Monday, October 21, 2013

Eggers Emulation

Note: This is an emulation of my favorite paragraph of what he have read from Eggers so far. It is located on page five.

My family doesn’t have a style, but my mom has a definitive one and it has shaped how my childhood home has looked for years. In our basement bathroom, which used to be painted a safe, if uninteresting, tan, is the truest sign that my mom dictates the décor of our home. The wallpaper has a red and black plaid border that runs through the middle of the wall, surrounded by a variety of dancing grizzly bears. My mom picked them because they made her laugh and smile and she bases a large amount of her decisions based on whether or not something makes her laugh and smile. We got the wallpaper within a few years of moving into our home and there are three types of dancing bears on the wall: the mother and her cub, the bear with the umbrella and the naked bear. They are brown against tan paint and hang just above and below the red and black plaid border. Some also have leaped near the top of the wall and you can only see them if you are looking. The whole set up is simply horrendous, but it has been around for as long as I can remember and become a source of laughter between everyone but my mom, but it has stayed, a true reminder of who has control of the house décor and what kind of person my mother is.

5 comments:

  1. Chris,
    I think you have a really good start to this piece. Relating your wall paper to what type of personality your mom has is interesting, but it is something that Eggers would probably do, too. I like the personification you use to describe the dancing bears, using words such as "leaping". This piece gives us a little insight of who your mom is, but I think you can add a little bit more detail about her here! Also, can you tie this back to yourself? How does this "wallpaper" play into the person you think you are today? Is there any correspondence you can think of? Overall, good work as always!

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    1. I like that Kristen's asking for more. Where's the beef? Said Scott Zolak. As with others, this paragraph promises some essayistic meaning--something about your relationship with madre--but comes up short. That said, it's pretty nicely done, really specific, and the sort of small thing I love to see discussed.

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  2. I like how you described the color of your bathroom basement as "safe". It's a way I wouldn't expect "safe" to be used, and I think it cleverly shows the average color choice your parents decided on. On the other hand, I think your introduction about family style is a bit too vague. If I were to read only the English equivalent of the lede, I wouldn't know if you're talking about clothing style, decoration style or the style with which you trim your shrubbery. See what I'm saying?
    I think this essay is entertaining overall, but it suffers from the long acronym Dave wrote on the board once — essentially the insertion of "mom" without any description of why she's important beyond her "momness". The only thing I know about her is that she likes to pick decor based on its ability to make her laugh. If you wanted to expand on this, I'd insert a little more description of your mother's personality.

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    1. Yeah. This is the opening to a larger story. As long as it's not about Grizzley Moms.

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  3. I definitely knew immediately which paragraph you were imitating here. I think it's interesting how much the decor of a house can tell you about its inhabitants, and you start to touch on that here but stop before you really get anywhere. I agree with Jim - the black hole of momness starts to suck away some of the meaning I'm getting out of this. How else can you characterize her, if she's mean to be the subject of your piece? What kind of person is she?
    However, your concrete details about your house are splendid. I can picture the bear wallpaper like it's right in front of me and believe me, I don't want to be looking at it either!

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