Here is the link to my portfolio!
http://kaileyjournalisticessay.weebly.com/
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Book Club Meeting #2
During our first book club meeting, we discussed the lenghths of Lauren Hillenbrand must have gone to in order to aquire all the infomration she did for this book. We assumed she interviews close to 20 people. I did a google search and found an article in the New Yorker discussing Hillenbrands writing process. Here is what she said about researching for the novel:
"My research began with a huge number of interviews, not only with Louie, but with his family members and friends going back to childhood, his fellow Olympians, airmen and P.O.W.s, Japanese POW camp officials, and the family members of those close to Louie during the war. Louie mailed me his Olympic, war and P.O.W. diaries, a lifetime of letters, photographs, and scrapbooks going back to 1917; one scrapbook weighed sixty-three pounds! The daughter of Russell Phillips, Louie’s best friend, pilot and fellow raft survivor, sent me stacks of her father’s war letters. I found a giant trove of documents in the National Archives, and in archives all over the world, I found treasures, including a secret P.O.W. diary kept by Commander John Fitzgerald, the ranking POW all three camps with Louie. I pored over published memoirs of Louie’s fellow prisoners and airmen as well as unpublished memoirs sent to me by former airmen and P.O.W.s, or their widows."
Here is the link to the rest of the article.
http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-exchange-laura-hillenbrand
It is interesting to see how a work like "Unbroken" is created. It seems intimidating to take on the story of another man's life, however, in this interview Hillenbrand seemed confident and excited about where her research lead her. I am sure I would be too after selling millions of copies and having a feature film in production...
"My research began with a huge number of interviews, not only with Louie, but with his family members and friends going back to childhood, his fellow Olympians, airmen and P.O.W.s, Japanese POW camp officials, and the family members of those close to Louie during the war. Louie mailed me his Olympic, war and P.O.W. diaries, a lifetime of letters, photographs, and scrapbooks going back to 1917; one scrapbook weighed sixty-three pounds! The daughter of Russell Phillips, Louie’s best friend, pilot and fellow raft survivor, sent me stacks of her father’s war letters. I found a giant trove of documents in the National Archives, and in archives all over the world, I found treasures, including a secret P.O.W. diary kept by Commander John Fitzgerald, the ranking POW all three camps with Louie. I pored over published memoirs of Louie’s fellow prisoners and airmen as well as unpublished memoirs sent to me by former airmen and P.O.W.s, or their widows."
Here is the link to the rest of the article.
http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-exchange-laura-hillenbrand
It is interesting to see how a work like "Unbroken" is created. It seems intimidating to take on the story of another man's life, however, in this interview Hillenbrand seemed confident and excited about where her research lead her. I am sure I would be too after selling millions of copies and having a feature film in production...
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Book Club
My group is reading "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption" by Laura Hillenbrand. So far, within the first 100 pages, I am invested in this character and want to see where he will go next. After Louis Zamperini's explosive career into an Olympic runner, he is now en route to war, a war I'm sure he doesn't realize will change the world forever. When he is at the Olympics in Germany, he actually meets Hitler and shakes his hand. Hitler is impressed with his running skills and tells Louis this. Knowing what I know now about WWII and knowing Hitler's crucial role, it was interesting to see how he was viewed before his true efforts and intentions for Germany and the Jewish community are revealed. To Louis, he was just a leader of a country, one that he saw everyone obeying diligently.
I can see how this story will end up being a story of survival because Louis has already survived so much even before he was drafted into the military. Racial differences kept him an outcast, as well as his behavior. His vigorous training to make it to the Olympics was full of failures and disheartening events. But through it all he become an over comer.
So far I am enjoying this book and am very interested to see what happens next.
I can see how this story will end up being a story of survival because Louis has already survived so much even before he was drafted into the military. Racial differences kept him an outcast, as well as his behavior. His vigorous training to make it to the Olympics was full of failures and disheartening events. But through it all he become an over comer.
So far I am enjoying this book and am very interested to see what happens next.
