"My Father's Suitcase"

Orhan Pamuk is a good writer. I like him and his style of writing, and what he talks about, I feel like I can relate to. I understand when he says that writers lock themselves in a room all alone only to find that they are not alone. I used to write stories and I just felt like there was something inside of me that just wanted to let loose on paper. I would start out strong, but then fade out after a few chapters. Pamuk kept reinstating that writers needed to be patient and I think that that is something that I lack. When I would hit a dead end, I would just throw my notebook in my closet and forget about it and just wait for a new idea to form. As I look back now, I think that middle and high school crushed my inspiration for writing. Essays and pieces of writing would turn into a formula - it was really like math. As long as you had all the components, you would get an A. I hate math but I was good at just plugging in the information so I would do well according to their standards. But I was not open to any imgination - it was almost like I was not allowed to think creatively. And it is sad because I started to hate writing which was such an important part of my early life. This passion inside of me to create new worlds, as Pamuk puts it, seemed to be stifled, buried under this assumption that all writing needs to be formal. But here in college it is like they actually want to hear what you think - your opinion matters. I am so thrilled that I can put myself into the paper. The passion inside of me, I feel, is beginnig to become uncovered, layer by layer.
Pamuk's statement that the worlds that he writes become more real than the world he lives in reminds me of an interview I read in Time magazine with J.K. Rowling. She said that when she finished the last Harry Potter book she cried for days. It was like a world, a part of her life, had ended, or died. The way she immersed herself in her writing is so inspiring. Pamuk is right, though, in saying that writers are, in a sense, isolated from the outside world. I think that even when writers are surrounded by people they are alone in their thoughts. They have such a different outlook, which I would like to acheive someday.

Chapter 1 - Reading:Purposes and Processes & "The Library Card"

When I first started reading the textbook part of the book, I thought that it would be boring and that I would not get anything out of it. Surprisingly, though, I found a lot of the information helpful. I learned that I should try to become more of an active reader. I find that I write a lot when I read textbooks but not so much when I read entertaining pieces of literature. But maybe if I was a more active reader, I would understand the meanings better. I also learned that I can write about trivial things without sounding trivial.
I really like the essay, "The Library Card" by Richard Wright. While reading about this man and his troubles, I realized that I take advantage of the fact that I have free access to books and can read them anytime. What really hit me was when Wright stated that he "hungered for books." And he "hungered" for intellectual books yet struggled to get his hands on them and here I am, able to read any book I want and I more often than not, choose entertaining books without much substance. I should try to learn by reading and choose books that make me think.
I also found it depressing that this boy has to carry a "burden" for reading. He should be praised for his intellect, but instead he is chastised, just because of the color of his skin. It is sad that the reading "created a vast sense of distance between [him] and the world..." But I am glad he persevered and stuck with it even though it was difficult or he may have never written this and no one would be able to read this and be inspired by it.

Blurb from first class

Ellen is an eighteen year-old girl who's lived in the same small town, Ashland, New Hampshire her whole life. She realized at a young age that she wanted to teach for a living so she decided to study Elementary Education at Gordon College. She is a freshman now but when she was twelve she went to Iceland for a week and hopes to visit there again someday. She is taking Writing and Rhetoric this semester to help her become a better writer and to learn more about the writing process, especially at a college level.