5-5:10pm: What you want to do with this week, and how you’ll make that happen…
5:10-5:35pm: Sedaris, your notes from the reading over the weekend… BE SPECIFIC. Cite passages, be ready to engage each other, build ideas, and support the opinions you post.
5:35-6pm: Talk to us about Sedaris and attitude, outlook on life… his outlook vs. your own.
6-6:20pm: What is the idea you have been developing over the past 13 weeks? You will be writing about this for your final essay, and I expect you to have something you’re building …. And if not one idea, then a couple that have you inspired and eager to write..
6:20-6:30: What’s on the page, what are you thinking…?
ASSIGNMENT: The next 3 essays in Calypso …. Which should be through and including “The Silent Treatment”.
#professormikey 
I find that Sedaris has an older, more experienced outlook on life but still wants to be a young spirit. When he was talking about how the beach is full of retired elderly people he was saying how he cant believe how it felt like just yesterday he was a kid on the same beach, but in 8 years he would look like them. To me this is him reflecting on how fast life passes and is a warning to the readers to make sure that we live in the present and seize the day.
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Love how his attitude intensifies when talking about age and getting old… or am I spoiling too much? lol
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He “shivers with middle age satisfaction” p. 4 – bwahah love that for him.
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Sedaris’ attitude on life feels like “That’s just the way it is”. Like good and bad stuff happens but he seems to perceive it like an objective observer. Even in his audiobook version, he seems to have little emotion expressed in his voice. In my own life experience, I feel like I’m quiet and an observer, but I wouldn’t say I have no expression or emotion. And I definitely don’t think “that’s just the way it is.”
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I think Sedaris has an interesting outlook on life because social approval from others both is and isn’t important to him. He wants a reaction out of people but it doesn’t have to be positive as long as someone’s laughing due to the situation. He wants connection with people, but he also lies about bizarre things that aren’t socially acceptable to lie about, such as being a doctor, and his daughter having cancer. To him lies like this don’t matter and it’s just part of the ride, I think Sedaris loves to mess with people in non-malicious ways. I can definitely relate to that because I want to be able to do and say stupid things to people just for a laugh that’s amazing. However I think I might value honestly a little more as I am a horrible liar, but I have plenty of weird thoughts that would confuse the world too. I think often we are expected to act in a way that makes us fit in, and both me and Sedaris agree that’s a boring way to live. He lives for himself, and he doesn’t need direct validation from strangers, which is where we differ. I definitely feel embarrassed when I say something weirdly funny and no one laughs, Sedaris puts it in a book and well, someone’s gonna be laughing either way.
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This is something you should build.
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I feel Sedaris is very vocal in his book about how he feels about things and his outlook on different topics. For example the entirety of “Your English Is so Good” Sedaris is vocal and shares his opinions on America as a whole, different sayings and how he feels about them, and ends it with a unique take on modern business. I do not think I would be as vocal as Sedaris just because that is my character. His outlook seems to be sort of cynical at times, whereas I can see his point of view I think I have a little more positive outlook on things hoping and reassuring everything will always go and be well even if its not.
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His outlook in life i can agree with his and relate is the importance of spending time with his family and have strong relationships with them. I can relate because thats a big important thing for me in life FAMILY and i go out of my way to build these connections and trips like him. Even though age gap can be a difference i make interest in all my siblings lifes no matter their age.
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I am listing to Sanders going on, on he wants to keep is fatty tumor, I’m trying to understand what am I reading, yes he is narrating his story, but why, what I have found between all three writers is that is that they are all comedians to some point Irby, and Sanders really are, another similarity is that they all take life stories and make a joke about it, but I suppose that’s what you have to do some times, I think that’s why some comedians are more successful than others, because even though their stories are funny they are real and they are flawed.
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Sanders?
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His attitude of always trying to say yes to an experience. Like when the lady from texas came up to him after his reading and told him that she would remove her tumor and let him keep it. Who in their right mind say yes to a random stranger to perform that. lol
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Very true!!! You gain so much with acceptance rather than dismissal and rejection..
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I’m not sure if this would come down to his outlook, but I feel like the way Sedaris writes is very calm despite what may be happening around him. He seems like even if he was in a river rushing towards a waterfall, he would still take in his surroundings and describe them in detail as he sees it. It’s both funny and mellow at the same time. And I think that would speak to his outlook of going with the flow and being very much a ‘yes, and’ type of person.
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ya maybe its his style of humor, its sarcastic and at times dry, in the chapter called a modest proposal he stats of by taking about gay mirage, and how our politics are revered, like that of our views, gay marriage was way more acceptance in Europe more so than the states, if if more states are more tellable, Sanders says in places like the town he grew up roughly being gay was not acceptable. He said he turned red when his own mother called him a quire, so in this instance there is not much comedic presence, However in a few chapters of Calypso, in the audio version it gives insight into his stand up routine.
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Sedaris outlook in life is about the experiences he’s has with people he meets and his family. My outlook also change recently with loosing my father to COVID it made me appreciate my family more and realize life is too short and we got to make the best of it even in the bad situations.
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OMG… so sorry for your loss.
