II. Post 6A

Vocabulary:
1) (pg. 92) dystonia- abnormal tone of any tissue.

2) (pg. 93) congenital- a condition present at birth, inherited or caused by the environment

Figurative Language:
1) (pg. 106) "[...] unable to distinguish betweenadjacent tones and semitones. Without these basic buildig blocks [...]" Sacks refers to these parts of music as building blocks, giving them a very simple term to express their importance in music.

Quote:
(pg. 102) "Music, I regret to say, affects me merely as an arbitrary succession of more or less irritating sounds." The quote is of one of Dr. Sacks' patients, describing how music does not affect them as it would a normal person. It shows how different some people's brains function compared to the majority.


Emerging Theme:

The emerging theme is that many people who seem to be affected by music have a wide variety of brains types. It was proven and talked about in Musicophilia that the brains of full time musicians function differently that non musical people and they even have a difference in brain size

II. Post 6B

The main point of part II of Dr. Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia is that so many people have differently structured brains, and it makes Musical hallucenations sometimes hard to track over large groups of people. For example, Sacks wrote about the proven study that professional musicians have differently structured brains than a nonmusical or averagely musical person.
He also brings up the recently coined term, "dystimbria," and describes it as "a distant form of amusia that may coexist with defective pitch discrimination or occur on its own" (Sacks 108). In fact, the term is only known by certain members of the medical world, and is so new that no definition for the words exists on either dictionary.com or google: define. I wanted to learn more about it, so I checked these sites and learned that the word didn't even officially exist. I found a short discussion of it, though, on an obscure website about music and the brain. It made me realize how new the topic of music is to the medical world. It was recently added to the category of neurology, due to its relevance in the brain, and the fact that it relates to conciousness is a complete mind blow to many educated people. It seems like much will be discovered for the topic of Musicophilia in the future.

II. Post 5A

Vocabulary:
1) (pg. 49) otolaryngologist- a specialist in the disorders of the ear or nose or throat
2) (pg. 53) iterating- doing (something) over again or repeatedly.

Figurative Language:
1) (pg. 52) "I said we have no 'cure' for musical hallucinations, but perhaps we could make them less intrusive." Oliver Sacks puts emphasis on cure because he is using it as a loaded word, implying that the outcome could have various benefits surpassing just getting rid of the disease.

2) (pg. 58) "He wondered whether, with the 'iPod' in his brain, he was taking the easy way out [...]" The patient of Dr. Sacks compares his psychological disease as if it is an iPod in his head, making it a metaphor.

Quote:
"I consider myself a kind of living laboratory, an experiment in nature through an auditory prism... I have been living at the edge." This comment from one of Sacks' patients describes how many people with musical hallucinations attempt to discover more information about the disease. (pg. 86)

Emerging Theme:
The emerging theme of Musicophilia is that many of the people who live with musical hallucinations learn to deal with a sudden onset of music in their brain. Many of them claim that they sometimes enjoy hearing the music in their head.

II. Post 5B

I have now finished part one of Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia, and I have decided to do a brief recap of the main points of this section. He begins the section by giving a definition of Musicophilia, and expresses it as a chronic and sudden onset of musical hallucinations. The title of part one is "Haunted by Music," so logically one would think of musicophilia as something inescapable and malicious. Early on, he supports this belief, expressing how some of his patients find that Musicophilia affects them every day. Sacks also differentiates the difference between having a tune stuck in your head, and having Musicophilia. Catchy tunes, as he explains, usually leave the brain after two weeks at most. Dr. Sacks also explains how many people who have musicophilia also have epilepsy, and in some cases, their musical hallucinations are only sparked by seizures of the temporal lobe. Later in the section however, he writes about how many of his patients learned either to deal with their musical hallucinations, or they completely got rid of them with the help of pharmaceuticals. Therefore, the claim that musicophilia can only be bad, and that it cannot be stopped, is disclaimed and proven wrong by the end of this first section.

