Spring Lit Fest 2015

During this Spring semester at Ohio University, our professor, Dr. Wanczyk, organized a literary festival for everyone. The festival took place this past week and featured many notable authors from throughout the country. It was a great success and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing experts speak their mind in lectures or hearing the authors read pieces of their past and future work. The events I ended up attending were the Dorothy Allison reading and the Marie Howe lecture. 

The first event I attended was the Dorothy Allison reading. She was an older woman who completely blew my mind with her very detailed scenes from her new upcoming book. As she read from excerpts of a chapter in her upcoming book, I could not wrap my head around how someone could think of such detailed scenes. I only wish that I had the creative writing skills as she does. For someone as myself who does not read a lot of books, she had me wanting to read the book and get the entire story. I was on the edge of my seat begging to know more. Then I realized that's exactly what makes an author a great author. Having the ability to take someone and make them feel as if you are experiencing the story yourself. I genuinely enjoyed her reading and it was a great experience to hear an actual author read the book in her own tone.

Next, I went to the Marie Howe lecture. Her lecture provided details on different types of poems and what analytically poems really mean and their power behind them. For example, one of the first things she pointed out was the word "nothing". She went on using examples of how people may use the word but we all know they are using it in the opposite sense of the term. She made everyone realize that there is so much more behind the words that we say than we can possibly understand. Poetry is all about the words you use and to what depth you use them in. Poetry can be some of the most in depth reading you can it have and it all forms from your understanding for the depth in which you use words. 

This literary festival completely exceeded my expectations and more. I thought I would be bored out of my mind the entire time but it was the complete opposite. I felt that everyone, even if you did not enjoy the event, could have walked out of their with a sense of new knowledge and insight in the field of literacy. Thanks again Dr. Wanczyk! I'm sure next years fest will be even better.

Like Father Like Son

    In this weeks blog, we read "Glenn Stribling, service station owner" and "Dave Stribling, his son and partner" from Studs Terkel's Working. These two pieces were about a father-son operated Texaco service station just outside of Cleveland. Terkel spoke with both individuals and both gave similar and contrasting stories about their home and work lives. 

    First, we heard from Glenn Stribling, the father of the duo. From the very beginning, you can see that Glenn is very passionate about his work. Glenn says, "Oh, I love it. There’s never a day long enough." He goes on further to say that we works up to a possibility of 80-90 hours a week. I don't know about you but I envy the fact that he has such a passion for his job yet works that long. I hope when I find my career that I can love it just as much as he does. Glenn goes on to say, “I don’t do it for the money. People are in trouble and they call you and you feel obligated enough to go out there and straighten them out as much as you can.” This also is great representation that his head is in the right place and is doing something that he is truly animated about. 

    Next, we got to hear from Dave Stribling, the son of the duo. Dave seemed to take a different stance on working at the "garage", as his Dad would call it. At the beginning of the piece he goes on about how if he had a chance to rewind time he would pick another trade. You almost get the feeling that he may be ashamed of his work in a sense maybe? There was many of times where it just seemed apparent to me that he did not enjoy his work all too much. He says, “I don’t really like to talk about my work with my friends.” I believe Dave is the perfect example of someone who wished they lived the American dream and  had chosen a different career path instead of staying in the family business. He had the options but chose to work with his father instead. In the long run, I believe he won't regret his choice when he is older and will value the amount of time he got to spend with his father. And maybe one day if his son chooses to work under him, he could possibly realize that he might have turned into his own father.

    Overall, I believe this article really hit home with me because eventually I could be working with my own father as well. It was almost as if they were a spitting image of my father and I. Myself calling him old fashioned and unwilling to learn the new tricks of the trade. Almost as if this were a nostalgic piece of reading for me. Thinking about the various odd jobs my father and I have done together. Both of them having similar attitudes towards people or how they handle their anger/stresses. One day, I hope that I will have that.  

Questions:

Would you want/or be willing to work with your own parent or guardian?

Do you think you could share the same passion Glenn has for his job working 80-90 hours a week?