly mark you book. A lot of people do not agree with marking up a book and writing notes all over the place but Alder made some very good arguments to this. Alder described that you don't have to only buy the "leather bound" books but you can simply by a copy of the book for very inexpensive and no harm will be done to the author or anyone else. He also describes that writing and marking in your book will help you stay active in the story. "The marked book is usually the thought-through book." (22) Alder describes that writing in your book will help you pay attention to the story and what is happening. This will help you better understand the meaning and purpose the author is writing the book.

Even though reading could be seen as an enjoyment thats ok but being active in the book helps you as the reader. It is said that when you re-write something or write something out you better understand what you are writing and or writing about. Even when you put the book down for a long period of time and you wrote notes in the book you can just put up where you left off. Alder described this to having a conversation with the author. 

I felt as though Alder did a good job describing why it is good to write in and mark up your book.