Precisely Why Any Writer Should Do Their Research

Someone on the TwilightSucks forum brought up some good points regarding the factual errors and lack of common sense in Rosalie's back story. I agreed with the commenter, and I also tried to explain why there is no excuse for lazy writing and lack of simple research on Stephenie Meyer's part, especially in a published work of literature.

"While in general I prefer the minor character stories to the main characters in Twilight, and while Rosalie is actually one of my favourite characters (though that concept is relative with this series,) I get irrationally annoyed by the fact that her brief story contains so damn many factual errors and common sense errors for such a short chunk of text.

I lived in Rochester for awhile.

Rosalie was planning an outdoor wedding in April! Um... riiiight. I mean I suppose you could, it's not like you would freeze to death, but it wouldn't be particularly pleasant for anyone. She seemed genuinely bothered by the possibility of having to move indoors. Plan for a different time of year, then, perhaps? I helped plan an outdoor wedding in the Rochester area for August and we almost had to use our rain plan but it cleared up in time. April? Nuh-uh.

The weather is implied to be unseasonable (again in April) because Rosalie was chilly walking home. No, that's normal, actually. It could even possibly have snowed, some years. It was weird to me that someone who had alleged grown up there found that weather unusual.

Does Meyer not have any idea what the climate of Western NY is? She seems to think it's the same as the Southwest! It definitely isn't!

Meyer also seems not to realize that our beloved Flour City/Flower City was actually a significant centre of industry early in the 20th century, home to Eastman Kodak, Bausch & Lomb, and quite a lot of garment manufacturing. Of course Rochester was affected by the Depression like everywhere, but the social strata were very different than what Meyer imagines, particularly with Eastman Kodak as an economic player.

*sigh*

If Rosalie's story was set elsewhere, I probably wouldn't have noticed. But once again Meyer's lack of research took me right out of the plot."

Obviously, Meyer has zero to no research skills.

If I were her, I would have double-checked on the historical data of weather and climate conditions in April for Rochester, New York. I live in New York City, but upstate New York (especially the western parts) is an entirely different area as you move further inland from the Hudson River and further up towards Lake Ontario. It would be quite reasonable to assume that the April weather in Rochester, New York would be colder than in, say for instance, New York City.

I would have gone to www.weather.com, entered "Rochester, NY, United States" in the search bar, scrolled down, clicked on a link on the right-hand side of the screen that says "Historical data" (located underneath the section "Today's high and low temperatures") and then looked at the average high and average low temperatures.

This page, for instance, tells you a whole lot of information for not only the average temperatures, but also the record temperatures and the usual daylight/sunset times:

http://www.weather.com/outlook/health/fitness/wxclimatology/daily/USNY1232?climoMonth=4

Then I would have clicked on the tab that says "April" and looked at the average daily and monthly temperatures for that month in Rochester, NY.

It took me less than two minutes to pull up that information. (The link might not work, so if you want to re-conduct the search, you may have to do the search manually, as I had just described.)

Based on that information, an outdoor wedding in April in Rochester, NY would not be a very bright idea. Everyone would still have to wear thick coats. What's the the point of having an outdoor wedding if you and your guests are only going to freeze and maybe catch pneumonia from sitting through an entire wedding ceremony?

A summer wedding, perhaps anytime between June through August would have been a better alternative.

Unfortunately, it never crossed Meyer's mind to do a simple research task in regards to setting and average weather conditions.

As for the historical discrepancy that Rosalie's family survived the depression because her father was a banker, Meyer should have known better. If she did not have an inkling as to the circumstances surrounding the Great Depression, the least that Meyer could have done was do a quick search on Google or Wikipedia on the topic.