II. Post 4A

Vocabulary:
1) (pg. 43) inadvertently- unintentionally
2) (pg. 39) analogue- something having similarity or comparability to something else

Figurative Language:
1) (Pg. 36) "I was reminded, now I was on land again, of my painful, arhtritic old knees." This Quote is an emotional appeal because it makes the reader sympathize with the author for his arthritis.

2) (Pg. 43) "Two days later, the narrator meets an old friend, a pastor, and inadvertently 'infects' him with the jingle; the pastor, in turn. inadvertently infects his entire congregation." The author uses "infects" as a loaded word, because it implies more than just passing on the tune, but also having the inability to get rid of it from ones mind. It also implies that the tune is unwanted.

Quote:
This quotation involves one of Oliver Sack's patients when she was given a cochlear implant (like a hearing aid, except much more intrusive) to improve her hearing: "I'm terrific! I hear every word you say! The implant is the best decision I have ever made in my life [...] Unfortunately, there was a downside, too: she could no longer enjoy music." (Pg. 55) It shows how people's interpretation of music can change when their hearing instruments are given the slightest adjustment.

Emerging Theme:
The emerging theme in Musicophilia is that there is no substitution for natural things. This is shown in the previous quotation stating that the recipient of the cochlear implant ended up not being able to enjoy music. Today, cochlear implants cannot help the mind detect tonal intervals in music. They are also less effective than natural ears at hearing relative pitch. These two things happen to be the "building blocks of music." (sacks) This proves that artificial means of receiving natural outcomes never turn out as well as the real thing.

II. Post 4B

Dr. Sacks,
I find it very cool that you are one of the few (if not only) neurosurgeons who writes books. I myself have aspirations to become a doctor, and have considered neurosurgery as a very interesting field. When I thought of a neurosurgeon though, I got the mental image of a very mathematically precise person with little consideration for the arts. You however completely destroy the stereotype which I made for your proffession. It seems interesting that you commit yourself to both research and surgery, as if you have taken both the jobs of the neurologist and neurosurgeon at once. Upon looking you up on Wikipedia, I found and interesting picture of you. It tells me that your'e a very interesting guy with a dry sense of humer who doesn't care what people think about him. I have become very fond of your writing, so thanks for such a great read.

II. Post 3A

Vocabulary:
1) stimulus- something that exerts action (Pg 35)
2) suffice- to be adequate (Pg 30)

Figuritive Language:
1) "eating some smoked whitefish, [...] earlier in this Christmas season, I heard in my mind 'O' come let is adore him.' Now the hymn has become associated with whitefish for me" (Pg. 36). It seems completely paradoxical that one could find association between a song and a completely unrelated food, but is true because it happened to the author. (Paradox)

2) "Chopin's mazurkas, which I learned by heart 60 years ago" (Pg. 30). The man Oliver Sacks is interviewing is clearly exaggerating about how long ago it was when he memorized this piece. (Hyperbole)

Quote:
"Jerome Bruner, a very musical friend, discribed to me how once, having put a favorite Mozart record on his turntable, he listened to it with great pleasure, and then went to turn it over to play the other side---only to find that he had never played it in the first place" (Pg. 32) This quotation shows how people with extreme musical memory can have musical hallucenations. The subject geos on to express that he thought he was actually listening to the song, not just hearing it in his mind.

Emerging Theme:
The concept that even people without a great musical memory can have musical hallucenations to the point where they think they are listening to the actual song emerges in Musicophilia.

II. Post 3B

This post is all about my overall thoughts on Musicophilia so far. Before reading the first thirty pages of the book, I thought that I had a relatively knowledgable concept of Musicophilia. Although I knew music had strange relationships between man and memory, I never thought of music as something that animals may have no reaction to. To other animals, and to a hypothetical alien race, their occurance in hearing our pop music would result in dumbfounded misbelief and curiousity about how our race could have respect for such a random grouping of sounds. I also had no idea aout the relationship between music and seizures, specifically that certain types of music can iduce seizures in various people and that they can have a musical hallucenation. Musical memory is one of the few wonders involving Musicophilia that I had any idea about before reading the book and I have learned much about it aswell. I find the relationship between a certain person and their own ability to memorize music quite stunning. It seems amazing to me that one person might memorize a song in one sittingm while another on the opposite wide of the spectrum would have to listen to it for days. I have learned a loot about music and the brain through this book and I plan to learn a lot more.

