What I learned

The ideas we have discussed I feel all relate to consumerism and the media. I can see how the media is affecting our daily lives and how it is not always good for us. I think this class has really made me think about what I do in a given day and how people other than myself are affecting those things. Nothing really angered me in the discussions or in the class; however I feel that the video that asked teens questions relating to the Mark Bauerlien article was a little insulting because I feel it was controversial. I also feel that they asked a lot of questions that I knew and it was too generalized. I feel out of all the novels Feed was the most difficult to get through, but it put a lot of things in perspective and I realized that the government could do that in our society and it kind of scared me. I really enjoyed taking the Thoreau challenge and I learned that technology plays a bigger role in my life than I realized.

I realized through this class that a lot of the things in the world around us have more substance than we realize the media, technology, consumerism and even literature itself plays a part in our life that most of us don't even realize.

I have never been a person that liked to read, however I recently found myself ordering Mocking Jay and Catching Fire. I really look forward to reading them over Christmas break. I discovered that maybe I should look into more types of books within that genre because I really liked the book Hunger Games a lot. I also realize through this class that not every person interprets literature in the same way and one piece can contain several different meanings. I also realized that a lot of the quotes that I was writing down for the discussions were the same as some of the people within my group, which means I am not alone in my opinions and in the way I think about literature, which makes me feel more comfortable about sharing my opinions.

Blog 8 Hunger Games

Where do I even begin? The novel Hunger Games along with the attached readings quite frankly sicken me, but at the same time, make me oddly curious. I did not like what was going on in Hunger Games and I didn't agree with it, but for some reason, I couldn't stop my fingers from turning the pages. I wasn't really happy to read about people dying but I was excited to see who would win. I think this does not go along with the fact that every human has an innate nature to be savage but it goes along with the fact that humans are competitive. It is a game after all, a horrible savage game but a game. I think people get so caught up in the game that they forget about what is really going on. They get trapped in the story. I don't think the people within the novel the characters watching the games realize that the kids dying are actually dying, if you don't know the people within the games and you are not affected, it’s the same as reality or even non-reality TV. You can view it as real or as fake as you want to. If this was a TV show and no actual harm was happening to the people, you have to admit that it would probably be a very exciting series. I think that's what the citizens would have had to force themselves to think in order to get through watching it every year. They would have had to force themselves to not think about the contestants as real people, but people in a game, characters. I think what is worse is that every person is required to watch the Hunger Games and all to remind them that the capital is in charge and to remind/prevent them from rebelling. I had a hard time predicting what was going to happen in this book, usually it’s pretty easy in a novel to predict what is going to happen next, but I couldn't in this one. The book kept throwing me for a loop. I thought that that she would end up killing him but she doesn't. Then at the end I thought she was going to kill him since they said there could only be one tribute but am yet thrown for another twist when she pulls the stunt with the berries, I never could have predicted that in a million years. I really liked the novel as a whole, which really makes me feel guilty inside, that I would like a book that describes kids fighting each other to the death. I think it goes back to what Gabler said that we like to "peer through the keyhole," we are so caught up in the plot because these things don't happen to us. It is interesting to us to see how other governments operate, and these things actually to me make our government seem pretty nice right about now. Also as Americans like drama and competitiveness and this novel has both. Yes it could be that we like it because we are savage Americans but I don't think that, that is why I personally like the novel, I think it has to do with the thing that attract us to reality TV. The fact that no one knows what is going to happen next and we really want to watch and find out.

Blog#7

I feel the what Gabler says is a generalization for example he says “Watching these programs is a way of safely exercising mischievousness in a society that allows few opportunities to do so.” In the show that I watched they did nothing mischievous but it is considered a reality TV show. I don’t think that in this show there is any one who is the hostage. The show I picked to watch was “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” It is a show in which a group of designers take a family that does things for the community in some way, has a rundown home and can’t afford to fix it and they tear it down and build a new one. At the beginning of the show they give you a sad sob story about the family and if it isn’t really that bad the people make things seem worse and prod the family until they cry. The show you the run down home and describe the horrible conditions they have to live in. You can’t help but keep watching to find out that things do get better. Yes I enjoyed watching the TV show. The fact that they take families who are average and build them an entire new house for free is what makes the show alluring. Also the fact that they turn nothing into something makes it alluring. What keeps you interested is that they give you hints of what is going on but you don’t get to see the rooms they created for each family member until the end of the show. In this episode it was a family who started a boxing arena to give underprivileged kids something to do, they even adopted one of them. However their house and their gym was rundown and was need of repair. They transformed both of them and gave the family a new start. The person in charge is TY Pennington. The family that is run down are the characters in the show. My part as the viewer is to be interested in the show and want to watch it again, it also is to feel sad for the family in the beginning and feel happy for the family in the end.