I pulled these bits of information up in less than two minutes as well from this Wikipedia entry on the Great Depression:

There were multiple causes for the first downturn in 1929. These include the structural weaknesses and specific events that turned it into a major depression and the manner in which the downturn spread from country to country. In relation to the 1929 downturn, historians emphasize structural factors like massive bank failures and the stock market crash. In contrast, economists (such as Barry Eichengreen, Milton Friedman and Peter Temin) point to monetary factors such as actions by the US Federal Reserve that contracted the money supply, as well as Britain's decision to return to the Gold Standard at pre-World War I parities (US$4.86:£1).

and also this

 ...The Federal Reserve allowed some large public bank failures – particularly that of the New York Bank of the United States – which produced panic and widespread runs on local banks, and the Federal Reserve sat idly by while banks collapsed... If the Fed had provided emergency lending to these key banks, or simply bought government bonds on the open market to provide liquidity and increase the quantity of money after the key banks fell, all the rest of the banks would not have fallen after the large ones did, and the money supply would not have fallen as far and as fast as it did. With significantly less money to go around, businessmen could not get new loans and could not even get their old loans renewed, forcing many to stop investing. This interpretation blames the Federal Reserve for inaction, especially the New York branch.

If banks failed, then Rosalie and her family should have been poor. They would not be living in a comfortable house, throwing parties, or affording a lavish-style outdoor wedding.

Further internal and interpersonal conflict could have been infused into Rosalie's back-story and made the character have more depth had Meyer done any proper research at all.

All of it is failure and wasted potential because Meyer refused to get over her laziness and conduct proper research before or during the writing process. Even if Meyer was originally writing the story for her own entertainment (as most writers do anyway), then she should have considered that her storytelling could improve considerably with accurate historical data and basic knowledge of her chosen real-world settings.

Laziness should not be an acceptable excuse for poor writing, especially when any Sherlock with a modem or router connected to their computer can easily access any necessary information vital to the storytelling via the Internet.

Stephenie Meyer fails at not only simple concepts of biology, history, and research methods, but she also lacks common sense. How the woman ever managed to pass her classes in high school and college, the world may never know.

Hogwarts Professor: Discussions Regarding Jane Eyre

I thought that these links to the Hogwarts Professor website (which has a variety of articles on yes, Harry Potter -- as well many other works of literature and topics in popular culture) were interesting.

Jane Eyre is one of my favorite novels, perhaps one of the most empowering, one of the most provocative, one of the most remarkable, and one of the most romantic (by which I mean creepy, mysterious and breathtaking, not necessarily the lovey-dovey kind that bespeaks of flowers and chocolates) works I have ever read.

These articles might shed some new light on a classic novel, so I'm posting them here.

Jane Eyre 1: “Once Upon a Time in Thornfield…” Reading Bronte’s ‘Jane Eyre’ as a Fairy Tale

Jane Eyre 2: Genre and Gender Revulsion and Consequent Critical Disdain for Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre 3: “Plain Jane” and the Mid-Nineteenth-Century Ideal of Beauty, Complexion to Corsets

Jane Eyre 4: Edward (Cullen) Rochester, I Presume? Twilight’s Jane Eyre Roots

Jane Eyre 5: Crossing the Threshold with Jane—The Novel’s Liminal Elements

Jane Eyre 6: Faith and Fairies – Conventional Spirituality versus What the Heart Hears

Jane Eyre 7: A Lesson on Authorial Intent from Jasper Fforde’s Literary Detective Thursday Next

That is all the links, so far. I don't know if the authors of these Jane Eyre discussions will continue to write some more articles and post them, but if they do, I'll try to post those links as well.

Researching Women in Medical Practice & Body-Snatching

You might be wondering why I'm willingly reading scholarly articles about these topics during my winter break from school.

It's all for the sake of the story. Yes, that same story that's been in my head for about three and half years now. I had way too many plot holes for my liking and way too many questions about my characters that went unanswered. Plus, my villains were kind of flat and boring. Having a boring, formulaic villain obviously defeats the purpose of calling this particular character a "villain" in the first place.

Lately I've been working on a new angle for a character's back story. I can't move forward with writing the present action until I know what happened to all of my characters in the past.

So in addition to researching the circumstances surrounding body-snatching, I've also been reading up on the history of women's roles in medical practice, particularly that of surgery in the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Victorian era.