My Super On the Waterfront Review

On the Waterfront: A Review
Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront is a film released in the fifties expressing the importance of “whistle blowing” for the improvement of one’s community. It effectively shows the control which gangs had over various businesses at the turn of the century. Although the internet movie database interprets it as a movie of “an ex-prize fighter turned longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses,” it is also one man’s conviction as he chooses between supporting the mob and his brother, or helping the community and the girl he loves by putting Johnny Friendly and his entourage behind bars.
Kazan used many literary aspects in his movie to portray the overall theme and the importance of the mob. The characters he uses help exemplify the actions they made. He portrays Johnny Friendly as a tough, very unfriendly and serious man with considerable aspiration. Johnny seldom smiles and has a physical build, gait and clothing reminding the observer of Al Capone. Oppositely, Edie Doyle walks around with an almost angelical feeling, and is put separate from the rest of the cast by her blond hair. Father Barry, much like Edie holds himself with spiritual importance, and is distinguished from others in the scene by his collar. All of these characters help the viewer to identify the characters with figures of greater importance. The setting in Along the Waterfront grabs the attention of the viewer. The observer can identify the time period based on the cars driven in the film and the type of work Terry does. His work, and what most blue collar workers did at this time (loading and unloading goods off the docks) also tells the viewer that the movie takes place in an American port city like one in New Jersey.
These literary aspects based on characters, setting, and many others lead to symbols in Kazan’s film. All of the symbols relate to Biblical figures in both the Old and New Testaments. The most obvious symbolism relates Father Barry to a Jesus figure. The scene in which various gangsters throw food at him during his speech refers to when Jesus was laughed at and then crucified. Later in the scene, Father Barry is brought out of the ship on a cargo lift, where the camera looks up at him, comparing him to when Jesus ascended into heaven. Terry Malloy is also compared to as a Jesus figure when he must make the long walk to the cargo ship at the end of the movie. After being beat up by Friendly’s gang, Terry, in his sad state, must still lead the other men to work. It reminds the viewer of Jesus carrying the cross: Terry stumbles several times and is helped by Father Barry like the man who helped Jesus carry the cross. Instead of carrying the weight of the cross, Terry carries the weight of the society of workers who follow him. The final symbol which exists in On the Waterfront relates Terry to a Moses figure. Terry is portrayed as an inarticulate man with few social graces, relating to Moses’ fear of public speaking as written in the Old Testament. Like Moses questioning the burning bush as to why God chose him, Terry is confused as to why Father Barry chose him to testify against Johnny Friendly. He does not understand why he must confront his brother and someone who took him to baseball games when he was a boy. These relationships are the most important literary aspects of Along the Waterfront, and depict the overall mood of Kazan as a film writer.
The dramatic aspects of the film grab the attention of the viewer and support the themes and mood set out by the literary aspects. The actors in the movie give clear dispositions to the characters and various elements, such as set design helping the observer understand the setting of the film. By selecting Marlon Brando in the fifties, Kazan gave the audience someone they did not yet know well as an actor. This made the audience view him as a character, and not as a type-cast star. Although Marlon Brando later starred in Superman, The Godfather series, Apocalypse Now, and many other popular films, he was much less known before On the Waterfront. On the Waterfront probably solidified his place in Hollywood. Like Terry, Elia Kazan selected Eva Marie Saint, another young actor to play Edie Doyle. Because she was also a lesser known actor at this time, the audience may have felt more sympathy towards her character. Unlike