Last fall I was in the Harwood play called The Crucible. Little did I know in less than a year I would be reading a book about Puritans. Throughout the first two or so weeks of rehearsal I found the play to be extremely boring because it was a story from a part of history I learned about in elementary school. But by the final curtain call I felt I knew those Puritans forward, backwards and sideways. Or so I thought. As I was reading a rather uninteresting part of Sarah Vowell's book (it was a very historical few sentences) I stumbled across a familiar name. Giles Corey. When I read that name I had to stop reading and think for a moment. I had to think about who this man was. Because I was pretty sure I knew him, personally. I wracked my brain and realized I did know him! From the fall play. But as I continued reading, Vowell wrote about Corey's death, talking about how he died, and what he said about wanting more weight from the rocks. And I felt so proud to have known all of that already.
Moving on to the Puritans in Vowell's book. These Puritans seemed more primitive than the ones in Arthur Miller's The Crucible. I cannot really explain how it came across that way but also in my head it seems that The Crucible took place a good while after the original Puritans landed in America. There were no lines speaking about a City on a Hill or such things as not having enough of something to last the winter. Arthur Miller's Puritans seemed more sure of themselves. Perhaps it was just the characters and the crimes or perhaps it was because these Puritans lived later.
Even though I walked away from the play figuring I learned nothing but lines crammed in my head. In actuality learned more about history than I could have ever memorized from any history book.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Sarah Vowell Writing Style
At first when I was told I had to read a book about Puritans over the summer, I was bummed. I do for the most part enjoy history, but not so much the Puritans and Pilgrim part.
I opened the book. It seemed to take far to long a time to reach the first page. Once I did I read the first line, "The only thing more dangerous than an idea is a belief." My mind has been in a vegetative state due to the lack of school over summer vacation. Even through that very first line in Sarah Vowell's book, my brain stayed unresponsive. Almost as if saying, 'don't even try to comprehend whatever she is trying to say.' So as my mind skipped any meaning in the first sentence of the book it went on to follow my eyes to the next two sentences. "And by dangerous, I don't mean thought-provoking. I mean: might get people killed." This sentence made my brain want to crawl into a little hole and just die. But I knew I had to conquer this woman Sarah Vowell, so I read on!
The first bit, meaning about ten pages were very boring and took me ages to read. Once I passed them I discovered a new part of the book. The actual Sarah Vowell part of the book. Where Ms. Vowell's own reflection, and opinions come into play. It seemed to me she took the history part and turned it into a 'my opinion on the whole matter is' dot, dot, dot. This part intrigued me. I feel like so far in my school career I have been forced to read far too many history books (more than the number of years I have lived) written by people, for people with no opinion of the author. The whole stack of pages is just blah about history (at which time my brain checks out to La La Land and comes back when I am done with however many pages need to be read that day).
However as I began reading the Sarah Vowell opinion part; as I like to call it, something caught my attention. She was funny. The first time I noticed this was when I found myself laughing, not in my head but out loud at some woman I thought to be boring a few meager minutes beforehand. I was astonished at how much thought she put into the book that was raw. That was her own. To me she took the blah out of the part about history I just read and went on some tangent about Puritans and today, and walking though feet of snow in just her flats so she could learn about historic houses for the reader to then read about. Now this part, this part I could deal with.
While I still find the history chapters boring most of the time however I love it when I come up to a Sarah Vowell chapter, that's all her own opinions written out on paper. I feel like I am having a conversation with Vowell about the blah part of history I just read. And she is turning that blah part of history into a pearl, a gem, an easily understood take on the history. Such as these lines (which I have read to far to many people, who could probably care less)Reagan is being interviewed on Good Morning America and makes a statement saying people were, "homeless, you might say, by choice." This alone made me outraged. This terrible thing that he said. But I soon found myself laughing yet again as Vowell says "He couldn't be more right- I have this fantasy that someday I'll throw off the shackles of my clean sheets and pillow-top mattress and curl up on a subway vent in the rain." This made me laugh my head off. Vowell seemed to share so much in common with my opinions I had to read about her. So I read about Vowell in the back of the book and realized why I agreed with her. She is a contributing editor of This American Life. I listen to NPR and VPR and then I realized that Sarah Vowell and I are in the same boat. The same boat sailing across the Atlantic Ocean to Boston Mass. But we aren't going there in search of anything new. Instead it's a journey through a book, of opinions we share.
I opened the book. It seemed to take far to long a time to reach the first page. Once I did I read the first line, "The only thing more dangerous than an idea is a belief." My mind has been in a vegetative state due to the lack of school over summer vacation. Even through that very first line in Sarah Vowell's book, my brain stayed unresponsive. Almost as if saying, 'don't even try to comprehend whatever she is trying to say.' So as my mind skipped any meaning in the first sentence of the book it went on to follow my eyes to the next two sentences. "And by dangerous, I don't mean thought-provoking. I mean: might get people killed." This sentence made my brain want to crawl into a little hole and just die. But I knew I had to conquer this woman Sarah Vowell, so I read on!