If you find my penchant for research considerably geeky, then so be it. I'd rather have my work at least seem plausible. Plus, to have my work be completely off the mark when it comes to history would be embarrassing, since I went to a high school that emphasized history throughout all four years and I took an advanced placement course in European history. Better safe than sorry. ;)

Just thought I'd share some of my readings:

The Surgeoness: The Female Practitioner of Surgery (1400-1800)

The Leech and the Physician: Biology, Etymology, and Medical Practice with Hirudinea medicinalis

Body Snatching in 19th-Century Britain: From Exhumation to Murder

Doctors' Riot, New York, 1788 (very brief)

"The Doctors' Mob" of 1788 (this one's more detailed)

Talent That Should Be More Recognized

I still can't understand why Katy Perry and Taylor Swift are more popular than Anna Nalick. Their music sounds shitty compared to Anna's incredibly soulful voice and powerfully composed lyrics. Neither Katy nor Taylor can sing during a live performance, and yet they're the ones getting nominated for awards. The music industry today is a travesty.

Just look at the lyrical content of the songs featured in these videos:



Yeah, pretty deep stuff, Katy. You must be a ditz if you think that you can get away with coming off as a deep and sincere person who dedicates "Firework" to the victims of anti-gay bullying when you have another song making lesbianism look like a trend and another song that you vindictively dedicated to someone who's rejected you in the past so eloquently entitled as "Ur So Gay." Quite frankly, Katy Perry, you freaking suck.

As for Taylor Swift, she contradicts herself in the lyrics of her own songs. Try comparing and contrasting "You Belong With Me" and "Better Than Revenge." You'll probably find more contrasts, as the following video brilliantly shows.



Here's what thrillout, the user who made and posted the video on Youtube had to say:

"In all her songs, the majority of the women she discusses are portrayed as bitchy, shallow villains. Taylor regards them as little more than obstacles between her and some guy. On her latest album, Speak Now, the song "Better Than Revenge" vilifies a woman for doing the EXACT SAME THING Taylor did in "You Belong With Me." In *that* song, she vilifies the woman she is stealing from, which is the position Taylor has in "Better Than Revenge." In both songs she expresses that she is %100 in the right, not because of what the other woman does (since Taylor's allowed to do those things herself) but because the guy "belongs" with her because she's Taylor freakin Swift and she deserves whatever she wants.

In this video, there are 3 characters: "Boy-Stealing Taylor," "Bad Girlfriend Taylor," and "Douche." Douche is so-named because he plays the two girls against each other and has no apparent redeeming qualities other than blonde hair and blue eyes. "But Taylor's not shallow!" you say, "Only whichever person she is competing with is!" Unfortunately, that's herself this time. Boy-Stealing Taylor finally gets Douche like she does in the original "You Belong With Me" video, but he's still a douche and apparently bored very easily. As soon as he sees Bad Girlfriend Taylor, the one he dumped in the middle of prom in front of everyone the minute someone prettier showed up, talking to another guy he gets jealous and possessive. Boy-Stealing Taylor sees this and is disappointed but sticks with him. After winning the big game and becoming the big stud on campus, Douche breaks up with Boy-Stealing Taylor supposedly because he's "tired of drama" i.e. the feud between the two girls... Also, he has groupies now. Both Taylors, now alone, are left humiliated by their own childishness.

Just FYI, I wasn't trying to portray Bad Girlfriend Taylor as a victim or hero. Both Taylors villainize each other (the lyrics by Bad Girlfriend Taylor are petty and gossipy) and all three characters are self-centered, shallow, and just plain bad people."

I couldn't have deconstructed Swift's lyrics any better myself.

Anna Nalick isn't like Katy or Taylor. Anna has a naturally beautiful voice, and her songs contain more meaning in their lyrical content than Perry or Swift can ever come up with. Anna Nalick exudes sultry and sexy without having to take off a single article of clothing (ahem, Perry) or having to pose as some kind of faux-innocent brat who thinks that because her life is a fairytale, she's entitled to everything she wants (Swift). Anna, on the other hand, does neither of those things, and she's more talented than Katy and Taylor combined.



