Miranda July Assignment # 11 - Photograph a Scar and Write About it

When seeing a scar on a person; particularly a noticeable one in an odd place, I can’t help but wonder about the story behind it. Whether its extremely deep, or just the faintest dot, the impact of the scar is the same. It is always a reminder of some event which either traumatizing, life changing or perhaps just a clumsy moment that would one day make a funny story. Most scars initially involve a trip to the emergency room, a couple of stitches or at least a very serious “I promise to never do it again” talk with one’s parents. My scar however, does not come with such an exciting tale. It didn’t come from a major fall or a pumpkin-carving incident gone wrong. The thin faint scar down the middle of my forehead was simply caused by my infant sister, Gillian. Ironically, though neither of us could have known at the time, we would both grow older to become those sisters whom would under no circumstance be able to get along. At the time, she was my cute baby sister, and being the seven year old tomboy that I was, I thought that the scratch down my forehead was pretty cool. Gillian and I had grown farther apart as we each got older. My mother always liked to peg our indifferences on the fact that we are so alike; stubborn and sarcastic among other traits. I don’t really know why we’ve never seen eye to eye, and in the past couple of years I’ve begun to regret the gap between the two of us, and the idea that she would feel some what left out from the extremely close relationship between my other sister and I. Although we still are not the closest of sisters, things have definitely gotten better as we’ve each grown more mature and begun to grasp the importance of family. Whenever I see that barely there line on my forehead, I am always reminded of my relationship with my sister, and though the mark is still there, it is slowly healing as time passes.

Completing the task set out by Miranda July was unlike any assignment that I have written during my English courses at Dawson. The idea that the writing for this assignment was so personal was the aspect which made it most and appealing to write. It is very rare to come across an assignment in Cegep where one gets to truly express themselves through their school work, as opposed to writing using only fact and analysis. I personally chose to write about a scar on my body. The process of writing this piece was pretty cool, because as opposed to analyzing literature or film, I was actually analyzing a piece of myself. Before reading the proposal of this assignment on Miranda July’s website, I had never spent much time thinking about my scar which I see in the mirror everyday. I had begun to think not only about the physical mark on my forehead, but also about the mark left on me from the cause of that scar. This scar is not only a part of my physical characteristics, but it plays a small role in me as a person. Through expressing the story behind my scar, I gained an understanding about how much of an effect the small things have on a person, and how each tiny event or trait is significant in the entire being of that person. This assignment was extremely thought provoking, as it signifies not only the importance of communicating and sharing a part of you with others, but it also teaches significance of sharing with yourself in order to be true to yourself and see the relevance of your own events and emotions.

Each of the assignments on Miranda July’s website involves a personal journey in order of completing it. Whether it be something simple such as recreating a childhood poster, or something courageous such as taking a picture of a complete stranger, each one requires the person to explore a part of themselves which they may normally not turn to. In order to complete one of Miranda July’s assignments, one must analyze themselves, either through returning to a moment in their past, or even just by thinking about an idea or activity in a different way that they normally may do so. Each one of these assignments also contains a requirement of creativity in order to be completed. I think that one of her main goals through creating her website was to challenge people to think differently about themselves and about others. Each one of these creative tasks ends with a new outlook on others by the person who had completed it. I believe that she wanted people to begin to realize how much each one of us is effected by little acts within our lives, and in turn be challenged to put more effort into simply caring about people outside of our inner circles of family and friends. By communicating with others, we are able to express these ideas as a global message, and perhaps each one would make a difference to another person; even a simple account of a personal event has the power to touch another person. Miranda July’s assignments involve all different art forms such as writing, drawing, music and photography. I think that the tasks which she proposes through different artistic movements stress the importance of communication which she is trying to spread. The major method of communicating to the public is through art, whether is be through a novel or a controversial painting or film. Miranda July is trying to reconceptualize what is counted as art through these assignments as a result of the importance of communication, and wants people to feel free to express themselves through there creativity. It has been said that art imitates life, and one of the most crucial aspects of human life is communication, which Miranda July is challenging humanity to spread through their individual thoughts and experiences.

A final hint for the final exam ....

One of the questions on the final exam will ask you to read this article by Jonathan Safran Foer.

You will have the article with your exam, but you may want to get a head start and read it ahead of time. Also, the font in the handout of this article is quite small, so you may want to spare your eyes.

Final exam structure and hints

Final Exam: Dec 3^rd and 5^th

On Dec 3, you will write an in-class exam. This will be a closed-book exam. There will be 8 short answer questions worth 5 marks each, which means that each answer needs to be fairly substantial to earn a potential five marks. The exam questions will mostly be focused on the material since the mid-term (Breakfast of Champions, Adaptation, Everything is Illuminated), but some questions will ask you to make connections to previous work.

Hints for exam questions:

• One question will be from the handout of questions on Breakfast of Champions that we did in groups
• There will one question that asks you to compare the novel Everything is Illuminated with its film adaptation
• Review the major themes we have been discussing in Everything is Illuminated, as well as in the course at large. Consider also our discussion about the postmodern deflation of the status of the author

On Dec 5, you will write an in-class essay. You will see the essay topics on your exam sheet on Dec 3, but you cannot bring in outside notes. You will be permitted to use your novel only. There will be a choice of three essay questions on the novel.