In this show you can determine what is going to happen next because, the set up is always the same and the things they film are usually the same the only thing that changes is the family. Since the show I picked to watch does not seem to match Gabler’s opinion I find what he says to be a generalization because if he is going to write about Reality TV and us being voyeurs personally I feel that it should be true of all Reality Programming and as I have figured out this is not always the case.

Blog #6

"Big Brother" stands for an idea rather than an actual person, the idea is that the government is always watching you.

In a sense yes I do believe that "Big Brother" is taking place in our society. It exists in the fact that we don't have as much freedom to do what we want anymore. People used to govern their own lives and nowadays everything we do is controlled by someone or something. In a capitalist society, mostly every action has a monetary value behind it in my opinion, therefore the people that control the money, control the people. The government controls the money, therefore they control the people. There is something that I just learned in Social Foundations that can be applied to this situation. In school districts they are constantly watching the productivity of the school by administering standardized tests. Teachers are constantly being observed to make sure they are doing things the way that other people want them to do based on standards set up by the government. Also the idea that "Big Brother is in our society, is that there are cameras everywhere nowadays, everywhere you go. The government looks at your grades to determine what money they will give you to pay for schooling, they watch your productivity. The government I believe can even monitor your phone calls.

I really don't think however we have lost our right to privacy nor do I think that we have lost our privacy in our current society. Yes I do believe that privacy still exists when you are in your house behind closed doors, I don't believe that the government is watching us in our homes like in the novel they do.
　
No I am not willing to give my basic freedoms to feel safe, I would rather live in a unsafe, crazy world than in what in my opinion is a "cult." That is what it reminded me of, a cult, because they didn't have any basic rights. They had to be told what to do constantly, you could not even go against the party or you would be put to death. What happened to your entitled to your opinions?

Thoreau Blog #3

FINALLY!!! I can have technology back! Honesty all morning I was anticipating getting technology back. I could not wait to read my texts and Facebook messages. Well let me describe Monday and Tuesday for you. I did not use any technology on Tuesday at all except for checking my email. However I really wanted to watch TV on Monday night. I was getting pretty ancious for Tuesday, I felt like I couldn't wait I had, had enough of this no technology thing. However I resisted the urge to use technology and did not use it. Today was probablly the worst day of all of them, I was waiting all day for 5 o'clock when I could use my phone again. I really needed to make some phone calls. Through this challenge I have realized that I CAN go without much of the technology I use, if I had to. However I realized that I don't want to and honestly I don't think 7 days is that long of a time, I could handle 7 days without technology. However, I don't think I could have lasted much longer, maybe I should have kept going to find out how long I could keep myself from using technology other than for school work. I know now in my opinion I can handle 7 days without technology pretty well, but how long could I have actually handled it, is what I wonder. I also realized that in order to participate in the college environment, it is virtually impossible to delete all technology from your life. We live in a world in which almost every way we communicate is through technology. I could not get rid of answering and checking e-mails. I had to use D2l. I had to use word to type up papers, because they had to be typed, I had no option. I had to make phone calls regarding club events. I had to use technology to set an alarm to get up in the morning, again something I could not avoid. I also had to use Google to look up chemistry work. There are some things that I did not really have an option as a college student to give up. Yes I would have like to have said I gave ALL technology, but some technology was unavoidable and had to be used for school work, unless I wanted to fail. I believe there are some things we have control over and other things that we don't. I think it is somewhat our fault that we are so obsessed with technology and we need to fix things like Lasn says in Culture Jam, but I think some things we can't really change if we have to live up to society's expectations. The only way one person can get rid of technology completely is if everyone gave up technology completely, in my opinion. I can't give up something that society requires me to use. I did notice that I read my Bible and did more productive things when I was trying to fill my free time, which was a plus. The key is to find a good balance between using technology and not using technology. I don't think we should be so obsessed with technology as we are but I don't believe that we should eliminate technology altogether; one because I find it impossible and two technology is not all bad. I am going to continue using technology, maybe I will try and limit the amount of time I spend using technology to socialize, but I can't and won't delete it from my life completely. I can't live the rest of my life the way I have been living these past 7 days. Yes I believe that I can limit myself from using things that I don't necessarily need in my life, but will it make me happy, probably not. I like to use technology, I like to socialize with my friends, I like to watch movies, I like to listen to music, etc........Simply put I like technology, life is going pretty good as it is, Why change it?