the two previous actors, Kazan picked a well-established, middle-aged man to depict Johnny Friendly. Lee J. Cobb was definitely better known by the society at the release of On the Waterfront. He had already been seen in other performances as an ill-tempered and belligerent man, giving him a sense of meanness to viewers who had never seen Johnny Friendly before, but had seen Cobb. While the proper use of actors helped Kazan identify roles in his film, the set design enables the audience to identify the setting without directly stating it. The use of bulbous shaped cars with thin wheels and manual windows tells the observer that the time period looms between the early nineteen tens to the twenties, right before or during the Great depression. The popularity of tending to pigeons and non-automated trade also directs the viewer to this time period. The use of lesser known actors to play younger roles and better known ones to play older roles helps Kazan depict characters the way he wants to, while the use of time definitive fads and devices can direct the audience to a certain setting and time period.
The final and most popular of film devices are cinematic aspects. Including photography, camera movement, and sound, they are much more technical than their dramatic and literary counterparts, and can add immediate suspense to the movie. The use of a low angled photographic shot gives certain importance to the subject centered in it. For example, as Father Barry is lifted out of the cargo hold of the ship, he is viewed from a low angle at medium distance. This and being raised above the crowd relates him to a Jesus figure, and one of great importance as the instigator of the cessation of Johnny Friendly’s gang. Oppositely, low angle shots show the subject in lesser importance as the audience looks down on Terry Maloy standing on his roof. Not only does it look upon him as lowly, but it also gives a great view of the city around him, assisting in setting determination. Camera movement usually adds certain feelings in the observer such as fear or mischief. During the scene of Terry and Edie fleeing the truck down an alley, an essence of fear and suspense exists because the camera closely follows the two. This use of camera movement makes the audience fear for the protagonist’s life. The use of music and sound adds certain feelings much like those caused by camera movement. It is an auditory method to achieve the same results as camera movement, and can therefore have greater effect when the two are used simultaneously. The music at the introduction of On the Waterfront adds a mysterious feeling to the audience, and then the tempo immediately hastens and the music becomes more jumpy to add a sense of action. This grabs the attention of the viewer considerably. Overall, the use of cinematic appeals can change the mood of the movie, grab the attention of the audience, and instill various senses such as fear.
The choices made by Terry Maloy to turn in Johnny Friendly and his comrades relates considerably to the decision made by Joe Keller in All My Sons. While Terry is confronted by the ability to turn in a gang that commits malicious activity to the community, Keller has the decision of whether or not to sell faulty airplane parts. Both of their decisions have an affect on the community in which they live, although Terry’s decision affects the income of his one city, and Keller causes the death of Americans from multiple cities. Terry Maloy is barely involved with the gang while Joe has complete control over his business. The main difference in these two protagonists is that one made the ethically correct decision (Terry), and Keller made the morally incorrect decision. While making his decision, Terry felt empathy for his whole community and the deaths of people he knew, and Keller considered solely on the effect his decision would have on his family. Although neither of these characters is a truly bad person, one clearly was more affected by corruption.
The writer recommends On the Waterfront to any moviegoer. It can be used in the classroom as a good example of a literary film, a specimen for critiquing, and an old black and white movie a teacher can use to explain ethical dilemmas. Whether one desires to watch a classic fight scene, or even see a priest throw a punch and then ask for a beer, On the Waterfront can subdue their many cinematic desires.