Reminder for Writing a Literary Analysis Essay:

A) Introduction

1. Topic Sentence

The first sentence of your introduction should provide the name of the author, the name of the text, and the main subject of your essay. Do not write in general terms about the subject as it relates to real life.

Which one of these topic sentences is more effective? Why?

1. “In our days, it is rare that we know only one version of a certain subject.”

2. “Ann Sexton and Angela Carter’s versions of “Little Red Riding Hood” differ greatly from each other.”

Rewrite the following topic sentence to make them more effective:

1. “The two rewritings of the Little Red Riding Hood story are “Red Riding Hood” by Anne Sexton and “The Company of Wolves” by Angela Carter.”

B. Thesis statement

Your thesis statement should be as specific as possible. Do not make reference to what you will write about later; this style of “announcing” your plan will give you a statement of intention, but will not give you a thesis statement.

Which of the following statements is more effective? Why?

1. “In both stories, the authors ridicule the main character and make the story ironic.”
2. “In this essay I will begin by briefly discussing the author’s representation of the main character in each story and then I will compare and contrast the two.”

Rewrite the following thesis statements to make them more effective:

1. “The central character of story can be related to postmodern concepts.”
2. “This essay will examine how the two tales are considered as postmodern literary works, and also why Sexton rewrites these two characters into her own versions of fairy tales.”
3. “In this short essay I will analyze two of Anne Sexton’s remakes: Cinderella and Rumpelstilskin. I will elaborate on what makes these fictitious stories postmodern and what the author’s goals are for rewriting these characters.

C. Sentence Structure

Comma splices

A comma splice occurs when you join two separate sentences with a comma, which is not sufficient punctuation to join two separate sentences. Join them with a connecting word or separate into two sentences.

1. Fairy tales are cautionary takes, they teach morals and a clear sense of good and evil is shown.

Review Questions for Everything is Illuminated

Review questions: Everything is Illuminated

1. How would you describe the two voices that tell the story (Alex and Jonathan's)? How is their language different? In what ways do the narratives intersect or move away from one another? Why do you think the author chose to write the novel in this way?

2. Why does Jonathan travel to Ukraine? What is he searching for? What are Alex and his grandfather searching for on the journey? What does each character find?
3. In an interview, Jonathan Safran Foer said that “Everything is Illuminated is, above all things, about love – between parent and child, between lovers, friends, and generations, between what happened and what will happen.” Where do you see examples of each of these types of love in the novel? How does the theme of love influence the course of the novel?
4. On page 265-6, Jonathan writes, “Every widow wakes one morning, perhaps after the years of pure and unwavering grief, to realize she has slept a good night's sleep, and will able to eat breakfast, and doesn't hear her husband's ghost all the time, but only some of the time.” How do the characters in the novel live their lives in wake of tragic events? How do we both move on and still remember these events? What roles do stories play in reconciling ourselves with the past?
5. Describe the blending of elements that are tragic and that are comedic in the novel. Why do you think the book does this? What does the book seem to think that the role of humor is in life and in the face of tragic events?

Passage Analysis

Passage Analysis: Due at the end of the semester, Dec. 5

Choose one of the following passages, and write a detailed passage analysis. See your handout for information on how to do this

1. Page 5, beginning with “Grandfather’s name is also Alexander” until the end of the section on page 7.
2. Page 8, beginning of the page, until the end of page 11
3. Page 44, beginning with “Yankel had lost two babies” until the end of page 49
4. Page 64, beginning with “Let us eat” until page 67, ending with “had a thing to do with the potato”
5. Page 95, beginning with “From space” until the end of the section on page 99
6. Page 131, beginning with “She hadn’t cried” until page 135, ending with “the last breath of the drowning victim”

Bonus Assignment: Also due on Dec. 5^th if you choose to this assignment. It will be evaluated out of a possible bonus 3% added to your final grade.

The bonus assignment is a creative writing assignment. You will write a vignette that depicts a moment in one of your grandparents’ lives that demonstrates that you understand Everything is Illuminated’s approach to telling history (i.e. poetic, not strictly “accurate,” or suggesting that history is subjective or cannot fully be known, postmodern rather than realistic, etc.). Write about your grandparent as if he or she is a character: this is a work of fiction, not a work of biography.

Everything is Illuminated, Lesson 6

Lesson 6

Wrapping up: Everything is Illuminated

1. Plot structure

How do you think the structure of this novel is different than a traditional plot structure of introduction, rising action, climax, and resolution?

Where do you think the climax is in this book?

2. Character development

We've talked before about how Alex character changes. How does his grandfather's character change?

a. change in views / treatment of Jewish people

● forces waitress to apologize to Jonathan for calling him a Jew

b. attempt to reconcile himself with his past

● “We are not looking for his grandfather. We are looking for Augustine. She is not any more his than ours” (220)

What is the grandfather looking for?

● “I do not believe in Augustine. No, that is not what I mean. I do not believe in the Augustine that Grandfather was searching for. The woman in the photograph is alive. I am sure she is. But I am also sure that she is not Hershel, as Grandfather wanted her to be, and she is not my grandmother, as he wanted her to be, and she is not Father, as he wanted her to be. If I gave him money, he would have found her, and he would have seen who she is really is, and this would have killed him” (242).