Thoreau Challenge Blog #2

I am going to tell you about the weekend Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Friday I did not use any technology other than for club/school related things, except for this one moment. I went over to a friends house to play games and eat dinner. We were sitting there and my friend uses his laptop to look up this commercial and turns the screen to us. I sit there and watch it for about and minute and then I realize what I am doing and totally freak out an get up and walk away. I didn't even realize I was watching it, which got me thinking. Can we really give up technology when we are so used to just seeing around us? The fact that you really have to force your self to give up technology is a little scary to me, because that is literally what is happening. I have to force myself not to use technology for things that are not required for class. Several times this weekend I realized that I kept thinking, " I really want to watch TV." I really would just love to text my friends back home but I have to resist the urge. On Saturday me and some friends went to Ardentsville so I did not really have an urge to use any technology, until I realize it is my little cousins birthday, so I had to break the challenge for a moment and call her, because not saying happy birthday would have been rude. However that was the only time I used technology that day, other than for work. Today I went to Kings Gap I had to make two phone calls to see if people were coming with or not, I couldn't avoid it, again I was faced with a situation in which I had no choice but to use technology. I have two days left and so far I think I am doing really good. I don't think that technology has that much hold on my life. Actually I feel like the more days I spend not using technology, the easier it is getting to not use it. However I can honestly say I can't want for Tuesday evening to get here so I can call my friends, I can get on Facebook, watch TV and answer my texts! Also I can't wait for Tuesday because I am sick of trying to find ways to get a hold of people without using technology, it is really hard to find people when they don't text you and tell you where they are. I can make it two more days.

Thoreau Challenge Blog #1

I am going to tell about how Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the Thoreau challenge were. Tuesday I was feeling great about taking the challenge. I called my family to let them know what I was doing, so they didn't worry. Then I went on facebook and let everyone on there know what I was doing. I wrote something like this "I am as of now giving up all technology, I will not be on facebook and I will not be answering my phone, If you need me send me a carrier pigeon or find me on the street, peace out." Then the next step is I sent a forward around letting everyone know that I would no be answering texts, as if they would not see it on facebook. I then felt I could finally log off facebook and turn off my phone, which I did. I did not turn it back on till I realized that I don't have a watch or an alarm clock so I needed it for the clock, I also needed to set an alarm to wake up to. I didn't use any technology that day except to do work for school and to check my email. Wednesday, I used no technology again except for what was needed for school. I however was finding it difficult to not use my phone when making dinner plans because my friends usually text me to tell me when they are going to dinner. Instead of them texting me, I have to get Janessa to come to my room and actually let me know when they are going. I got to class and still did not use any technology. I left class and realized that I needed to call my mom for medical reasons, I also felt I needed to let her know I would be traveling this weekend. Then I got an email from the President of Rotaract saying I was now in charge of the event this weekend. So I had to make a few phone calls for that. I felt on Thursday I was doing pretty good. I only used technology for what I had to. However I never realized how heavily I rely on technology just for the things I HAVE to do, not even counting the things that I CHOOSE to use technology for.