Here's the official music video to the above song, which is just as powerful and emotionally evocative as Anna's live performance.



You be the judge.

Anticipating 2011

It's so weird that another year has gone by already. Time has slipped through my fingers, it seems. Anyway, it's too late for worrying about that now. The best thing anyone can do is to keep living life to its fullest (I'm still trying to figure out what that means for me).

In the words of Jason Mraz's "Song for a Friend," you have to:

"Climb up over the top.
Survey the state of the soul.
You’ve got to find out for yourself whether or not you’re truly trying.
Why not give it a shot?
Shake it, Take control
And inevitably wind up
Find out for yourself
All the strengths you have inside of you"

So, without further ado, here's my list of New Year's resolutions for 2011 in no particular order:

1. Try to have more patience with my family, especially with my mother.
   
2. Try not to be so sarcastic and too serious. Learn to relax once in a while.
   
3. Continue to work hard and maintain my GPA so that I can graduate college with honors.
   
4. Clean my room, organize my closet, and do chores more often so that the mess doesn't pile up later.
   
5. Keep researching/writing/dreaming/whatever I have to do to get that story written. I have to try not to let my ideas run amok and keep my research, notes, and drafts in order.
   
6. Hang out with my friends more. Seriously, I miss them a lot already.
   
7. Watch as many classics on TCM as I can so that I can be more knowledgeable, appreciative, and critical of movies. Learn what works, what doesn't, and why the things that don't often work get in the way of a film's full potential.
   
8. Read as many books and critical essays as I can, especially when it comes to reading classics and the current bestsellers. I have to be more critical and aware as I read and ask myself more questions. What makes them timeless or bestselling? What makes the characters tick? What do you like or don't like about these books and essays? If you truly didn't like a particular work, how can it be improved? What techniques can you learn from these authors, and which of these techniques worked well? Keep notes for every finding.
   
9. Eat less sweets, less fatty foods. Exercise more often. When the weather gets warmer, go out for a jog at least three times a week. I need to get myself a cheap, lightweight mp3 player so that I can fill it with songs to keep me thinking even as I jog through my neighborhood. Also, I have to buy some new work-out clothes. Baggy sweatpants just make my legs itchy.
   
10. Spend a few minutes perusing articles in science journals, so that I might be more well-versed in how these studies affect my day-to-day life (as well as how they can be helpful to any of my research, current or future projects).
    
11. Always keep an ear open for interesting, creative music from up-and-coming artists. Do not simply settle for the songs currently playing on the radio; though some songs may actually be good, most of the chart-topping songs these days leave a lot to be desired.
    
12. Although I resolve to be more critical of what music I listen to, what movies I watch, and what books I read, it's just as important to try to keep an open mind as well.
    

I hope you succeed in your New Year's resolutions.

A White Christmas & So-called Proper Use of the English Language

The blizzard hit the tri-state area (particularly New York City and the surrounding counties) on the afternoon, evening, and night of December 26th. It left about more than foot of snow in its wake.

People are still trying to shovel their cars out as sanitation workers try to plow through the streets to clear the way for passing traffic. I feel bad for those who are trying to get home but are stuck at train stations, bus stops, and airports, stranded until the rails, roads, and runways are safe enough for travel. As much as I love the snow and snow days, it's pretty rough if you're traveling and need to be someplace at a specific time. My mother didn't even go to work yesterday because the MTA advised that people stay at home as much as possible (some train lines were either delayed or not running at all because of the snow pile-ups and signal problems).

As I listened to the news last night, this has been one of the five biggest blizzards to hit New York City, this one being the second blizzard in 2010 (the first blizzard was in February 2010). It's nice to stay at home and not have to worry about going out, although some people have taken advantage of the abundant snow and had some fun sledding in Central Park, building snow-people, and making snow angels. It's kind of a shame that most of that snow, once they're all either shoveled away or melted away, will become dirtied with... Well, let's just call it yellow and brown snow, shall we? ;)

Sony NWZ-S545

Anyway, my Christmas was pretty nice. My family and I went to church three days in a row (my mom and I sing in the choir while my two younger sisters altar-serve) for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day (which was a Saturday this year), and for the regular Sunday Mass on the 26th. At midnight on Christmas Eve, we ate honeyed ham and queso de bola (Edam cheese) with sweet Filipino bread (called "pan de sal," which I find pretty odd, since it's not actually salty), as well as fruit salad and chocolate chip cookies for dessert.

