"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”

           

Illumination Process

Tip-toeing across the floor, she makes her way to the washroom. As soon as the ball of her foot makes contact with the icy tile floor, the lights flick on, highlighting the stark whiteness of the room. The few accents of silver and gray add only the tiniest bit of alleviation from the perfection? and yet, perhaps the shading somehow amplifies this crisp palette.  The corners are an area of beauty instead of dirt-collecting deprivations. While the lighting casts its glow onto every surface, both depressed and projected, there seems to be a deeper glow, drawing at first the eye and then the body towards the vanity mirror to which all attention seems focused.

The automated simulation begins.

Defining Digital Composition

Hi, all,

Please skim through the following digital composition projects. For Monday, play around with each project for 2-3 minutes a piece (about 20-30 minutes total). Then respond to the following prompts: 

1. What is digital composition?

2. What makes them good?

These first five were made my undergraduates from around the country. They're featured in the Journal of Undergraduate Media Projects or JUMP. You could, if so inclined, submit to this journal:

1. In the Eyes of Another by Sara Martinez (a website project)

2. Let's Talk - Girl Talk by Christopher Austin (a video project about Pittsburgh's own mashup artist Girl Talk)

3. Face Change by David Hook, Jacob Philpott, Will Tangney and Katie Tiller (a web-based game)

4. Jason by Victoria Elliot (a "multimedia research essay")

5. Mystory by Cecilia Jones (another website project)

Here's a multimedia video presentation created by our friend and former Pitt grad Richard Miller:

This is How We Dream (Part 1)

This is How We Dream (Part 2) (both video projects)

Here's a video project made by a former student of mine, Zach Shapiro, from last semester:

Things We've Learned (a video project)

And finally, here's three works in process by me:

Refreshing Self-Reliance (a web-based text generator)

Feedback Loop (a website/video project)

Jeff and Jimmy: A Vietnam Story (a web archive project)

....

Making a composition digital expands the possibilities of an essay or idea tenfold. Instead of seeing just what is in common, I looked at how different the pieces were and the statement that there is more room to expand off of that. The videos all went about their topic differently, talking at the user with a computer screen present or moving in to the games and websites that let the user interact. 

I think a good digital composition is hard to narrow down and pinpoint particular aspects when the entire realm is so expansive. So in the domain of that particular work, the project should be well organized and easy to navigate or follow. Visual aspects also play a role in the project both organizationally and aesthetically. (Or I guess there could be sound so that doesn't count for this). Lastly, the point of the work has to come across. This can be challenging because you aren't able to spell out everything you put in the work and why you placed it there. Instead you have to use visual cues and sort of create a story (that you then translate to whatever form) but I think the works that went well initially had a plan for their message as opposed to just creating a video game (or other means of digitalization). 

The Mask

This video shows the process of applying makeup. The video highlights the transition in countenance from before and after. It also touches on the names of the makeup that create this illusion of a new image.

Illumination Process 2.0

Tip-toeing across the floor, she makes her way to the washroom. As soon as the ball of her foot makes contact with the icy tile floor, the lights flick on, highlighting the stark whiteness of the room. The few accents of silver and gray add only the tiniest bit of alleviation from the perfection? and yet, perhaps the shading somehow amplifies this crisp palette.  The shadowed corners accentuate the radiating highlights instead of acting as simply dirt-collecting deprivations. While the lighting casts its glow onto every surface, both depressed and projected, there seems to be a richer glow, drawing at first the eye and then the body towards the vanity mirror to which all attention seems focused.

She sits down on the stool, the round, pink, pillow-top cushion, backless, forcing her vertebrae to take on an unnaturally erect posture . The seat, victorian-styled with detailed legs following an S-curve down to the floor. The stool pleasantly contradicts the entire room, providing a slight hint of comfort and familiarity in the plush, curvilinear design.  Before she has any chance to fully intake the superficial aspects of the being in the mirror, the make up and brushes pop up out of their recessed drawers. The brushes perfectly aligned and ordered largest to smallest. The make-up similarly organized by application processes.

She begins with the preparation. Lightly splashing water followed by a gentle foaming wash she cleanses her face. She washes away everything that remains. The leftover oils and dirt from yesterday, the troubles that filled her thoughts before she went off to sleep, and the small remnants of a subconscious dream that she held in her memory for just those early hours of the day, all concentrate the water and slip down the drainpipe. She applies a light day moisturizer to the entire face, paying special attention to the area under the eye. The under eye has the thinnest skin she doesn’t want any bit of what lies beneath her surface to find its way through the layers of covering she is about to apply.  She primes the entire face with a sponge applicator. First, dabbing and then, blending across the face. The primer unites with her skin, the cooling sensation permeating deeper and deeper into her skin. It dries. Though transparent, like a mold this new layer of skin shows little of what lies behind its encasement. The last step of groundwork is foundation. Starting at the nose and working across the face, she lightly strokes the foundation brush. Continuing the process on the chin, forehead and jawline. Blemishes, age spots, scars, memories, emotions are all wiped away. The foundation is the gesso of the canvas, the white that paves the way for all the possibilities of a painting. The whitewashed face is ready to be painted.         

