Trey Brickhouse
Prof.Brophy
Eng 201
3/3/14
Reading Log 1: Look up a word-Dating Down
There wasn’t really a word I didn’t recognize but I have never heard the term “Dating Down” before in the term it is used as in here. I feel like I may have heard it before but in this point in time I cannot recall a moment in which I heard it. Whenever I heard “dating down” it was usually about someone dating someone who was younger than them, but in the book Meg says “[Cathy] never chose her boyfriends or sex partners; she let them choose her.” (Jay 101). Hearing this I take dating down to mean you’re just going for anyone that comes to you and accepting it. The phrase really does put things in perspective; you’re basically dating less than what you can really get to feel some sort of love; which I guess is dating down from what you deserve. “Her mother said she needed a different outfit or better body, her father told her she was too much, too loud- too something.”(Jay 100) This boost the title “dating down” because her parents are literally putting her down which is causing the way she is going about dating in the first place; not much relevance but just stood me out that, a girl who is being put down let it define who she is dating. This whole chapter kind of lived up to its name; circled around this 8girl’s struggle to fit in and how Jay too that and helped her “take charge of her love life” (Jay 111) and help her revise her own story. I thought it was interesting how Cathy used music to cope with these problems; I also liked how Jay used the personification of her Ipod “whispering in [Cathy’s] ear] (Jay 104) which made m picture someone sitting on her shoulder telling her she’s alone. Cathy said something that brought it all together and it was near the end of the chapter; she said “I feel like I have to keep hooking up and see what fits” (Jay 107). This really opened up to what kind of girl Cathy really was, she knew she was wrong but she felt like she needed to feel something and she wanted to believe each one would work. The phrase “Dating Down” really added power to this cause in the back of my head it gave me an image of Cathy literally dating down to find at least one person that made her feel wanted. You basically take two different words that in separate sentences can me the complete opposite things and you put them together. You have “dating” which in some cases is a word that reflects love and happiness and you put it alongside the word “down” which in most cases has a negative meaning to it and you put them together to make what I think is a great phrase. This whole chapter led me to think of a little quote I really liked in another book/movie called ‘Perks of Being a Wallflower’ and I thought it reflected Cathy’s life back when she was dating down….“We accept the love we think we deserve.”

Reading Log 2: Arguing Rilke Reading

I completely disagree with this statement made though it’s a different part of time I still believe the comments still apply now. “Rilke states as I have said, one feels one could live without writing, then one shouldn't write at all” I don’t believe that this statement holds true; I think that in order to become a great writer you need to go off and explore more to life. I feel like you can find a life without writing but not necessarily give it up; you’re instead finding inspiration for your writing to make you a better writer. I feel like Rilke was trying to say if you don’t invest your time into writing there is no way you’ll be a good writer which does hold true; for anything you do if you don’t put time into it you won’t be able to be good at it. “Nevertheless, even then, this self searching that I ask of you will not have been for nothing. Your life will still find its own paths from there, and that they may be good, rich, and wide is what I wish for you, more than I can say.” This kind of justifies what I was saying; after going through all the hard work and