Cottage Life
Cottage Life is a very interesting piece of writing to me. In the first few paragraphs she sets a scene without specifically describing it. I pictured the cottage i used to go to in the summer. I got the feeling that they had wonderful, lazy summers. As she is looking through all of these possessions she is remembering. Each piece triggers another memory and she describes them. Some of the descriptions are short and vague, like when he took a photo of her with the white face mask on and others were very drawn out like when she remember the first time her lover saw her breast in the attic.
I think it is interesting that most of the lines in this story are short and choppy; just like a flashback, which is often short and choppy. I liked the line where she says, "When did I lose the right to my free time?" I think what she means by this, is that her life has gotten so busy, it's like she's lost the right to those free, lazy summers.
She seems like she may be a little bit insecure. She mentioned how she would only like to make love in the dark, and how she was self-conscious about the birthmark on her chest.
The last line says this, "Maybe there was one night of him possibly hearing us fuck and stir and fight and whisper and distrust and smother and Cherish, and wake up together." It sounds like a run-on sentence and doesn't make a whole lot of sense at first. But, the whole story is kind of like a run-on memory. I think what this means is that although they had been through so much together over these summers, they still loved each other, and woke up to each other every morning.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Wreckage of Reason Responses
The Blue Girl
The first time I read this story, I was confused by the first two paragraphs. The story starts out in the present, flashes to the past, then goes back to the present. I thought this was an interesting way to present the story because it makes you wonder what happened and how the characters got to where they are.
This story is also very mysterious. You never really figure out who the blue girl is or what happened to her. She isn't given a name and neither is the old woman she lives with. The feeling in this story is kind of dark and creepy. I t reminds me a little of a horror movie.
I think that part where Audrey saves the blue girl is very significant. None of the other older women try to but Audrey doesn't seem afraid. Audrey also is the only one who never seemed to be freaked out by the blue girl. Audrey saving the blue girl shows that sometimes kids are the strongest ones. They are the least judgemental. Their slight ignorance allows them to be non-judgemental. Audrey's mom was so worried that the blue girl had a disease or something wrong with her, but Audrey just accepted her for who she is. This is how people act in real life sometimes. We think that just because someone is different there is something wrong with them. But everyone needs love, just like the blue girl. This also goes to show how parents can learn from their kids. Audrey's mom learns from Audrey and goes to see the blue girl to bring her moon pies.
I still don't quite understand why the mothers go to see the blue girl or what the significance of the moon pies are. They say the blue girl is eating their secrets in the moon pies. This seems kind of abstract and must be a metaphor for something. The women never speak to the blue girl. They only go visit her. The women go in one at a time. You get a creepy sense of the house from the language used to describe it. They walk through the dark woods with no flashlights and it always seems chilly. The house is dark and empty. It all seems very mysterious.
At the end, the blue girl licks the narrators hands clean of the marshmallow from the moon pie. The narrator seems to always have held herself back from the blue girl even though she has changed her life so much. The narrator is holding onto some dark feelings and she says she has felt the cleanest she has ever felt after the blue girl licks her hands clean. This describes a weird relationship. It's like non-verbal communication between the two. The narrator bakes her secrets in the moon pies, and the blue girls eats them clean and it makes the narrator feel better.
The first time I read this story, I was confused by the first two paragraphs. The story starts out in the present, flashes to the past, then goes back to the present. I thought this was an interesting way to present the story because it makes you wonder what happened and how the characters got to where they are.
This story is also very mysterious. You never really figure out who the blue girl is or what happened to her. She isn't given a name and neither is the old woman she lives with. The feeling in this story is kind of dark and creepy. I t reminds me a little of a horror movie.
I think that part where Audrey saves the blue girl is very significant. None of the other older women try to but Audrey doesn't seem afraid. Audrey also is the only one who never seemed to be freaked out by the blue girl. Audrey saving the blue girl shows that sometimes kids are the strongest ones. They are the least judgemental. Their slight ignorance allows them to be non-judgemental. Audrey's mom was so worried that the blue girl had a disease or something wrong with her, but Audrey just accepted her for who she is. This is how people act in real life sometimes. We think that just because someone is different there is something wrong with them. But everyone needs love, just like the blue girl. This also goes to show how parents can learn from their kids. Audrey's mom learns from Audrey and goes to see the blue girl to bring her moon pies.