Blog #5

I think I could live in a cabin like Thoreau for awhile but eventually I think I would get sick of it. I am taking the challenge and have found that I do need technology for work and such. I am vice-president for one of the clubs I am in and I had to break the rules and make a few phone calls regarding a club event. I also found myself having to send emails. The reason I am bringing this up is because I feel that the only reason we are so obsessed with technology and everything is because we have to use it to communicate to people around us to set up events and things to do. You socialize to tell each other when you are going to dinner, what is going on the weekend, everything involves technology in a way. Its a way to communicate to each other without being in the same room. We are not used to going out and finding someone when we need to talk to them. That is why I feel like I could go without technology if I was in a cabin like Thoreau was because don't think it is technology that is distracting, it is the people that are behind the technology that matter to us. I really feel like going out to a cabin so you can "live deliberately" is not such a crazy idea. You might find out a lot about yourself that you didn't know about yourself. You may in a sense "find yourself" while you are out there. You might also discover what you take for granted, because when you realize that you can't or don't have something you discover its real value to yourself. I have discovered that I take the ability to talk to people back home and off campus for granted. I never realized what a privilege it is to talk to mom, since I have not talked to her in awhile. I find it really inspiring that Thoreau is so sure as what he wants. He wants "to drive life into a corner",that's a pretty strong statement. However I feel like he took the simplify paragraph to the extreme I like to eat three meals a day and don't think it is complicating my life.
As for Emerson I really like a lot of what he has to say. The sentence in his passage that stuck out to me was the "It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude..." I find this very interesting. I hope that in every aspect of my life I make every attempt of staying true to myself.
The quote from Emerson in the movie clip from Dead Poet's Society is a powerful quote. What will my verse be? I don't yet know but I have some ideas of what I would like to contribute to the world. I want to make a difference. I want to make my time here on earth worth while, not only for myself but others around me. I hope to be a friend to everyone, put my footprint on the world. I just don't want to be another set of bones and organs taking up space, I want to be of use and make an impact on people.

Blog #4

I really feel that we are not the dumbest generation. If we have to classify someone as the dumbest generation, it would probably be the generations that follow. Like we briefly discussed in class, I feel that every generation nit picks the generations that follows them, we blame things on the generations that follow, instead of laying the blame on our own generation. However I feel that generations are getting smarter over the years. I feel that although we may look dumb to older adults we really are intelligent. For my quote I picked the sentence from the article written by Sharon Begley. It said "First, IQ scores in every country that measures them, including the United States, have been rising since the 1930's. Since the test measures not knowledge but pure thinking capacity-what cognitive scientists call fluid intelligence, in that it can be applied to problems in any domain-then Gen Y's ignorance of facts (or of facts that older people think are important) reflects not dumbness but choice." This sentence in itself proves with facts that we are not dumb, actually our intellectual capacity is increasing. So why then do people think we are "the dumbest generation?" I feel the reason for this idea came about because we do not know facts that "older people" think we should know, therefore we look "dumb" in their eyes. The article by Begley mentions that "one quarter of 18-to24-year olds in a 2004 survey drew a blank on Dick Cheney, and 28 percent didn't know William Rehnquist." I honestly don't know who these people are and yes it makes me feel somewhat dumb, however I don't feel I should be looked at as being dumb just for the simple fact that I do not know who they are. I don't think it is fair to lay the blame on us for our lack of knowledge; of the facts that older adults think we should know. We can't know if someone doesn't tell us who they are, or no one mentions their names. Maybe its not our generations fault but our parents and their generation. Maybe they have not informed us enough about these people and things they think we should know. I don't think that we should be blamed for the fact that we don't know things that older people haven't told us. We can't know about something we have never heard of. I am not saying that Mark Bauerlein blames us because he doesn’t, in his video he agrees that he and his colleges are to blame. He does admit that it is not all our generations fault that we are considered dumb, however it the simple fact that he is calling us dumb that angered me. Reading through the chat with Mark Bauerlein I have changed my feelings towards the author and his opinions. In one of his chats a guy asked "I am curious as to how you are defining dumb? Is it defined as a lack of voluntary reading?." Bauerlein replied with "Dumb only in the sense of not making use of all the extraordinary opportunities, prosperity, schooling, culture, and, yes, technology, to become more learned, eloquent, and informed than previous , generations." I find myself now agreeing with him that we are dumb. I don't think that we do know as many facts as past generations do. We don't take the opportunity of going out and exploring the vast wealth information that is out there. We don't use technology in productive ways. Personally I think of Google and how many times I use Google in a day, most of the time I am looking up pointless things. I could be using it for so many other great things, but I don't. We don't explore culture like past generations did. I can't tell you whether I am German, French, Italian, because I don't know and it really doesn't matter to me. I bet most kids can't even tell you their great-grand parents names. We could use college as a way to gain knowledge and look at each class as if what you learn really matters, rather than just learning things so you can pass the test. Our great grandmothers and grand fathers would probably try and absorb all the knowledge they could in college. I feel past generations had a drive to learn things and make themselves more rounded and kids now days don't have that drive. We simply don't care. We want to pass classes, graduate and get a good paying job; who cares if we do or don't learn anything from all our classes. I think in Mark Bauerlein's sense of the word yes we are dumb, we don't take the opportunity to make ourselves more informed and more eloquent like he says. We don't know about issues that we probably should know about not simply for the fact that we don't want to appear dumb but in the sense that we want to grab every opportunity to make ourselves informed of what has happened, is happening and will happen in the world around us. I think that our generation needs to find a way to engage kids and young adults in learning things, we need to develop a drive in young people so that when we are 30 we are not still considered the "dumbest generation."

