Assignment 4.4

Peter Ho Davies wrote, “What You Know.” The more times you read “What You Know” the more you will begin to understand or question it. Now for a brief outline. Peter Ho Davies begins “What You Know” with talking about teaching and writing in general. Then all of the sudden he changes to “No suicides” (Davis, 82). You can see the dramatic change here, “No psychedelic dream sequences. The list of boringly bad stories (“But it’s supposed to be boring”) goes on and on. “No suicides?” they say in their flat, whiny voices, as if there is nothing else, nothing better. “How can Suicide be boring?”” (Davis, 82). Then Peter Ho Davies continues on with the suicide idea. It could help that one of his students had committed suicide. That students name was Clark. After Peter Ho Davies brings up the idea of suicide, he continues to tell about just shooting in general. He shares about his shooting experience, almost as if trying to see what was so great about shooting a gun, or just trying to imagine what was going through Clark’s mind at the time of suicide.
Peter Ho Davies appears to be a fairly decent writer who is trying to help others become better writers while mocking them along the way. He had a job at school, not a teacher, but he had the privilege of teaching one class every year. It seemed to be a small class, with troubled students. After all one of the students, Clark, committed suicide.
Peter Ho Davies uses a lot of repetition with, “What You Know.” He tells his students to write about what you know. He tells you what you don’t know, like suicide. Thus you are not allowed to write about it. Now they are left with their feelings, family, friends, etc. Now all of that could seem repetitive, but it’s also easiest to write about. You can draw from specific instances that you have lived through to make the story a little more interesting. I know that I find it hard to write about things I don’t know about. It usually will turn out to be a comic or fiction in general. Then you have to feel sorry for the reader who knows everything about the topic in which you chose to write about, because you sound kind of dumb, when you are writing what you don’t know about. You would constantly be making up detail which may or may not make sense. I think we should take Peter Ho Davies advice and write “What You Know.” It’s easier to write about and you sound much wiser, while doing so.
Peter Ho Davies also enjoys making fun of the student who can’t write throughout the text. In one of the passages he uses the wrong dear or wait maybe its deer. He also lets the students take a vote as to whether to use knoll or knell (Davies, 83). Also within that passage he says you could replace knoll with any other word, and it would sound just as ridiculous. You know how tons of students rely on spell check? Peter Ho Davies dares to ask, “Who makes up spell check anyways?” Were they good spellers in the first place? It’s a valid question. Seeing as if you look at middle, high, and college students, millions if not billions of them are relying on spell check to catch everything wrong and to correct it before they turn in their paper. From my experience spell check can be useful; but it can also try to fix items in your paper that isn’t wrong to begin with (i.e. names). He also mentions that he can’t write as badly as students do, thus he got writer’s block. He was trying to write Clark’s story, how Clark would tell his story, writing and all.
Peter Ho Davies tries to teach his students how to tell stories. He also says, “and the truth is that life is all stories and fiction is all plots,” (Davies, 84). Based on that, I believe that everyone needs to learn how to write plots. It seems as though not everyone is as truthful and straightforward so you can get real life stories. There always appears to be some fiction rolled into the story one is trying to tell. So we have it, Peter Ho Davies teaches the kids how to tell stories, which makes sense because we tell stories all the time. I know that my friends and I have to tell each other stories of the previous night’s events or since the last time we saw each other. Everyone should learn how to tell good stories so that your reader/listener knows what you’re trying to say. That’s probably the most important point, so make sense to your readers/listeners. If they don’t understand, what is your purpose for writing or telling that story? I’m assuming there is no purpose then.
Peter Ho Davies first tells more of his past experiences then after he tells about Clark’s death. He next shifts to trying to figure out Clark’s story. He’s trying to put himself in Clark’s shoes, so he goes shooting. I think Peter Ho Davies is trying to do more than just figure out Clark’s story, I think he wanted to write the story.
