Christos,
This is a great point: “‘Live’ life narrative differs from written or illustrated memoirs. Her making eye contact with the audience proves that the therapy is going well, and maybe the stand-comedy session was the next step.” Notaro’s comedy set is notable because she’s using it as a type of therapy as these tragedies and challenges unfold, so it’s a good case study of scriptotherapy in real time (although it’s really oral narrative therapy). But it also fits the arc of the illness narrative as described by Smith and Watson, dealing with many of the same formal challenges in terms of making the audience travel an emotional arc, making the reader (listener) “comfortable” with an uncomfortable topic, and exploring the body’s relationship with identity. So, consider it in terms of form as well as content, and you might find another layer of interest.

Christos,
Your blog is looking good in terms of detailed responses to readings; you’ve got great insights and a thorough analysis of each reading. To revise, think about polishing and refining more than adding detail. Are there places you can sharpen each entry? Condense your prose for emphasis? Cut ideas that distract from the main point or points you want to make? Perhaps consider revision more as sharpening than expanding. On your resume, bring out details that will tie to your goal of teaching and cut down the areas that are less relevant to your goal. For example, you can give specific titles and publications rather than just saying “Published author in Greece and currently writing Reviews for Tangent Online.” Think of listing your titles of publications in groups and perhaps insetting as a block or columns in smaller print, or even linking to a website of writing samples if space is a challenge. Earlier commercial experience in retail or military is important to show responsibility and work history, but can be kept to a single line for each. Emphasizing your experience with writing, teaching, and creativity for teaching. You’ve got a great deal of experience to draw from, so it’s a matter of choosing how to highlight your key items for the most impact. Nice job overall.

Hi, Christos! I’m leaving a comment here on your 1st reading response, just so you know where comments fall in the “theme” you’ve chosen for your WordPress site. I can reply to posts, but not to Pages, so I’ll keep replying to your reading responses after the latest Post, if that works for you.

I noticed a few thoughts you had that will work well as we continue reading memoir/life writing in this course. First, the line between mental illness and moving experience is blurry and often dictated by contemporary cultural values. It’s something that comes up quite a bit in life writing–is it “real,” is it a “vision” and how is emotional experience in some ways more relevant that intellectual or physical experience (or intimately connected). Second, you make a great point that writing style can dictate a reader’s response and whether the writing itself is celebrated, kept for posterity, or destroyed. We can talk about this with Hurston and Turner this week in particular, since they are both “lost” voices that are rediscovered and preserved to an extent by other writers and historians. Finally, in terms of your own writing style, it will help you enormously if you add a few specific page citations in your reading responses to locate key idea. For exams, I always ask you to refer back to moments in the text to support ideas and interpretations, so it can save time to work in specific page references to support your ideas and to ground your interpretations of moments in the text. Several great ideas to work with in this first reading post, so keep up the good work!