Then after eating our midnight Christmas Eve meal, we opened our presents. I'd been wondering whether I would receive the mp3 player I've been wanting (okay, settling for, really. It's the Sony NWZ-S545, pictured on the right, and it actually had some pretty decent reviews by music-loving consumers) because I've worked so hard to maintain my 3.8 GPA and to get into Psi Chi.

Guess what I got instead as a pleasant surprise because I wasn't actually counting on it? (I've been asking my parents to get me one for YEARS).

Click here to see it. (I promise, you won't get spam or shitty pop-ups.)

OH, YEAHHHH...

My sister and I got the 8 GB version. We smiled and rejoiced once we unwrapped our presents. We're learning how to use the program/music manager for our devices, little by little. We were able to put our favorite songs. Now, we're actually trying to be more helpful with chores around the house so that we might deserve more awesome gifts in the future. (This behavioral reinforcement that my mother came up with sure is working!)

Right now, my device is charging on my computer as I'm blogging this post. :)

There's really no smooth transition into the following topic, so uh, here it is: another thing that's crossed my mind today...

I was browsing through Youtube for the song "We're On Top of the World" by the Juliana Theory when I came across this particular comment:

"nice to hear that i remember this song from that movie too but please work on your grammer and spelling."

What's wrong with the above comment? The user who wrote that particular comment was just as guilty of breaking rules of grammar and spelling (note that it's supposed to be spelled as "GRAMMAR" and not "GRAMMER"). Also, the lack of punctuation just makes the comment more difficult to read.

CORRECTION: "It's nice to hear that. I remember this song from that movie, too, but please work on your grammar and spelling."

Sorry, I just have a thing for calling people out on their BS, especially when the person in question (whoever that Youtube user is) just unwittingly portrayed him or herself as a hypocrite when it comes to "proper" grammar, spelling, syntax, and punctuation. Sure, that comment was left on Youtube and was not meant to be included in an academic thesis. It should, however, behoove people to at least try to write or type "properly" over the Internet.

This is not to say that I myself always write or type using "proper" grammar, spelling, syntax, and punctuation. I know that I don't always adhere to the rules. I'm a human being, after all, and just as prone to errors as the next human being. I do, however, try to adhere to the rules of proper use of the English language even when I send someone a text message using my non-full-keyboard cell phone. It's just easier that way. Also, I don't want to fall into the lapse of "chatspeak." I refuse to do so, although the most I'll ever engage in chat-speak is to occasionally type "LOL" or "LMAO" if I happen to find something particularly funny or if the comment calls for a light-hearted chuckle.

I'm all for experimental types of writing in fiction and creative writing (e.e. cummings has some lovely and whimsical poems), but you should know the rules and learn to apply them in the proper manner before you can actually break them.

The Verdict on this Blog and Moving (Leisurely) Ahead

Okay, so I know that in my last update, I said that I wanted to create a new blog site with a somewhat different ambiance/tone from this one.

I decided not to go through with it, so I'm staying here for the time being. Blame it on my laziness, which suddenly sprang up and took hold of me as I clicked through countless photography and artwork as possible backgrounds for the other blog I wanted to create. Add that to my frustration with trying to re-size the images so that they can fit as a full-image background, and you've got yourself a defeated blogger.

So yes, I am staying here on "A Muse Sings." After having spent about two years on this particular blog, I think I rather like it here. I may tinker with the layout once in a while, though. While I do love my current layout and background, I also want to experiment with some things. Call it web-design practice for when I finally make it as a published author and need my own website to promote my works and keep in touch with (hopefully) readers.

