"Kissing" by Anthony Farrington Response Through the Lens of Czerwiec

What makes “Kissing” by Anthony Farrington a true lyrical/braided essay, is that it follows the criteria of material needed within it, as defined by Heidi Czerwiec. In order to create an authentic lyrical essay, Czerwiec states that factors and matters that it must include: “ surreal or absurd”, “embodied oppositions or tensions”, and “mediations”. All these lead to a form that reveals patterns, exposing “a larger truth”, that being the power of small affections.

The first form of material that Czerwiec deems essential in creating an authentic and truthful lyrical essay is to incorporate some form of surrealism or absurdity in the subject or formatting of the creative nonfiction essay. Though Farrington’s topic of discussing his experiences with kissing is neither absurd nor surreal, it is, in fact, an uncommon subject. However, the absurdity within Farrington’s piece is rather in the structural form and how you read through the piece.

Within “Kissing”, Farrington embodies opposition and tension through a collage  in his braided essay. The format of “Kissing” doesn’t flow like a typical narrative, but it’s rather similar to a magazine article. In fact, it is a collage–a collection of found materials that have been rearranged and repurposed to relate to what the author is trying to share. Farrington accomplishes this through incorporating quotes, Q&As, outside perspectives, instructive lessons, definitions, numbers, phone numbers, and random facts which are spread throughout the piece. For example, there is an embedded answer to a question as to how to get a boyfriend to kiss them, as if taken from a genuine Q&A,  but there is also a biblical reference to Matt 26:48. Though these additions seem abrupt and random, and not related, they are rather paradigms. All of these elements are pieced together, similar to creating a collage, to create a bigger picture and meaning:  the power of small affections. Each incorporation has stressed, desired, and revolved around a simple action, a kiss. So, to put them all together–a collection of opposite examples–it depicts how great of an impact this small gesture has on ruling people's emotions and perceptions. Moreover, embodying the opposition and tension of the bigger truth through a collage, further accomplishing Czerwiec’s idea. 

Czerwiec also expects mediations to be present–that being their thoughts and opinions, “especially where the author isn’t sure what s/he thinks”. Farrington is very candid throughout his creative nonfiction piece. Even though creative nonfiction essays are expected to be truthful and accurate, Farrington was very intimate in expressing and showing his life. Farrington admitted to his ex-wife leaving him, and how it impacted him and his kids. Also, he admitted as to the amount of women he had kissed, how it felt, how the kiss happened, where the kiss took place, and how his idea about kissing has changed. Throughout the piece, Farrington explores his past experiences and relationships, and connects them as to how it makes him think today. Before, childhood Farrington saw kissing as not intimate, but as he dives into each experience–the recognition as to how they were(i.e. “electric”, “quick”, “eager” or “soft)–and reminisce on years spent with his wife, Farrington recognises just how precious, awkward, quirky, and heated each one of those kisses were. Therefore, Farrington’s use of diving into each moment of his kissing experiences, replaying how he thought and felt, is a form of intimacy and candidness between the speaker and author that Czerwiec strives for.

Poem Workshop Reflection

    When I listened and took notes to what my peers discussed while, not only, workshopping my poem, but also the comments and questions that they annotated onto the piece, I learned how it isn't always easy to depict personal creativity to another reader. Whilst writing, any uses of metaphors, symbols, similes, and connotative diction are formed by the mind of the author with an understanding as to what it references and shows to them. However, readers don't share the same mindset, so any reference may not be understood as to whether or not the situation at hand is literal or not. For example, a large issue that was brought up during the discussion of my poem was to who the "she" that was mentioned and a subject for the starting lines of the poem was. Due to the fact I wrote it and knew what the "scene played out" was, I easily read the "she" in context to a girl from a documentary. However, due to the fact that "she" wasn't explicitly stated and that a "scene" can take on many forms, my peers believed that the speaker, that being myself, was the girl mentioned and that I was viewing myself in third person, instead of it being a, literal, separate individual. So, any moves or phrasing should be created with the mindset as to how an outside individual is reading it instead of what I, the author, believes to be understandable. As well as, there's a big difference to describing a situation from experiencing a situation. A lot of my poem was quickly brought from one moment to the next without much context towards what is happening in the situation and how the speaker is feeling, and the only way for this to be improved is through action verbs. Action verbs will allow for a story to be told instead of explained and will allow for a better comprehension as to what the moment is if there's a clearer idea of what is happening around it. Additionally, it is important that an author chooses comparison that are in relation to the subject. Throughout my poem, I had incorporated a metaphor of a ship in reference to weight and fuel that feeds a ships ability to run. Though the comparison is similar in context to an eating disorder, it doesn't properly reflect and expand on the situation; instead, it is an abrupt inclusion that is either not expanded on enough or completely takes away from the main theme. Therefore, when I revise my poem, I'll pay close attention to incorporating action verbs to expand the moment to make it more distinct and to develop how the speaker is feeling. I'll also brainstorm different metaphors to replace the metaphor of the ship so it builds onto the moment at hand, and actually develops the mental battle and eating habits of the speaker, and I'll explicitly state a few elements to eliminate confusion.