Blog #3

The movie Second Skin was very interesting to me however I do not agree with half of it. Maybe its not really that I don't agree but I can't relate to lives they choose to live. I have never played world of war craft so it might simply be the fact that I can't relate, however my opinion is that "synthetic" worlds are not "real" worlds." In order for it to be a real world in my opinion the world has to include tangible items. In World of War Craft you are not even "virtually" put in the space you are just staring at a computer screen. Which is not just true of World of War Craft but of practically all of the "synthetic worlds." I don't understand why some people would want to spend their lives like the way the people in the documentary do. Especially the guy that had twins, he was still obsessed with the game even after they were born. Why would he want to spend his life being obsessed with a “synthetic world" and a "synthetic life" when his "real world" and "real life" seems really good to me? I feel like playing the game occasionally would not be such bad thing, however when you take it the extreme like the people in the documentary did it's a little ridiculous, Don't you think?

There is a lady mentioned in Culture Jam who is a good example of how people can take it too far. You probably remember the passage I am talking about. She started using a chat room, which is perfectly acceptable. However she became obsessive. She lost weight because she literally forgot to eat. A friend of the author says "He saw the lady on the street and she had not showered in four days." The author states "Now she's a very smart woman, but her addiction-she calls it that herself-changed her. She grew so accustomed to typing her thoughts that her verbal skills suffered." I feel like when your "synthetic life" is seeping into your real life its a sign you need help and you need to realize what’s happening. I think that is the point which takes it from normal to an obsession.

When you are falling in love with people's characters like Heather did I think you have taken it too far. It's such a game and I think people need to realize that. I feel like when people are spending more time in a "synthetic world" versus the real world, they are avoiding living. Avoiding living for some people can be a very freeing feeling, don't get me wrong, but when you are trying to avoid living for whatever reason you are missing out on a lot of meaningful real life moments. I feel that one way a synthetic world can not match the real world, is that in a "synthetic world" you can force things to happen more, you have more control of what happens and if you fail at something you can just try it again and that is not always the case in real life. I feel that "synthetic worlds lack feelings and emotions that you just can't match to real world, face to face conversation. You can type something to someone but they may take it a totally different way than you meant it, you can't feel sarcasm through typed messages.

Yes I feel that the identities people occupy "virtually" have real significance, value, and meaning, TO THEM. To me it doesn't really make sense and I can't relate, but to them their characters probably mean a lot, they did to the people in the documentary. I however feel like they don't have real significance, value or meaning, because people are not always who they claim to be in "synthetic worlds" so how can a "synthetic person" have real significance in "real life." ? I don't think the real world and the synthetic world should intermix.

I don't feel that the "virtual world is a new frontier. I feel it is a wasteland. I feel we should not associate ourselves with these "synthetic worlds" because when people get lost in these synthetic worlds and synthetic lives, they neglect the real world and their real lives.

Blog #2

The first couple of chapters we read in culture jam really seem to illustrate the fact that we have lost our connection with nature and that our lives have become almost completely consumed by the media. There were a few sentences that really stuck out to me on pg 6 that said "Something has gotten into our brains. Now the most important task on the agenda is to evict them and recover our sanity."  I feel like those two sentences seem to sum up the 5 pages I had read before I got to them.  I also feel that these sentences highlight the larger picture the author is trying to get us to see: That the media is affecting us more than we realize. The author is trying to tell us that we are not acting like ourselves and we HAVE to do something about it. That sentence really made me think. It makes me think of the question "Are my thoughts really my own?"  "Is the media effecting how I think about things?" Those few sentences on pg 6 scared me a little, the choice of the word "evict" I feel really makes the sentence powerful. It makes me think of something crawling in someone's brain and literally taking over their thoughts. It makes me think of the book Prey by Micheal Crichton that we read in Biology class, which if you have not read is a book about nanotechnology taken to kind of the extreme. The technology they created was a "nanotechnology" that formulates a kind of camera that is inserted into the body so doctors can see inside small spaces of your body. However it backfires and the nanotechnology becomes a huge swarm that the doctors can't control and it starts to hunt them, takes control of them, kills them and uses their body as a sort of nest to create more nanotechnology. They are being hunted by the own technology they created. Both of these books seem to be somewhat related in my opinion. Both of these things, the sentences on page 6 and Prey, make me realize that maybe we do need to watch what we are getting ourselves into. I certainly don't want the media and things to come back and bite us in the butt like the nanotechnology came back and attacked the creators of it. Maybe we should think seriously about the things that we are "creating" in the media.

