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- Reading responses must be AT LEAST 200 words.
- Include your full name at the end of your comments. Unnamed comments will be deleted.
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- Reading responses are due by midnight on the night PRIOR to our discussion of the required reading.
In Karr, “The Art of Memoir” chapter 6 she talks about carnality and how effective it can be in conveying emotion and allowing the reader to feel and be part of the story, becoming one with the writer and their experiences. “thus wearing the writer’s hands and standing inside her shoes. The reader gets zipped into your skin.” (Karr, pg. 78). This is something Ferguson does well when writing her memoir. Especially the part in pg. 81, “As we hike the Sierra, terrain changes like morphing dreamscapes.” I found myself reading along quickly trying to get to end of this scene. I was scared and it got my heart pumping. Although I know nothing is going to happen to her because her book got published meaning she made it. I was still scared. Her writing form is engaging and immersive. What Karr talks about in chapter 6 “Sacred Carnality” Ferguson has in her writing this carnality that is evoking the senses. Feeling, touching, smelling, making it all come alive inside our minds, making it real. Karr writes and gives examples on semantic memory which is a memory written that lacks details. Then episodic ones which are memories written with conveying details. Ferguson takes us on a ride as we read, I am her.
ReplyDeleteAlejandra Rodriguez
in Karr's, The Art of Memoir chapter 6 Sacred Carnality she tells us that the best writers can not only show us a picture, they can make us live in that picture. Feel what the writer felt, smell what they smelt, not just see what they saw. She tells us to start at the beginning, like a drivers license, and then layer over that. There can be a nice house sure but why is it nice? What makes it unique? Ferguson does this at the very beginning of chapter 8, In a Handshake, she describes Zapareachic by juxtaposing it with the picture perfect homes on magazines. Not by saying that the house was ugly, she describes the home as perfect but unattainable, hard to get to, a place too rugged for the fancy photographers and editors of these magazines.
ReplyDeleteDawn Bustamante
In Karr’s, The Art of Memoir chapter 6 Sacred Carnality she talks about how immersing the reader into the shoes of the writer is one of the best ways to convey feelings, smells, taste and not what they just see in front of them. Like an exchanging feelings or senses on a certain topic, place or thing. What is hidden beneath the details of a nice-looking house? What makes a perfect place perfect? The best writers can make us live in a picture make us feel like we are there allowing us to put ourselves (The reader) in the writer’s shoes. Ferguson does very well on that as while I am reading her memoir I feel like if I am her. I am where she is and experiencing the hike that she went through. I felt tired after reading that part. Karr also goes on describing the differences between semantic memories and episodic memories. Fergusons memories were episodic ones.
ReplyDelete-Marco Garza
“Sacred Carnality” by Mary Karr is a chapter that truly gets the idea quickly and makes it imprint with the reader. Upon reading it, Karr explains how the reader needs to experience carnal emotions directly from the author in order for them to truly understand the text. For example, she states “A great glutton can evoke the salty bite of pastrami on black rye, the sex addict will excel at smooth flesh…” (pg. 71). She explains that this goes beyond the premise of “show-don’t-tell” that she explains earlier, and that this is a deeper form of the five senses. As such, when writing and adding moments where the writer can evoke moments of the sense, she explains that these emotions will be able to transplant the individual directly into the situation. Thus, type of emergence between the author and the reader create moments where the story has extreme clarity. This connects well with chapters 8-10 of Ferguson’s memoir, as she has been every descriptive in respect to her sense since the first chapter. Overall, from the correlation Karr has and how it connects to Ferguson’s chapters, we can see the not only will these moments of the carnal sense express deeper emotions, but it was add better moments in which the reader can perceive your story. As such, Karr ends her chapter with how she perceives a story should be ended, in which, “The reader gets zipped into your skin” (pg. 77).
ReplyDeleteDavid Leal
I really suck at righting. It’s true, see? I always ask, what is showing and what is telling? The reason I am constantly asking my question is, because, us, as writers have to show our tell. Wrap your head around that. I get confused with difference between showing and telling. I know its what’s sets good and writers apart. Karr chapters 6 helps clarify the meaning, but I still ask, what’s the difference? I know why I ask all the time. Its because writers are telling what the character or story is doing. I also suck at figurative language. Even reading it, throws me off a bit. I rather know directly what the smell is, rather than a have a whole bunch of pretty words that do not have any relations to the touch or smell.
ReplyDeleteIn Ferguson chapters, I really liked the struggle she has. I liked how Ferguson is going back and forth with the tribe in order to make her movie, and explaining to them she isn’t making a big-ass movie. I like that She is going back and forth with tribe’s people. Its chaotic for her and she does a great job of showing you the struggles of this documentary.
mathew
Karr’s sixth chapter discusses the importance of carnality or writing with the five senses. Writing with the senses, as I understood, gives a piece more depth. I kept thinking back to something my old orchestra director had told me about how to decorate Christmas trees: you shouldn’t just toss the ornaments and lights at the tips of the branches. Place some smaller spheres toward the center of the tree and wrap the lights there as well. Now the tree will glow from within as well. On pages 81-82 of Ferguson’s book, she details the crossing of a river that goes over a cliff. Ferguson is terrified and I can really read it. She describes the scenery, with long flowy sentences, but then quickly stops. Realization hits. Sentences shorten. She has nowhere to go. Or so she thinks, but Liberado doesn’t mean to leave Ferguson behind. In chapter 10, Ferguson shows us how the cows are prepared for the feast. I enjoyed this scene (I love animals I swear) because it reminded me of the many scenes in A Song of Ice and Fire where blood is shed. I think Ferguson did an excellent job of recreating an experience that made her turn away from meat for two years.
