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Journal 6; Topic 4

Option B:

In short, I think that the story about Rahm flying is a metaphor for the writing life. Dillard makes this connection for me when she says that Dave Rahm’s “plane was the pen” (95).

When Dillard attends the Dillingham Air Show, there comes a time towards the end of the day when she isn’t giving her full attention to the last stunt pilot, Dave Rahm. It isn’t until he starts performing his tricks in the air that she begins to notice him and is memorized. Dillard notes that, “like any fine artist, he controlled the tension of the audience’s longing” (96). Like a writer, Rahm is in tune with his audience, and is able to control the pacing of his performance, fulfilling all the desires and hopes of his audience until reaching the climax.

Rahm, metaphorically speaking, is writing his story; his readers are the audience members standing in awe, like Dillard. As Rahm is performing in the sky, Dillard is captivated by what is going on. Rahm has spent years perfecting his craft, and Dillard acknowledges that other pilots could do what Rahm was doing, but only one at a time. This point goes back to what we have discussed in class, the idea that everyone can write, but not everyone can become a writer.

In Rahm’s performance, everyone is focused on his stunts and tricks that they forget about the man in the cockpit. Dillard talks about how the air show announcer was finally quiet and everyone’s eyes were on Rahm’s clack biplane. Similarly, writer creates a story for readers to forget that they are actually reading; they are fully immersed in the world of the story.

At the conclusion of the performance, Dillard returns home and she says that she “thought about Rahm’s performance that night, and the next day, and the next” (98). A writer challenges its readers and makes them remember their work (hopefully for positive reasons).

I agree with the metaphor that Dillard establishes. This metaphor isn’t just about anyone flying planes and how it relates directly to writing, but how Dave Rahm flies a plane in relation to writing. I do think that there are certain people who have been blessed with certain abilities to perform or write. However, like the other pilots Dillard mentions who are very skilled, I do think that everyone has the ability to write (just maybe not write well like Annie Dillard). Nevertheless, I don’t think that anyone should be stopped from writing just because they aren’t the next Jane Austen or Nathaniel Hawthorne. An interesting detail Dillard includes about Dave Rahm was that he was a geologist who taught at Western Washington University. To me, this provides hope that while certain people have the skills and opportunities to become very talented writers, there are people who can become writers so long as they possess a certain dedication to learning the craft and honing/developing their skills.

I also agree that a writer must take certain risks. In the story, Dave Rahm dies as a result of flying a plane too low to the ground. However, in the performances Dillard tells us about, Rahm takes a great deal of risk to capture his audience’s attention and is quite successful at this. The same is true for a writer. What is it about your work that makes me want to continue reading? Is it the language? The plot structure? The characters?

Overall, this story about Dave Rahm provides an excellent metaphor of the writing life and there are several factors that we can pull from this story to show this.


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