Saturday, March 21, 2020

Naylor, Phyllis R. Essays - Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Alice Series

Naylor, Phyllis R. Monday November 23, 1998 Phyllis Renolds Naylor: Her Life Reflected in Her Alice Books Phyllis Renolds Naylor was born in Anderson, Indiana on January 4, 1933. She has written over eighty books for children, teenagers, and adults, but her Alice books are most famous. Phyllis Naylor reflects her life as a child in all her Alice books. Phyllis started the Alice series so she could write down all of the embarrassing things that happened to her as a child. She has provided comfort to many readers through Alice and her friends. Most of the books in her Alice series show the readers many of the ins and outs life takes her through (Hipple 404). Naylor has been through many of the agonies and joys that Alice McKinley experiences in her books and is glad she does not have to go through them again (Qtd. in Naylor, The Agony of Alice back flap). Basically, Phyllis takes her life as a young girl growing up and puts them in her books. For example, Alice wants to be a clinical psychologist, and Phyllis studied to be a clinical psychologist (Naylor 55). Alice's father manages a music store, and she works in it on Saturday's. Naylor got the idea of a music store from the one she used to sit in waiting for her son (All but Alice back flap). The most vivid memory in Naylor's mind is the time she was playing Tarzan with a boy in he r neighborhood, when she was eight (Naylor 94). She was Jane and he was Tarzan, at some point in the script she was supposed to let him kiss her. Although she wanted him to kiss her, she collapsed with embarrassment everytime he got near her face. (Naylor 94) This episode takes place in The Agony of Alice. ?I began thinking of all the other things I had done as a young girl that were silly or stupid, and how I frequently hoped that whoever had seen me do them had either forgotten them or by now was dead...? (Naylor 94) Phyllis Naylor's books are about the minor decisions that affect peoples daily lives (Hipple 402). She includes this in this Alice series. Everyday Alice McKinley experiences something new, she makes decisions that sometimes she regrets. Naylor is also able to portray the realities of contemporary society into her books (Hipple 402). For example: when Alice is asked by Patrick [her boyfriend] to join him for dinner at his parent's country club. Alice has no idea what she is going to wear, or which fork to use (Hipple 402). Phyllis Naylor includes many themes in her books. Most come from her back-ground as a child. Religion is the most important one. It comes from having a ?deeply religious? family as a child (Hipple 398). She describes Christianity as: ?a positive work ethics, tolerance, and having faith in some one larger than oneself? (qtd. in Hipple 399). In her Alice books she incorporates religion into Elizabeth. One of Alice's best friends, Elizabeth and her family go to church every Sunday. Phyllis brings up many of the questions about God, and religion in Elizabeth and Alice. Another theme in Phyllis's books, is the importance of work. Being useful and constructive is another key theme in many of her books. She also incorporates the importance of community, into her books. Naylor is constantly active in many projects and groups in her community. (Hipple 403) In Naylor's world the mature individual is the one who recognizes the family and community, accepts help when it is needed, works to make the world a better place, and accepts responsibility for his or her own future (Hipple 404). Phyllis Renolds Naylor's books are true to life, not only hers but the lives of others. She writes the Alice books for a reason: to show her readers that they are not alone. There are other people who experience these problems, and they live through it. People many not get the life they want, they should just be happy they get a life at all. Phyllis is thankful for the life God gave her, even the embarrassing things she went through. ?I am happy and excited, restless and driven, all at the

