Response to Pam's memory week 7, Week 7

Pam,
I think the "uncomfortable turn" you refer to in your note is exactly what makes this entry interesting. I like the shift from physical pain to emotional, and the emphasis that, while both are real, one is given privilege over the other. To a certain extent, this reminds me of "The Pain Scale." This piece, like Biss' plays with the arbitrariness of measuring pain, but here there doesn't seem to be a clearly defined scale. Emotional pain is highly subjective, not quantitative.
Also strong here is your reflection, the questions you are seeking to answer for yourself. What I would suggest here, however, is that you ground that reflection more in the physical. What I mean by this is, you give readers concrete details about the scenes in which you talk about physical pain, but your emotional pain sections deal a lot more with reflection. Your emotional pain is like our understandings of it, hidden, rumored, guessed at. While this may be interesting in terms of talking about the social aspect of emotional pain, how it usually is rumored and hidden, this social aspect doesn't feature prominently here. So, in essence, it may be helpful to go either way here: amp up the social implications and instead of the actual emotional pain, show us the students whispering, the rumor mill turning or focus on the actual emotional pain and what it looks like. While it may not be quantitative, it does appear in some way. What does your pain look like? Your best friends? Do we, as you seem to suggest about physical pain, handle emotional pain differently?