"Dark Night of the Soul" Structure

 From Ways of Reading:

"The Dark Night of the Soul" is the first chapter in Richard MIller's book Writing at the End of the World. The chapter...is organized by subheadings. You might think of these as a way ofpunctuating the essay, and you might think of this technique as a tool for your own toolkit.

As you reread the essay, pay attention to each unit marked off by a subheading, and pay attention to the progression or arrangement of these units. How might they mark stages or strategies for the writer? for the reader? (Are they big paragraphs, for example, or mini-essays, or stanzas, or something else?) How might you describe the principle of selection and organization? Can you imagine bringing this strategy into your own writing?" (444)

Think about how the concept of "punctuating" a piece of writing (as Bartholomae & Petrosky use the term) applies to digital writing. For example: how is a website (for example our course website or this Google Group) punctuated? What is the logic behind punctuating a piece of digital writing? 

Richard Miller utilizes subheadings in his work, The Dark Night of the Soul, to establish a separation of ideas. Similar to an outline, the subheadings provide a clear marking for the start of a new stage in the essay. Following each subheading includes lies short thoughts by characters in the books that he goes on to dissect. Miller presents glances at different authors’ works, relating back to the central theme of the human experience in a sense.

Evaluation of Richard Miller’s “The Dark Night of the Soul”

Prompt: Write about Miller's DNotS like Miller's DNotS

Evaluation of Richard Miller’s “The Dark Night of the Soul”

by Kait Zemanski

Every piece of writing serves a purpose. Man does not just put pen to paper without reason. However, in Richard Miller’s “The Dark Night of the Soul”, he questions this very purpose. He questions the validation behind selling the humanities, that is reading and writing among other arts, as such an important realm of exercise when these practices appear so irrelevant in today’s world. And so Miller opens up his essay with the horrific Columbine tale only to jump around through a series of novels, asking questions and leaving holes for the reader to additionally ask questions along the way. Miller takes each work and summarizes it in a fashion so that it tells his story of writing and what has become of the written word in present day culture.  

           

WHAT’S THE POINT

We live in the Information Age and all the information is telling us is

that whatever we have done, whatever we are doing, and whatever we

are planning to do will never have any lasting significance.

 -Richard Miller, “The Dark Night of the Soul”

"Our Secret" Reflection

Griffin's essay/chapter "Our Secret" jumps around from topic to topic (or subject to subject) as you read from the beginning to the ending. Bartholomae and Petrosky suggest the reason Griffin does this is to draw unconsidered connections between different topics or subjects, in a sense to weaving threads between seemingly unrelated ideas, whether they come from world history, from Griffin's personal history, from science, philosophy, or from somewhere else. 

For this forum discussion, I'd like you all to collaborate in order to do three things:

1. Name/list all of the different topics/subjects present in Griffin's "Our Secret." Cite specific page numbers/examples for each topic/subject you list.

2. Reflect on the connection between two of these topics/subjects. Write about how the two topics/subjects are (or could be) connected.

3. Reflect on the connection between one of the topics/subjects in Griffin's essay and one of the topic/subjects in Richard Miller's "Dark Night of the Soul."

As a group, you all can choose to collaborate on this however you like, but the response should demonstrate clear evidence of communicative interaction/discussion and collaboration. You can use the forum as a site for generating this interaction and discussion, or you can use the forum as a site for figuring out how you, as a group, will generate this interaction and discussion. 

I agree with what the others put as topics. I think there are also greater, more encompassing topics here, perhaps not so explicitly stated among the pages, but instead built out of the smaller subjects.

That includes:

Class Quotes Excerpts

“‘Prince of Darkness’ sums up Amis’ idea that reading and writing would not aid in stopping the Columbine shooters. Because we live in an era where literature is no longer a main source of entertainment, the books and stories that we produce almost have no impact on anybody. “We live in the Information Age and all the information is telling that whatever we have done, whatever we are doing, and whatever we plan to do will never have any lasting significance” (Miller 428). In contrast, just as we expected, Miller offers up an opposite theme in the section “Following the Word”. Here, he retells the story of McCandless who one day vanished into the snowy mountains of Alaska. He is so affected by what he reads that it actually ends up killing him. Miller quotes “McCandless stands as evidence that there continue to be real readers who invest the activities of reading and writing with great significance” Miller (428). Richard Miller is obviouscontrasting two completely different views in “Prince of Darkness” and “Following the Word”. However, it is expected that he do add conflicting ideas to create somewhat of an argument.”

Describe the use of quotes from the excerpt of one of your classmates.