I believe the two sentences with the author's opinion in them from the previous paragraph can be backed up when the author says on pg 18 "Similarly, I have no hard proof that daily exposure to media violence shapes the way you feel about crime and punishment, or affects the way you feel about that guy standing next to you at the bus stop. What I do know is that my natural instinct for spontaneity, camaraderie, and trust has been blunted. I used to pick up hitchhikers; now I hardly ever do. I rarely speak to strangers anymore." The author in this sentence is reiterating the fact that the media is basically in this example manipulating the way we feel about people, how we feel in certain situations or how we feel when certain things happen. I agree with the author that we need to reclaim our mind. We need to get back to that place when we formulated our own opinions and thoughts on things and a place where we learn things in the real world rather than trying to learn things about life from movies, TV and such.

Another point that I think the author makes very clear is the fact that we have been detached from nature. For example he says: "Abandon nature and you abandon your sense of the divine. More than that, you lose track of who you are." That is a very clear statement of the author's opinion.  I agree with the fact that in some ways we have been detached from nature. However I feel like that it is not a complete detachment for all people.  For example, the author brings up the family that goes camping and basically doesn't know how to act in that type of environment because according to that author that is not virtual life but real life.  I feel like this is a generalized opinion.  I feel the amount that you are detached from nature depends on the way you were raised. My family and I went camping a lot when I was younger and we liked it a lot and were fine with the disconnection with technology and media. I also feel that the amount you are detached from nature depends on how much you were and are exposed to the media. Some people in the camping atmosphere may feel little to no dis-attachment with technology and media, where others may; that is why I feel like the book tends to make some generalizations. Despite those generalizations I feel that she makes some excellent points. 

Altogether in the first couple chapters the author is trying to make us realize the effect that media has on us.

Blog #1

I am a very outdoors kind of person. I like to walk outside at night and I like to star gaze. I like to draw in my free time.  I am very into Art. My favorite Artist is Renoir.  I sometimes think how awesome it would be to be a curator in a museum and I am seriously thinking about changing my major. However I don't think I would ever really change my major because it's something I have wanted to do for a long time. I am a Middle School Education Major with a concentration in Science and Social Studies. I honestly joined this class because it was a requirement for my major but I hope to get the best experience possible from it. The most recent book I have read is a  "book" not really a novel. It's called "God's Little Devotional Book for Teens" It's the first book I have actually had any interest in, in a while. I only really listen to music occasionally, mostly I listen to it in the car and that's about it. I definitely like Country music, I know that! However I listen to most every kind of music; I like to "switch it up".  My favorite movies are Where the Heart Is, Forest Gump, and The Notebook. My favorite TV shows for the time being are Secret Life of the American Teenager and Switched at Birth. I don't really read a lot for fun probably because I am so busy reading textbooks for classes, that when I do have free time I'm so tired of reading. When I have had to read novels however for past English classes I was always hesitant about them, but after diving into them I really liked a lot of the books we read. However sometimes I tend to struggle in understanding the "underhanded" meanings, which is something that will hopefully get easier for me in time. Literature to me is a way for writers to express their opinions and beliefs. It's a way to express themselves.They do it through writing just like an artist does through a painting. Most things that writers write seem to pertain or have to do with things that happened within their lives. Some of the greatest books came from some pretty crazy people. Take Edgar Allen Poe for example he wrote some really amazing poems but cut off his own ear because of a lover. A lot of the novels such as the "Grapes of Wrath" would not have been around if it was not for the horrible times of the dust bowl. I really believe that Literature came about as a way for people to express their opinions in a way they can edit and document their feelings in a straightforward manner.