Week 8 Journal

The author of the article contributes to our understanding of everyday writing by (at first) explaining how we as humans think about death. The concept that we draw from personal backgrounds/experiences/beliefs generally will form our opinion on the subject of death. He then goes on to talk about tombstones. Although you need to get materials in order to create one, I do believe that tombstones are indeed a form of everyday writing. Similar to that of graffiti, they are on display, and sometimes they are within view of the general public. You can’t really argue with the author when he states that a tombstone is a “convenient place to dispose of the dead”. It certainly does serve as a deeper significance. Similar to how a scrapbook serves greater significance than just a bunch of colors and pictures slapped together, and similar to how graffiti often times is more than just a bunch of gibberish on some random wall or table. A tombstone serves as the memorial of one that has passed away. A tombstone means a lot to a select few people, just as a scrapbook may to some people and how people may gravitate towards a particular piece of graffiti on the street. Some of those things lead me to believe that a tombstone can in fact be considered a piece of everyday writing.