Blog 3

Blog 3

Michelle Klug

mak05@ufl.edu

1.)            Up in the Old Hotel explores the traditions, ideas, and expectations that come out of the divide between past and present. The story focuses of the protagonist, Louie, and his nostalgic feelings he has towards his past. To Louie, everything has a history. He reflects on the long line of history his family has in his “ancient” town of Recco. Louie describes his town as social, his family as large, and his parents making a living off of their traditional family business. This is what seems to draw him to his fish market location. The hustle and bustle of the fish market, the smell of fish, and a general sense of belonging are all components in what makes Louie nostalgic about his childhood town. In a new and changing world, Sloppy Louie’s is a cutout of history not only for the fish market community but also for his own sense of self.

Louie is not afraid of progression and the future; he just wants to make sure he doesn’t forget his past. He welcomes all the new people from the different districts that dine in his restaurant. He features new dishes and always has a wide variety of seafood, but still holds on to his traditions such as making the bouillabaisse the traditional way as his family did in Recco. Never is the excerpt does he bash the new market or the new people coming into his restaurant. He even installs more tables on the second floor to accommodate the newcomers.

He finds refuge in the information provided by Mrs. Frelinghysen and her information on New York history. They are kindred spirits in their appreciation of traditions of the past. This is symbolized by the way she uses her “old family silver”. Louie is happy to know his building is an old Schermerhorn building since the name itself has a lot of history in New York. His dreams that some artifacts that hold prominence in history lie in the upper levels of his building are crushed when he finally goes up there. He does not find the fishing boxes, the records he is looking for; just old pointless artifacts and in his mind this is a failure. He views this as a failure because his restaurant is not located a building with a lot of history and prominence, just some old hotel dusty.

I understand Louie’s feeling of nostalgia, and the longing to be in a place that if familiar. I took a year off of school to travel before I started my masters program and ended up spending a month in Europe and a lot of time in the Caribbean. As much as I loved all the different places I went and tried to immerse myself in different cultures, I always felt a longing for something familiar. There were some points when I was lost and could not communicate and did not understand the customs. As much as I feel that I am cultured and an experienced traveler, I at times longed for a friendly English speaking American to help me with directions or tell me how to buy a train ticket. As much as the trip gave me more independence and a worldly experience, it also made me appreciate my how comfortable my home can be. 

2.)             The two tornado articles are similar in the respect that they give all of the details of the incident and you get a general sense of what happened and how the resident are taking it. They are also similar in the respect that they make it clear the resident are holding on to their faith but still at a loss for why something so horrible would happen in a church.

            However, the articles are drastically different in their word choice, attitude towards religion, and portrayal of Southern culture. From the first paragraph Bragg sets the stage for a very pristine and innocent south that is torn to shreds by this catastrophe. He uses vivid imagery such as men crying on other men’s shoulders, tombstones being ripped out of the ground, and baby’s Easter shoes scattering the rubble. This is taking full advantage of intersubjectivity and opening up the scene for an outsider with no personal ties to be brought and become engaged in the article.

            The article by Bragg also goes into a lot more depth about religion. Bragg point out that most Christian’s believe God is as almighty controller. However, now after the accident people are leaning towards the belief that this was an act of nature, not god, which goes against a lot of southern Christian beliefs.

Bragg is not subjectively documenting an incident that happened but putting you in a serene community where a tornado shook the Earth and made people question beliefs they have held their entire lives.

           

Blog 2

Blog 2

Michelle Klug

Mak05@ufl.edu

Ted Conover

            Ten Conover is considered one of the best of the new new journalists not only because of his writing style but of his technique of completely submerging himself in the culture he is documenting at the time. This participant-observer style usually means a complete change of lifestyle for Conover, especially coming from the upper-middle class. For his senior thesis at Amherst, Conover gave up all if his luxuries and became a train-riding hobo in order to document this subculture of traveling non-conformists. Out of this came Rolling Nowhere (1984). He did the same thing for Coyotes(1987), where he traveled around with illegal Mexican immigrants, crossing the border multiple times. For Whiteout (1991), Conover worked as a reporter and cab driver to document Aspen’s celebrity culture. Again for NewJack (2000), Conover got a job as prison guard at Sing Sing in order to observe the subculture of prison guards. Conover documents subcultures that are foreign to most readers with an unbiased tone, neither pitying, or praising, simply documenting their lifestyle.