Peter Ho Davies is a writer at heart. He has tried several times to get his writing published. When the note comes back rejecting him, he almost seems determined to try again, like, “I’m going to get this someday.” Thus far nothing of his has been published, so most determined writers try and try again until they succeed. That’s what he’s doing, and he believes that he can become a published writer through Clark’s story.
I believe that he could be aiming this article at future writers. I think he is trying to point out things to remember while writing. I also think he is trying to tell us how to get better. You don’t just wake up one morning and suddenly become a published writer. It takes a lot of hard work, which he tries to tell throughout the course of “What You Know.” Not only is he trying to make you a better writer, he is also trying to point out flaws of others so you learn. The best way for him to do that is through his students. After all they are just beginning this journey through writing, so they are bound to make mistakes. One day though, those students have a chance at becoming great writers just like Peter Ho Davies.
After reading “What You Know,” I am sitting here wondering. I’m wondering why Peter Ho Davies is trying to put himself in Clark’s shoes. Why is he trying to write Clark’s story? Peter Ho Davies tells you not to write about suicide, so why the sudden change to writing what he doesn’t know, which ends in suicide. Peter Ho Davies knows nothing of this topic, thus contradicting everything he says in the first few pages of “What You Know.”
The last few pages in “What You Know” are all about Peter Ho Davies shooting experience. I know that Peter Ho Davies is trying to get into Clark’s shoes, but why do I care about how the different targets look, which target he chooses, or even everything that he got at the shooting place? Peter Ho Davies paints a clear picture of him buying or renting all of these items to go shooting. Then he also paints another clear picture of him doing the actual shooting. I don’t know why I want to know this; however he could have a point with this. He could be showing us what makes stories good. When I read stories, usually lots of details is something that drags me in. I want to envision myself as the main character going through all of these things. He might also be writing this to hopefully get rid of his writers block, or to get into Clark’s mindset.
Overall I think Peter Ho Davies is just trying to understand Clark’s story. I think by writing “What You Know,” he gets a better understanding of the whole situation himself. He has it set up to say write what you know, but then ventures into this story, which he knows next to nothing about. He only knows things about Clark, from when he sat in his class. Then also from what reporters from CNN say, or have been told. Maybe that’s not the best source to get a good understanding of the situation from.
When you tell those stories, I want to be able to make sense of what you are trying to say. If the reader can’t understand you then what’s the point of writing anything? So I believe every writer will tell you to have a good story that interests your readers, and then also write it so your reader can understand.
Within “What You Know” Peter Ho Davies is contemplating a couple of things. He wants to write a story that is supposedly written by Clark telling about Clark’s suicide mission. Then Peter Ho Davies gets writers block so he goes shooting, almost as if trying to get into Clark’s mind. Maybe to see what could have been going through Clark’s mind. Peter Ho Davies is just trying to get rid of writers block. Peter Ho Davies is also contemplating if he might have driven Clark to commit suicide. Peter Ho Davies tells the students to write “What You Know,” so there are only so many stories that the typical high school or college student can write about. We haven’t been alive long enough to pick up many more experiences that we could write about. Clark took not being able to write about suicide as a challenge, so he killed himself, now Clark could, if he were alive, write about suicide. Even his other classmates could write about how someone else committing suicide has affected them personally.
If you are told to only write about what you know, then should a teacher jump out and question you if you are suddenly writing about suicide? What should your teacher know about you? Is it more than just your writing? Should your teacher know how you normally feel or how you will react to certain circumstances? I think your teacher should know a little bit about you, so they know if you suddenly start writing about suicide and you normally don’t, maybe they should try to get you help. After all the students safety should be ranked pretty high on their list. Peter Ho Davies didn’t know very much about his students. Then what he thought of his students was quite negative. I almost have the feeling that he is only a teacher to see or make fun of the students’ horrible writing, so they see how silly there writing is, then hopefully will become better writers because of it.