Lamb and Berman wrote two equally well crafted pieces of writing, but each had it’s own message. There was no real relationship between the two pieces of work. Lamb’s theme to his piece Food and Fatalism was family. This is a topic that nearly all people can relate to in some sort of way weather it be positive or negative. In Lamb’s case, family was a great importance to him. You can clearly tell from his writing and descriptive memories that these were some of the best times in his life. I felt that I related so much to this piece of writing. When he described his family waiting in the car for his mother and the noisy dinning room table with all his family members eating made me remember my family gatherings for holidays. The aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousin’s gathering to celebrate what ever holiday it may be were the fondest memories from my childhood. Writing should be about something that brings actual raw emotion to the table. Lamb’s story about family brings that emotion out in everyone that reads it because it is such a universal idea.
In Berman’s piece Risky Writing: Self-Disclosure & Self-Transformation, he talks about how “risky writing” should be encouraged more. What risky writing is, is writing with passion and heart in your work. Berman uses a great example of a student who wrote an entire essay on baking bread. It was a silly topic, but she loved to bake bread so she wrote from her heart what she loved about doing it and the satisfying process. Reading that piece showed me how with passion in your writing you can write about anything.
I would love to be able to find this passion that Berman wants to tell people about because then writing will become second nature and be a more natural easy process. Telling true stories that you have experienced is the best way to do this is what I’ve come to conclude from these passages. Lamb’s piece was heart warming and easy to relate to for readers so they could connect to the story. With Berman’s piece he breaks it down and tells you this as a fact. These two passages will help my writing in the future when planning for essays.
September 30, 2009 at 1:01 pm |
After reading the two, I couldn’t find any relationship between the two either. But someone pointed out to me that the story of Lamb’s family is just another piece of risky writing described by Berman. I never had a huge family like Lamb, but I can relate to how holidays would be just with my immediate family, loud, loving and full of food!
September 30, 2009 at 11:36 pm |
Yeah i agree with you man about how it made me think about family gatherings. I was thinking about all the holidays at my grandma’s when I was reading Lamb’s pice. And yeah, I’d like to be able find the passion that Berman talks about as well.
October 1, 2009 at 3:52 pm |
Tom,
Overall, some good commentary. Is there a larger point perhaps to Lamb? Is there a larger goal in writing a piece like this than having your readers relate to it?
I’m not sure the definition you give of “risky” writing is completely correct, though that’s certainly part of it. Specifically what Berman writes about in his book is the kind of writing that would be risky to share with someone else. Writing about a family dinner wouldn’t really be risky–however, writing about residual guilty feelings from being molested certainly is. Berman says all writing can be risky, but what he’s really focusing in on is the really difficult, deep stuff, and the challenge that kind of writing poses to teachers. (And to be honest, it may be hard to glean all this without reading the whole book…)
Spelling! Also try to make the deadline as I’m starting to pay attention to this.
Alyssa
October 2, 2009 at 2:43 am |
Tom,
I agree with you too. Lambs piece makes me think alot about my family too. Sometimes I wish I had a big, crazy, italian family. Even if they had their problems, every family does. I also am taking Berman’s piece and applying it to my writing. Hopefully it will help us in the future.
Caroline