A home. When people refer to "their home" most are talking about where they are physically living. Where they keep their belongings and go to sleep. Somewhere they sit and think and dream and go for a place of comfort. Maybe where their parents live or where they claim that they are from. My idea of what a home is defined to be is a little different. Some may agree, and many probably won't. I know this. But my true home is not where I live. It is not where I go to sleep. It is not where I keep my belongings. It is quite simply,
where I am supposed to be. Somewhere I can close my eyes and go to in my mind after a long day. This home of mine is my escape from the world and I am at peace. This home is a good home, a happy home, a home where I can do anything I set my mind to. My home is busy streets. Smoggy city air. People of every nation wandering the streets. My home is hailing cabs in the rain and standing on a small subway platform. My home is not what people would normally generalize as a home but it makes me happy. It assures me that all the work I am doing, everything obstacle that I encounter, and everything I have and will achieve in order to accomplish my goals and my dreams, will one day actually take me to my home.
The place where I am supposed to be. The place where I belong.
Upon first entering the blog site, “The Writer in Me,” I was immediately able to tell that the place being described or revealed to me as a reader is New York City. The placement and repetition of the background picture, which is a Yankee’s hat, along with the first blog entry’s picture of a museum on 5th avenue gives a very specific and well-known sense of place. As a reader, the placement of the photos (both the one in the blog entry as well as the background photo tiled) correlates well with the placement of the text and does not cause too much distraction.
ReplyDeleteAs a reader, I was hoping that the text would convey as much specificity as the picture did at the beginning of the entry. The picture is of a particular building in the city, and the text conveys a broader description of the city (itself) in general. At the start of the entry, the first few lines about “home” made me believe, as the audience, that the author would go into a specific account or event that reminded them of home or possibly a description of their home.
Taking liberties in writing style is reflective of poetry; because this is more of a personal opinion written directly from the author to the reader, I feel as though a few (possibly purposely made) grammatical errors could have been avoided. For example, while there are several complete sentences, there are also several fragments in the paragraph as well. If this style is included on purpose, I feel as though the text could have benefitted from breaking up the paragraph into a different visual format. I found myself having to stop and reread sentences a few times because the length of the sentences in general changed so frequently.
I very much enjoyed the last part of the blog entry when the author began describing small, normal actions of the people of the city. The descriptiveness and specificity reflects the love and longing the author feels towards New York. My suggestion, as a critic, would to have the text focus on one specific place to avoid the reader getting distracted, and to remain focused on one central topic.