3. The role of fiction

a. We've talked about how this book differs from traditional forms of fiction because it reveals itself as a work of fiction and a work that is in progress rather than complete or finished.

b. The book also thinks about what the role of fiction is in our lives: we all tell stories to ourselves to make sense out of our existence. The creation and revision of stories is a part of life, and the book exposes this through the way it is written: it reveals the creation and revision of its story.

c. Fiction comes out of nothing, but creates something that exists that could produce meaning

● “She told him stories of ship voyages she had taken to places he had never heard of, and stories he knew were all untrue, were bad non-truths, even, but he nodded, and tried to convince himself to be convinced, tried to believe her, because he knew that the origin of a story is always an absence, and he wanted her to live among presences (230).

● “Safran lay in bed trying to string the events of his seventeen years into a coherent narrative, something that he could understand, with an order of imagery, and intelligibility of symbolism” (260).

d. Another way the novel departs from traditional ways of storytelling is the way in which the way the book is written suggests that writing and language is unable to communicate certain things: this suggests a lack of faith in language to convey meaning

● think about Lyotard's idea of “incredulity towards metanarratives” that we talked about at the beginning of the course

● stream of consciousness style when Grandfather is talking about what happened with Herschel, words are mashed together (248- 250)

● use of .... before Trachimbrod is destroyed as if there is an attempt for the writing style to slow down time (270-271)

● use of parentheses ( ) to include / make things present that were absent from the conversation about Herschel (246)

● end of the novel breaks of midsentence: does not continue on to say what will happened next

● the destruction of Trachimbrod is not part of the actual narrative but is part of someone's dream that is recorded in The Book of Recurrent Dreams (272)

What do all these events that are being described have in common?

4. Collapse of past, present, and future

a. We've talked before about the how the novel confused a clear sense of past coming before the present and present coming before future

b. In the last section of the novel, we have people trapped in the past and unable to move forward in their lives when tragic events are looming

● “Activity was replaced with thought. Memory” (258-263).

5. Impossibility of love

● We saw this theme before with Yankel and with Brod, and we see this theme again with Safran

● I don't love you, he told her one evening as they lay naked in the grass (234).

● Alex response to this is quite insightful (240)

● Eventually, Safran's first experience of love is “by chance” (263) and he is in love with the future

● This experience of being in love is the experience of being caught in an in-between state (261 – 263-264)

6. The title

What does the title of the novel mean? What things are illuminated? What is gained and lost by illumination?

Everything is Illuminated, Lesson 5

Lesson 5

Memory and Legacy in Everything is Illuminated

What are an author's responsibilities towards telling a “truthful” version of the past?

● Alex comments that both he and Jonathan are involved in a process of taking liberties with the past when they are writing. Note that Alex continually raises questions about the role and purpose of writing as the novel goes on

● “We are being very nomadic with the truth, yes? The both of us? Do you think that this is acceptable when we are writing about things that occurred? If your answer is no, then why do you write about Trachimbrod and your grandfather in a manner that you do, and why do you command me to be untruthful? If your answer is yes, then this creates another question, which is if we are to be such nomads with the truth, why do we not make the story more premium than life?” (179).

The novel suggests both the importance of recording the past in writing as well as the impossibility of knowing the past through recorded documents:

● Only the various Trachimbroders who weren't, in Tova's estimation, worthy of an invitation were not at the reception, and hence not in the guest book, and hence not included in the last practical census of the shtetl before its destruction, and hence forgotten forever (163).

● He was so afraid of being discovered that even in his journal – the only written record I have of his life before he met my grandmother, in a displaced-persons camp after the war – he never mentions them once ... The day he had sex with his first virgin: Went to the theater today. Too bored to stay through the first act. Drank eight cups of coffee. I thought I was going to burst. Didn't burst. (169- 170).

● If Jonathan has no actual record of his grandfather's sexual escapades, why does he write them?

Can we see his creation of the sexual prowess of his grandfather in a similar way to Alex's own creation of his sex life?

Jonathan on his grandfather’s sex life: “There were some fifty-two virgins, to whom he made love in each of the positions he had studied from a dirty deck of cards...” (195)

Alex on his own sex life: “May girls want to be carnal with me in many good arrangements, notwithstanding the Inebriated Kangaroo, the Gorky Tickle, and the Unyielding Zookeeper” (2)

Yet, there seems to be a desire from the general public to have an “authentic” version of the past, even if this may not be possible:

● Peanut Gallery

“This is so unbelievable. Not at all like it was” (174).

The novel also raises a question concerning whether or not we are determined by our past and the context that we live in. Is these things control our lives, can we be blamed for the things we do?

● “Wasn't everything that had happened, from his first kiss to this, his first marital infidelity, the inevitable result of circumstance over which he had no control? How guilty could he be, when he never had any real choice” (165, 166)

● “They all turned their faces away and hid. I cannot blame them...” (187)

● “Grandfather interrogates me about you every day. He desires to know if you forgive him for the things he told you about the war, and about Herschel. (You could alter it, Jonathan. For him, not for me. Your novel is now verging on the war. It is possible. He is not a bad person. He is a good person, alive in a bad time” (145).