She follows the process robotically. Only now, as she waits for the foundation to set, does she look in the mirror for just a moment and take in her porcelain face, smoothed over into one monotonous barely off-white shade, blending in with the walls around her.

Contours and highlights. Taking a deeper shade of foundation powder, and a medium-sized, full, round brush, she pats the foundation tray. In a light buffing motion, she applies at the corners of the forehead, just below the cheekbone, on the sides of the nose and under the jawline, giving the face some depth and definition. The natural lighting of the world does not quite simulate a photography studio, so the contours are superficially created. The face appears slimmer as a Photoshop for reality. The facial bone structure is thrown to the pits and artistic license paves way for a new facial renaissance. Highlighting serum applied above the cheeks, in the middle of the T-zone, nose and chin, illuminates the face. Contrasting with the contours, the highlighter adds a dimension to her that is now defined and perfectly featured without any cracks in the surface.”

Another quick look in the mirror and she sees the shadows, the recesses, strangely shining bright along with the convexities. Her entire face is in compliment.

Her eyes may very well be the most important. They are the most telling and sincere feature of a person, which is why it is so tricky to falsify their story. Beginning with a light brown, matte eye shadow and sweeping over the eyelid she makes her first mark. Keeping below the crease and stopping along the imaginary line that connects the end of her brow to the corner of your eye. The color is important to stay natural. The particular brown with a slight hint of rust compliments the color of her eye so that the focus lies in the color as opposed to the gaze. Below this, she uses an angled brush to line the top of her eye and outside edge of herr under eye with a darker brown shadow liner. Again, paying attention to end on that brow-eye line. Framing the eye and yet slowly covering it up. She officially enters the masquerade. The process resembling a beautiful mask, that captivates ones attention, but hides everything of substance.  Taking a brown eyeliner pencil she draws a line from the inside corner of your eye to the edge. Then, she extends up along that previously mentioned brow-eye line, filling in the edge to make it straight. Lessening the size of her eyes and apparently creasing the edge, it almost could pass off as a smile. She colors in your brows and add a few flecks of mascara just to solidify the border a few more times.

And just like that, while still perfectly balanced in some sort of radiating equilibrium, her focus is drawn to the eyes staring back at her through the reflection. It all seems natural but the eyes appear somehow, more natural. Or more fake.

She applies the one stroke of a pale blush to the apples of your cheeks. This adds the appearance of natural rouge that would appear from a healthy lifestyle or display of emotions. Actual display of emotions would mess up her face though. Smiling would cause wrinkles. Crying looks unpleasant and also the moisture would surely ruin the surface. It is best to paint those emotions overtop a smooth, calm surface. She follows with a light pink lipstick draws attention to the pinks in her cheeks so that everyone can see the healthiness and happiness. To finalize everything, she brushes bronzer over everything. Instant sunshine, your own little light just coming off you.

And as she finishes with those final touches of color, she finally looks into the mirror at herself. She sits there and stares while time slips away. Sitting perfectly wrought she sees a human, living and breathing as she mechanically sets back the last brush. She looks in the mirror and sees herself. Every bit of her. The healthy color in her cheeks and the fleck of light shining through her eyes. Well, above her eyes. The eye shadow to be exact. Or technically the blush lies over her cheek. But it is still her. At least it is how she would be if her skin was a little more even and her features a tad more defined or something like that…or something else entirely. If she had a mask on, and she could hide behind it and hide all of her emotions and feelings and paint a pretty picture over everything.

Letter of Reflection

This course allowed me to look at my writing in a different way. It's goal was to deconstruct the "5 paragraph essay" and enable the creation of a wider array of essay writing structure. While, I felt that I could lend myself to completing that task beforehand fairly well, I opened up this field much more through this course. In a sense, it was not so much the exposure to new sources, because I gain this exposure on a regular basis. It was more the actual acknowledgment and pinpointing the realm of possibilities and potential in writing and further implementing that structure in my own work. I used this course for experimentation and came out with some works that I may want to tuck away and never bring out again, but still I think that some parts of them will emanate and progress as my work continues over the years.

One struggle from this class lied in the ambiguity. While it is hard to answer anything as finite without limiting one of the hundreds of exceptions, I struggled with finding that stepping block. Also, while writing different types of essays, I wonder over whether my writing really has improved. This troubles me in most writing courses and I suspect I'll never find an answer besides further practice will better my work.