"Why I Write" by Joan Didion

Didion, Joan. "Why I Write." The Writer on Her Work. Ed. Janet Sternberg. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1980. 17-25.

In the essay, "Why I Write" by Joan Didion, she explains her writing as a coping mechanism and professes that the lack of the ability to grasp the abstract is a handicap. I was put off her smug attitude that the pictures in her head "tells you how to arrange the words and the arrangement of the words tells you...what's going on in the picture." But with a closer read, setting aside my own fears on writing and my ineptitude with grammar, I realized what she was trying to get at was her connection to and comprehension of the world. For her, it is the lyrical sound of words as they flow and the sensory perceptions of the world around her that reflect and flow back to create meaning. Perhaps it is the only way someone who plays grammar by ear can do it. From my abstract artist perspective, it has given me insight into the mind of a writer and the words they write.

Garrison Keillor distracted by moral rhetoric

I am a great fan of Garrison Keillor and have often listened to "A Prairie Home Companion" with pure delight at his wit and self deprecating pronouncements about Catholics and Minnesotans. I can relate coming from a Catholic family, educated in a Catholic school and living in Alaska. But I was a bit confused as to his point in his essay till the very end."We're failing our kids"(No Child Left Behind has plenty of flaws, but throwing it out because it's a Republican plan is morally disgusting.)p1-2.(www.Salon.com/opinion/keillor/2008/01/30/education/print.html)

I think he gets distracted by his rhetoric and reduces this complex issue to a sound bite of Republican versus Democrat. He makes alot of assumptions, pronounces moral judgements and ends with a prayer to St. Michael. It must have been a bad day.