Class
Overall, class was enjoyable. I learned many new things about the game of golf. The discussions of the history of the game and of the layout of the course allowed me to, in the period of one day, create a greater appreciation and understanding of the game of golf. I was interested and learned much about the history and development of golf and how certain ecological aspects of the course affect game play.
Assigned Readings
Many of Updike’s articles were easy for me to relate to. Updike seems to me to be a very intent golfer who is very easily distracted and easily frustrated. He seems to love the game but finds it difficult to get good now that he is aging.
I especially like the way he writes the novel. Although at times he is difficult to follow, his wording makes the story interesting. My favorite aspect of the novel is the descriptive scenes he gives and how he develops them into extremely problematic situations.
From the book, my favorite section is the “Golf Dreams” section. This is because of several reasons. Firstly, as I have mentioned, I like his style and descriptiveness of the scene. I also find it easy to relate to his situation where he makes everything seem much more difficult than it really is. Overall I enjoyed the first readings.
Day 2 (May 14, 2002)
Class
Today was a fairly relaxed class. Since I knew most of what was discussed, time seemed to pass quickly. The discussion over Golf Dreams was interesting and it caused me to think about the readings more than I had already done.
Assigned Readings
The new Updike readings were not as interesting to me a the first readings were. I liked “The Pro” but that was about it.
I noticed that his disgust with the way he was playing the game slowly depreciated and that he became more relaxed. He eventually makes himself a hypocrite in the fact that he just plays the game for fun and that he eventually accepts the gimmes and similar things he did not usually do.
The Game of Golf
I thought that since this is a journal about golf it wouldn’t hurt to write about golf. Today I shot a 69 at our golf match. The worst part is I cheated. I told my opponent that I did cheat so that he could disqualify me but he didn’t believe me. The truth is I realized that golf really isn’t that important and that it is only fun when I really want to go to the course and play.
truly shocking story of his life. In addition, the book not only focuses on the
have chosen it for my report. Finally, I will give my reactions to the novel
I think my favorite thing about this novel was the realistic ending. Some books try to just give you a fairy tale but this book had an ending that mad you think in the end if I was in the same position would I do the same thing. I didn’t like the fact that the novel portrayed mental illness in a way to say that it needed to be hidden and protected. I thought this novel was very believable for the time period that it was set in. I think the ending to this novel was perfect it was an accurate ending to this
The thing I liked least about this book was the lengthiness and wordiness of it. It was very round-about in getting to the point or conclusion of the topic. It had a lot of extra information that I felt wasn’t necessary or just didn’t really have a place in the chapter. I also found some subtopics much less interesting than others.
My opinion of this novel is that it was a good book. If I personally had to pick a book to read it would not be my first choice. But overall I had an easy time reading this book and it actually meant something so it wasn’t too bad. At the end I was satisfied for the time read.
I found the book to be easy, exciting reading because the story line was very realistic and easily relatable. This book flowed for me to a point when, at times, it was difficult to put down. Several scenes pleasantly caught me off guard and some were extremely hilarious, namely, the visit to Martha Oldcrow. I found myself really fond of the char...
Golf is different than any other sport I’ve ever played. Golf challenges the body, mind, and soul. The average person doesn’t think a lot about golf, or thinks that it is not a challenging sport. Once they have played it is a different story. Golfing is not just taking a swing at the ball, it involves several tedious techniques and strategies such as; making sure you are aimed where you want the ball to go, your hands are in the right spot on your clubs, your knees are slightly bent, etc. In the book “The Mind at Work” a member of the UCLA Graduate school of education and Information Studies, Mike Rose, states “With time and practice, all this becomes routine, automatic.” We are asked to compare Rose’s work with intelligence that we as students have acquired through our lives thus far. Something that I have worked for and learned about since I was young is golf. I
There are several things that I like about this book. First off, I love historical fiction, and this is the genre of this book. Also, despite the author being too descriptive, the book went at a steady pace. For me, pace usually determines whether I will read the book or not, and I never really hesitated, or thought about changing books.
I enjoyed reading this chapter because it mention of race and gender and briefly of class made it a chapter that united all of the previous
Updike is famous for taking other author's works and twisting them so that they reflect a more contemporary flavor. While the story remains the same, the climate is singular only to Updike. This is the reason why there are similarities as well as deviations from Joyce's original piece. Plot, theme and detail are three of the most resembling aspects of the two stories over all other literary components; characteristic of both writers' works, each rendition offers its own unique perspective upon the young man's romantic infatuation. Not only are descriptive phrases shared by both stories, but parallels occur with each ending, as well (Doloff 113).
McFarland, Ronald E. "Updike and the Critics: Reflections on 'A&P.'" Studies in Short Fiction 20.2-3 (1983): 95-100.
Throughout this experience I have learned a lot about golf and about how it effects the mind and body. My interview put things into perspective that kids and teenagers are actually learning life skills and life lessons that they can take into adulthood just from playing a game with freinds. Also learning that golf isn’t just a game that you may lose some weight from, but it can improve so many other things on your body and in your
Luscher, Robert M. John Updike: A Study of the Short Fiction. New York: Twayne, 1993.
I approach the tee box and meet my opponents. I begin my pre shot routine, with thoughts racing through my mind. I step back, I aim, I take my practice swing, I align myself and I duff the ball. I completely mis hit the ball in front of my competitors on my first drive of the day. Censure begins to form in my mind, I am absolutely furious. Not only did I mess up my first drive, but all my drives. I am appalled, my drives were perfect the day before. I cannot refocus myself every shot; however, I am able to persevere through the game, a lesson I have learned through practicing golf. Perseverance is crucial to everything I do as a Type A personality, because it allows you to work through harsh conditions. At the end of the two days, my coach explained to me that I can not focus on the other players or my last bad shot, I have to pull myself out of negative thinking and just do. His advice was difficult to take on, because I was upset for shooting a 222; a total of 87 strokes higher than my teammate, Sabrina. Although coach Grazier’s advice was tough to hear, by attending this tournament I gained a better sense of my self worth. In addition, I strengthened my sportsmanship skills and team spirit. All of my teammates were proud of me for playing in the tournament, without me playing they would not have had a team
A small part that stuck out to me that I kind of disliked was how Ben described the church as his mistress at the beginning of chapter one. Not my favorite word choice, but I did not completely dislike it because I saw where he was coming from when making this point. Also, after hearing other people’s opinions on the book this part was something that many people complained about which could have swayed my opinion on it. Ben makes many points throughout the book that gets the reader thinking and he does not force his views on the readers; he simply gives his findings for what he researched and how he applied it to his personal life and work life. I did not like some of the decisions he made in his life, but it was those decisions that lead him to do his research and better his life for. I did not like the decisions because they were choices I would not have made, but he is not me and I am not him. If he had not made the choices he did, the research he had collected would not