ReplyDelete-Angie Acuña
To start off in Karr’s book, “The Art of Memoir”, she talks about Carnality and at first I had no clue what that meant. I looked up the definition for that and it means along the lines of pertaining to or characterized by the flesh or the body, its passions and appetites. So with that being said, she talks about how the emotions play a role in the writers path to writing a story and allows the reader to connect and be a part of the story being told. As soon as the reader connects to the story, then he/she can place themselves in the writer’s shoes and experience it themselves. Ferguson Chs. 8-10, on the other hand, makes me feel like I am in her shoes; she has done a good job in catching my attention. The emotions that play into the readings are interesting because I feel as if I am connected with the book. Another thing too is that the descriptions makes me feel like I am really experiencing the things that are going on. I think Ferguson going back and forth in a flashback-movie type of way keeps me engaged to wanting to read more.
ReplyDelete- Claudia Anzaldua
As the name suggests, Mary Karr’s “Sacred Carnality” focuses on the nature of carnality when writing a memoir and appealing to the five senses to help paint a picture that the readers will be able to not only comprehend but to also feel as though they are experiencing these events firsthand. This is something that I always set out to accomplish when writing about personal experiences, but always seem to fall short on the delivery (at least from my perspective) as I either detail to the point of tediousness or to where everything is reduced to a basic outline with some descriptions to wrap everything up. This carnality that Karr talks about is something that Ferguson employs exceptionally throughout chapters 8-10 along with what we’ve read so far. I can’t really put my finger on it, but somehow she is able to go beyond the whole “painting a picture” for the audience and instead gives us a scenes that play out like they would in a movie before our eyes or if we were present. The best example I can think of is when she describes to us the location scouting she does in chapter nine for a film shoot, reconstructing the scenery and people by not only providing us with the necessary details but also background information that gives them more significance.
ReplyDeleteNarciso Garcia Jr.
In Karrs Chapter 6 Sacred Carnality " The more carnal a writer's nature, the better she'll be at this, and there are subcategories according to the senses." Which is true because the more comfortable you are within your past experiences the better you would be with writing about it. From personal experience writing about my past would be difficult but then yet it is a part of me so that become my nature something that somebody else might not be able to write about it because the emotions won’t be there. Ferguson does that in her wrting she takes you with her in her journey through the sierra. This brought memories from when we used to go to Montemorelos, Nuevo Leon and as you entered the city to the left hand side you could see the sierras way up high. They were green and fog covered half of them early in the morning. You could see people walking up and down the sierras. It was weird to see actial cars going up and down due to the dangers of the travel. Ferguson brings to life the whole world around her which makes you feel everything she is feeling. That is something that I admired from her writing.
ReplyDelete-Abigail Vasquez
No one wants to hear a happy story, no one wants to know how successful your life has been your entire life. No one cares if you had a happy childhood. Sadly, people want to know the dirty truth of how you came to be, how you rose to fame. This isn’t always a bad thing, but all in all it helps in your writing, as well as catches any readers attention. Readers want to relate to something. Not on all occasions but the majority or the time, yes. “Sacred Carnality” is Karr explaining how “Carnality sits at the root of the show-don’t-tell edict [...]” (Karr, 71). Everyone has a story to tell. Some have more to tell than others. We must dig into the root, even if that root may be something we tried to burry deep down and years ago. Ferguson writes about journalist coming to and only wanting to see the beauty beyond the border which is completely fine but what about that bad parts. What about the places we should know about. The danger, the ugly, the truth of what hides beyond the wall. Why does everyone want to see better things in life, okay I get it we don’t want to be negative but I see more and want to read more of that. Carnality is key.
ReplyDelete-Christina Velasquez
In Chapter 6 of "The Art of Memoir" Karr discusses how it is important that the reader connects with the story. In order for a reader to be invested in reading about someone's past, they have to understand what it truly felt like to be in this past. And this is why the "five senses" are important in writing memoir. To write an effective memoir, a reader has to feel like they can insert themselves into the world. I feel Ferguson does this very well, as her descriptions do paint a clear picture of her life story.
ReplyDeleteI love Karr's line: "The greater writer trolls the world for totem objects to place on a page." I've seen the "five senses" tip explained in many places, but not all in this manner.
Michael McCormick
In chapter 6 Karr writes about carnality, the importance of bringing out the five senses, touch, smell, sight, hearing and taste. When the writer brings out the five senses in their writing the reader is able to appreciate the work a lot more, which in turn brings more meaning to the piece as a whole. I think this tip, and the reading as a whole is a great guidance to writing the memoir essay. As writer I think that we all kind of try to accomplish this in most of our writings, but I think being able to try to express through our memoir may be a little challenging for some of us. In Fergusons essays she does a great job expressing the carnality through out the readings. She really knows how to express these emotions through her writing, and as readers we are able to really feel the emotions as if we were there right beside her. Its almost as if we were her. Everything is just so vivid and real. I really like it. I really enjoy it. Those are the kind of readings that I enjoy.
ReplyDeleteLeslie Luna