#bohye kim

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Bye, Lena.

I highly appreciate how Lena Dunham writes honestly without any restraints. However, that does not necessarily mean that it satisfies my certain expectation as a reader. It is because Dunham’s value does not align with my sense of values. There are certain boundary lines that I prefer not to cross over as a reader in manner of experiencing the rawness that author presents. I was happy when Dunham found her truest love, Johnny McDuff, but some of her descriptions had too much of details that readers do not necessarily have to know. I mean, everyone has their own emotions and experiences, and it is their freedom to express it through writing, but that also means that readers as well have choice to either read it or not. Since we are done reading her, bye, Lena. :)

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Stories

“Dunham is not only a voice who deserves to beheard but also one who will inspire other important voices to tell their stories too.”

Agree. Even though I personally did not prefer to read Dunham’s work at first, if I view this work with a positive aspect, I admit that her style of writing and her confidence of being honest may empower those who also have their own sensitive stories. It may give confidence to free themselves from traumas coming from undesirable experiences by revealing it through writing.  

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Representing her generation

Can Lena Dunham represent her generation, as she desires to be? Kevin D. Williamson asserts that, “If she is emblematic of her generation, it is in that her life, in her own telling, is a reminder that being ruined by comfort and privilege is as easy as (perhaps easier than) being crippled by privation and abuse.” I think she represents her generation of those who have similar experiences whether or not those people share Dunham’s privileged background. Even though she describes herself as an unreliable narrator by fabricating some parts of the stories, it still has power to earn agreement from those who have similar secretive stories. Therefore, yes, Dunham can represent this generation in despite of her privileged background.

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Future blogging=vlogging + technology

When I peek out the blogging trend, many blogs are transforming its outer shape into vlogs, a video blog. There are many vlogs out there already, including traveling vlogs, child caring vlogs, make-up tutorial vlogs, and the list goes on. I think today’s people prefer to keep their records vividly through taking videos instead of describing it into words and sentences. Vloggers “tell” their thoughts or feelings instead of “writing” a post. As the technology allows us to overcome our limitation of expression, vlogging and technology might create a brand new thing that might allow us to visit certain records through a time machine, maybe? Just kidding, but who knows?

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Confession

“[Confession] is not the free expression of the self but an effect of an ordered regime by which the self begins to conceive of itself as individual, responsible, culpable and thereby confessional.” This definition of confession is very new to me. Thinking of St. Augustine’s Confession along with this definition, it is a very humbling process, somehow. I do agree that admitting individual’s shameful fault is an effect from a self that views of itself with an objective view and feels responsible for wrongdoings. Writing confessional content brings purgative experience for the writer and a humbling experience for the reader.  

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Start to Finish

The article that I read, “The Heart of Waxahatchee” by Amos Barshad, captures Katie Crutchfield’s life as a passionate musician. She begins her musical career in age of fifteen, even though her parents hoped that she would take academic education more seriously. One of her philosophy is that once she starts composing a song, she has to finish it no matter how much time it takes. Her twin sister, Allison Crutchfield, is a great competitive companion as a musician. As they pursue their musical life together in one band, they become best friends everyday. The way how Barshad records Crutchfield’s life, it well demonstrates her deep happiness as a singer-songwriter.

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Memoir

So, the purpose of a memoir is “either to return to or to rediscover our core values” (126). However, the process of recollection may be distorted or reshaped in the way he or she desires to be. In my case, when I think back and write about my reminiscence in Turkey, my memories tend to only remember the delightful moments. However, when I go back and read my journal written back then, it is not true. I rather find myself who struggles some conflicts between Turkish people. Thomas Larson defines this kind of symptom that, “in the process of writing about conflicts between self now and self then… they are bedeviled by the inauthentic…the past houses a person who is not me, a faux me, a me who relinquished some intrinsic authenticity to become I” (127). I guess I have to fight with my inauthentic memory to be an honest narrator when writing our memoir essay. 

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Interesting!

Lena Dunham’s way of self-revealing story is very different from other autobiographies we read so far. Instead of writing abouther most successful and luminous moments, she rather chooses an ordinary youngwoman’s story that is somewhat ordinary but not ordinary. Due to her honest, unfiltered, and informal writing style, it lets readers to be more approachable to her story. Being honest about her life, which might have been kept as a personal issue, is shocking in one hand, but remarkable for its honesty.