Final Learning Synthesis

I Have Read: Travels In Georgia, Pieces of the Frame, Coming Into The Country II, 1839/2003, Reporter at Large: The Atlantic Generating Station, A Reporter at Large: Survival of the Birch Bark Canoe, Letting Subjects Grow

Sitting down to do this learning synthesis, I realized that the biggest impact this course has had on me was getting me to think about being a writer. In doing readings for this class, I’ve become obsessed with the order in which information is presented, the details John McPhee chooses to educate us on, and the language and flow used to keep readers engaged and relaxed. I find myself carrying this over to other classes and other authors as well. I’ve thought a great deal about how to obtain information (particularly through interviewing) and the ethics of how you present that information. I have also spent a lot of time considering genres and the audience you reach according to where you’re published.

It’s hard to pin exactly where the roots are to the things I’ve learned, as my time at STU has had a tendency to join entire semesters under one or two common themes. This last semester, for me, can be summarized as: mediums and both the intentional and unintentional messages communicated to your audience. This course has allowed me to develop my ideas on this more than any other.

John McPhee seems to be a very deliberate writer. Russ has even mentioned in class how painfully slow he works. Because of this knowledge, it is safe to assume that no word or punctuation is ever accidental. This semester I also heard Gordon Downie say on “The Q” that the best thing you could do for him is give his albums “careful consideration.” I had never thought of it before, but a very crucial thing to do when reading is to give the author the benefit of the doubt. Don’t explain something away as accidental. Perhaps you’ll ultimately find too many inconsistencies for a writer to keep that trust, but that should be the criteria for whether or not they’re any good. I have been rewarded by giving McPhee the benefit of the doubt, and I’m now conscious of those times when I become dismissive of an artist and unfairly assume that the impacts on me (the audience) wasn’t carefully weighed. It was through the things said in class and ‘Pieces of The Frame’ that this idea was developed the most.

I am certain McPhee thinks a lot about the way biases arise from the way information is presented and the tone in which it is written. We have wondered why McPhee would be reluctant to be called an “activist” or if he is trying to get any particular message across at all. I have come to believe that his message is that things aren’t as clear cut as we often like to immediately assume they are, and that we should always “seek first to understand.” Nothing made this clearer for me than “The Atlantic Generating Station.” I immediately decided I was against this idea, and I would bet that John McPhee could have predicted this. After reading the article, I’m not so sure. He did a great job explaining the approval, testing, and planning processes. The idea alone brought a lot of funding to some Biological departments as they explored the impacts a floating nuclear plant would have on the marine life. Afterward I felt almost silly for being so quick to judge. From what has been said in class, a lot of other people have experienced this. We read “Travels in Georgia” because the idea of eating road kill seemed disgusting, but now we’ve all questioned how much better growth hormone injected beef really is. Aside from these kind of hooks being an effective technique to engage your readers, it is also a great lesson that our society could use more of.

We have discussed the term “literary journalism” quite often in class but Russ’ chart and the statement that “art is something we do for the sake of art” (or something to that effect) really placed it for me. Journalism is reporting on an event, generally to keep people up to date on what’s happening in the world. Literary Journalism, while possibly still reporting on issues of the time, is self contained. It provides character development for those who may not be familiar with who the person is, and it provides the reader with something that is independent of everything else. It might just be entertainment, it might be a new way of looking at things, or it might be a person with traits we should reflect on; you don’t need to be a geologist, or political buff, or cultural historian to get something out of McPhee’s work, even if it was written 30 years ago.

The existence of "The New Yorker" has also been given a lot of thought. McPhee having a place to publish his work has to be one of (if not the biggest) factor in his career. Every time I look through the big collections at the library I wonder how much longer these mediums are going to last. The internet and the democratization of media is great but where would you go to get funding to write about the strange topics that McPhee chooses? I know I can't bring myself to buy magazines anymore.

Where my personal interest is at the moment, I’ve found myself more interested with the qualities of McPhees writing that would be considered “journalistic.” The technique of going from the “little picture” to the “big picture” is used quite often. It coincided with my intro to Journalism that I took this semester, but the examples found in McPhee were more concrete and useful than I’ve seen anywhere else, particularly in “Coming Into The Country.” McPhee introduces us to Brad Snow and Lilly Allen, he hooks us with their unconventional lifestyle, and then presents us with their battle to keep their camp that is built on crown land. I was involved in the narrative and attached to the characters much like a novel, and by the time their problem comes in, I’m emotionally attached. This is why he is a “literary journalist.” It’s a far more effective way to get me thinking about land ownership and state control over remote areas then reporting on a court case, or some activist’s campaign. This method is extremely effective, and it turns what would have now been an article in some newspapers archive into a piece of art with value in itself, many years after it was written.

The only other thing that has had a big lasting impact has been McPhee’s continuous demonstrations of how important research is. He knows what he’s talking about and always takes the time to get the facts. I have said many times how he must be an amazing interviewer. He gets the information that he needs to develop an in depth character. “Coming into the Country II” really had me thinking about this as he went from people with cabins along the river, to tracking down plane crash victims, to politicians. He must make people feel comfortable and open, another great investigative journalistic technique that I hadn’t given much thought to before. I kind of think McPhee would have liked being a teacher, because he seems to take a joy in sharing interesting bits of information with his readers. It seems risky at times but he is a master at constructing the flow of a piece and interjecting bits of history, or background information, right when the reader is susceptible to it. “Survival of the Birch Bark Canoe” loaded me up with a lot of information that I was very excited to be receiving. “1839/2003” as well. I now have a pretty long summer reading list from both of these books.

The last lesson I took from this class was to trust your gut. We threw around the quote from McPhee that says everything he wrote about came from interests before he was 20. He has a very eclectic taste, but whenever he’s interested, we usually can be as well. I believe his genuine interests in what he wrote about came across to his readers and that a writer should never have to look beyond himself to find something that his audience would appreciate.

-Adam