Robots and Dinner Parties

Before I start, I found the essay, long, drawn out, somewhat boring, but interesting in that one would even think of comparing food to a robot. She said laughably clueless. I agree. Considering my attention is normally gained by food, the first thing that caught my attention was when she started mention dinner parties and food. This is a good thing, because I am not sure this essay had much else going for it, at least for me. Seriously though, the second a person talks about technology, you generally gain their attention. A robot is interesting to say the least, and she brought up artificial intelligence. What would one do if a robot could think like a human? How would it be treated, and how would you react to it? It is only logical. As for any emotional appeal, that is suppose to touch the senses. I would actually say how she presented the dinner party. People getting together, relaxing, having a good time, and at the same time talking about how would one talk to a robot in such a situation. A social gathering is what gets people's attention, so at the same time, if you was to have someone there who is not a human, how would you react to it? That is pretty much my reaction to the essay.

Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth first connects with her audience. This is very difficult considering her situation as an uneducated black woman talking to an audience full of educated white northerns. Even though the majority of the audience were women, it would still be hard for your average black to simply grab their attention. She must have been a very strong speaker to be able to grab their attention, keep it, and be able to connect with them. Her logical response to the arguments against women's rights were perfect. Talking about the bible, even today, is a good way to win an audience over to your reasoning. What I personally like about the closing end of the speech was the simplicity of it. Short, sweet, and to the point which is what people want. Nobody wants a long, drawn out goodbye. She thanked them, and said that she had nothing more to say, which was good, and to the point.

The Long Goodbye

No one is unique, everyone has a story to tell, and often it is a story that we have all heard a million different times. That is for the most part, my reaction to this essay. "The Long Goodbye: Mother's Day in Federal Prison." This merely highlights the truth that we do not have a perfect legal system, it is, in fact, very flawed and at times almost worthless. It also highlights the fact that justice is blind. It gets it right a lot of the time, the person that did the crime is usually the one that is put away. Occasionally, however, every once in a while, it misses. Excuses, and more excuses were given for why they were there, it does not really matter, they are there for a crime. Whether they committed it or not is beside the point. To say I was a little annoyed reading this almost sob story, is an understatement. It is easy to sympathize in some places, especially where it concerns family. Such as Jennifer's son and Stephanie's son. They rarely see their sons, and it is hard deal with the fact that those two boys are going to have to be without a mother for the first several years of their life.

"The New York Pickpocket Academy"

"The New York Pickpocket Academy." Such a perfect title for such a strange essay. It is hard for me to say whether or not I am surprised by how bad pickpockets are in this essay, or curious for how much it may or may not be exaggerated. Either way I have to say that I was thoroughly impressed by how he introduced various pickpockets throughout the essay. The more simple pickpockets who go around and taking bystanders wallets and purses are barely even shown in the essay besides the brief mention of them. You hear of them and then they are quickly forgotten as he moves on to more interesting characters in the essay. The more entrenched they were with the victim, and the more complex their method was of stealing their money or items, the more detail was awarded to them. Every character is an ordinary person like you and I, and he shows use their reactions which would be quite typical when you realized you've been pick pocketed or cheated. Each person deserved to have at least a small mention of how they had been victimized, as mundane and troublesome as that may sound to an ordinary person not involved in this essay.

"The Last Stop"

The essay "The Last Stop" was disturbing to a certain point, and scarily enough, slightly informational. It was morbid, true, and slightly humorous all at the same time. While reading this essay, I had one question going through my mind. Why in the world would anyone buy a dead person a five thousand dollar casket, that is just completely unreasonable. Being from a large family myself and having gone to many, many funerals, I just do not understand why you would disrespect them that way. When I finished reading the essay I thought about when he said he touched the dead man's hand. My thoughts were, it is less like clay, and more like a porcelain doll. I have seen people just collapse from disgust, shock, and grief when touching a dead loved one's almost inhuman body, so reading that he bravely touched that man's body sent slight chills down my spine. He reacted so coolly, so nonchalantly so that even that final part of the essay itself was slightly disturbing to me.

Tobias Wolff "On Being a Real Western"

In response to "On Being a Real Western" by Tobias Wolff. Being someone who grew up around guns, and even shooting my first gun when I was three, I can completely relate to this essay. Firing a pistol or rifle or shotgun can leave a bad taste in one's mouth, there is a certain sense of responsibility and power in accepting a gun. I have to say, however, that pointing a gun at someone and being frustrated because he felt he had power over them and they did not know it is sickening. He seems really close to a sociopath in wanting to manipulate their fear. Even when he seems to bring a sort of a hand of god moment on the squirrel, it was almost childish. Of course, I can understand his sort of obsession with his gun, even if it is not but a .22 rifle. In a sense, you do feel like you have some power over whoever or whatever it is that you are aiming. Even if it is just a target set up for practice, after putting about twenty holes in the target you end up feeling some sort of accomplishment that you did not feel before.

"Calling Home"

This blog is in response to the Jean Brandt essay "Calling Home." I found it very suspenseful and almost disturbing. How well her emotions are described throughout this misadventure was very well done, and worth the read. In fact she describes everyone's position throughout the essay rather well, as well as where they stand and how they look at what she had done. It is true that she should not have stolen a 75 cent button, even if it did have Snoopy on it, but the measures that are used on her are rather extreme. Especially since she was only thirteen. Who has ever heard of taking a thirteen year old girl to jail for stealing a 75 cent pin. I can almost appreciate how it all started out on nothing but impulse, she didn't plan to steal it, she just simply did it. When she was taken to jail, she didn't seem to be very remorseful about it. It was not until she had the conversation with her mother did she seem to regret what she did, which is also understandable. No one ever really thinks about what they do until it impacts others. Ultimately I really liked the essay.