Read "Chapter One: Starting with What Others Are Saying" in They Say, I Say (19-29)
Read Zadie Smith's essay "Joy" in Best American Essays (145-151)
Pay attention to Smith's excellent use of detail and example.
Think about the three questions I posed in class:
- What do I notice? (Patterns, details)
- What is this telling me? (Intended audience, what is the heart / central idea of this essay)
- What is this teaching me? (How might I use the techniques and ideas for my own writing and thinking; how does this expand my range of what is possible in writing and thinking; how does this compare with previously held ideas and knowledge)
In your blog response, answer the following question: how do Smith's definition of joy differ from our commonplace definition of that term? In what ways are her ideas different from your own?
As part of your answer, I'd like you to do two things:
- Describe something that gives you joy
- Use the templates from They Say on page 24. The section of the chapter is titled "Templates for Introducing 'Standard Views.'" For example: Conventional wisdom has it that joy __________; however, Zadie Smith suggests ___________.
As always, email me with any questions. I look forward to reading your responses. See you Thursday!
Common sense seems to dictate that Joy is the feeling of great pleasure, happiness, and a moment of rejoice; however, according to Zadie Smith, she suggests that joy has more importance than just pleasure in a positive feeling. It also has a mixed feeling of pain, danger, and delight. Smith wrote an essay about joy that includes some of her personal experiences, embracing joy. Smith, in her essay explains her thoughts on joy by stating, "sometimes joy multiplies itself dangerously. Children are the infamous example. Isn't it bad enough that the beloved, with whom you have experienced genuine joy, will eventually be lost to you? It should be noted that an equally dangerous joy, for many people...being in some sense intensified by guaranteed finitude" ( Smith 151). Her statement is affective because it seems like joy is as much of a fearful and dangerous feeling as it is a happy and pleasurable feeling. To sum up, I feel that Zadie Smith has a brilliant take on joy.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading "Joy" by Zadie Smith, I realize that my understanding of joy bares differently compared to Smith's idea. My whole life I have heard it said that joy is a good feeling to have at a good time or times in my life. The sayings like "jumping in joy" or "tears of joy" gave me the idea that joy means happiness. Though I never expressed "tears of joy", but I can maturely understand the similar feelings of other people's joy, but after reading Smith's "Joy" I am willing to contrast. First, Smith states, "Perhaps the first thing to say is that I experience at least a little pleasure every day" ( Smith 145). I understand where Smith is getting at; I just never envisioned that kind of feeling, living day by day. Secondly, she also mentions that maybe not in her own experiences as a child, but many other childhoods that childhood was when people felt miserable the most. I always believed that being a child was the best feeling because of my youth and excitement of being free to do whatever is opened to my advantages. Finally, when Smith brought up some stories about her adventures in partying, she brings up how some people including herself can end up feeling differently in enjoyable situations. She describes it as a joy that somehow "enters" and emotion, and then disappears. It never occurred that most people who go to parties, get drunk, get high, and don't feel joy, but still has pleasure. From my own experience I never really partied before, but thanks to Zadie Smith I now get an understanding that Joy can mean more than one thing.
I am not sure that I disagree, or see joy differently,than that the view Smith describes. Pleasure must be separate it is not joy in my thinking. Pleasure to me is associated with a rush of brain chemicals like Smith shares. Joy on the other hand can come from a more subtle act. Like gazing at the sun setting at days end. A sense of contentment accompanied by a slight smile.
ReplyDeleteCommon sense seems to dictate joy is far from pain. Smith's view contradicts the view I have always had. Terror,pain,and delight as Smith views it are the ingredients of joy. At the same time I have always believed that the joy of a child,is over shadowed by the possible devastation of their loss. The line "It hurts just as much as it is worth" had a big impact on my senses. I am left more confused needing to ponder the views of this essay,rather than in disagreement. This makes me question the way I have viewed joy. And that brings me great joy in it self.