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Setting Scenes in Nonfiction
One of the section that we were assigned to read that particularly helped me when writing my profile essay, was Adam Hochchild's "Reconstructing Scenes." He spoke about atmosphere and how reader need to experience the scene through sounds, smells and even textures of important objects. As a creative writer, I am well aware of how a scene needs to be accurately depicted in order for your reader to understand where they are, who is there, what are they seeing, hearing, tasting and what moment in time is being shown. With non fiction, especially this profile assignment, scenes can be forgotten because we are focusing on the facts about the person you interviewed. Hochchild's chapter reminded me that emotion, dialogue, atmosphere and accuracy all need to be included in a non fiction piece to keep it original, authentic and entertaining for the reader.
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Pre Book Club Thoughts
My group will be reading "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption," by Laura Hillenbrand. I thought I hadn't heard of this story until I looked it up. I have this strange obsession with watching movie trailers and I check IMBD.com ever so often to see what new movies are coming out. I had completely forgotten about "Unbroken," the trailer I had watched a few weeks ago that seemed like something I wanted to watch. I love action and war movies, especially when they focus on character development. The plot drew me to this film and I looked forward to its up coming release. Now, I will be reading the book before watching the movie, which as an English major, is an unspoken rule that must be followed. You can not see the movie first!
This novel sounds very interesting and I am looking forward to reading a work of non fiction. I have yet to read a non fiction war story, since most of the war or historical novels I pick up are fiction. However, it is always good to read genres you are not use to, so I am glad we will be doing having a book club for this class.
Here is the trailer, in case anyone is interested!
This novel sounds very interesting and I am looking forward to reading a work of non fiction. I have yet to read a non fiction war story, since most of the war or historical novels I pick up are fiction. However, it is always good to read genres you are not use to, so I am glad we will be doing having a book club for this class.
Here is the trailer, in case anyone is interested!
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Zepp’s Last Stand
Ed Zepp in Madeleine Blais' Pulitzer Prize winning article, "Zepp's Last Stand" is a create person to write an article about. He is quirky, distinct and determined to fix the problem he boarded a train for. Blais wrote with a profluence that gave the article a feel of fiction instead of an informative piece. I liked the lines of dialogue she chose to include because it really gave me a sense for what kind of person Zepp was. And since this is a profile or a portrait, well that is the whole point.
The subject matter did not interest me, but I can see why we read this for class. It gave me more of a perception on how to write a profile, using dialogue, character traits and information to fill in the blanks and create a lasting article. I think it would be very interesting to follow someone on a journey, taking notes on their comments, thoughts and actions and then combining it all together like this.
The subject matter did not interest me, but I can see why we read this for class. It gave me more of a perception on how to write a profile, using dialogue, character traits and information to fill in the blanks and create a lasting article. I think it would be very interesting to follow someone on a journey, taking notes on their comments, thoughts and actions and then combining it all together like this.
Mrs. Kelly's Monster
"Terrifying Journey through Tunnels of the Brain" by Jon Franklin was an intense read. The details Franklin researched and discovered through interview (I'm assuming) were extremely vivid, descriptive and informative. I am not really one for operating stories and I found myself cringing at some of the jargon used in this piece. But at the same time, I was completely engaged and genuinely interesting in Mrs. Kelly's fate. I love how the article ends, leaving you on the edge of your seat, craving more. But I really wish we knew what happened to poor Mrs. Kelly! But, I appreciate the writer's choice to end the article when he believed it would be the most powerful.
I would have liked some more information about Mrs. Kelly, however, that Franklin did not provide. I suppose it was more about Dr. Ducker after all. I am not about to critique and pick apart a Pulitzer Prize winning article, because clearly I have no right to do that. However, this is a blog and opinions must be established. I am still trying to figure out what kind of extensive interview Franklin held with Dr. Ducker to get all that information. He must have got a serious education in brain science to write all that he did. But I suppose that is one of the perks of being a journalist. You find out thinks that you never even knew you were interested in.
I would have liked some more information about Mrs. Kelly, however, that Franklin did not provide. I suppose it was more about Dr. Ducker after all. I am not about to critique and pick apart a Pulitzer Prize winning article, because clearly I have no right to do that. However, this is a blog and opinions must be established. I am still trying to figure out what kind of extensive interview Franklin held with Dr. Ducker to get all that information. He must have got a serious education in brain science to write all that he did. But I suppose that is one of the perks of being a journalist. You find out thinks that you never even knew you were interested in.
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