Everything is Illuminated, Lesson 3 and 4

Everything is Illuminated: Lesson 3

1. Lack of linear direction in the plot

● we see this first in when Brod looks through a telescope: “she lifts a powerful telescope to find herself (87) and sees the photograph of Safran and Augustine (88) and learns of her own rape that is recorded in the Book of Antecedents (89).

● when this rape is dealt with later, it only occurs in the space of one line, because we have already learnt about it: “ignored them even when they made a woman out of her” (96). There will be more discussion of this rape later through the technique of flashback, and we will later read the full account of this rape as it is recorded in the Book of Antecedents.

● Brod looking through her telescope into the future is different than traditional foreshadowing or hints about what will come later

● we see more traditional foreshadowing when Jonathan writes “my great-great-great-great-great grandfather swam back to shore, pumping the golden sack above his head” (94). By referring to Shalom (the Kolker) as his ancestor, we know that he will later marry Brod.

So, instead of telling history in a strictly accurate and linear manner, we have more of a poetic or fantastical history that often involves playing around with timelines. History is being told in a postmodern rather than realist manner.

● we certainly see this with the story of Trachimday creating an illumination in the sky 150 years later

● “From space, astronauts can see people making love as a tiny speck of light. Not light, exactly, but a glow that could be mistake for light – a coital radiance that takes generations to pour like honey through the darkness to the astronaut's eyes ... We're here the glow of 1804 will say in one and a half centuries. We're here and we're alive (95- 96)

● Trachimday day light is seen in the moonwalk in 1966 (98).

● collapse of fact / fiction (actual historical events and places with non-accurate and non-realistic elements) as well as a blending of past, present, and future

● “Like Yankel, she repeats things until they are not true, or until she can't tell whether they are true or not. She has become an expert on confusing what is with what was with what should be with what could be (87).

● this blending is also a result of the undetermined nature of the past : can we really know what happened for sure? : “This plaque marks the spot (or a spot close to the spot) where the wagon of one Trachim B (we think) went in” (93).

2. Alex's character: humourous yet also insightful.

● definition of a writer as someone who writes fast (100)

● Jonathan begins to appear as foolish as well (it is not only Alex). He wants certain scenes changed so that he looks better, but this would involve him speaking Ukrainian, and there are some problems in the logic of this change, that Alex points out (101)

● Alex also proves himself to be quite insightful at times: see his remarks and insights into Brod's character and on the nature of love (103), his comments on the lost history of Trachimbrod (115) and lies (117)

● his inflated persona that we saw at the beginning of the novel will later begin to reveal itself as a fabrication: “I have never been carnal with a girl” (144).

● fiction and storytelling is a way to create a persona that one wants for oneself and to please other people: “I think that this is why I relish writing for you so much. It makes it possible for me to be not like I am, but as I desire for Little Igor to see me (144).

● does or can a fictional persona replace or correct the “authentic” self? : “I beseech you to make us better than we are. Make us good” (145).

Everything is Illuminated: Lesson 4

1. Time shifts: Past, present, future

● When we enter into the section entitled “The Dial,” we have suddenly in 1941 with no explanation

● later on, Alex acts as a stand-in for the reader, and expresses some of the confusion that the reader likely feels: “as for your story, I will tell you that I was at first a very perplexed person. Who is this new Safran, and Dial, and who is becoming married? (142). Alex also reminds Jonathan of his historical inaccuracies about the saw (142). Keep in mind that Jonathan is not aiming to be historically “accurate.”

● this change in time undermines or compromises the climax of finding Augustine (?) at the end of the previous section (118) – the reader likely expects to hear more about this but Foer holds off on following through with the expectations that he has created

● we are learning about Safran (Jonathan's grandfather and his wedding), and through a flashback (?) we learn about the Kolker's accident (“He was to fulfill the sacred ritual that had been fulfilled by every married man in Trachimbrod since his great-great-great-grandfather's tragic flour mill accident” (120). We haven't learnt about this accident yet, so is this flashback actually an example of foreshadowing? --- confusion of clear forward and backward motion along a linear plot

● Brod's rape is finally clarified for us: “She hadn't cried since that Trachimday five years before, when on the way home from the float she was stopped by the mad squire Sofiowka N, who made a woman of her” (131). (this is a clear flashback, but the event itself was first introduced to us in a bizarre twist on foreshadowing)

● The face of the Kolker gets remade as it gets rubbed off. It gets remade in accordance with what his offspring look like: the present creates what past: “For each recasting, the craftsmen modeled the Dial's face after the faces of his male descendants – reverse heredity” (140)

● this negates the previous idea that Safran is falling in his ancestor's footsteps: “he was growing into his place in the family, he looked unmistakably like his father's father's father's father ... he was granted a place in a long line – certain assurances of being and permanence, but also a burdensome restriction of movement. He was not altogether free (121).

● Alex: “everything is the way it is because everything was the way it was” (145)

● the past and the present seem to be connected together in a chain: “ so my young grandfather knelt - a perfectly unique link in a perfectly uniform chain – almost 150 years after his Brod saw the Kolker illuminated at her window” (140), but which end of the chain is the beginning or the starting point???

