poems & junk
By brianna | September 23, 2008
blah blah ankle, blah blah grad school, blah blah writing, blah blah poems.
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Since people keep looking at my blog, I might as well put something up here.
By brianna | September 8, 2008
Applying for jobs and grad schools makes me think a lot about my identity. I mean, the first thing that your potential employer or dean of admissions is going to see is your resume/CV or personal statement, respectively. Ideally, these articles are meant to package yourself in a way that your best qualities are presented, or so I am told. Looking at these articles while they are in process, especially my resume, makes me sit back and think: is that all I am? A list of previous jobs and work related skills? Are my best qualities that I can use Microsoft Word and write well?
Anyway, I want to have personal calling cards.
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Bring a fan and I’ll bring the fire
By brianna | August 6, 2008
I’m thinking about images this morning, specifically fire. I see fire as a synonym knowledge: Prometheus was punished for bringing fire to his people, Water Spider was the only one able to bring fire to hers, and most pop culture representations of early humans portray the discovery of fire as a major accomplishment. Not to mention fire as comforting and familial, exemplified by Hestia, goddess of hearth and home, as well as any Christmas special that has a family sitting in front of the fireplace.
Yet fire is also used as a symbol for passion and destruction. In a similar fashion, water can be cleansing or destructive. Not to mention cultural meanings: what would a lake surrounded by sweetgrass mean to a Scottish man, or a red string to an Australian; how could a woman walking through fire represent purity in America? Or literary allusions: does one have to be well-read and well versed in literary theory to enjoy a book fully? When you want to write to a potentially all-encompassing audience, how do you keep track of the one thing that is most vital to expressing your personality and background, ie your use of language? Is the only way to stop mainstream audiences from pigeonholing you into being a representative of ‘your culture’ to homogenize not only your stories but your word choices?
That paragraph might have gotten away from what I was trying to say. It’s a touchy subject for me.
The thing that I most want out of life, as well as out of my chosen career, is not to be well known or well liked. It’s to be understood. With my personal roadblocks, this is a particularly hard task for me in real life; I’ll be damned if I’m misunderstood in my fiction. But how do I know if something that makes sense to me makes sense to the larger population? I think at this point I just need to write the best I can, get as many people to read it as possible and edit accordingly. Hopefully the powers that be at Lesley will not only understand me but will also see any potential I might have.
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Defining magical realism
By brianna | July 30, 2008
My mom asked me what magical realism was. I wrote this up hoping something in here would explain it to her. If you aren’t my mom, you still might find something useful or interesting about this post. On the other hand, you might not.
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In which I ramble about Hellboy but am really rambling about oral traditions, modern storytelling and knowing too much.
By brianna | July 21, 2008
A tad spoilery for the new Hellboy direct to dvd cartoons. I’ve hidden some of the plot points, but I’m going to put everything under a cut to be safe.
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Little moments of happiness
By brianna | July 16, 2008
sometimes I see something that makes me happy. I like to think I’m being rewarded in some small way for taking the time to notice small details. Usually, this comes in the form of feathers which I love), flat stones, or leaves flying through the wind that for a moment look like birds. I can bring all these things inside with me, to remember that happy moment. When I can’t take anything with me, I take a picture.
These pics are usually taken on a camera phone; up until now, I thought these moments would be kept personal and private. Fortunately, my mother told me I could upload pictures from my camera phone on to Flickr, allowing me to share my moments with you. I still don’t know how to feel about that.
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How to prepare and enjoy grits
By brianna | July 15, 2008
Recently, I went to dinner with my mother and some of her co workers. Somehow, the conversation turned to the subject of grits, the corn-based hot cereal enjoyed throughout the southern region of the United States. One person said that grits were pretty much tasteless. My mother, who was raised in Georgia, replied by saying “you just don’t know how to make them right?”
I find that this conversation occurs often. What is the fascination with grits? Why not okra, fried green tomatoes or even alligator? Why do I always feel compelled to defend the helpless food against it’s vicious detractors?
In hopes that I may stop having these tedious conversations, I have written ia couple of examples of how to make grits “in the right way”.
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Hello World
By brianna | July 4, 2008
Or, you know, the small amount of the world that’s going to be visiting my website. I’m still working on formatting everything- getting it to look like I want to and what not- so it’s more than a little sparse right now.
mea culpa
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