I hollered, "I WANT ALL OF YOUR WRITING TO BE FLAVORFUL!" Pablo and Ha Nuel yelped. I'd clearly alarmed them with my grizzly bear bellow.
"Reading writing that isn't flavorful is like eating stewed celery. It's horrible!"
Thinking about it later, I realize that this comparison is an important one (thanks Gio!). Writing and cooking aren't all that different. Both are concocted and then fed to an audience. There is no such thing as perfect recipe for either. Rather, the creator must mix their ingredients together to create something that is balanced, appetizing, and substantive. The greatest praise that either can hope to expect is twofold:
- that their audience wants more
- that their product is so good that others try to imitate them
So, next time you are cooking up a paper, I want you to think about the best meal that you ate the previous week. Why did you like it? What do you think other people like? What ingredients are you working with as you construct your paper? Interesting ideas? Cool words? A solid, fancy, or unorthodox formula? What do you want your writing to taste like?BTW, I really like cheeseburgers.
I think this an apt comparison because you need to consider your setting when you're planning a meal. There's no point in serving a standard cheeseburger at a fancy-shmancy restaurant (unless it's a really crazy good burger). You also need to py attention to who you're writing for: some readers are allergic to certain writing "ingredients." For instance, one of my favorite writers is David Foster Wallace, and he always uses this phrase "the howling fantods," which is actually a cool phrase once, but he uses it all the time. It bothers me so much now that whenever I read it in one of his books it makes me want to stop reading, which is too bad, because I love all the other words! I guess you could say I have a howling fantods allergy.
ReplyDeletehahahah! I remeber that day :P
ReplyDeleteWhen Gio was saying "so you want it to be good!"
and you were like "I always wanted your writing to be well-formed!!" It was so funny :D
Everybody was popping off from their chairs!
jajajaja! yeah I also remember that.......
ReplyDeleteIt was so funny, almost everyone got scared of mr. AB talking so loud:)
I know!!!!!
ReplyDeleteGio was almost getting a heart attack! >_<
I agree that writing is similar to cooking. It's similar because in cooking the ingredients have to be able to work with each other so they would make a delicious meal, and in writing its the same. Your ideas have to be able to connect with each other so that you make a good piece of writing. If the ideas or ingredients don't fit in with each other, your work of art is ruined and no one would want to eat it or read it. You can be really creative when "cooking up a paper" but what you create has to make sense at the end, so people like it.
ReplyDeleteI also remember how Mr.AB made us jump up on the chair it was awesome. After that I laughed every chance I got. I can also remember Gio's face when Mr.AB said that, hahahahaha. I wish i could see it again.
ReplyDeleteI knowwww we SERIOUSLY have to post Gio's reaction!! :D Pablo was popping like over cooked pop corn :)
ReplyDeleteWell, I actually like stewed celery! =) This is a very good way to think of what a paper should be like. It made look at a piece of writing in a very different way.
ReplyDeleteI thought of an analogy while I read. If we think about it, you can't exactly cook "from scratch," unless you had the ability to arrange atoms into molecules, and molecules into specific ingredients, and so on. Even then, you would still be using existing materials to construct your food. Communication is exactly the same, and I like you brought that up. You can find this in music; there are certain chord progressions that we use over and over, yet each song can either be singled out as a fake or a musical revelation.
ReplyDeleteI really want my writing to taste like arroz con leche. Or like water. :) I like water's clarity and flexible stability, and I love arroz con leche's beauty :) wait nope. I like writing that tastes like flavors from all over the world: cinnamon, shepard's pie, frijoles negros volteados, tortillas, spicy peanut noodles, everything!
Mr. AB, I like cheeseburgers too!!
ReplyDeleteWell anyways, I think gio is wise of saying this "quote" or "phrase" of his. It actually made me realize that, before i even start an essay, i should think of the concept of the essay i want to right about, and how people could be attracted by the words i write on a paper. When i become a chef when i grow up, I'm going to think about this. It is very useful. Thanks for your help Mr. AB and Gio. You guys are awsome!
ReplyDeleteWhat a memory to re-read this article xD
ReplyDeleteI remember that day... I really want my writing to taste like a cotton candy, but it always taste like chewed news papers... I remember a day when I was reading Gio's Research paper and I commented that he tasted like a tie and suits... Now I consider myself as a cook and cook more sweet pieces of writing!! I don't want my writing to taste like chewed off newspaper stacks...
I love to eat fried chickens.. Yummy!! Sometimes, when I get a great idea, it tastes like crunchy fried chicken! Well for me at least. When I reread it, it taste like fried chicken with drinking a soda! I don't know what am I saying. But, for me, great ideas are really like a meal. If it matches the story well, the writing tastes great!!!
ReplyDeleteAdding to Edie's comment, you can't ever write "from scratch"!! 'Cause you're using words that already exist, and letters as well. Unless you decide to make up your own language with weird symbols, but then NO ONE would understando, so it would be like chewing on a hard piece of plastic that is impossible to eat and has no flavour...
ReplyDeleteWriting is like cooking because when you cook you have to fallow a recipe and when you write you have to fallow certain rules, which makes them similar. If one does not fallow the recipe correct than the food you are cooking will taste terrible, and this goes for writing too because without following the rules of writing the writing piece won't make sense. That is how I understood how cooking is similar to writing, and how each ingredient or word you put into it makes all the difference.
ReplyDeleteNicole I can of disagree I think that bending some rules in the recipe gives our writing that certain uniqueness. Also I prefer meat to cookies. ;)They come half way done.
ReplyDelete