2. The nature of love

● how is love being defined in the novel?

● Brod's love for her father, and love in general: “Brod's life was a slow realization that the world was not for her, and that for whatever reason, she would never be happy and honest and the same time. She felt as if she was brimming, always producing and hoarding more love inside her. But there was no release ... she had to satisfy herself with the idea of love – loving the loving of things whose existence she didn't care at all about” (79- 80)

● Brod's love for the Kolker : “This is love, she thought, isn't it? When you notice someone's absence and hate that absence more than anything? More, even than you love his presence? (121).

● Brod wants to be loved like a child is loved: she does not want serious discussions or other intellectual matters: (123, 125). What does she want? Does she want a partner in life?

● She thinks violence is love: 129-130

● impossibility of love at all: 132

● love seems to be possiible in the light of unpleasant truths, and this is connected to time stopping: “He pressed his lips to the hole: Yankel was not your real father. The minutes were unstrung. They fell to the floor and rolled through the house, losing themselves. I love you, she said, and for the first time in her life, the words had meaning” (139).

● lies and deception, though, seem to play important roles and are sometimes necessary (though they may hurt the liar or the ones they lie to): “not-truths hung in front of me like fruit. Which could I pick for the hero? Which could I pick for Grandfather? Which for myself?” (117).

● is humor the only truthful way to tell a story (Alex on p 53) or does humor lessen reality and protect us from reality by allowing us to distance ourselves from it? “I used to think that humor was the only way to appreciate how wonderful and terrible the world is, to celebrate how big life is … But now I think it's the opposite. Humor is a way of shrinking from that wonderful and terrible world” (158).

● is Yankel himself able to tell unpleasant truths to his daughter? (77)

More dualities: (track these through the novel)

● the Kolker's split personality and split head

● absence / presence:

● “This is love, she thought, isn't it? When you notice someone's absence and hate that absence more than anything? More, even than you love his presence?” (121).

● “They lived with the hole. The absence that defined it became a presence that defined them” (135).

● “She was learning [that the hole] is not the exception in life, but the rule. The hole is no void; the void exists around it” (139).

Everything is Illuminated, Lesson 2

Everything is Illuminated: Lesson 2

1. The sections entitled “Falling in Love” (“Falling in Love, 1791-1796” p 43-49 and “Falling in Love, 1791-1803” p 75-85) describe Yankel and his daughter’s love for one another. Describe each of these characters and their expressions of love. What themes emerge out of these sections?

2. When Alex writes about Jonathan’s corrections to his part of the story in “An Overture to Encountering the Hero, and then Encountering the Hero” (p 26-34), he comments: “I know that you asked me not to alter the mistakes becomes they sound humorous, and humorous is the only way to tell a sad story, but I think I will alter them. Please do not hate me. I did fashion all of the other corrections you commanded. I inserted what you ordered me to in the part about when I first encountered you … As you commanded, I removed the sentence “He was severely short,” and inserted in its place, “Like me, he was not tall.” And after the sentence “Oh, Grandfather said, and I perceived that he was still departing from a dream,” I added, as you commanded, “About grandmother” (53).

Why do you think that Jonathan has asked Alex to make (or not make) these types of corrections? How would you describe the humor in the novel? How does it relate to tragedy? What are your feelings about using humor in a novel that deals with the Holocaust?

3. When writing about the section that he is sending to Jonathan entitled “Going Forth to Lutsk,” Alex comments “I also invented things that I thought would appease you, funny things and sad things” (54). What things do you think have been invented in this section?

4. Look at the Alex’s comments to Jonathan about being a writer on page 69. How does each character think about the role of the writer? What kind of role of the writer is Foer suggesting in his text?

Everything is Illuminated, Lesson 1

Everything is Illuminated

Lesson 1

1. Looking at Alex’s character

1. Foer attempts to create humour through Alex’s use of the English language. This happens when Alex chooses a word that may be the correct definition but not commonly used (resulting in a humourous sense of formality), when Alex almost has a colloquial expression but not quite, and when he ironically understates something through his choice of words. Find examples of these areas.

Formal word choices

· Dubs

· Disseminating

· Miniature

· Pygmy allowance

· Sired

· Tally

Almost there, but not quite

· Fluid in English

· “I knew that he was pissing off, pissing everywhere” (30)

· “I wore my peerless blue jeans to oppress the hero” (31).

Idiomatic Expressions

• “my instructor was having shit between his brains” (2)
• “made shit of a brick” (28)

Ironic understatements

• “mismanagement with a brick wall” (1)
• “home for forgetful dogs” (5)
• “my face gave a high-five to the front window” (30)

2. Describe Alex’s character. What are his interests? Where does he reveal that certain things in the persona that he creates are not true? How does he characterize Jonathan? What kind of advice does Jonathan give Alex about writing?

a. Alex’s character and interests:

b. Self-consciousness in his storytelling

“This is where the story begins” (3)

“I will describe my eyes and then begin the story” (4).

