Comments on: Would YOU Pay $192.50 For This Post?

By: bloglily

bloglily — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 16:23:34 +0000

Hi Dorothy, Sometime it would be interesting to hear what a decent essay does look like — I think Danielle raises a very good question about how one might go about responding to literature in a way that’s satisfying to write and rewarding to read. And Kate, I’ll go and post this right now. It’ll be fun to read a Woolf short story too. Best, BL

By: Danielle

Danielle — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 14:55:03 +0000

I’m afraid I had to skip over what you said about Joyce as I am Behind in reading the short story…will come back later! I find it frustrating sometimes (well lots of times) trying to write about what I have read. I feel like I don’t have the ability to really articulate what I want to say. I know how I feel, but when I write it, it is not how I want to express it. The words are all floating around out there, but I can’t get at all the right ones that I need. Your writing is wonderful!

By: Kate S.

Kate S. — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 06:10:05 +0000

A marvellous essay, definitely worth good money (not that I condone the buying and selling of essays of course)! And you’re way ahead of the game, as I was plotting a Virginia Woolf story for our next discussion group selection. It would be great if you could cross-post this over at “A Curious Singularity” — it’s a perfect start for our discussion of the story.

By: Dorothy W.

Dorothy W. — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 22:12:08 +0000

Great post Bloglily! If college essays could be like this (hmm… why not??), then I think students would enjoy writing more.

By: bloglily

bloglily — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 15:12:43 +0000

There’s something about getting through the intellectual apprenticeship that is high school and college and into a place where you do feel, as litlove says, that little bit of confidence that makes your work improve, that makes getting older so well worth while. Helen, I’m terribly reassured to hear that a fine writer like you had a similarly trying time in college. And I’m certain that Ella, who is embarking on that wonderful essay about food in On The Road (what a GREAT topic) will be wonderfully prepared to begin college, and for her it will be a time and place where intellectual life will feel like play almost right from the start. But however you got there, and whatever bumps you had to endure while on the road there (poor Smokey with your canoe adventure that merited only a C!) I think it’s safe to say we’ve all arrived and get to have the fun of reading and writing, cooking and clearing out, living these rich lives where so much fun is to be had. (And if you haven’t looked at at litlove’s post about play, well, you should.)

Ella — I’m just really thrilled to see you here and looking forward to hearing about your essay on Kerouac or anything else you feel like talking about.

xxoo, Lily

By: litlove

litlove — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 07:21:38 +0000

Wonderful reading on Joyce and Woolf (you’re always in the A’s with me), and boy, what a snobby thing for Woolf to say!! I remember clearly when I finally began to understand what writing on literature was about. I’d just read a book on literary theory, beginning by writing things like ‘ludicrous!’ in the margins, and then halfway through the penny dropped and I had to go back and rub them all out. That’s why I don’t depise theory when so many other critics do – I found it immensely reassuring to realise there was a structure to doing this, and various templates I could follow (and play with). And there’s nothing like a little bit of confidence for making your work improve, just as nothing gets better without it.

By: smokey

smokey — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 06:20:48 +0000

What a wonderful piece comparing Joyce-Woolf.
If you think getting B’s was bad, I wrote a story in my first year English class about how I almost drowned in a canoe adventure. I thought it was so exciting that I would surely get an A. Problem was that the lessons had been on metaphor, which were unfortunately not present in my story. I got a C. It was a problem of not listening. I’ve been working on that for many decades since. We come to so many situations with our own precious assumptions without allowing for new advice, regardless of how clearly the assignment is stated.
Your essays have a wonderful way of taking us back to memorable times. If I send you my old canoe story, would you edit it with proper metaphors? Set it in winter with a few snowflakes? Out to whom do I make the check?
I actually did rewrite it once for Cllive’s Thursday night workshop. Maybe my freshman English teacher is still alive and would change my grade. Wouldn’t that be fun. It would be worth the $197.50.
Do you take payments through PayPal?

By: Ella

Ella — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 06:11:58 +0000

It’s Ella, Ian and Lucy’s daughter, and I too have become completely addicted to your blog and prone to using it as a procrastination tool. However, you gave me the extra energy I needed to complete my own essay- alas, I have not even begun college and am already well into 5 page essays. If I had an essay to write on Woolf and Joyce I would say your post would be well worth $192, but until then I’ll have to stick to my own essay about a delicious passage (it’s about food) from Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road.”

By: Helen

Helen — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 03:31:57 +0000

Yes! Your post brings back so many memories of university. I remember feeling intense resentment at being forced to read Ulysses and write an essay on it. I remember reading that very passage of To The Lighthouse. I remember getting long strings of Bs, and the joy when I finally broke into A territory.

We have something in common! I used to spend seminars daydreaming about characters in my story, writing their names and drawing their portraits on my A4 pad. I remember one boy in a tutorial who I thought was particularly interesting and I put him the novel I was writing at the time… but didn’t even bother to change his name. Good job that one never became a blockbusting bestseller!