Day 30: RESPONSE TO TODAY'S LECTURE

Today in lecture Kip focused on the broad theme of Personal Narrative. We determined that personal narrative is distinguished by its basis in truth, its inclusivity of signifying details, its non-transferable qualities, as well as its ability to allow the audience to feel empathy towards the story and its components. We then proceeded to look at various people and narratives that have been especially resonant throughout history, such as on the topic of the Holocaust, the massacre at Tienanmen Square, Rosa Parks, and Palden Gyatso, all or which the basis of endless numbers of powerful narratives. We then looked at the work of Sally Man, photographic narratives documenting the aging and relationships of her children, followed by the work of Lynda Barry, with her piece entitled "The Aswang" (from One! Hundred! Demons!), highlighting the childish, yet dark relationship between three generations of a family. My favorite piece that we looked at today was the narrative by David Sedaris entitled "6 to 8 Black men" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYdpte1W0vk). This piece takes narrative in its simplest form, and in my opinion, hits the nail on the head (sorry for bring so cliche...truly). I laughed my ass off during this piece, and even emailed the link to my dad as soon as I got out of class.