Blog post 4

 I really enjoyed George Watsky’s Tedtalk and his youtube video of his book excerpt. Both of the videos were equally entertaining since Watsky is such an articulate person. What made his Tedtalk definingly intriguing was his stage presence as he was reciting his poems. While doing the spoken word he would inflect and raise his voice, speeding up or slowing down the tempo when necessary, in order to keep the audience engaged. In his “How to Ruin Everything” video, the cinematography and editing was what made the memoir compelling. What made the video so engaging was the montage shots of all the different people and places he went to during his tour. The montage helped convey the monotony that he felt as he traveled alone throughout the midwest. Since I am a visual person, I prefer to have visuals when someone is telling a story, so the book excerpt video was more engaging for me. “Adventures in Depression” was also more engaging for the same reason. As we talked about in class on Tuesday, the sketches added levity to the serious and depressing subject matter. The child-like innocence of the odd little character invokes empathy for the narrator since there is such a stark contrast of the visuals compared to the text which has no trace of levity or goofiness. This was a very clever decision on Allie Brosh’s part, because using such an endearing and comical depiction of depression made it more accessible and relatable. I believe what makes people resonate with a memoir is when they are able to relate to it in some way. Jaed Coffin’s memoir resonated with the audience because he was an eloquent speaker and he appealed to patriotism and American values by talking about his mother’s journey of becoming an American citizen. Something that stayed with me from his Tedtalk was when he said we should celebrate the stories of all Americans, despite their background. I think it's incredibly important to convey the diverse journeys of all Americans, especially those from marginalized groups, in order to accurately depict the American identity.