Research Paper Topic

For my research project I have decided to write about J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books. I want to focus on how her poor upbringing is reflected in her writing of Harry Potter. For more personal interest I'm going to research the whole Dumbledore thing.

Lost in Translation

The excerpt I liked most of the ones we had to read was "Lost in Translation" by Eva Hoffman. Out of all four excerpts I felt I could most relate to this one. Ms. Hoffman writes about her immigration to Canada and the struggles she went through assimilating. The largest battle she faced was a language barrier. She had a hard time learning English and had a hard time trying to express what she felt in a new language. Ms. Hoffman distinguished the differences between expressing something such as river in english and how it has a completely different connotation than in Polish. She dealt with issues of class and culture. She was taken under the wing of another Polish immigrant family but they were of higher wealth. She wrote about how much she missed her home and how she had a lot of rage and anger being in this foreign country. She has a similar rage to Anne Moody in "Coming of Age in Mississippi". She just wants to get away from where she is. She is fed up of her surroundings. She longed for home, but she knew that she had to make this her new home. Her home in Poland was no longer her home anymore.
I can relate a lot to Ms. Hoffman's account. I left all my friends at home and I am now in a new school with all new people. Given, I don't have a language barrier there are still certain terms and phrases I use that people here do not understand at all. Like Ms. Hoffman, I am starting to come to grips that this is not just a vacation, this is now my home. Ms. Hoffman talked about how wierd the girls were that she went out with and how out of her element she felt. I have the same feelings here. I'm not used to having different cultures of people and their personalities. Coming from a 97% Irish Catholic neighborhood, I feel very much out of my element here. It seems everyone here is wierd or just kind of backwards. Ms. Hoffman says how she writes a letter to her friend in Poland and tells her how great everything but inside she hates it. I have had all too many of those experiences. What dissappointed me about this excerpt was that it gave no light at the end of the tunnel. At the end of the passage Ms. Hoffman was still unhappy about where she was. This does not give me too much hope.

Blogging Women

The blog I chose to read was Kameron Hurley's blog on Brutal Women. Ms. Hurley has a very interesting blog. She updates pretty much everyday about anything and everything. She posts songs she recommends, pictures, quotes, and updates on her life. I was most interested in her biography. She is twenty-seven and has done quite a bit of traveling and seems to be a working writer.
Ms. Hurley is pretty interesting. I think the blog is all about women boxers considering the title and all the pictures of female boxers. Kameron talks a lot about boxing and martial arts which is odd to me. I've never met any women that box. Also in her bio she named about ten musicians I've never heard of before and then Eminem. That was striking to me. She wrote one post about her shooting guns. In all honesty I'm pretty afraid of this woman. I'm confused as to some of her posts. I can't tell if they're sarcastic or not. She posted a picture of her shooting bullseye or whatever it's called, and then posted underneath it, "He doesn't make fun of my aim anymore..." I hope I never anger her or else I'm getting capped.
Kameron seems to be a very active and independent person. She does what she wants and does not care too much about what people will think of her. She may have relationship issues. Some of her posts talk about how she needs to be more in touch with her feelings and how she needs to be more open with people.
Brutal Women was a very interesting blog and I'm glad I read it. I just hope I never come across Ms. Hurley and get her mad because I will get my ass kicked with her martial arts/boxing skills and then she could potentially shoot me. That would prevent me from further posts.