II. Post 2B

Dear Dr. Sacks,
I am very curious about your field of medicine. It seems from you book that many of your patients have seizures relating to or induced by music. Since that is the subject of your book, I am curious how your own patients feel after surgery if they get rid of their epilepsy, but sacrifice a gift they may have had for music. Are their seizures so bad that they would be willing to sacrifice anything to get rid of them? I have never had one myself, so I cannot understand the depth and pain involving such an encounter. However, I am curious as to how your patients feel about losing such an ability. On a broader scale, I'm sure that surgical removal of a tumer in a different lobe of the brain would result in the loss of a different function, only based on the lobe which was partially lost or affected. Is epilepsy so uncomfortable and dangerous that people would be willing to sacrifice memories, or even the ability to speak just to get rid of the disease?
Thanks

II. Post 2A

Vocabulary:

1) evocative- tending to cause something (Pg. 19)

2) astrocytoma- a malignant tumor filled with astrocytes- which are star shaped cells of nervous tissue (Pg. 20)

Figurative Language:

1) "He groped for the controls of the device to turn the music off. 'Then,' He says, 'I went out." This is a use of irony because while attempting to cease the music coming from the player, he ended up worsening his seizure which was evoked by it.

2-3) I have had the same problem again- I am putting more effort into finding figurative language than in my last outside reading, have a broader subject of types of figurative language, and still have found only one. AAAAAAAAAARRGGHH!!! I will try to compensate in other aspects of my posting.

Quote:

"If the band started playing,' Mrs. N. said, "I would run out.... I had half a minute or less to get away." This quotation, like the last posting, explains the fear someone diagnosed with epilepsy may have of a certain type of music which provokes their seizure. Obviously, this is an important point in the book because the idea of Musicophobia has been brought up more that once.

Emerging Theme:

The theme that music is mankind's most unnoticed, sometimes underdeveloped, and most subconscious attribute has emerged in Sacks' novel. Music is the most basic of human functions, and has greater connections to our lives than the average human realizes.

II. Post B

Dr. Sacks,
Although I have only read the first chapter of your book Musicophilia, I find myself captivated by your technical style of writing and the subject matter of which you explain. As a friend to the Neuroscience community, (My dad is an epileptologist) I also find your use of vocabulary involving locations of parts of the Brain and other terminology quite helpful. It also makes the book seem fun to me, because I can look at it and understand what is going on, while someone who has no idea what a Grand Mal seizure would have no idea what you're talking about. It almost makes me feel like an insider. Your book makes me wonder if music is a thing only received by mammals, or even if humans are the only organisms in existence who's brains are so affected by it. Like you said in the introduction, what if an alien race came to inspect our species saw our music merely as a jumble of sounds with no particular meaning. Your book has brought considerable interest and excitement to me, so thanks.

My new outside reading book

after finishing A Walk in the Woods, a great book, I picked a new one for outside reading. This book, Musicophilia, is written by Oliver Sacks, a neurologist currently at the University of Columbia. He is one of the very few Neurologists whowrites books to people outside the medical community. His newest book, Musicophilia explains the relation between mankind and music. I was first interested in this book because I like music, and I want to know how it affects our minds subconciously

II. Post A

Vocabulary:
1) neurologically- involving the brain/ central nervous system (pg. 4)
2) insatiable- uncontrollable, incapable of being satisfied (pg. 5)

Figurative Language:
1) "His music is ceaseless. 'It never runs dry,' he continued. 'If anything, I have to turn it off" (Pg. 6). Oliver refers to music like it is water coming from a faucet. (metaphor)

2-3) Oliver Sacks is a doctor, and although he uses considerable technical literature, he uses very little figurative language. In fact, the one I have for #1 was what one of his patient's said, not him. In other words, I could not find any more examples of figurative language he used in his book.

Quote:
"Listening to music is not just auditory and emotional, it is motoric as well: 'We listen to music with our muscles [...] we keep time to music, involuntarily." (Pg. xi) This excerpt best explains one of the lesser known aspects of the human relationship to music.

Emerging Theme:

Oliver Sacks brings in the theme in the introduction to Musicophilia that the human mind is connected to music in many, sometimes unnoticeable ways.

Post 5A

Vocabulary:

[239] gaiety- state of happiness
[233] jaunty- easy and sprightly in manner or bearing

Logical/Emotional Appeals:

1) "What is certain is that Pagluica had just experienced a surface wind speed of 231 miles per hour. Nothing approaching that velocity has ever been recorded elsewhere." (Pg 228) By using such straightforward terms as numbers, Bryson uses logical appeal to make us understand the wind speed on Mount Washington. (logical)

2) "You threw a water bottle? 'It was heavy.' Of course its heavy. Water's always heavy. But it is also kind of vital, wouldn't you say?" (Pg 240). Bryson grabs the reader's emotion and makes one feel helpless as they learn that his friend got rid of his water bottle. (emotional)

3) "Anyway, we did it[...] Another mountain [...] How many do you need to see Bryson?" (Pg 271). As Katz tells Bryson that they did hike the AT although they only hiked about half of it, the reader understands Katz's emotional appeal by realizing that they didn't need to do the whole thing to get something out of it. (emotional)

Quotation:

"We didn't walk 2,200 miles, it's true, but here's the thing: we tried. So Katz was right after all, and I don't care what anybody says. We hiked the Appalachian Trail." (Pg. 274) Bryson explains that he really didn't really need to hike the whole trail to gain respect for the wilderness and for the trail itself.