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Humor is humor, but why is it useful? Why is it instructional? How is it universally applicable?
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Humor is something everyone can understand and enjoy making it universally acceptable.
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I remember I saw this one quote that said “comedy is a funny way of being serious”
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Oliver… you’re spittin BARZ son!
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Thanks G… Its the cleansing detox doing all the typing
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Word… stick wit it.
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“Through humor, we see in what seems rational, the irrational; in what seems important, the unimportant. The power of laughter and tears is an antidote to wicked, impermanent troubles.” – Charlie Chaplin He also said, “A day without laughter is a day wasted.” Such a timeless icon from a 100 years ago…lol
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I would say his outlook on life is simple. ” Why not? ” You gain experience, lessons, memories, unlike saying no.
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Could not agree more. Well said. Please put this on your page for the night, your own words. This could be an essay direction for you my friend!
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IDEA: Sedaris and acceptance of everything around him… the collaboration, more so than mere ‘usage’.
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Definitely agree with the acceptance around him, I said just before in a comment he radiates ‘yes, and’ energy (like in improv.)
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In terms of the idea I have been developing over the past 13 weeks, I keep coming back to one singular ideal; honesty. No matter how brutal or kind. Just be honest not only with others, but most importantly with yourself.
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Love it!! In Jeanette Wall’s memoir, she quoted her mother as saying something like “Just tell the truth, that’ll be enough…” Something like that.
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OTP: When we think about what we’re doing, we distance ourselves from it. Just be free, react, play, mold the moment with the moment as your conspirator.
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OTP: Relentlessness in your writing – a tireless skate glazed on page. That’s how you get THERE.
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The idea(s) I’m developing are that Everyone and their experiences are unique, and that mental illness isn’t clean and easy to see, but is just as real as any other struggle.
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There’s more that we can’t see than we can
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what i have been developing these past 13 weeks has been humor and honesty! finding humor all around you and not letting time pass by and being honest with yourself.
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One idea for semester: Simplicity.
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I have been developing an idea of self positivity and self growth over the last 13 weeks. Whether it be having a better diet, exercising more, or mental health and my relationships with others. It’s all centered around taking control of my life and writing my own story.
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Another: The person you are – Where you are and what you’re doing.
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I think one idea I have been toying with throughout the semester has been being ok to work outside and through the box, don’t let yourself get fenced in and write for you.
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The idea I’ve been working on is doing things for yourself, and not letting the outside world hold you back or define how you think and act.
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Individuality. Love it.
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An idea I kept coming back to was this idea of control. We can’t always be in control, but being able to control not having control is something so powerful. We can’t drive a car, motorcycle,boat, etc..unless we have… The same applies to our thoughts, actions, our everyday activities.
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A recurring idea I keep having is that it is okay to be yourself in the face of a modern world where you are expected to be a certain way.
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An idea I like is engagement, engage with things and people around you, don’t let things/people go by that might help you in the long run.
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Putting this on my page
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An idea that I’ve been thinking about writing for the final essay is writing about how I became the person that I am today it’s sorta similar to the paper about my life but slightly more detailed/deeper, since who knows yourself better than yourself.
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Over the last 13 weeks I have been working on who I am and how I got here. Obviously there are way too many little details that directed me to who I am today. But I have been focussing on the larger moments that truly changed my life. I’ve narrowed it down to two of those subtle moments that changed me entirely, but I didn’t even notice at first.
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OTP: Set achievable goals. Be as honest and open as possible. Chip away every day at reading. What am I thinking? About the nap I’m about to take because boy did I sleep poorly last night.
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Rest well… find new Truth.
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Truth…. an idea, and invitation, a voice… its own invaluable Architecture.
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One idea that I have for the final essay is about the impact of perceptive, or just perspectives in general. A good example of this is seen with Lawson and how she deals with many of her Illnesses.
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The ideas I have been writing about for my final essay is about my happiness and mental health and what I have done to help me regain my self love.
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OTP: Look into the beginning of a characters origin.
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Interesting…
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What’s on tonight’s page y’all?
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OTP: Finish writing my story due 21st.. Read Sedaris/annotate. Write in Journal! Think hard about my future idea… I don’t really know yet… Anyway, have a wonderful evening everyone!
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You too, DaisDaze!!!! Cheers!!!
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OTP: Say yes sometimes, you never know what experience can come out of it! Have a good night everyone!
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You too!!!! Good to see your words, Patyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!
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OTP:No one else defines humor, you do. If one person doesn’t think you’re hilarious remember that you still are, they’re just boring. Just because no one laughed at your joke doesn’t mean it wasn’t funny, it means you told the wrong people.
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**Love**
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OTP: Why not? Be free
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OTP: I wrote down of few Ideas that my colleagues shared for the final that I liked, one being engagement and another being about self growth.
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On Tonight’s page I have to improve my planning skills and productivity.
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OTP: Truth, individuality, being myself.. I have been thinking of lots of things recently, work, my life, school, all things I need to sort out in my mind.
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OPT: When we think about about what we’re doing, we distance ourselves from it.
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otp: simplicity is the way to go
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Have a good night!
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