Archives: Books

My Response to Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument Controversy

December 5, 2017April 2, 2022 Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet

Everything’s been a blur lately as the semester has been winding down and I have had to dedicate all of my time to studying and writing up final essays for my rhetoric classes.

During all this, last weekend specifically, the Bears Ears issue came alive in SLC. There was protesting, marches, and a grim succession of photos taken of POTUS Trump smiling after signing presidential proclamations to reduce the original 2 Million Acres of National Monument areas to a mere 250,000 acres (approx.).

How does it feel to have these events taking place in my hometown?

How does it feel to know that the POTUS and U.S. Government is now continuing the long and disgraceful tradition of taking away protections and rights to lands and peoples that rightly deserve them?

It feels like shit.

I did not get to participate in the Protests but yes, yes, yes, do I protest this action.

Makes my skin crawl to know that Trump was only a few minutes away. It was a shameful and disgraceful action for the presidential proclamations to be signed and celebrated with such glee from a POTUS that continues to make America what he thinks it should be…

Here is an article from one of Salt Lake City’s local Newspapers on the event. Photos are included and were taken by Francisco Kjolseth.

Salt Lake Tribune Article on Bears Ears and Trump

I hope this event does not disappear into the previous incidents in 2017 where Trump has successfully made his mark on the U.S. and its peoples in horrendous ways. I want this to go on the ever-increasing list of acts that Trump has committed during his presidency so that we can keep in mind how to combat these actions and policies. They do not reflect, to me, what the people believe in or want for this nation. We must do something to change the future of this nation because so far it is looking grim for everyone who is not considered an intelligible person in Trump’s eyes.

Thank you for reading my writing, I hope you will return in the future!

Again, thank you to all my regular readers and followers that have continued to read my work, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

-Alina

Response to Jane Eyre and Discussion on Creating Complex Characters

December 1, 2017April 2, 2022 Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet

I recently finished reading for nth time Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (first published 1847) I find myself usually rereading this novel every winter out of habit. I love this novel for so many different reasons but the main one being that Jane is smart, witty and stands up for herself which should not be taken lightly. The novel is set in the early to mid 19th century and revolves around the story of Jane Eyre from her youth to adult years. Her life story is full of loneliness, pain, seclusion, and hardship. The main subject of the novel is the love story between Jane and Mr. Rochester, a man about twenty years her senior who hires Jane as a governess for a child he has taken into his home. Besides the love story, a plot which is full of drama and secrets, there are aspects of the novel that really stand out to me.

I am a Writer, obviously, and I do like to write in short fiction. Fiction is a genre that resounds with me on a creative level whenever I may have too many words for just poems. The issue of creating characters that are not one dimensional is one of the elements that I find myself occupied with the most. I have read multiple books with advice on how to create lifelike three-dimensional characters through writing and I found myself amazed (yet again) when reading Bronte’s writing the details and layers that she uses in making Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester so complex. A reoccurring theme in most of the books on fiction writing that I read is that adding complexities to your character (for instance a character that hates liars but in fact lies constantly) is one of the ways in which your character can come to life. A key piece of advice that keeps popping up for me now is also, “Show, don’t tell.” Which is a part of my writing that I have struggled with from the beginning.

How do I show readers through words what my character is like as a person? How do I do this through dialogue, action, and narration without making my writing feel forced?

I know this is not a new question and it is a possibility that whoever reads this post may be dealing with the same obstacles in their own writing. If so, I would love to read some comments on how you, as a writer, try to create complex lifelike characters, what books have you read? what advice have you heard?

As for me, here are a few books that I have read (or am reading) that have been invaluable in my constant learning to write regardless if its fiction, prose, or poetry.

Writing Fiction: The Practical Guide from New York’s Acclaimed Creative Writing School

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg

Bird by Bird: Some Instruction on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

I am constantly searching for more books about writing, how to write, and study literature. If anyone has any suggestions please leave them in a comment below! If you would like me to respond to a question about writing please also feel free to message me or leave the question in a comment below!

Thank you so much to all my readers (new and old) for taking time out of your day to read my writing! I hope you will return in the future!

-Alina

Reflection/Response: Wuthering Heights and Pride and Prejudice

November 23, 2017April 2, 2022 Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet2 Comments

I have most recently finished Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. These two novels are classics of the western European literary tradition and question social status, class, and gender-related issues of 19th century England. I enjoyed both for different reasons and at the same time had my own complications with the two.

Pride and Prejudice (published 1813)

The characters are vibrant and possess a lot of stubborn vigor when it comes to family and gossip. The socio-cultural habits of middle-class and upper-class (somewhat royalty) families are the main subject of this book revolving around complicated marriages, friendships, and of course the tumultuous romance between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. I enjoyed reading this novel again purely because the dialogue is extremely witty and the plot is full of plenty of drama. My complication, or struggle, with this book is probably the same as anyone else’s Elizabeth and Darcy’s behavior, mainly their stubbornness and arrogance which is sometimes frustrating and painful to read. I love Elizabeth for her honest and straight-forward ‘say-it-like-it-is’ style which I think is refreshing to read and comforting. Overall it is a novel I would read again at any opportunity.