Smith describes joy as "a strange admixture of terror, pain and delight" when most people think of joy as strictly a good thing. I found that Smith's definition is a far better way to look at it rather than just a good thing. one one hand joy does bring you delight. On the other hand it can bring terror or pain as she goes on to ask the question "Isn't it bad enough that the beloved, with whom you have experienced genuine joy, will eventually be lost to you?" (smith 151) That in it self is so bitter sweet and terrifying to think that you've shared the feeling of "genuine joy" with someone and someday that is all you will have to remember of them. I think Smith has a great view of the word joy and what it means to her.
ReplyDeleteMany people assume that the feeling of joy is not related to the feeling of pain or terror but only that of delight. Smith's view differs from the view I have always had of the word. Ryan Drago states "The sayings like "jumping in joy" or "tears of joy" gave me the idea that joy means happiness. " I agree that these saying give people (myself included) the view that joy means happiness. When I was a kid I would ride my bike around my apartment complex and it would bring me such "joy". The wind brushing against my face and the feeling of going that fast made me think I was flying. One day I left my bike outside while I was eating lunch, when I came back out to continue riding my bike it was gone. Now knowing smiths view of joy my perspective has changed. I loved that bike so much, It brought me delight to ride it, it brought me terror with the fear of falling off, and it brought me pain when it was stolen. Smith stated that a friend of her and her husband told her " It hurts just as much as it is worth." Having the thing that brought you the most "joy" in the world (at any time in your life) lost is going to hurt. After reading Zadie Smith's essay "Joy" I certainly have a different view about the true meaning of the word.
To most people, the common definition of joy is a strong feeling of delight, happiness, exhilaration, and pleasure; On the other hand Zadie Smith's definition of joy is , “... that strange admixture of terror, pain, and delight,...” (Smith 147). In my opinion, joy comes in different forms and levels. My personal favorite way to experience joy is through being in nature, the calm, quiet atmosphere brings a relaxing joy. Another form of joy is the one I experience after taking a shower after a long day, a similar refreshing joy from finally returning home. Smith's views of joy are much different than mine, Smith believes there is terror and even pain in the experience of joy; on one hand I can agree with her, some forms of joy can be painful, as she describes with her child, however I cannot agree with her that this is the only valid view of what joy is.
ReplyDeleteThis story is about the authors view of joy, Many people assume that joy is just a synonym for happiness or pleasure. However, Zadie Smith suggests that joy is “a strange mix of terror, pain, and delight. “ (Smith 147) There is a big difference in opinion. Her definition of joy involves what can be described as suffering in order to have joy. She also goes on to say that the moment can’t be remembered. ”the replaying in one’s mind of the actual events”.(Smith 149) While the standard way of thinking about joy is that it is the same as pleasure or happiness. In my own personal experiences with joy I can only describe it as a step above happy. When everything goes the best way it can that is when I feel joy. An example of that would be when I passed my MCAS tests.
ReplyDeleteYou would think that joy is a type of emotion that people tend to feel when they are in safer situations. The types of things that gives people joy are subjective; they differ from person to person, but Zadie believes that joy is “a strange admixture of terror, pain, and delight,” and this mixture of feelings is what she has come to recognize as joy. Although this is her belief, people wouldn’t normally associate joy with feelings such as those of terror and pain. Like in my own experience, joy is something I would feel after completing an arduous task, or when encountering new music. Joy has always been something I’ve associated with positive feelings, never negative ones. Although Zadie’s view may be agreeable to a certain extent, I personally cannot agree with her on what the definition of joy is.
ReplyDeleteJoy is defined as a feeling of great pleasure and happiness, like when someone cries “tears of joy.” However Zadie Smith states “joy is rather that strange admixture of terror, pain, and delight.” (Smith 147) My opinion of joy and Zadie Smith’s opinion are different, I think that joy is all about happiness and sometimes a form of relief in a sense. I wouldn’t say I find joy out of pain and terror. The most common way to define joy is happiness and I completely agree. I find joy in happiness, for example if I got an A on an assignment or a test, I would feel a great deal of joy because I would be very happy.