Desire to have some things excluded from the final draft, usually in parenthetical remarks: it appears that we are reading the first draft

“Jonathan, this part about grandfather must remain amid you and me, yes?” (5)

“At the same time when he said this, it seemed a reasonable thing to say. But now how does this make you feel, Jonathan, in the luminescence of everything that occurred” (6).

Alex creates a certain persona in his writing. At times, he either reveals parts of this persona that are false by making overblown comments that we know are false. At other times, though, Alex has great insight into situations and into Jonathan’s writing

• On 69 position:

“It was invented in 1969. My friend Gregory knows a friend of the nephew of the inventor” (3)

• On his height:

“And thank you, I feel indebted to utter, for not mentioning the not-truth about how tall I am. I thought it might appear superior if I was tall” (24).

• On how fast he can run:

“the car is so much shit that it would not travel any faster than as fast as I could run, which is sixty kilometers per the hour” (29).

• On the history of Lvov:

“Lvov is a city like New York City in America. New York City, in truth, was designed on the model of Lvov” (30).

Alex’s characterization of Jonathan

• Alex calls Jonathan “the hero” of the story? What is a hero? Is Jonathan a hero?
• See description of Jonathan on page 31-32

What kind of advice does Jonathan give Alex?

• Use of thesaurus p 23

• His reaction to advice that Jonathan gives:

“I apologize for the last line, about how you are a very spoiled Jew. It has been changed, and is now written, “I do not want to drive ten hours to an ugly city to attend to a spoiled Jew” (24).

• Why does Foer choose to open the book with Alex, instead of with the persona of the himself? How does this affect the authority of the author?

2. Looking at the history of Trachimbrod

1. What kinds of divisions where created in the Jewish community in Trachimbrod?

• Creation of the division between Upright Synagogue and Slouching Syagogue pg.17-18
• Need for proclamation pg. 13

2. Jonathan is engaged in telling a history attempts to be more poetic and magical than strictly historical. Where do you see examples of this “poetic” type of history, or of recounting things that do not seem like they would be in a traditional historical account of a town? What parts of his text suggest to us that history can be told from a number of perspectives, and that being strictly “accurate” is impossible?

• Poeticizing of history: travel of stench pg 22
• Many possible versions of what happened with Trachim p 15

3. When Alex reads the section of history that Jonathan has written entitled “The Beginning of the World Comes Often,” he comments “I have one small query about this section, which is do you know many of the names you exploit are not truthful names for Ukraine? …. Are you being a humourous writer here, or an uninformed one?” (25). What is your opinion about this question? Why would Foer be a purposely “uninformed” writer?

Assignment #64

September 16, 2007

Sisters Isabel, 23, and Vanessa Di Ceglie, 19, were both in a car accident which collided with a transport truck, in Caledon. Vanessa died on impact and Isabel died two days later just two days after her 23rd birthday.
http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_14787.aspx

September 19th, 2007
Yannick Nordengen, a cadet, age 20, of Montreal, passed away on the 18th of September from Lymphoma.





September 25, 2007

Cpl. Nathan Hornburg, 24, died Monday in a mortar attack in Kandahar, Afghanistan for fighting with Taliban insurgents.
http://www.torontosun.com/News/2007/09/25/4524533-cp.html

James Brook, 54, of Toronto was killed on Monday when a truck ran into three vans and a SUV on Highway 427.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2007/09/25/4525111-sun.html

For me personally, doing the assignment on obituaries from Miranda July’s website was a tad interesting for me. I was amazed at actually how many people die everyday in our world from various causes. I realized that the many that did pass away were also very young, they were people who had not gotten the chance to live life yet, for them it was just starting and suddenly they were taken away and now are angels of God. It freaks me out that the young ones who did die the majority of the time it was in a car accident. I find it pretty unfair that their life ended because they themselves or someone was recklessly driving and hit them. Nobody seems to understand that driving is extremely dangerous and can cost people’s lives. It hit a little close to home hearing about the two sisters especially, since a little over a year ago a girl I went to high school with had died in a car crash coming home from the beach. And even about that young teenage boy in R.D.P. who passed away this summer from reckless driving. Reading about the stories of how these people lost their lives whether it was saving our country, trying to save them and being strong through a sickness or just plain and simple driving recklessly is it very hard to grasp and take in.
I think Miranda July’s website is actually pretty interesting. I don’t think anyone would just want to write about people’s deaths around the world or take a picture of two strangers holding hands. It’s just not something we tend to think of doing or actually do in our everyday life. I think her assignments make us think about what goes on around us, things that perhaps we should pay closer attention to and perhaps take a stand and do something about it whether it happens in our own area or not. Taking pictures, drawing or just writing about a topic are all forms of art, they are a different way of expressing ourselves, of expressing what is around us, what goes on in the world. Instead of just taking about art we could express how we feel in various ways.

Some Thoughts on Authors' Perceptions of Their Roles and Their Work

We've talked about some of the ways that "the collapse of the 4th wall" shows a persona of an author engaging in the process of writing.

Taking about postmodernism in an interview, Dave Eggers has said:

"I've always been interested in the form itself, so I always feel like I've never been good at going ahead with the artifice and not acknowledging the self in the artistic process, and not acknowledging the absurdity of pretending that's required in fiction. I always had a hard time with fiction. It does feel like driving a car in a clown suit. You're going somewhere, but you're in costume, and you're not really fooling anybody. You're the guy in costume, and everybody's supposed to forget that and go along with you. Obviously, it can work, it works all the time—well, it doesn't always work. Still, no matter what, I'm always looking at the form and addressing it, not ignoring it."