For now, things will just relatively remain the same, although I did update the icon slide show to include some icons of my favorite SyFy show called "Warehouse 13." It's about two U.S. Secret Service agents named Pete Lattimer and Myka Bering who must retrieve paranormally-charged artifacts and bring them back for safe and highly confidential storage at the warehouse, which is run by Artie Nelson (pretty much the manager of Warehouse 13) and Mrs. Frederick (she's the official owner/caretaker). There's also Leena, a psychic who owns the bed-and-breakfast close to the warehouse where they all live and also Claudia Donovan (my favorite character, played by Allison Scagliotti) the teenage tech whiz who was once able to hack into the warehouses' secure database and now works as a warehouse employee maintaining the many machines and gadgets used to efficiently run the warehouse. I'm a slightly more than a little obsessed with "Warehouse 13," as you can tell from reading this (and if you spotted the redhead in my profile picture, that's Claudia Donovan). But hey, I'm proud to be a geek girl.

Speaking of which (being a geek girl), I just found out this morning that I finally got that "A" that I've been striving for during this past semester in my Experimental Social Psychology class. So maybe I really am cut out to be a scientist/researcher in psychology after all.

For now, I'm going to take it easy and (as usual) try to get some more writing done.

The Close of Fall 2010 and the Start (Maybe?) of a New Blog

I finally finished everything I needed to do to try and pass my classes for this past semester and I celebrated the end of the semester with a friend by eating at a restaurant called "Cabana" which served some yummy empanadas and churrasco with black beans and rice. So the semester ended on a very good note. :)

I haven't gotten much novel-writing done, but I have been editing like crazy during my spare time. Things are getting along pretty well so far. It could be better, but I'm not about to start complaining here. I got into Psi Chi, the honor society for Psychology, I got a bunch of A's on the essays I've written for my classes, and I'm planning to write an article for my college's psychology student newsletter for next semester as well as maybe intern at a non-profit organization for people with developmental disabilities. I don't know if I'm going to be able to squeeze in more writing time between then and now, but I can certainly try.

This may be a little off track, but is it weird that I want to start a new blog? Me and my itch to web-design, hehe.

Anyway, if I do decide to create a new blog and if you actually enjoy some (if not all, haha) of my posts, then please stay tuned. If I decide to make a new blog site, then I'll update and share the link. If not, then feel free to keep on reading my crap on this site. ;)

One of the reasons I was considering the change is because I feel absolutely embarrassed to know that I've authored some pretty weird/random/fan girl posts. You probably thought I was nuts when I (perhaps unfairly) expressed my frustration with my body image and directed it at actresses like Megan Fox. In which case, you were probably right. It was silly of me to do so, I'll venture to say. But DAMN, did getting those feelings out feel good at the time. Vent posts are, after all, vent posts. Still, I sounded a little immature in those posts, and the same goes for my Twilight-hating posts. Don't get me wrong, though. Despite being a fan of the series when I was still in high school (alas, I was one of those delusional hopeless romantics when I was a teenager), I pretty much take into consideration the series as a whole and just shake my head at it. There are so many things wrong with it, like glorifying suicide as the ultimate expression of "true love" (New Moon) and letting some pretentious moron get in the way of you seeing your friends to the point where he vandalizes your car to prevent you from driving out to visit your friends (Eclipse). Don't even get me started on glorifying physical and sexual abuse (does the phrase "pillow-biting" ring any bells?)  and how the author of the series ruined initially good characters by forcing them into pedophilia (Breaking Dawn). Instead of poking fun at the series for the sheer "lulz" factor, I wish I had written a more academic kind of post where I could have critically analyzed the series in much the same way I would critically analyze any work of literature for any of my English classes.

Anyway, I suppose that after writing all of that, I just want a change in the tone of the blog. I want it to be about taking a step back and critically analyzing works of literature, television shows, movies, current events, whatever. I tried to do that with this particular blog, but I'm not sure that I'm doing that well enough.

I'm also kind of embarrassed about those posts in which my friends and I did some crazy and stupid things. It's not so much the crazy and stupid things themselves that I'm embarrassed about as it is the way that I wrote these posts like I was sniffing fruity-scented markers at the time I wrote those posts. I've come a long way (and still have a long way to go) as a writer.

