I really enjoyed the article "A Narrative Life" by Pagnucci. I liked his idea that the stories of our childhood shape us forever and that children are born knowing how to put all their thoughts into story from. My mom was laughing the other day as she was telling me a story about my work from a second grade assignment that she recently found. Each student was to write a piece on the topic which would be put into a collaborative class book. While some people had a few sentences, I had pages and pages of work. It was clear to me from that story that my love for putting pen to paper and writing to "embrace my stories" as Pagnucci would call it, began even before I could remember. I definitely agree that writing is powerful. It can help you record or remember stories. While you are preserving your memories, you are also preserving a part of yourself. Stories are indeed magic, at least in my life. "If we tell our own stories, preserve them, study them, we can find in our stories some of the answers for which we're looking." This perfectly describes my life. Writing is soothing to me; sometimes it is the only thing I can do to clear my mind. It allows me a fresh start, for which I am forever grateful. I would be lost if I did not do this, as I think Pagnucci would agree.
Though I enjoyed Gopnik's article "Paris to the Moon" as well, I did not find it as easy to follow as Pagnucci's piece. There were a lot of interesting ideas, but with the combination of the storyline jumping around and the fact that we did not read the whole story, it was a bit confusing. This piece seemed to focus much more so on the imagery and tale ideas he wanted to create. As the author described the differences between Paris and New York, I could see myself in each of the places, even without the personal knowledge to back me. I found that impressive. I particularly liked the image of the merry go round and striving for the brass ring. Though this is not an entirely unusual idea, it felt very new and unique in this context. I also enjoyed the reference to it being an American metaphor; constantly striving and yet never quite grasping the desired object. Still though, I couldn't exactly see how this fit into his stories about Paris, unless they served primarily to emphasize how different the two places are. Overall, I liked his stories, but it did not have the same impact on me as Pagnucci's piece.
Though I enjoyed Gopnik's article "Paris to the Moon" as well, I did not find it as easy to follow as Pagnucci's piece. There were a lot of interesting ideas, but with the combination of the storyline jumping around and the fact that we did not read the whole story, it was a bit confusing. This piece seemed to focus much more so on the imagery and tale ideas he wanted to create. As the author described the differences between Paris and New York, I could see myself in each of the places, even without the personal knowledge to back me. I found that impressive. I particularly liked the image of the merry go round and striving for the brass ring. Though this is not an entirely unusual idea, it felt very new and unique in this context. I also enjoyed the reference to it being an American metaphor; constantly striving and yet never quite grasping the desired object. Still though, I couldn't exactly see how this fit into his stories about Paris, unless they served primarily to emphasize how different the two places are. Overall, I liked his stories, but it did not have the same impact on me as Pagnucci's piece.
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