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Week 2
Assignment: Arax, Liu, Jefferson Parker, Mackey
“The Big Valley” by Mark Arax
1.) Arax’s story
impressed upon me the different feelings associated with changing times because his experience caused me to remember times
in my life when things were different.
2.) The reading made me think of times when I remember my childhood and how things
used to be. Even though it was not that long ago when I was a child, many things have changed, especially when it concerns
expansion of fast food chains, retail stores, and changing and developing industries that push hold ways of doing things out
of business.
3.) Not being able to remember if I have been to Fresno before, I was not aware that it was a major agricultural
area. Yes, I do know where it is at, but I suppose it is one of those places for me that a person would ask “You’ve never
been to Fresno?”.
4.) After providing the reader with a little history surrounding the story of farming for figs in his
area and his grandfathers arrival in Fresno as a poet, Arax reminisces about his childhood and how his life used to be when
he was young. Now, after much widespread modernization taking place in his hometown, he has noticed even more changes in
the area around him. No longer were the fields that bore figs from his younger days, rather the land was covered with tract
homes and fast food chains. Still grasping the memories from his childhood, he has found a balance between the fast-pace
city he lives in today with the old days by continuing to farm his little parcel of land and occasionally observing the men
who livelihood was still farming. Though Arax is not a full-time farmer, he still uses farming in a way to honor his father
and grandfather, for every time he harvests his peppers or eggplants he carries on their dreams.
5.) My favorite paragraph
is on page nineteen: “The roots beneath the clay die hard. In early spring, they send up shoots through the crannies of my
backyard. Up from the ivy and bamboo come Forkner’s old figs. I attack them with shovel and shear, out of suburban necessity,
I imagine, but eh milk they bleed, stick ywhite, causes me to wonder. And yet my deathblow is something of a paradox, for
I have turned large sections of flowerbed and lawn into orchard and vegetable garden. Like my grandfather and father, I am
a backyard farmer with too little land for my dreams.”
“Transients in Paradise” by Aimee Liu
1.) Liu’s
story lighted for me a whole new perception of Beverly Hills because I have never thought of it as a city where people come
and go, and rarely become permanent inhabitants.
2.) The reading made me think of all the superficial people and objects
that are in the world. In Beverly Hills it is not the character or values of people that make them accepted, but rather the
riches and their level of fame among the so-called elite class.
3.) As naïve as it may sound, I never thought of homeless
people present in a town like Beverly Hills. The idea of Beverly Hills makes me think of the luxurious lives of the rich
and famous, not of the homeless who come to pick at their leftovers and greet them at spas.
4.) Liu uses her own experience
as a resident of Beverly Hills to paint a side of the city not many think of on their own. The city is not a normal one,
on the surface it boasts objects of desire and superficial happiness, while on the underside lies evidence of fear and disparity.
The people of Beverly Hills, as is everyone for that matter, are transients, passing through to the next city or phase of
their life. Liu also clarifies that the city lacks real elements of an actual city, such as Los Angeles, which dons the poverty-stricken
populace. In it’s whole, Beverly Hills is a temporary residence to the souls of all who pass through it, whether they are
visiting or there for the long haul.
5.) One of my favorite sections of the reading was in the paragraph on page thirty.
Liu starts by saying, “Contrary to that first glance, the current between desire and fear runs hard through Beverly Hills.”
After that first sentence she continues to give examples of the contradicting emotions that she witnesses on a daily basis.
The last sentence, which struck me as very creative and illustrates a vivid picture of her claim follows: “More colorfully,
it illuminates the diagonal lipstick and orange cotton candy hair of the antique ladies on Crescent Drive, inching along on
their walkers”. Another excerpt that caught me was on page 32, where Liu writes “We are all transients of one kind or another.
On our way into or out of wealth, into or out of sanity, beauty, love, health or death.”
“Showing off the Owens” by
T. Jefferson Parker
1.) I was given a sense of admiration for nature after reading this story because Parker is so
enamored with the capabilities of a single river and the effect it has on one’s life.
2.) The reading made me think of
times when I have traveled to a place that seems to still be preserved by nature’s beauty, such as the ocean, the mountains,
and surrounding forests.
3.) I have never thought of the excitement one could feel from fly fishing, but it does show that
no matter what sport or hobby one chooses there is always something that keeps them coming back for more.
4.) Parker told
of a time when he had the chance to show a fellow fishing enthusiast the Owens River. The river was home to wild rainbow
trout, and Parker had been there many times before. Telling of the drive up to the Owens River and the tribulations the river
has gone through only to be partially maintained at wild sections, Parker is still thankful that sections of it that can be
fished by anglers like himself. He describes for the reader the excitement of fly fishing, and actually compares it to contracting
rabies. After their guided fishing trip, both men are content with their catch and go back into town for the evening. Still
captured by awe of his expedition the previous day, Parker admires the area around him from his inn.
5.) My favorite paragraph
is on page thirty-nine when Parker describes his passion for fly fishing in comparison to contracting a disease like rabies.
“The Distant Cataract About Which We Do Not Speak” by Mary Mackey
1.) It was refreshing to see that Mackey
and her husband were able to find a place of solitude because Sacramento is such a busy city.
2.) The reading made me think
of traveling to a vacation spot and relaxing for the weekend. Mackey was able to escape the city by spending time at the
American River, but she was still connected to the business of Sacramento by the buzz of rush hour traffic in the distance.
3.) I
had no idea that there were so many Russians in Sacramento county alone, and that the river was used for ceremonies by different
peoples, and not just for swimming or canoeing.
4.) Mackey had been introduced to the American River many years ago by
her husband. It was a place in nature that could be accessed quite easily amid the traffic of the city, and she and her husband
visited quite often. Mackey tells of times she has spent swimming in the river, and her encounters with the animals that
inhabit it. Though the river is a place they have both found as a close getaway, the couple is still close enough to hear
traffic from the city. She refers to the noise of the city traffic as the sound of “The Distant Cataract About Which We Do
Not Speak”. The river is their escape, and during their stay it is as if they are much farther away than they actually are.
It shows that silence and calmness can be found even in a large busy city such as Sacramento.
5.) My favorite paragraph
is on page forty-eight, in which Mackey talks about the rush hour traffic of Sacramento. She writes “my husband and I like
to preserve our mutual delusion. We have agreed to imagine we are not a five-minute drive from our home and a twenty-minute
walk from the university where we both teach, but instead in some remote part of California where just out of sight a magnificent
waterfall foams down into a green pool.”
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