Emerging Theme:

By the end of Bryson's account of his hike along the AT, the reader comes to the realization, and so does Bill, that he only hiked under half of the whole trail. Bryson ends his story by saying that although he only hiked 800 of the 2,200 miles, he still considers himself as someone who hiked it. This causes the final theme in the memoir, that to learn from an experience or journey, you don't have to do the whole thing to still get something out of it.

Post 5B

After finishing Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, I learned a lot which I did not expect to, and read a very unexpected outcome. While reading the first section of the memoir, I expected that Bryson would be hiking the whole trail. I almost expected it of him since he was writing a book about it. As the story went on, I came to a several places where Bill and Katz just decide to take a taxi or hitchhike to the nearest motel, and then skip a large portion of the trail. I later decided that one really cant expect everyone to finish the whole trail, and realized how amazing and tenacious the people are who do finish the whole trail in one long hike. In the conclusion, Bryson explains how he and Katz only hiked about 870 miles of the A.T, while the whole trail is well over 2200. But, although, he didn't finish the whole thing, he still got a great outcome, and one very similar to someone who did finish. He gained a new respect for the wilderness, and "discovered an America that millions of people scarcely know exists." (Pg. 274)

Post 4A

Vocabulary:

[181] fastidiously- hard to please
[180] anthracite- a mineral coal containing little of the volatile hydrocarbons (hard carbon)

Logical/Emotional Appeals:

1) "[...] not a pleasant experience with 50 pounds of momentum on your back. Lots of people leave Pennsylvania limping and bruised" (pg. 173). This emotional appeal fills the reader with anxiety, apprehension and even pity for what Bryson is preparing to traverse. (emotional)

2) "A single contour line was interrupted by a printed number in microscopic type. The number said either '1800' or '1200'" (pg. 174). By using numbers to show the poor construction of a map, Bryson uses logical objects to tell us how useless the Appalachian maps can be. (logical)

3) "And did they [glaciers] did start to advance again, what exactly would we do? Blast them with TNT or maybe nuclear warheads? [...] The quake devastated 24,000 square miles of wilderness, much of it glaciated. And what effect did this have on Alaska's glaciers? None" (Pg. 197). By saying this, Bryson makes the reader know how unchangeable and inevitably wilderness changes like glacier movement are. (emotional)

Quote:
"the Appalachians were pushed up (like a rucked carpet, as the analogy nearly always has it)" (Pg. 191) This is one of the many analogies Bryson uses in his memoir. He uses analogies a lot, so I decided to point that out.

Emerging Theme:
A new theme has emerged. As Bryson has stated so many times in his memoir, the maps used on the Appalachian Trail are hard to read, and sometimes not useful at all. This leads to a theme that if someone really wants to accomplish something, they may not be able to rely on "maps" left behind from someone else's "journey." They've got to do it themselves instead of used provided information.

Post 4B

I included in my previous post some interpreatations about Americans having sedentary lifestyles. It has become a larger part of the memoir, and I think it needs to be talked about again. Bryson expressed that most Americans walk less in one day than an Appalachian hiker does in twenty minutes. WOW!, with a gaping mouth was my expression when I read this. Obviously Americans rely much on their vehicles, and have remote controls for just about everything, but could their total movement in leg strides be reduced to under a mile? I thought about it for a while and decided that a "blue-collar" worker, like a telemarketer might wake up, walk to the shower, then to the kitchen, and then to their car. After that, they find the closest parking available, sit in a chair for hours on end, only to get back in their car, pick up some fast food, and sit back to watch some TV. After thinking about it, I thought, "Yeah that adds up to about a mile." Although Americans should obviously be more active, making the comparison to an avid hiker is a little to extreme. I think it would be much more feasible and acceptable to run or even walk for twenty minutes in a day. Although I am on the cross-country team, and am a hiker, I don't think many Americans can or want to do such extreme exercise. A little exercise every day is better that none.

