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Monthly Archives: November 2013
Gish Jen Profile
A small Chinese woman took the stage on the sixth floor of the Baruch College library building after several faculty members introduced themselves and the college’s Harman Writer-In-Residence Program. The woman had thick shoulder-length black hair and a face so alive, so animated, without a spot of makeup.
Author Gish Jen was so enlivened and so charmingly awake for her conversation at the Harman Writer-In-Residence semi-annual event this Tuesday night. Once a semester, the designated Harman Writer-In-Resident is featured at a conversational event, the public is invited, and the writer can choose to speak about their work, their life, and then answer questions from the audience. Gish Jen chose to feature a slideshow during a talk about her latest novel (and first non-fiction novel) called Tiger Writing about the rich and winding history of her family in China.
As I have not had her as a professor but had read excerpts of her writing both fiction and non-fiction, I wasn’t sure what kind of speaker she was going to be. She absolutely blew me away. To a student’s question she was asked about the Chinese culture and what it had been like when she visited, Jen replied with gumption, including, “We don’t need anymore misinformation in this world, honestly.”
A theme that seemed to develop in some of her replies during the Q and A portion of the evening was that of a literature-less childhood. It was the story of a poor Chinese immigrant family who couldn’t afford books for the children. Of her childhood, Jen said, “I grew up in New York! I knew more Yiddish than I did Chinese!”
We learned that Jen dropped out of Stanford’s business school and pursued creative writing at the prestigious Iowa Writing Workshop at the University of Iowa.
Jen’s demeanor was proud, but not too proud, laughing so humbly and warmly that it felt as if we were all out to dinner with her, and we were all her guests. Dressed in a dark velvet blouse that draped over her arms, Jen’s graceful motions and course of speaking were without flaw. She reminded me of a woman wading through water and silk with her hands, the rest of us in the room simply gasping for air around her figure.
Gish Jen spoke about her writing process, which she essentially described as haphazard and without order. She described a beautiful ideal situation for her writing to flourish: in a cabin in Vermont, alone, not to leave for hours at a time, or until her writing for the day is done.
As people began trickling out during the Q and A session, Jen remained patient and answered thoughtfully to the queries asked. To each question, she began her reply with, “Very good question,” with such sincerity that nobody seemed to notice the repetition.
Posted in Gish Jen, Uncategorized
Tagged gish jen, Rebecca Ungarino
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Posted in Neighborhoods, Story Queries
Tagged community service, Margarita Lappost, neighborhood, Williamsburg
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Blog Assignment for “The Deadly Choices at Memorial” by Sheri Fink
Before you answer these questions, please click on the ProPublica link (on the syllabus) and read the entire STORY. There are five parts, with extensive public commentary. I only distributed Part 1.
After you read, this material, please upload a post, answering the following questions:
1. Does the reporter, Sheri Fink, take sides in the story and, if so, where and how? If not, how does she avoid doing so?
2. What is the importance of the paragraph that begins with the sentence: “The full details of what Pou did, and why, may never be known. (Paragraph ends with words, “arise again.” This is an important para. What role does it play in the story?
3. How does Fink organize her story?
Posted in Deadly Choices at Memorial (Fink)
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Fink Chooses Sides But Acknowledges Issues
Sheri Fink’s “The Deadly Choices at Memorial” depicts the fallout from Hurricane Katrina at Memorial Medical Center in Uptown New Orleans. Due to isolation, limited resources, and insufficient preparation for disaster on the government’s part, the hospital was forced to triage their patients, sorting them according to their medical conditions. The healthiest patients were given priority evacuation status, while the sickest patients were left at the bottom of the list. Fink’s narrative of the events during this catastrophe, explained in chronological order, sometimes abandoning chronology for topical arrangement, illustrate what may have led to some patients allegedly being euthanized by nurses and doctors. The piece focuses on Dr. Ann Pou’s involvement in the alleged acts, her indictment, and the discussion about triage medicine.
Though a very fair, well reported article, readers can determine Fink opposes Dr. Pou’s actions. Before exploring Dr. Pou’s involvement at Memorial Medical Center after Hurricane Katrina, Fink quotes Dr. Ewing Cook, who explained why he “hastened the demise” of a patient. “I gave her medicine so I could get rid of her faster… get the nurses off the floor.” Dr. Cook acknowledges consulting with Dr. Pou regarding prescriptions that would “hasten” the death of patients. Placing this, rather blunt, explanation of the situation before Dr. Pou’s side of the story (though much is expressed through her lawyers), makes the doctor’s actions look questionable. Not to mention, Fink spends a lot of time (deservedly) reporting why Emmett Everett, a nearly four hundred pound quadriplegic, “was given something for his dizziness” by Dr. Pou and ended up passing away shortly after.
Still, Fink doesn’t depict the doctor as an evil mastermind, but as a medical professional struggling under extreme conditions and little rest to provide care to patients and evacuate a hospital. At one point, Fink illustrates Dr. Pou sitting on a bench, exhausted with “less than an hour’s sleep.”
Most importantly, Fink acknowledges that it will never be known what Dr. Pou actually did or why, and that the arguments the doctor makes regarding emergency situation (triage) protocol are worth looking at. Fink writes, “This is particularly important as health officials are now weighing, with little public discussion and insufficient scientific evidence, protocols for making the kind of agonizing decisions that will, no doubt, arise again.”
All things considered, Fink sympathizes with Dr. Pou’s predicament but believes the doctor went too far. But the writer can only report the information, much of which as Fink indicates, we will never know. Her beliefs are merely speculatory, and she does a good job masking them.