Essay Assignment #2: An Oasis in Flyover Country
(Reminder: short O’Gieblyn Response Essay due April 26th)
In-class draft, written from notes (AKA midterm) due May 3rd
Draft returned: May 8
Final Draft Due: May 15th (before midnight, via Canvas)
Length: About 1,000 words
Reading: “Dispatch from Flyover Country” by Meghan O’Gieblyn
When comparing the city of Davis to some of the larger and more prominent coastal cities that are homes to University of California campuses, such as Berkeley, Los Angeles, or San Diego, we might consider Davis to be the equivalent of “flyover country.” This week even our UC Davis Chancellor, Gary May, posted this interchange:
Them: “What do you miss most about Atlanta?”
Me: “Direct flights,” as I sprint to my connection.
Ours is the UC Campus where one can see cows from one’s dorm room, and where farms and agricultural set-asides surround the city like a buffer against sprawling traffic, and perhaps the world’s changes. Many of us commute to and from campus the way that Davisites did 25 and 50 years ago: via bicycle. The local focus on animal exhibits, hay-filled 4-H floats in the parade, and the Picnic Day Chair’s joke about our “cow-moo-nity” and other Picnic Day festivities remind us of the agricultural roots of UC Davis. The city itself has its own quirks. Not only is Davis home to some of the first bike lanes in America, but we were also the first city to establish its own nuclear-free policy (in 1984), one of the first cities of our size to establish anti-light-pollution ordinances, and the first to build tiny tunnels for toads to use to survive traversing busy Davis streets. Despite its Mondavi Center and its thriving public poetry scene, Davis is still seen by some, including Stephen Colbert, as a “sleepy little college town with a laid-back attitude.”
All that said, you chose UC Davis as your college home, entrusting it with the task of building perhaps your most important asset, the education that will allow you to earn an income and that will enrich your attitudes towards curiosity, professionalism, culture, and life-long learning. The city of Davis offers other important distinctions from other central valley cities, and other cities that house Universities of California.
For your second major assignment for UWP 101, consider how Megyn O’Gieblyn “recovers” her small Midwestern town of “Muskegon, a town on the scenic and economically depressed west coast of Michigan,” even after spending much of her essay, “Dispatch from Flyover Country,” exploring and substantiating that aforementioned “depression.” Taking into account the “strategies of seeing” used by O’Gieblyn and Walker Percy in their essays, describe and explain your thoroughly-observed and deeply-reflected understanding of a particular gathering in the city of Davis. Clearly Davis is in the middle of the state, and thus is not a tourist destination like some of the cultural Meccas along the coast. Explain the extent to which, if any, the gathering supports an assertion you make about Davis being something other than the “flyover country” of California.
Choose and attend a gathering of Davisites, preferably off-campus, that rewards sustained observation, interaction, and reflection.
Like O’Gieblyn’s essay, the final draft of your submission must include all of the following:
- A central assertion that is sufficiently focused;
- Insights that are not self-evident;
- Some history of the location, group, or cause that has led to the gathering you observe and participate in;
- Specific evidence (defined for our class as clearly-described sensory descriptions, and narrative that show described actors participating in described action). Beware using merely generic language.
Your essay must also include at least three of the following:
- Poetic or literary allusions
- Pop culture allusions
- Intellectual allusions from a field of your choosing
- Comparisons
- Press accounts of Davis or the gathering you attend
- Others’ accounts of Davis or the gathering you attend
- Public art
- Moments of identification with someone else
- Other forms of figurative language
- Linguistic analysis of received messages
- Interviews with people who participated in your gathering
The gathering you attend can be artistic, cultural, political, communal, commercial, performative, etc. We will discuss creative options in class.
The following resources will help you consider how best to engage in focused observation, and thus make it more likely that you will use specific evidence when describing the look, feel, and function of a bustling place:
“Don’t Just See, Observe: What Sherlock Holmes Can Teach Us About Mindful Decisions”
Maria Konnikova on August 19, 2011 (Scientific American)
“How to Boost Your Observation Skills and Learn to Pay Attention”
Thorin Klosowski on January 8, 2015 (Lifehacker)
“The Art of Observation and Why Genius Lies in the Selection of What Is Worth Observing”
Maria Popova on March 29, 2013 (Brain Pickings)
“The Power of Observation: How to Observe and Improve Your Writing”
Cris Freese on July 17, 2015 (Writer’s Digest)