Post 3A

Vocabulary-
[pg. 147] flora: the plants of a particular region.
[pg. 147] rakish: having an appearance suggesting speed.

Logical/Emotional Appeals-
1) "Now here's a thought to consider. Every twenty minutes on the Appalachian Trail, Katz and I walked farther than the average american walks in a week. Fir 93 percent of all trips outside home, for whatever distance or whatever purpose, Americans get in a car." (128) This section makes the reader feel shameful in his/her sedentary lifestyle and embarassed by the lazyness of the common American. (emotional appeal)

2) "Look at the map and then look at the part we've walked. [...] Jesus. [...] We've done nothing." (105) This realization made by Bryson fills the reader with a feeling of hopelessness. Bill and Katz learn that their months of hiking had only brought them through an eighth of the trail. (emotional appeal)

3) "Here the business was close and on top of you: gas stations, Wal-marts, Kmarts [...] Even Katz was unnerved by it. 'Jeez, its ugly." (115) As Katz and Bryson emerge from the trail, even the reader realizes that the industrialization and pollution of America has left it very ugly.

Quote-
"As we lay there propped against our packs, a tourist in an unfortunate straw hat, clutching an ice cream, came up and looked us over in a friendly manner. 'So you fellas hiking?' [...] And you carry those packs? [...] Eight miles! Lord." (151) This quote also expresses the sedentary lifestyles of Americans, and how they are amazed at someone who hikes 15-20 miles every day.

Emerging theme-
A new them has emerged in the middle of the memoir. Bryson has begun to talk much more about how Americans don't live active lifestyles and sit around all day. Like the people who were amazed at seeing hikers, most people don't consider running, or even walking a part of their dayly schedule. Bryson is trying to tell the reader this.

Post 3B

In the beginning of Bill Bryson's memoir on hiking the Appalachian Trail, I found many similarities between my encounters on the trail and his. Like his story, many of the shelters were overcrowded and infested with rodents. When I was on the trail, we simply slept in our tents next to the shelter rather than submitting ourselves and our food to the rats. Also, most places on the trail were damp and cold. Clearly we hiked the southern section of the trail at the same. Since I only hiked the Blue Ridge Mountains, the southern most section of the AT, and only for a short period of time, Bryson also has encounters which do not relate to my own. I was lucky enough to never hear a bear rummage through my pack in the middle of the night, while Bill hints that such a thing happened to him, although it was in the middle of the night and he had no way to prove it. Also, I never had the opportunity to hike off the trail to a nearby town. Bill expresses the value of these usually decrepit motels and diners as a haven off the trail to recover for a night. By reading Bill's journal on his expedition through the Appalachian trail, I have discovered a rejuvenated desire to hike the whole trail rather than the small part I did with my Boy Scout Troop.

Post 2B

Dear Bill,
I am fascinated by your writing style. Your mostly cynical explanations and opinions of other people and groups adds to the atmosphere in the memoir. Your sarcasm helps me understand how you feel against certain administrations such as the United States Park service. You express this by saying, "Today the National Park Service employs a more casual approach to endangered wildlife: neglect. It spends almost nothing- less than three percent of its budget- on any research type, [...]" (pp. 92-93) This mood towards the administration also exists in your apparent mood on the trail. Being a hiker, I can understand why someone would be in a "pissy" mood while hiking through inches of mud and slippery rock. Although some would say this mood is pessimistic, I find it optimistic myself. Your expression of the trail while being a relatively untrained and middle aged hiker makes me feel that anyone can do it if they train enough. I think someone who feels too weak to even attempt at such a feat like hiking the AT should read your book to gain some optimism themself.
A Fellow Hiker,
Ken H.