How I Have Viewed Poetry Differently in the Last Few Weeks...

Like many others, I viewed poetry as an art you "accidentally" create. Somehow, through unintentional word choice and random line breaks, an author creates a musical piece thats deeper that its surface. However, I realise now that none of that is true; in fact, it is very false. Steve Kowit has been a handy mentor into the formulation of poetry over the last few weeks, and there have been numerous amounts of important information that has changed how I used to view many aspects of writing poetry. Musicality is one of the literary devices that is most recognised in poetry; however, it goes beyond just end-rhymes. There's an internal rhyme that is subtly yet skilfully preconceived in order to change how a reader reads the poem. For example, assonance is the use of repetitive sounds, typically identical vowel sounds, so the reader can formulate the same sounds in words and, possibly, connect them–such as, the "awe" in "fallen" and "drawer". Another usage of internal rhyme is the use of alliteration; however, instead of just using it via the first letter of every word, you introduce terminal alliteration(also known as partial assonance). Through this technique, the author denotes the identity of the final consonant sounds in several words within a line–such as "en" in "golden" and "garden". Though this technique is considered inevitable, to carefully choose which words will be used to form a relation and interpretation between them creates intentional symbolism. As well as, Kowit has resurfaced the importance of figurative language that goes beyond for analytical and college essays, but to play a vital role in bringing about central imagery and comparisons in a poem. For example, how some poems are known in the form of a "controlling metaphor", where a singular metaphor extends to the entirety of the poem, bringing about fantasies to be literal and explore complex personalities(reveal an individual truth). Even further, a common misconception is how to break lines in a poem. Though, originally, I thought you can break lines wherever you feel would be best for they don't play an important role in the poem; however, that is also greatly incorrect. Various forms have various ways of breaking lines–free verse poems have 14 different ways of breaking lines–, though there aren't strict "rules" on the matter. Line breaks can be used for punctuation, word emphasis, pacing, aesthetic appearance, for irony, by what feels right by you, and so much more. What many don't realise is how every little detail you can imagine that is incorporated into a poem is more diligently planned and vital to interpretation and presentation to a poem than we know, and that is what I have learned over the last few weeks.

Geek Out!

TEDTalk Reflection: "Stigma"

TEDTalk Script: "Stigma"

During my TEDTalk, what I believe went well was my tone variation and slowing down as I tend to talk faster when I am nervous. I felt proud of how I delivered my solutions/call to actions and conclusion as I didn't look at my notes and put a lot of emotion while expressing the points. However, I could have done better on my hand gestures, not acknowledging if I started to forget something during a slip up, and memorising more of the first few paragraphs of my talk that could have helped to prevent my slip up. With that being said, the TEDTalk experience has been a lot of fun, and not only did I learn more about different public speaking skills, I also learned a lot more about my topic, which allowed me to grow my understanding and passion about it. With learning about how the stigma of depression, and any other mental illness, can lead to self-stigma and social distancing, it made me more aware towards the situation and how I can contribute to diminishing the stigma. 

Call to action: Think about the "broken leg analogy", your word choice, and how to use social media effectively to diminish the stigma. Think about it, contribute to it, and make a change. 

POL Reflection

"Silence" by Thomas Hood

During my poetry recitation, one thing I did well was managing my tone and pace with making sure I could talk slowly with breaks, and keeping the tone quiet to have a form of an "eerie" effect. However, I could have improved on expressing my nerves with decreasing my amount of swaying while standing, and not being obvious when I forgot the start of a new line. So, one thing I learned from this was how important tone and facial/hand gestures are to explicate the meaning of the poem and to really feel the true voice and effect of it.

Summative DBQ Reflection

For this summative DBQ on "how barbaric were the Mongols?", I felt I did well on giving context and detail on a quote before sharing it. The past few DBQ's I never gave much information about the origin of it and didn't really introduce the context of the actual quote itself before sharing it, so having that in this DBQ really helped. However, one thing I needed to work on is going deeper into analysis of the text of the document so I can explain more of the "so what?" for sharing the text. As well as, trying to be less wordy and be more precise when it comes to the claims, introductions, and analysis. With this, I learned that I really need to thoroughly reread my work once it is done so I can make sure it is clear, and to be really careful and specific when it comes to writing my analysis on a quote and/or document.

Summative DBQ Link