I have to say, upon first glance I did not appreciate Berry's writing "The Art of the Common Place". I found it long and tiresome and ended up putting it down for a while before completing the reading. However, when I returned to it, I found that I really enjoyed some of the things he had to say. Berry made a lot of really simple but powerful statements that I could entirely relate to. He starts off his story by describing his journey back to his homeland of Kentucky. Though he claims to love the area, he says "here, in the place I love more than any other and where I have chose among all other places to live my life, I am more painfully divided within myself than I could be in any other place" (10). This phrase truly struck a chord with me as certain times when I venture back home, I can walk around my town and feel like I am reliving my past years. I can see a playground and immediately picture my friends and I on the swings on a late summer night, trying to cool down and escape. I can see everything, no matter where I turn, for better or for worse. Still though, "familiarity has begun" (14) and that in itself is reason enough to stay. Even though he may not have found everything he was looking for, it was clear that he was still able to learn from his stay. The regrets he had were not of his own journey so it seemed, but rather of the people who may have come before or after him, people who did not live in the same time as he, and therefore did not develop the same ideals. I can understand this process, this necessary journey, and for this I respect and really enjoyed his work.
As with Berry's reading, we only recieved part of Ondaatje's "The Collected Works of Billy the Kid," so it was slightly confusing as we did not have the full background of the characters. Despite this though, I found it very easy to pity Sally. Though she welcomed humans and animals alike and always offered them a place to stay, it seemed that she could never offer herself. Everyone who stayed at her home saw her as almost ghostlike, living her life in the dark. She followed the same routine each day in silence. One would expect a home bursting with welcomed strangers to have more noise and life inside its walls, but instead it was just the opposite. I feel bad that she is viewed like this by everyone she selflessly opens her home to. I also wonder how she can find it in her heart to allow so many people into her home, when it seems more like she truly wants nothing to do with them. I am curious about the rest of Billy's stays- was Sally always like this? How does he deal with that and morever, why does he keep coming back? I would be interested to see if these questions are answered in the rest of his work.
As with Berry's reading, we only recieved part of Ondaatje's "The Collected Works of Billy the Kid," so it was slightly confusing as we did not have the full background of the characters. Despite this though, I found it very easy to pity Sally. Though she welcomed humans and animals alike and always offered them a place to stay, it seemed that she could never offer herself. Everyone who stayed at her home saw her as almost ghostlike, living her life in the dark. She followed the same routine each day in silence. One would expect a home bursting with welcomed strangers to have more noise and life inside its walls, but instead it was just the opposite. I feel bad that she is viewed like this by everyone she selflessly opens her home to. I also wonder how she can find it in her heart to allow so many people into her home, when it seems more like she truly wants nothing to do with them. I am curious about the rest of Billy's stays- was Sally always like this? How does he deal with that and morever, why does he keep coming back? I would be interested to see if these questions are answered in the rest of his work.
RSS Feed