ReplyDeleteJoy and pleasure are similar but have distinct meanings. In many cases Joy is a feeling shared by many emotions. Pleasure however, is a feeling of gratification or being pleased in some way. For example a women experiences joy when her child is born but with that joy comes many emotions. The woman must go through the pains of child birth and all the feelings in between. A women does not feel pleasure while going through the process of giving birth but all in all at the end she feels a great delight in the miraculous act. “a strange mix of terror, pain, and delight (Smith 147)." This quote expresses perfectly what joy may feel like in many cases. Zadie Smith has a wonderful understanding and does a pretty good job at distinguishing the two.
ReplyDeleteThe standard way of thinking about the word "Joy" is like opening a Christmas present with your family in the living room. You get the feeling of happiness, great pleasure, and a moment of rejoice when you're excited that you are finally able to see what's inside of the decorative box. However, according to Zadie Smith, she suggested that joy is more than just great pleasure. Despite being solely viewed as a positive feeling, she interprets it as a "strange admixture of terror, pain, and delight" (Smith 147). Reverting back to my anecdote, you get an uneasy feeling that what you may expect the present you're about to open to be. You ask yourself this, "What if I get something terrible like an ugly coal or one of my grandmother's embarrassing sweater?" By the time you open it, it was exactly the case as to Smith denotation of "joy" in her essay; A combination of emotions.
ReplyDeleteZadie Smith puts her communal experience in the nightclub as an example of joy. During that time, she was on amphetamine ecstasy which is a psychoactive drug that builds up energy, euphoria, and other symptoms. Smith questioned, "Those of you..who were fortunate enough to take..amphetamine ecstasy and yet experience none of the adverse, occasionally lethal reactions we now know others suffered..Was that joy?" (Smith 147) Notice how she included fortunate, lethal, and suffered in the quote. She considered those who taken it had feared that the drug may harm them however, they were in the state of euphoria once it became affected. Smith explains her experience with the drug stating, "My ridiculous heels were killing me, I was terrified I might die, yet I felt simultaneously overwhelmed with delight...I took the man's hand. The top of my head flew away. We danced and danced. We gave ourselves up to joy." (Smith 148). As much joy she was having with the man, it brought her great harm to keep up with this feeling of delightfulness.
When I was a child, I used to think that joy was nothing like how Smith's described it to be. I thought of it as being satisfied with one's achievement. For instance, when I graduated from my middle school, I was joyful (happy) to move forward to the next grade as well as making a new start in my life. However, a part of me worried what if I'm not prepared for the new year? A lot of questions crumble my mind. As Smith interpreted, "Joy is such madness" (Smith 151).
Commonly to most people pleasure and joy seem to fall together in the same category but according to Zaida Smith they are very much different from each other and now that I have took the time to actually think about it I have notice that they are quite different in the sense that Joy to Zaida is more of something that makes you not just happy but makes you feel multiple emotions at once which is why Zaida says " Joy is such madness" but it is the act all together that is something that makes you Joyful or if a person was to bring you joy it would make you sad if they left because you can’t replace them with just any other person. On the other hand pleasure is more of a temporary thing or something that can be easily replaced like Zaida says that food brings pleasure to her and it’s not just a specific food but its just any food that tastes good pleasure is more of something that feels good rather than a mixture of emotions that add up to being happy. A moment where I was full of joy was when I had my son because it was a mixture of pain happiness and accomplishment all together that gave me this sense of joy and now that I have thought about this deeply enough I feel as if this was the only time I’ve truly felt joy and the only thing that I would never change in my life which is why it has been easy to understand how Zaida sees joy differently from pleasure because my experience was something a lot more than just happiness it was Madness.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the feeling of joy, Zadie Smith associates the end of pure, unadulterated joy with pain. This is not the normal association of joy, however; in fact, joy is defined as a “great happiness” by the Merriam-Webster dictionary. By her definition and association, when the feeling of joy dies it leaves a void in its place. I agree with her sentiment, to a degree. Joy is created through a bond of some sort, be it with another person or a thing. When that bond is split, there is an intense feeling of sadness that instantly replaces the joy. Pleasure is different, where you don’t need a bond of any kind to feel it. Often times pleasure and joy go hand in hand, but not always. This is where I don’t agree with Smith: joy requires pleasure and happiness to work together, not be separate. It is a combination of the two that creates joy; a bond with somebody and having a good time with them.
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