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#Post#: 49--------------------------------------------------
Re: Outside Reading Assignment #3 - Biography
DIR By: cblock12
Date: September 27, 2012, 9:03 pm
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The difference between the two biographies, the first on Steve
Jobs and the second called “17 Days in November” was a dramatic
change. The first biography I read was about Steve Jobs, and
although it was interesting to find out so many facts and so
much background about this man, the biography went on for a long
time. Although I found it interesting, it kind of bored me as I
was reading, since it was 7 pages. If the author of the
biography would have shortened it down and got right to the
point, I would have been even more interested. Although this
was a solid biography, hitting all the points it should have, it
did just state facts, and fell into the category of a "generic"
biography, but it also explained his success for himself, and
his company as well.
Steve Jobs was a very interesting man, and this biography really
highlighted his life, but I thought it was a little too long for
my liking. This biography was also just a timeline of Jobs’
life, not any particular story. This lost my interest after the
first page, because fact-centered biographies are not as
interesting as a specific zoomed in trait or story of the person
the biography was written about.
As I started to read the second narrative, “17 Days in
November”, it caught my attention immediately. Although it was
17 pages long, the story went along smoother, and grasped my
attention a lot faster and kept it much longer than Steve Jobs’
biography did. The context and format of the biography really
pulled me into the story. The author labeled each subtitle “17
days before killing he brother” “16 day before killing his
brother” down to the seconds before he actually took out his
knife and killed his brother. I think the author did this with
the thought of catching the reader’s eye in mind. This was a
smart way of writing the narrative, because it was more
interesting and it got right into the story, instead of just
stating facts, and having one specific topic, instead of tons of
little, pointless ones. This narrative I found very engaging,
and enjoyed reading it because of the context and difference
from the previous one.
I think we were assigned these two extremely different
narratives to show the difference between a stating-the-facts
narrative, and a narrative that focuses on one certain story,
and centralizes the plot around it. The second narrative, “17
Days in November” I found a lot more compelling because it
didn’t just list boring, typical narrative facts, but pulled the
reader in and told the a story, I found the second biography an
all-around a better written piece because of its story line and
how it had a climax, while the Steve Jobs’ biography just
explained to the reader Steve’s life. After finishing the “17
Days in November” I realized how much more enthusiastic and
enjoyable it was to read than the previous piece. This biography
was an excellent example of a close up on a story, not just
listing unnecessary facts, that honestly, doesn’t interest most
readers. I think this author used wrote this biography
purposefully so there would be an exposition, a rising action, a
climax, a falling action, and a resolution just like any other
book/work of literature.
The difference between Biography A and Biography B was if it
caught my interest or not.
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