That's what I want my blog posts to be like -- pieces with which I can hone my writing skills as well as my skills in critical thinking, research, and logic. I also need to figure out a way to systematically organize my posts (through tags) so that they're not all over the place and just long rambles (although rambling in and of itself may not necessarily be pointless if you actually do have a point to make after the entire rambling).

Plus, I figure that it would be a good way to start of the new year -- with a new blog and (hopefully) a refreshed perspective.

In any case, I'll update and let you know what I ultimately decide to do, and if I do decide to create a new blog, I'll include the link in the next post. If you've actually been reading my posts, I thank you and I hope that you continue to do so. Drop me a line anytime; I'm always welcoming of comments.

Also, for your blogging enjoyment, here is a chart concerning "The Evolution of the Blogger."

Something That Should Be Addressed:

Have you ever noticed - perhaps on social networking sites, on television, in films, or perhaps you may have had personal experience - that people, especially young girls, call each other "slut" or "hoe" or "whore" or something extremely degrading and disrespectful, even in a joking manner to their friends, and then shrug the whole thing off like it was nothing?

I get extremely annoyed whenever I see it happening.

The whole virgin/whore dichotomy perpetuates the misconception that females are the ones to blame for rape or any other kind of sexual harassment/abuse, instead of assigning the blame on the one who actually carried out the harassment/abuse. It works the other way around, too, like when you call a guy a "pussy" or a "fag" or overtly reference genital parts for the sake of stupid jokes. It's not funny. It's offensive, disrespectful, and immature.

So if you've done something like this in the past, please get over your giggle-fits over mindless sex jokes and have some self-respect for yourself and your friends. Grow up and think before you blurt things out, lest people get the impression (even on Facebook) that you're an insufferable airhead who spews sexist slurs against others.

/endrant

Poetry: the Worthwhile Struggle of Tangled Words and Images

It's been 5 hours since I've agonized over the introductory paragraph to my paper for my Asian American Women Writers class. I know what I want to write, but the words keep getting tangled up in my mind. Caffeine at 1AM probably wasn't such a good idea, especially if you're writing an essay on strictly defining what's personal and what's political within a particular poem. In the end, the poem is always the function of the personal intersecting with the political. If I made your head ache with this ramble, you can probably get a gist of why it's been bothering me (in which case, I should say I'm sorry?). On the other hand, difficult poems are worth every circle of confusion and wonder.

There's more to poetry than just the appeal of seducing your readers' senses with images of how your “love is an anger is a fire.” You pen these images, but what does that line truly mean? It all comes down to context; a verse constructed with the sole purpose of posing as “deep” and “sophisticated” to others often has the tendency to alarm other people’s bullshit meters. 

If, however, you truly have something more to say beneath the layer of the written text on the page, and if you have sought nuances with syntax and dared to shatter the patterns of cliché with your wit as the scalpel, then perhaps you have penned something worthwhile. A poem should not be the purveyor of pleasure and comfort, but rather the riddle with the persistent aftertaste that confounds and astounds your audience after they’ve eaten your words. An analysis of the poem should not be the regurgitation of its surface content, but rather the hiccup or the burp that subsides after hours of digestion. Poetry is not sexy, nor is it the culmination of praises that leave a lover’s lips, nor the contrived messages of greeting cards expressing exaltations of friendships or the sorry of condolences. Poetry could take one of these forms, but these are not always the case, nor do these forms always convey any real substance or meaning in their messages. If you have always presumed that poetry is a few lines of rhymes with a pretty message inside, then you are sadly mistaken. Poetry is the struggle that may or may not offer the resolution, for it is up to you, the reader, to either question it or find it.

Sometimes, the worthwhile poem is the one that sucks you into that cold whirlpool of confusion, dousing you with more questions than answers. To truly obtain meaning, you have to get lost in order to find yourself. Try reading “Tradition” by Quan Barry or “The State Will Be Served Even By My Hand On These Letters” by Sun Young Shin if you don't believe me.