Thursday, March 5, 2020

Definition, Examples, and Observations on Writing

Definition, Examples, and Observations on Writing (1) Writing is a system of graphic symbols that can be used to convey meaning. See the observations below. Also, see the following topics related to the writing system: AlphabetGraphemicsHandwritingIdeogramLanguageLetter (2) Writing is the act of composing a text. See the observations below. Also, see the following topics related to composition: Academic WritingThe Advantages of Slow Reading and Slow WritingBasic WritingBusiness WritingCollaborative WritingComposition-RhetoricDraftingOnline WritingOverwritingPrewritingRevisionTechnical WritingWriterWriting ProcessYour Writing: Private and Public Writers on Writing Quotes About WritingWhat Is the Secret of Good Writing?What Is Writing Like? (Explaining the Writing Experience Through Similes and Metaphors)Writers on RewritingWriters on WritingWriters on Writing: Overcoming Writers Block Etymology and Pronunciation From an Indo-European root, to cut, scratch, sketch an outline Pronunciation: RI-ting Observations Writing and Language Writing is not language. Language is a complex system residing in our brain which allows us to produce and interpret utterances. Writing involves making an utterance visible. Our cultural tradition does not make this distinction clearly. We sometimes hear statements such as Hebrew has no vowels; this statement is roughly true for the Hebrew writing system, but it is definitely not true for the Hebrew language. Readers should constantly check that they are not confusing language and writing.(Henry Rogers, Writing Systems: A Linguistic Approach. Blackwell, 2005) Origins of Writing Most scholars now accept that writing began with accountancy. . . . In the late 4th millennium BC, the complexity of trade and administration in Mesopotamia reached a point at which it outstripped the power of memory of the governing elite. To record transactions in a dependable, permanent form became essential... [E]ssential to the development of full writing, as opposed to the limited, purely pictographic writing of North American Indians and others, was the discovery of the rebus principle. This was the radical idea that a pictographic symbol could be used for its phonetic value. Thus a drawing of an owl in Egyptian hieroglyphs could represent a consonant sound with an inherent m; and in English a picture of a bee with a picture of a leaf might (if one were so minded) represent the word belief.(Andrew Robinson, The Story of Writing. Thames, 1995) The Literate Revolution in Ancient Greece By Aristotles time, political orators, including Demosthenes, were publishing written, polished versions of speeches they had earlier delivered. Though writing had been introduced into Greece in the ninth century [BC], publication long remained a matter of oral presentation. The period from the middle of the fifth to the middle of the fourth centuries B.C. has been called the time of a literate revolution in Greece, comparable to the changes brought in the fifteenth century by the introduction of printing and in the twentieth century by the computer, for reliance on writing greatly increased in this period and affected the perception of texts; see Havelock 1982 and Ong 1982. . . . Rhetoric gave increased attention to the study of written composition. The radical effects of greater reliance on writing can, however, be exaggerated; ancient society remained oral to a much greater degree than modern society, and the primary goal of the teaching of rhetoric was consistently an ability to speak in public. (George A. Kennedy, Aristotle, On Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse. Oxford University Press, 1991) Plato on the Strange Quality of Writing Thamus replied [to Theuth], Now you, who are the father of letters, have been led by your affection to ascribe to them a power the opposite of that which they really possess. For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory. . . . You offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom, for they will read many things without instruction and will therefore seem to know many things, when they are for the most part ignorant. Writing, Phaedrus, has this strange quality, and is very like painting; for the creatures of painting stand like living beings, but if one asks them a question, they preserve a solemn silence. And so it is with written words; you might think they spoke as if they had intelligence, but if you question them, wishing to know about their sayings, they always say only one and the same thing. And every word, when once it is written, is bandied about, alike among those who understand and those who have no interest in it, and it knows not to whom to speak or not to speak; when ill-treated or unjustly reviled it always needs its father to help it; for it has no power to protect or help itself.(Socrates in Platos Phaedrus, translated by H. N. Fowler) Further Reflections on Writing Writing is like a drug, too often employed by quacks who dont know what is true and what is false. Like a drug, writing is both a poison and a medicine, but only a real doctor knows its nature and the proper disposition of its power.(Denis Donoghue, Ferocious Alphabets. Columbia University Press, 1981)Writing is not a game played according to rules. Writing is a compulsive, and delectable thing. Writing is its own reward.(Henry Miller, Henry Miller on Writing. New Directions, 1964)Writing is really a way of thinkingnot just feeling but thinking about things that are disparate, unresolved, mysterious, problematic or just sweet.(Toni Morrison, quoted by Sybil Steinberg in Writing for Your Life. Pushcart, 1992)Writing is more than anything a compulsion, like some people wash their hands thirty times a day for fear of awful consequences if they do not. It pays a whole lot better than this type of compulsion, but it is no more heroic.(Julie Burchill, Sex and Sensibility, 1992)It is necess ary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment? for the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone. That is where the writer scores over his fellows; he catches the changes of his mind on the hop.(Vita Sackville-West, Twelve Days, 1928) You most likely need a thesaurus, a rudimentary grammar book, and a grip on reality. This latter means: theres no free lunch. Writing is work. Its also gambling. You dont get a pension plan. Other people can help you a bit, but  ­essentially youre on your own.  ­Nobody is making you do this: you chose it, so dont whine.(Margaret Atwood, Rules for Writers. The Guardian, February 22, 2010)Why one writes is a question I can answer easily, having so often asked it myself. I believe one writes because one has to create a world in which one can live. I could not live in any of the worlds offered to methe world of my parents, the world of war, the world of politics. I had to create a world of my own, like a climate, a country, an atmosphere where I could breathe, reign, and recreate myself when destroyed by living. That, I believe, is the reason for every work of art. We also write to heighten our awareness of life. We write to lure, enchant, and to console others. We write to serenade. We write to taste life twice, once in the moment and once in retrospection. We write to be able to transcend our life, to reach beyond it. We write to teach ourselves to speak to others, to record the journey into the labyrinth. We write to expand our world when we feel strangled or restricted or lonely.(Anaà ¯s Nin, The New Woman. In Favor of the Sensitive Man and Other Essays. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976) The Lighter Side of Writing Writing is like the worlds oldest profession. First, you do it for your own enjoyment. Then you do it for a few friends. Eventually, you figure, what the hell, I might as well get paid for it.(Television scriptwriter Irma Kalish)