Laken Essay

Lonnie Boga

Separate Kingdoms

In the story Separate Kingdoms by Valerie Laken, there is a family that fails to understand one another and they fail to cope with one another due to lack of communication and lack of quality time spent with one another. It seems as if everyones existence in the house is not there. In the story there was a father, named Colt who lost his thumbs in an “accident” doing some machine work at his job. Laken made the story using two different columns with two different points of views. One was the point of view of Colt’s son and wife, Jack and Cheri. The other was from Colt’s point of view. Laken made the story so that the paths of the characters never combine to one whole visual but they intertwine in segments and parts of the story. Another thing that I noticed was how in some columns the dialogue was identical. This is where the story was heard from both points of views. I enjoyed seeing the complexity of Laken’s work. Laken's work shows that family shouldn't neglect communication Ultimately, a lack of family value and a lack of communication, mixed with everyones need of technology to fulfill the void of family prevented Colt and his family from coping with each other. It made them neglect the people they love the most, therefore, forcing the family to have two separate kingdoms instead of one family world.

Through out the story the family was always separated separated.. As far as physically and morally. In the story the father lost his thumbs due to technology. This caused him to fade away from his family and stay distant watching the animal channel a day. On the other hand their were also times where the family came together. Like the scene with the i-pod. Jack had a moment when he and a girl from his school shared an i-pod. This was one instance when technology brought people together in the story. Technology kept Jack, Cheri and Colt in separate rooms doing separate things. Jack, Colts son, would always be on his X-box. Cheri would always watch her Tae-Bo tapes and workout doing that. While Colt on the other hand would always watch the animal channel and sit around in the “reject room” as Cheri would call it disgracefully. Cheri and Jack overall didn't understand Colt and this was proven with the settlement that Colt got from work for his thumbs being severed. She wanted him to take more money because she assumed that this would make Colt a happier man and it would make everything better for the family. When Jack stated,“If he got that money we could do all those things maybe more. It seems like such an easy plan to explain" this shows that they dont understand that Colt doesn't care about the money. Colt's response to all of the chaos over the money situation was,“Alex Schooper has money and he’s still a total asshole. Colt knew that money wouldn’t change his lifestyle because he would still have no thumbs. This miscommunication is another one that his the family failed to cope with.

Laken made two columns for the story which at times came together and read the same thing. One example of this is in the story when Jack was banging on the drums. Every time Jack hit the drums Laken wrote, “Duh. Guh. Duh. Guh...duh guh duh guh duh guh.” This was one way that Laken tied the two worlds together. Also whenever Jack would talk to Colt the two columns would be identical to each other as well. This was a brilliant way to show the separate kingdoms coming together.

In conlusion the story made readers see that communication between family is important in order to keep everyone in the famiy close net. The lack of communication in this story caused the family to retract from one another and clash as a family. The way of writing the book made us see the two perspectives of what was going on in the story.

Old intro/New Intro

Old Intro

The essay "Shame and Forgetting in the Information Age" by Charles Baxter was about the authors focus and importance put on memory. It showed that being smart and holding information is good but its better to hold experience and pair the two.

New Intro

The essay "Shame and Forgetting in the Information Age" by Charles Baxter was about the authors focus and importance put on memory. It showed that being smart and holding information is good but its better to hold experience and pair the two. Also that forgetting is normal and no shame should be put on forgetting.

Revised Intro

The essay "Shame and Forgetting in the Information Age" by Charles Baxter was about the authors focus and importance put on memory. It showed that being smart and holding information is good but its better to hold experience and pair the two. Baxter started off his essay with an example of his handicapped brother, who was unable to retain information from books and writings but could remember faces and stories very well. Baxter then goes on to call this the Information Age because people now a days just go by books and internet and lose the old school experience of story telling and figuring out information. Since the new era is now the information age, the people that can't cope with all the information memory that needs to be retained often feel embarrassed and ashamed of not being able to deal with it. Therefor they feel even more embarrassed when they forget. Baxter makes people understand that forgetting is okay and that it is essential in order to learn new information and move on to new experiences.