Post 2A

Vocabulary:
indubitably: undeniable, certain (94)
demonstrably: capable of being demonstrated (94)

Appeals:
"Ask a park official what they are doing about it and he will say, 'We are monitoring the situation closely.' For this, read: 'We are waiting for them to die'" (pg. 93). ---- Bryson is grabbing the sympathy and attention of the reader by making them aware of the situation of America's wildlife, and then overexaggerates the problem. (emotional appeal)

"[...] the unusual liveliness of its resident mice and even rats" (pg. 95) ---- By saying resident, Bryson expresses the rodents as if they are human refugees taking a shelter. (emotional appeal)

"[...] a dinner of stew and dumplings, corn bread, and oh, let us say, peach cobbler" (pg. 98) ---- Bryson entices the reader, who has entered the mindset of having to good food on the trail. This makes the reader sympathize for Bryson's lack of good food. (emotional appeal)

Quote:
"I knew with a sinking heart that we were going to talk equipmentI could just see it coming. I hate talking equipment" (pg. 98) ---- This excerpt explains a hiker's desire to see company while on the trail, but when the company is there, they have nothing to talk about.

Emerging Theme:
A theme emerges in Bryson's memoir as the two begin their hike over the AT. The amount of strenuous activity they put into climbing the trail induces irrational behaviors, thoughts, and actions.

Post B

Bill Bryson's memoir is a journal of his travels through the Appalachian Trail. Having gotten past his departure from civilization onto the Appalachian, I know everything he did, or wanted us to think he did, in preparation for the trail. It somewhat bothers me that he never wrote about practicing with a weighted down pack, or at least hiking without one. Being a backpacker myself, I know the most important thing you can do to prepare yourself for the trail is to get your body ready. In preparation for my own trip to a scouting reservation, I climbed Stone Mountain (Atlanta, Georgia) with a 50 pound backpack for 2 weeks in advance. All seasoned backpackers would consider this necessary for such an endeavor, and some would even think my preparation was not enough. Either Bryson truly did not prepare himself for his hiking tirp over the AT, or he left that part out of his memoir. He may have wanted to make his trip look more hopeless to the reader, or he might have thought that it would make the book to boring. Maybe this simply explains that he is an average middle aged man, and not a seasoned hiker who would know to prepare.

Post A

Vocabulary:
1) milieu [pg. 23]- suroundings especially of a social nature
2) desultory [pg. 80]-digressing from the main subject

Logical/Emotional Appeals:
1) "it is an intoxicating exoerience to taste Coca-Cola as if for the firsttime[...]" (pg. 55) in this sentence "intoxicating" not only means giving one a drunk feeling, but a sense of happiness involved in drinking a soda for the first time since being on the trail. (emotional appeal)
2) "now what kind of straps do you wnat with that[...]" (pg. 10) The salesman at the camping store convinces Bryson that he needs straps for his backpack. He basically tells Bill that if your going bakpacking, your going to need them. (logical appeal)
3) "It'll be hell.' 'Yeah, I know" (pg. 21) In this dialogue, Bryson's wife is not only telling him that the trip will suck, but her use of the word hell also implies the annoyance, agony, and mutual hatred that could arise from bringing his old firend along. (emotional appeal)

Quote:

" 'What did you get rid of?' I asked. 'Heavy f****** s***, that's what. The pepperoni, the rice, the brown sugar, the Spam, I don't know what all. Lots. F***.'[...] He acted like he had been betrayed by the trail." (pg. 39)
-This quote explains how heavy a backpack can get when going backpacking. One's perception of the weight is elevated further by the fatigue induced by such excercise. This brought an irrational result from Bryson's friend, who got rid of almost all their food in his pack.

Emerging Theme:
A theme emerges in Bryson's memoir as the two begin their hike over the AT. The amount of strenuous activity they put into climbing the trail induces irrational behaviors, thoughts, and actions.

I've decided

so, I bought my book today: A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail. by Bill Bryson. As a couple of you know, I moved here from Atlanta a month and a half ago. I hiked the AT* a lot. So I'm very excited to see what this guy has to say about it.

Ken

* "AT" short for Appalachian Trail. I'm going to use this shortening frequently in my blogs, so get used to it now

My Blog

Hey guys,

My name's Ken and this is my blog. Right now I am using it for English, so if your looking for my opinion on a book I just read, look no further than my blog. I'm not sure what I'm gonna read yet.

Thanks for reading my blog,
Ken