Bloodchild - Reading notes

The Smallest Woman in the World - Reading notes

Mini-Essay 1

            In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Faber, an English professor, presents the idea that a book itself doesn’t matter, but what makes books magical is that it has “…stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us” (Bradbury 83).  All of these “patches” are memories or things we don’t want to forget, such as important dates and facts, emotions, and cultural traditions.  So, we store all of these little things that we might forget into books.  Furthermore, a book with quality is one that Faber would consider to be important and magical.  Hence, Faber believes that when a book has quality, it has “... texture… pores… features… [the ability to] go under a microscope… under the glass, streaming past in infinite profusion… [and] fresh detail” (Bradbury 83).  Otherwise, without any value in the words of a book, there is nothing of importance beyond its cover.

            However, after reading Aimee Bender’s short story, The Healer, it is evident that this story isn’t based off of Faber’s definition of quality.  Bender’s story is tasteless and bland, as her points and ideas are just bluntly stated with no meaning.  She simply tries to get straight to the point, hardly explaining why what she is telling is significant.  The story appears to be impractical since the two main characters are a girl with a hand of fire and another with a hand of ice.  In addition, the author uses words such as “poof” to imply a childish tone.  Therefore, despite Faber’s strict sense of quality within a book, the ice girl’s healing powers in Aimee Bender’s story The Healer, would categorize as Faber would say, “magical” and worth remembering.

Revised question: Thus, keeping in mind Faber’s strict sense of what an important and magical book is like, is there anything in Aimee Bender’s story The Healer that is, as Faber would say, “magical” and worth remembering?

Reflection/Goals

I suppose my grade for this semester was fine, but I know I could've done a lot better. Even though I tried and worked hard on my Fahrenheit 451 essay, there is definitely room for improvement in my writing skills. I completely understand what I have to aim for in my writing and I hope to improve significantly in the second semester. I'm looking forward to the upcoming couple of months, especially the last creative writing piece we will have. My goal is to better understand and capture my ideas, rather than just flush them out as a part of the exploratory process.