Assignment 1.2

The essay "Shame and Forgetting in the Information Age" by Charles Baxter was about the authors focus and importance put on memory. It showed that being smart and holding information is good but its better to hold experience and pair the two. Baxter started off his essay with an example of his handicapped brother, who was unable to retain information from books and writings but could remember faces and stories very well. Baxter then goes on to call this the Information Age because people now a days just go by books and internet and lose the old school experience of story telling and figuring out information. Since the new era is now the information age the people that cant cope with all the information memory that needs to be retained often feel embarrassed and ashamed of not being able to deal with it.

"There is more information all the time..." I strongly believe that Baxter is correct when he states this because there is so much information, who in the world can keep up with all this information if there is no experience behind it? No one and this forces everyone to start slowly relying on the technology more and more until its needed. "Tom was an outcast of the information age". Indeed Tom was an outcast of the information age because he, like i stated earlier, could simply not retain information. But Tom would not be an outcast of an era of story telling and experience because Tom had those traits and he was very capable of being normal in an experience era. Baxter presented this information and insight in five parts of the essay.

Also in the essay Baxter mentioned forgetting. "The shame of forgetting. The necessity of it." From this statement I got that forgetting is normal and that it is okay to forget. It almost seems to make you normal when you forget in the modern age of todays technological era. People get so caught in being perfect and not messing up that they forget what normal is. Its normal to mess up and its okay to be normal.

In conclusion Baxter is informing everyone that technology should be used as a crutch to help you remember things that are not grasped the first time around. People often use it for everything and it makes the brain lazy and useless. Baxter shows the negative side of over using technology and stresses the importance of experience information and shows how it should be put above technology and information memory.

Lonnie Boga: Introduction

"Your memory, can now in casual conversation refer to your computer's memory rather than your own." p. 145

"Remembering data and remembering an experience are two very different activities. It is possible that the quantity of data we are supposed to remember has reduced our capacity to remember or even to have experiences." p. 146

“Forgetfulness means that your mind may have crashed. It may, paradoxically, set you free” p. 148

Introduction

In the essay "Shame and Forgetting in the Information Age," Charles Baxter dissects the difference between information and experience memory. Charles Baxter is set out to prove that there is nothing like experience memory even tho modern day is about technology and information memory. Charles Baxter's objective is to prove that information memory is only valuable if its paired with experience. Baxter displays to the people that it is necessary to forget and that forgetting typical yet ordinary so people should have no shame in forgetting information memory.

Baxter Assignment #1

The focus on this essay was mostly based on the effect of memory in the information age. The author started off talking about his brother and about how he had trouble remembering information but he could remember faces and people. The essay has five chapters but the last one isn't about memory its about forgetting.In the first chapter Tom was the main focus. He is Baxter's brother and he was the one with the memory problems. This is Baxter's way of using a personal experience to relay the message of memory and why its important to use experience.

In the second chapter he examines and talks about data vs experience. He explains why data doesn't hold that much weight because its only data. Baxter sounds worried of the people in the information age because of Walter Benjamin's' theory that people have a lot of information but not a lot of experience.The last part is about forgetting and how it is necessary. Baxter stated that there should be no shame in forgetting because forgetting is necessary.

I believe that the essay teaches that experience is well appreciated and needed more than just data because experience is more valuable and hands on then just knowing data. Therefore by forgetting data its not necessarily a bad thing because forgetting is good also.

Lonnie Boga

My name is Lonnie Boga. I am 19 and I was born on January 2, 1991 in St.Louis, Missouri. I came to UWM on a basketball scholarship and I got a lot of playing time as a freshman. I love performing in front of crowds and I love being on the big stage. I have a brother Shaquille Boga and a sister Mercedes Boga who both live in St. Louis. I'm majoring in early child-hood education because I love kids and i love being around them. I am a people person as well, therefore I hate being by myself. I'm down to do whatever as long as I'm accompanied by someone so I make a great partner in crime. Last, I am the first one in my family to go to college so me being here is a big deal to my family and friends. Welcome to my world. HAHA