Where do we see similar types of comments from Kurt Vonnegut about his work in the preface to Breakfast of Champions?

Check out what one of Vonnegut's daughters, Edie, wrote about him on Vonnegut's official website after he died:

"I never expected Kurt to actually die. He was supposed to break the code and live forever. I’m pretty disillusioned right now. When I was very young, like 12, I went to his study to ask him for answers to this world. He said he didn’t know any more than I did and that he was experiencing everything I was at the very same time. I think it was during the Cuban missile crisis and I was scared. He said he didn’t have a clue. From there on out I regarded him as a fellow clueless comrade who had no extra advantage or wisdom above me. He pulled no rank as ‘Father’ and for that I am eternally grateful.

Though he was the smartest man I ever met and I am rather limited.

Even so he made me feel equal at a very early age and taught me to question authority where ever I found it."

How does this anecdote about the Cuban missile crisis match up with the persona that Vonnegut constructs of himself in his writing? How do you think some of the other details from Vonnegut's life (read the Rolling Stone article in your course pack) influenced his outlook or his writing style?

Assignment #42

List five events from 1994

As I was not born yet in 1984, I had to slightly modify the assignment. Instead of listing five events from 1984, I chose five things that happened during the year of 1994. I was about 5 years old back then.

1.I saw the movie Jurassic Park for the first time.
2.I started kindergarten at Ecole Les Moussaillons de Saint-Honore de Temiscouata.
3.I got my first video game console for Christmas (SNES or Super Nintendo).
4.I got my first video game for my birthday (Donkey Kong Country).
5.I read my first newspaper.

In order to make sure that all these events really happened during the year of 1994 I had to consult several sources. First of all, the movie Jurassic Park came out in 1993. The VHS version of the movie came out the next year. I got this information off the internet. For the second element, it was a bit harder, since I was having a hard time finding my kindergarten grades report. When I finally found it (the pages were yellow from a long shelf-life and smelt) I looked at the date at the top left corner and concluded that it was in 1994. The third element was the easiest to conclude, because the SNES came out around the same year as Jurassic Park (a bit earlier I think). According to Wikipedia, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System came out in America in 1992. I did not get it that year, because it was a bit expensive upon the initial release and I was too young (3 years old). Not only did I get my first video game in 1994, but the game itself was made the same year. The video game was for my Super Nintendo which I had gotten two days earlier. To validate the date of the release of the game, I simply googled for “Donkey Kong Country” and quickly found the year it came out. I used a different source to prove the accuracy of my my last element. I was not sure at first whether I had read my first newspaper at 5 or 6, so I decided to ask my mother, who still has the original newspaper.

As cited on Wikipedia: “Art refers to a diverse range of human activities and artifacts”. Humans use their imagination to create things. In my opinion, Art is a means of expressing oneself. As we have learnt in class, there are many forms of arts. Art has many genres, forms, and styles. On artist Miranda July's assignment website, most of the assignments are art since we are asked to either draw or write something. Some others ask you to actually build things. We can relate some of the assignments to postmodernism for several reasons. For instance, assignment #51 asks you to make a paper replica of your bed. Another good example is the assignment which is about giving yourself an advice in the past. This is a postmodern idea, for it is not part of modern art nor any other form of art. To conclude, most of the assignments are about art since we have to use our imagination. The website is also a kind of museum or a display of works of other people.

Assignment # 11 [ Photograph a scar and write about it ]

1. Which one of Miranda Julys assignment did you choose to work on?!

I decided to work on assignment 11. The assignment consisted of taking a photograph of a scar; either one that was found on my body or off someone else’s body. I had to take a close up picture of the scar and retell the story of and how the person got their scar.
The story: The person that I have chosen to talk about is Amanda; she is my friend’s sister. When Amanda was 4 years old she ran from the kitchen to the living room. The kitchen and living room are connected together by a single marble step. While Amanda was running she did not notice that one of her toys was in front of the step, tripping over the toy Amanda hit her head against the marble step. Amanda’s parents rushed her to the hospital and she was given 4 stitches. Amanda is now left with two scars on her forehead above her hairline and the other near her eye.

2. Describe your experience completing Miranda July’s assignment.
Completing this assignment was a lot of fun and a little odd. When I had finally made my choice that I was going to pick the scar assignment I had to choose if I was going to talk about myself or about someone else’s scar. Asking someone about their scars is the not most typical conversation starter, although that didn’t stop me. One day during lunch out of the blue I asked if anyone had any scars and what their story was.
I honestly didn’t think that so many people had scars and I was surprised by just how interesting their story was. After long consideration I have chosen to talk about my friend’s sister’s scar. When I had asked my friend’s sister if it was ok for me to use her story she was a little uneasy about it because she rarely spoke about it. Finally she opened up about her scar and the story behind it; it brought back many memories not only for her but also for her sister. At that young of an age Amanda didn’t really understand what was going on neither did her sister but it gave everyone including the company quite a scare. I’ve known Amanda for quite a while and I never knew that she had experience quit the accident; I was relieved to know that she was all right and she wasn’t more serious than that.