I still don't quite understand why the mothers go to see the blue girl or what the significance of the moon pies are. They say the blue girl is eating their secrets in the moon pies. This seems kind of abstract and must be a metaphor for something. The women never speak to the blue girl. They only go visit her. The women go in one at a time. You get a creepy sense of the house from the language used to describe it. They walk through the dark woods with no flashlights and it always seems chilly. The house is dark and empty. It all seems very mysterious.
At the end, the blue girl licks the narrators hands clean of the marshmallow from the moon pie. The narrator seems to always have held herself back from the blue girl even though she has changed her life so much. The narrator is holding onto some dark feelings and she says she has felt the cleanest she has ever felt after the blue girl licks her hands clean. This describes a weird relationship. It's like non-verbal communication between the two. The narrator bakes her secrets in the moon pies, and the blue girls eats them clean and it makes the narrator feel better.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Fiction Short Stories Responses
Survivors
This story was very sad. Just like in poetry, each story has its own vibe and feeling to it. This story felt sad and depressing. Also, just like poetry, you had to read a little deeper and between the lines to understand what is going on. There are two gay men who are dying, and the narrator wants to die first. He doesn't want to have to deal with his partners family, who doesn't seem supportive of their lifestyle and he also doesn't have to have to take care of his partners things after he's gone.
This story was not only sad because it is about death, but it is sad because it is about the unsupportiveness of the gay community. The narrator talks about how his family would disapprove of the Gay Freedom Day in their loft and how his partners father tried to beat his sexual orientation out of him.
I thought of what we talked about in class, how a fiction story has a characters, in a place, where something happens. In this story, the main characters are the two gay men, they live on Doloress Street, which must be somewhere warm and near a bay, and their story is about how they are dying. The story does not mention how they are dying though. My guess is that they are dying of AIDS because they have few T cells left, which are cells that help fight disease and AIDS suppresses your immune system.
Morning News
This short story was also a little depressing, and about illness. The story describes everything that this man is thinking and feeling after he is told he has a short time to live. Right after he learns he is dying, he says, "What do people do next?" This is an important line because it shows how he is scared about the future and how he doesn't quite know how to handle the situation.
I like the ending of this short story because he talks about how most people would go do something crazy if they only had a short time to live, but he just wanted to spend it with the person he loves most, his wife. Not doing anything crazy, but just loving each other. You can tell how much he loves her because he says it would be much harder if she were as sick as he was because he doesn't want her to have to go through that pain.
This story was very sad. Just like in poetry, each story has its own vibe and feeling to it. This story felt sad and depressing. Also, just like poetry, you had to read a little deeper and between the lines to understand what is going on. There are two gay men who are dying, and the narrator wants to die first. He doesn't want to have to deal with his partners family, who doesn't seem supportive of their lifestyle and he also doesn't have to have to take care of his partners things after he's gone.
This story was not only sad because it is about death, but it is sad because it is about the unsupportiveness of the gay community. The narrator talks about how his family would disapprove of the Gay Freedom Day in their loft and how his partners father tried to beat his sexual orientation out of him.
I thought of what we talked about in class, how a fiction story has a characters, in a place, where something happens. In this story, the main characters are the two gay men, they live on Doloress Street, which must be somewhere warm and near a bay, and their story is about how they are dying. The story does not mention how they are dying though. My guess is that they are dying of AIDS because they have few T cells left, which are cells that help fight disease and AIDS suppresses your immune system.
Morning News
This short story was also a little depressing, and about illness. The story describes everything that this man is thinking and feeling after he is told he has a short time to live. Right after he learns he is dying, he says, "What do people do next?" This is an important line because it shows how he is scared about the future and how he doesn't quite know how to handle the situation.
I like the ending of this short story because he talks about how most people would go do something crazy if they only had a short time to live, but he just wanted to spend it with the person he loves most, his wife. Not doing anything crazy, but just loving each other. You can tell how much he loves her because he says it would be much harder if she were as sick as he was because he doesn't want her to have to go through that pain.
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