The first bit, meaning about ten pages were very boring and took me ages to read. Once I passed them I discovered a new part of the book. The actual Sarah Vowell part of the book. Where Ms. Vowell's own reflection, and opinions come into play. It seemed to me she took the history part and turned it into a 'my opinion on the whole matter is' dot, dot, dot. This part intrigued me. I feel like so far in my school career I have been forced to read far too many history books (more than the number of years I have lived) written by people, for people with no opinion of the author. The whole stack of pages is just blah about history (at which time my brain checks out to La La Land and comes back when I am done with however many pages need to be read that day).
However as I began reading the Sarah Vowell opinion part; as I like to call it, something caught my attention. She was funny. The first time I noticed this was when I found myself laughing, not in my head but out loud at some woman I thought to be boring a few meager minutes beforehand. I was astonished at how much thought she put into the book that was raw. That was her own. To me she took the blah out of the part about history I just read and went on some tangent about Puritans and today, and walking though feet of snow in just her flats so she could learn about historic houses for the reader to then read about. Now this part, this part I could deal with.
While I still find the history chapters boring most of the time however I love it when I come up to a Sarah Vowell chapter, that's all her own opinions written out on paper. I feel like I am having a conversation with Vowell about the blah part of history I just read. And she is turning that blah part of history into a pearl, a gem, an easily understood take on the history. Such as these lines (which I have read to far to many people, who could probably care less)Reagan is being interviewed on Good Morning America and makes a statement saying people were, "homeless, you might say, by choice." This alone made me outraged. This terrible thing that he said. But I soon found myself laughing yet again as Vowell says "He couldn't be more right- I have this fantasy that someday I'll throw off the shackles of my clean sheets and pillow-top mattress and curl up on a subway vent in the rain." This made me laugh my head off. Vowell seemed to share so much in common with my opinions I had to read about her. So I read about Vowell in the back of the book and realized why I agreed with her. She is a contributing editor of This American Life. I listen to NPR and VPR and then I realized that Sarah Vowell and I are in the same boat. The same boat sailing across the Atlantic Ocean to Boston Mass. But we aren't going there in search of anything new. Instead it's a journey through a book, of opinions we share.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
The Wordy Shipmates (blogpost one)
My first reflection happened within the first forty pages of Sarah Vowell's book. On page thirty Vowell explains diseases, she retracts what her first line of the book says ("The only thing more dangerous than an idea is a belief."). She replaces this thought by saying 'Sometimes there's nothing more dangerous than a germ.' Vowell goes on to explain how diseases claimed nine out of ten native lives.
A few paragraphs later Vowell talks about King James' reaction to hearing of the epidemic. She quotes him as saying "Almighty God in his great goodness and bounty toward us." 'for' '"this wonderful plague among the savages."' Here was where I discovered that the Puritans did not just want land and seeds to grow crops and live in peace with the natives. They wanted all of the land, and crops, and didn't want to teach the natives anything. They wanted them to just to be out of the way. To be dead. To not have to worry about anything that the natives might be doing, while they aren't watching. Almost as if the Puritans were in some reality television show and they wanted to win, they wanted to be the last ones standing. As if life is a competition.
Winthrop is quoted by saying such things equally vile. He says '"God hath hereby cleared our title to this place"'. This again sends the reader pondering about why the Puritans didn't trust that they would be able to live in peace with the native people.
In reality it was the Puritans that came and killed off the natives with disease, they should have been the ones that went down in history as savages.
July 20, 2010
The Wordy Shipmates
By Sarah Vowell
Reflection
PS. My blog will not let me tab any new paragraphs.
A few paragraphs later Vowell talks about King James' reaction to hearing of the epidemic. She quotes him as saying "Almighty God in his great goodness and bounty toward us." 'for' '"this wonderful plague among the savages."' Here was where I discovered that the Puritans did not just want land and seeds to grow crops and live in peace with the natives. They wanted all of the land, and crops, and didn't want to teach the natives anything. They wanted them to just to be out of the way. To be dead. To not have to worry about anything that the natives might be doing, while they aren't watching. Almost as if the Puritans were in some reality television show and they wanted to win, they wanted to be the last ones standing. As if life is a competition.
Winthrop is quoted by saying such things equally vile. He says '"God hath hereby cleared our title to this place"'. This again sends the reader pondering about why the Puritans didn't trust that they would be able to live in peace with the native people.
In reality it was the Puritans that came and killed off the natives with disease, they should have been the ones that went down in history as savages.
July 20, 2010
The Wordy Shipmates
By Sarah Vowell
Reflection
PS. My blog will not let me tab any new paragraphs.
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