3. What do you think Miranda July’s goals are in the creation of her website? How these assignments can represents what counts as art?

I think that Miranda July’s goals for creating her website and her assignments are for students of all ages to express their own creativity. Everyone expresses their creativity and their originality in different ways. Each assignment is designed to show off someone’s talent either it be in the drawing, or writing or singing. I believe that Miranda July designed these types of assignments so that those who view her page have a variety of options to choose from. One’s opinion of art changes from person to person. For example if I believe that a painting from Picasso is art someone else may disagree, for them art maybe writing a song or take a photo of the sunset.
With each assignment there is a website or address where you can send you work, doing so allows either Miranda July herself to see your work. Sending your work allows her to see new talent; this might give her ideas for book or for movies. I also think that it allow her to see what her fans come up with using simple ideas that they later make into their own. She might also make other people view your work this might aspire others to show off their talents and creativity. I believe that this encourages people to go after their dreams because what one maybe think is horrible another may think its arts. That is what is so controversial about art. No one sees something in the same light; everyone has their own thoughts and opinions. Those thoughts and ideas are valued and treasured. Art is what you make it out to be art is adding your own special touches to your work, something that you can later on claim to be yours. An original idea that makes you different from everyone else; there is an artist is each and every one of us we just have to be brave enough to let that person shine though.

Assignment #27 Take a picture of the sun

I chose, as my Miranda July assignment, to take a picture of the sun. It was difficult to capture the sun on camera due to some principal of physics I will not attempt to understand but it is not the same as when viewed with one’s own eyes. It was the end of a hectic day when the picture was taken and by the time I retrieved my camera and ran to the park to get a shot of the glowing red ball, half of it had sunk below the horizon. I then took other pictures on different days, each shot more clever than the last but I decided to stick with my first photo. That was my physical experience of taking the picture but I figured there had to be more to it than that. I thought about the sun. It’s a given. It hangs over us everyday from dawn to dusk. It’s where plants seek their energy to grow and survive and we use the plant’s energy to do the same. But the sun sustains life in other ways. Some trends show suicide rates to be higher in periods of the year where daylight is diminished and so it may be true that the sun plays a role in our emotional well-being as well. The sun is beautiful and enhances our own beauty. People look calmer when the sun is in their face (mildly annoyed at having to squint but calmer nonetheless). It’s the same sun that rose on our first day of life that shines on us today and will be there tomorrow, too. The sun allows us to tell time but is itself timeless. We all have the sun in common but each person shares a unique bond with it.
Miranda July reconceptualizes art by showing that art exists in our everyday lives and does not always have to be created for the specific or sole purpose of being art. The idea that only some few gifted individuals have the vision or propensity to create art has been discarded (Lyotard’s incredulity towards metanarratives). Her assignments cause the ‘artist’ to pause and read whatever they will into the meaning of the task as one would struggle to find meaning in other established, yet equally obscure forms of art.

Assignment #63: Make an encouraging banner

I first started thinking of something encouraging I often tell myself.
When I feel stressed or depressed because of my work, my family, my friends or only because I have a lot of homework and exams, I always tell myself to never give up and to be confident. It does help me a lot because sometimes I lose control and it becomes really hard to pass through some difficult situations.
After I found my encouraging sentence, I drew each letter of this sentence on a piece of colored paper and I cut them out. Then I had to glue each letter on another piece of paper that is a contracting color. I hung the letters across my bathroom so that every morning, all my family and I, we’ll read this encouragement and I hope it will help.
I took then a picture of my work and I sent it.
I really enjoyed my experience because it was interesting and I developed my creativity. I also liked the assignment because I found it useful to people because of fact that only some words can change someone’s life.
I think that Miranda July’s goals are to inspire people and to make them create something that is really significant and interesting.

This is why I also think that these assignments represent a kind of art because people use their imagination and their creativity to make videos, music, songs, paintings, drawings …

Assignment #50: Take a flash photo under your bed

Before I did it, I found it useless and since I have to do it for school I will do it to have my marks. When I finally did it and hold the picture in my hand I realize that sometimes there is some parts of my life ,which are dirty the same way as under of my bed was, and I always sleep over them and never take time to see them and make them better. Also the fact that every time I clean my room I don’t really think about cleaning under my bed. I realize that when I used to say that my room was clean it was not because under my bed was dirty. It is the same think also when something happens to someone and they never try to see why but instead just try to live with it even if it is dirty but they did not see it yet. Basically this exercise made me see stuff in my life that I was not really making attention to .Now I am going to clean them and after show a clean picture of under the bed of my life.


I think that Miranda July goal was to make people see some hidden part of their dirty life that they don’t normally see or they miss. By creating different assignment to propose to her reader she show them that she care and share what she also learned in life. Not only telling story she wrote .these assignment can reconcile people life when they, make the different assignment, take time to read between the line of each one and learn from what they did. Their life will be better because in every assignment there is a message. This is art because people discover what in their life was hidden from them and they were always living with it without notifying it; so when they see it it’s beautiful. This is the same principle in painting