            Although Conover never studied journalism, he worked at a variety of small newspapers when he was younger. Conover instead took a liking to Anthropology, which he credits to be what sparked his interest in seemingly insignificant subcultures. He chooses to saturate himself in the subculture’s environment to get all of the unseen, unspoken, hidden detail that a simple interview can’t get. He thinks that the emotional toll is worth it to get a good story.

            Conover always has an unbiased attitude going in. He credits this to his grade school days where he was bussed in to an interracial school in which he was the minority. He describes this as “liberating”.

            He chooses his stories based on which groups have conflict and change. He then finds the appropriate place and job in order to properly observe his subjects. For NewJack, he completed 7 weeks of training and then worked as a prison guard for 10 months to complete his story. He had to be in complete secret or else he would have been fired or worse. For Coyotes, he traveled with immigrants for 9 months, crossing the border multiple times.

            Conover’s strategy for getting a good story is to try and fit in as much as possible, becoming the character in outward appearance without crossing the line of being so submerged in the lifestyle that you forget to observe. He claims he is always himself although admitting a lot of it is performance based.

            Conover prefers interviews in person to observe a person’s body language and actions.  He relies in small spiral notebooks, which he writes down notes in, while undercover. He opens conversation by first speaking about himself and his past, which gives his subject a sense of trust then asking leading questions.

            When Conover feels he has enough information to answer the questions he went in with, he will begin transcribing his notes and start the writing process. He claims that he lies in bed until he can create an outline on what he is going to write for the day. He then goes through his many pages of notes and highlights the important parts he wishes to include. Once he is organized, Conover tries to write straight through a section without going back to correct. He only writes at 3-hour increments maximum. And at the end of the day he writes himself a note in capital letters on what he wants himself to accomplish the next day.

            Conover claims one of his major influences to be John Krakauer, George Orwell, John Steinbeck, Jack London, Joan Didion, and Tom Wolfe. He is hopeful about long form new journalism even though he sees the determent of it in recent magazines such as Rolling Stone. Conover is currently still writing books and working for the New Yorker. 

Klug, Michelle. Blog 1

Michelle Klug

mak05@ufl.edu

Masters in Mass Communication, Journalism

I am originally from Clearwater, Florida but I have lived in Tallahassee for the past 5 years.

I came to the University of Florida because the journalism program was the best in the state of Florida. 

My career goal is to write for a print or online magazine, specifically one that involves the environment, animals, or travel. 

Some of my interests include running, yoga, music festivals, traveling as much as I can, learning about different cultures, hiking with my dog, and most recently I have begun learning how to sail. 

Since my undergraduate major was political science and english literature, my writing is mainly research papers on topics related to politics, policy, and literature. 

Something interesting about myself is that I have always been a die hard Seminole fan. I did all 4 years of my undergraduate at FSU. Coming to UF is something I never imagined myself doing. But since the journalism program is so good, I am trying very hard to ease into the Gator culture. Lets just say, it’s going to be a little while before you see me in orange and blue! 

Currently, I am reading a book by the Dalai Lama, “Becoming Enlightened”, which is mainly about the basic principles of Buddhism. This summer I also reread my favorite book, “To Kill a Mockingbird”, and “Islands in the Stream” by Hemingway. 

I usually frequent CNN.com for my news updates. I also subscribe to National Geographic in print form. A few times a week I will pick up a Gainesville Sun and every day I am on campus I grab an Alligator.

The classes I am taking this semester besides this are Electronic Publishing and Reporting. 

I am learning towards doing a project in lieu of a thesis. However, I have no idea what I am going to be doing it on yet. 

During this class, I hope to broaden my horizon on literary journalism and get a better understanding on the works of the authors I am not familiar with. Since I did not study journalism in undergraduate I hope to observe the styles of some successful journalists.