In this paragraph the author uses the quotes as a supporting detail to his/her point. The author opens up his argument that reading and writing have no impact and then, contrastly, the other point that reading and writing have significant effect on others. after introducing the argument, the author uses the quote as a support to this argument. These quotes show instances where the arguments apply. The author uses the entire sentence quoted directly rather than paraphrasing at all. 

Writing Evaluation

Here is a link to the essays + judges' commentary:

http://www.composition.pitt.edu/CompAwards/winners/winners12-13.html

I'd also like you to read "The Meaning of Death" by Robert Wallace. Wallace's essay won second place in the 2011/12 Composition Program Writing Contest. His essay uses Griffin's "Our Secret."

1. In terms of their writing style, what are some similarities between the two anthologized essays (Miller & Griffin), and the five student essays?

2. Why do folks in Pitt's English department think these seven essays are good essays? 

The student essays showed a distorted portrayal of the works that the student essays looked at. The student works did not simply create a summary of a work, they crafted their own stories. The student essays used the works at hand to create a new thought. Their points were not clearly outlined for the most part. Instead, the students jumped around and made the reader question. As the department stated on the judging of "Choose Your Battles..." the author did not simply tell the reader what to think, instead the author gave the reader some insight into the authors view and then left the reader to come up with their own responses. Much like Miller and Griffin's work the reader has to develop their own thoughts on these works and think and question a bit on their own. The student author's brought their own stories into the work. In "Am I Right or Am I Right" she uses her own story and voice to supplement the other stories, similar to Griffin's work.  'The Meaning of Death" uses his story to supplement griffins work. This style is very similar to Griffin's for bringing his own story in and Miller's for using the essay as a guideline for his own thoughts. I find "The Body and Boundaries" or "Gay Men, Grindr,..." the authors seem to stay on one mental pathway and be less similar in style to the others.

In regards to why these works are praised, the authors as I stated told their own story but not just a anecdotal, "The End" story. The endings left the reader questioning some things. The works were thoughtfully put together and thoughtfully spaced out. They used their page limitations to tell their story, not to cram as much volume of knowledge in as possible but to artfully tell a small story with a small plot. 

Athletic Development Draft

Write about some idea in "DNotS" and "Our Secret"using the style of one of these essays.

Athletic Development

by Kait Zemanski

Everyday, a father wakes up and tells his child to get ready. Everyday, the child climbs down out of the back seat. She slings her rackets over her shoulder and lugs the bag up the court. The father follows closely behind, carrying the basket overflowing with tennis balls. The pair steps on the court and goes through an array of procedures, differing each day.  Forehands. Backhands. Serves. Footwork. Net play. Love. Hate. Anger. Tears. Aggression. Passion.

Too much negative

When the father got out of the car earlier, he took on a different role. Coach. Equally, she is stripped of her title; she now holds the label player.

Move up in paragraph?

The father appears emotionally unattached; conversely, the player foils the coach. Regardless of the actual display of emotions, to the player the entire game is emotional and mental.

The player just hasn't learned to suppress yet. It's not that the father's completely unattached. He's just masking his emotions and putting them aside a little better than she can.

This game envelops her. It becomes the defining factor in her life. Through repetition, the game progresses from a game that she plays into something she needs.  As she grows older, she no longer needs the push to practice. The game dwells within her. It flows through her blood. 

Athletic Development Revamp

Prompt: Revision of Athletic Development Essay

Athletic Development Part 1.1

by Kait Zemanski

Everyday, a father wakes up and tells his child to get ready. Everyday, the child climbs down out of the back seat. She slings her rackets over her shoulder and lugs the bag up the court. When the father steps out of the car, he takes on a different role. Coach. Equally, she is stripped of her title; she now holds the label player. The father follows closely behind her, carrying the basket, overflowing with tennis balls. The pair steps on the court and goes through an array of procedures, differing slightly each day.  Forehands. Backhands. Serves. Footwork. Net play. Love. Hate. Clarity. Anger. Drive. Aggression. Passion. The father appears emotionally unattached; conversely, the player foils the coach. The player, still young, lets her emotions determine her play. The mechanics come second. Through repetition, the game progresses from a game that she plays into something she needs.  As she grows older, she no longer needs the push to practice. The routine became natural. The game became natural. The game envelops her. It becomes the defining factor in her life, dwelling within her. It flows through her blood.  And as she excels more and more, the statement that she was born to play tennis becomes unquestionable. But what happens had the father not given her a push out of the door all of those times?

           

“We live in the Information Age and all the information is telling us that whatever we have done, whatever we are doing, and whatever we plan to do will never have any lasting significance”

                                    -Richard Miller, “The Dark Night of the Soul”