Week 8: Reading Response To Access By Mark Kramer

I found this story confusing. At first, I did not know exactly what the main focus of the story was going to be. Kramer talks about Russia and everything possible he cam mention about access.

He said something about the access of bread, "Access to bread was universal, but access to Chernichenko's sort of perspective on any state enterprise was still discomfiting heresy."

He also talked about soldiers or anyone that served the state. They would get some type of privilege. They would cut in front of lines by flashing their passbooks. He called them perks and said, "A Soviet perk was always access to something necessary, a nice rib roast, a thousand tons of steel to keep factory running, train seats to where you had to go. But it was often access to something the lowliest American burger flipper or warehouse clerk could obtain back home, as needed."

What I understand from this is, what we Americans get as an everyday basis, the Soviet Union gets it as a privilege.

Another thing I found interesting is the scene where a lady came up to Kramer and Mark asking if they wanted tea. She came back with lumps of sugar, the size of a finger. Kramer was surprised, because sugar is hard to find. He even added a childhood memory of how his grandmother had once said that her family was so poor, they would hang their lump of sugar over the table on a string. Then they would look at it as they sipped, and somehow it made the tea taste sweet, and the sugar lasted all winter.

Week 7: Reading Response: The Road is Very Unfair

I really enjoyed this piece by Ted Conover. I think he did an amazing job in letting the characters speak for themselves. He would observe them and then ask them a simple question, and they would respond the most craziest things I ever heard. All the quotes about their views about AIDS shocks me. They are very aware of it, but they still don't protect themselves. The character that I feel stands out the most is Obadiah. He was a smart man who knew much, but still didn't protect himself.

What I like about this piece is the fact that Conover stuck to only talking about the activities that occurred every time they would take a break of something happened to the truck. The only time he mentioned something about the ride is when talking about the road and how bumpy and damaged it is.

I like how every time he stopped at a hotel he would describe the beds. One can picture the unsafe activities that occurred on those beds that were so dirty and that had mosquitoes flying all around. What I find really interesting is the fact that throughout the piece, Conover kept saying things about the mosquitoes and then almost towards the end, he connected them to AIDS, which I thought was brilliant (First paragraph on page 341). The talk about the lotion being a form of protection from mosquitoes and the fact that even if you do wear it, you will still get one unlucky mosquito bite. It ties to AIDS and wearing condoms for protection.

This piece is full of great context and a lot of imagery and quotes. I read the entire story from beginning to end in one sit, and not a lot of writers can make me do that.

Week 6 Reading Response: "Telling True Stories"

Sorry for writing it late...

Chapter 6 spoke about memoirs and gave examples of writers who have written about their lives or of lives of their family and friends.

I cannot see myself writing a memoir. I think that it would be the hardest thing to do, especially because the most important members of my family would not enjoy it for one bit. They don't like hearing the truth about themselves. My family are every stubborn people and I would not get away with writing something about them. If I decided to let them read it afterward, they would turn it into a fiction story instead of staying a nonfiction story. My sisters would want to sound all perfect and would shape themselves up and create someone they wish they would be.

One article I really find very interesting in "Telling True Stories" is Debra Dickerson's article she wrote for The New Republic, titled "Who Shot Johnny?" What I find so interesting is the fact that she was willing to go into depth about how her nephew got shot and then take it a step further to finding out more about the man who shot him. I think it really takes a lot of courage to do that.

Dickerson mentions something about her not writing for the police but for the readers. "With what he told me, I could get years added to his prison sentence." If I was in that moment where she is sitting down with this man and he is telling her all these other bad things he's done, I would stop being a journalist. Knowing that I have a grudge against that man, I would not stay shut, and this is one reason why I would not dare to write about anything about my family or friends; I would stop being a journalist.