Wuthering Heights (published 1847)

This is a much darker more tragic novel than Pride and Prejudice, it is not a happy romance. Lockwood rents a home from Heathcliff and what results is a long story told to Lockwood by Nelly, a housekeeper about the complicated history of Heathcliff and Catherine’s love and the generation after. Illness, madness (mental illness), rage, and abuse are consistent throughout. There are mysterious elements in this novel such as ghost stories and apparitions, and I believe this could be considered a Gothic Novel. My complication with this story was the role of Nelly, she is the narrator and ultimately a complete meddler in people’s affairs but she has no family, few friends, and is a life-long servant to the two main households in the story making Nelly, in my opinion, an equally complex character to that of Heathcliff and Catherine. I found this novel interesting and heart-wrenching but I gradually became more curious about the possible inspiration or reasons that Emily Bronte would write such a book. Overall I am impressed by this novel and I have been struggling to think of anything I’ve ever read that could be similar to it that is from the same century.

I wanted to give brief reflections on these two novels, to keep it short and sweet. Usually, I would include a little background info on Emily Bronte and Jane Austen but I am thinking about posting a small summary of the lives of Emily and Charlotte Bronte as well as Jane Austen sometime soon. I am currently reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte for the nth time (it is one of my all-time favorites) I have no idea how many times I have read this novel but it is incredible and I love it, do expect a reflection/response post to this novel as well!

Thank you for reading my reflections and writing, I hope that you will return in the future!

-Alina

Review: “Democracy, Culture and the Voice of Poetry” by Robert Pinsky

November 17, 2017April 2, 2022 Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet1 Comment

Robert Pinsky is a Poet and Writer that provides insight into the mechanisms of poetry in our modern day. “Democracy, Culture and the Voice of Poetry” is one of Pinsky’s books on poetry that provides readers and fellow poets information and a space of reflection when it comes to Poetry in America.

I found this book helpful since I have been recently researching the role of poetry in American Culture, specifically when it comes to a surge of political writing and poetry during tumultuous times. Keeping in mind the protest poets of the past, I wanted to gain a more complex view of the role of poetry in America. What does it mean to write ‘political’ poetry? To write protest poetry? Do these poems last, are they cherished by audiences in another time and country? Or are they encapsulated in their own time and place as relics of specific events and times?

Pinsky’s book answered some of these questions I had although with a more complex response that pulled conversations and philosophical theories from people such as Alexis de Tocqueville . I also kept in mind that this book was published in 2005, not that old but it has been more than a decade since its first release. What is important is that Pinsky dismisses the idea that poetry is only for entertainment and that it does in fact (sometimes inadvertently) reflect the democratic culture of the U.S. at a specific time.

This book was insightful and interesting, a quick read too. I felt like it did a good job at bringing depth to Pinsky’s discussion and his own projects such as Favorite Poems Project. I did think that its purpose was to argue Pinsky’s own argument on the importance and role of poetry in America rather than discussing the ways in which one can write such poetry. I would recommend this book for any Pinsky reader and contemporary poet interested in the subject.

-Alina

Coming Soon: My Personal Response on ‘Surviving 2017 in the Trump Era’ and ‘Combating the quote-unquote brainwashed College Student Theory’

November 16, 2017April 2, 2022 Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet2 Comments

I have been thinking about two topics recently in light of personal experiences and conversations I have had with numerous people such as family, friends, and fellow students.

These two topics I plan on writing MY OWN PERSONAL RESPONSES to:

“Surviving 2017 in the Trump Era”….did anyone really survive? and how do I feel now that 2017 is coming to an end. This will be my own little synopsis of how my year has gone including my reflections on the insanely horrifying events that have happened this year…so far… in American.

“Combating the quote-unquote Brainwashed College Student Theory” this has been a reoccurring conversation that has been happening between me and my family. I found this theory (as I am going to call it) to be more laughable than a serious issue to address. But after talking to other students in my Major (English, the Humanities) and doing a bit of research on my own, it appears that this little theory is a persistent issue that conservative parents and families have been “dealing with” for a very long time in America.

My responses will be posted by the end of this year so keep a lookout. I would also love to hear about any experiences that college students have had dealing with this “brainwashed liberal” thing. I find it an interesting little concept that now aides in dividing families and the nation even more than it has been this year.

This is also me lighting a candle in my own little lighthouse in this continuous storm, is there anybody out there with similar thoughts?

I want to thank my faithful and regular readers and followers that take time out of their day to read my work on my blog. Thank you so much for the support you give to me and my writing! I hope you will (and others) return in the future!

-Alina