"Warm Dogs" By: Paul Theroux

A very dark and sad story...
It seems that the world has taken a turn for the worse. This story reminded me of a scene you might see in a sci-fi movie or a Stephen King novel. An infection/disease has spread through the public, making people infertile and toothless. Some areas are worse than others. Even children are acting like savage beasts!
I don't really know what to write about this story, or Ysrael for that matter. I didn't care for either of these stories.

Posted by: Krista Behrends

"Loser" By: Aimee Bender

In the short story "Loser" we are introduced to a young man who seems to have been given the gift to locate objects psychically. This gift was given to him because he lost his parents when he was only eight. It was a way of trying to locate his parents. Though he never had to locate a person until Mrs. Allen asked him to find her son, who was kidnapped. I thought that this was a playful story with a fresh idea.
My favorite line from the story was when he was in his room thinking and contemplating the word lonely and how it was such a fitting arrangement of letters for the word it stood for. "He went home... and thought about the word lonely and how it sounded and looked so lonely, with those two l's in it, each standing tall by itself." (136)
Another part that I found interesting was the idea that Bender had about almost every inanimate object being displaced. Whatever objects you might have or see are probably displaced. They were most likely somewhere else before they were with you. Interesting! For example, "He felt the tug inside of the Green Star... its original home in Asia... the tug of the tree... uprooted from Virginia... and the tug of his own watch which was from his uncle." (139) I thought this idea was clever.

Posted by: Krista Behrends

To Prepare for Exam

On Monday, Dec. 8, please bring to class all of the books we've discussed this semester so we can review them in preparation for the exam.

Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules, ed. David Sedaris

Civilwarland In Bad Decline, George Saunders

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, Z.Z. Packer

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Sherman Alexie

Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson

And bring copies of the Eres stories to discuss.

Also, bring snacks to share if you want to!

ERES stories comments

"The things they carried” by Tim O'Brien started out like a laundry list of artillery and keepsakes, but hidden in there was a cute little story About carrying a torch for a former lover. Even if the love is unrequited. Jimmy carries a torch for Martha, a girl from home whom he is cheeky about. He is constantly thinking of her, what she is doing and with whom. He is overly concerned with the status of her virginity as well. The problem is that her feelings for him are ambiguous. He cannot get a good read on her feelings for him but carries her on with him. This is all fine with me; soldiers need to do what they must to survive the day. The problem lies in the fact that he was negligent to his soldiers that he was responsible for, and is arguably responsible for one of their deaths. These soldiers carried a great load both tangible and intangible. What is carried by all, perhaps the most heavy is FEAR. This fear that burdens their shoulders and of course does nothing to help lessen their loads. Jimmy was always afraid that he would never see Martha again. Once he was able to let that go he became the leader that his platoon so desperately needed.

posted by Michael Clark

ERES stories comments

I was more entertained by these stories than I could have bargained for starting with "Winky" by George Saunders. In "Winky" we encounter Neil Yankey at a self-help seminar. Neil is a regular guy with only one problem, he lets people shit in his oatmeal. I know this sounds vulgar and putrid, but in a way it is a great metaphor. Saunders compares a bowl of oatmeal to your soul on the day you are born. Throughout life we constantly let people contaminate our little bowl of oatmeal ruining out meal (a metaphor for life). The use of great metaphors is a constant for Saunders as seen in "civilwarland". If we do not protect our oatmeal from others contaminants our lives will never be ours. There is also a hidden gem in the story told about Neil’s mother and father, and how Neil's dad always let the world "shit in his oatmeal". How the hoodlums in the neighborhood near the church used to harass Neil's mom about her weight and breast size. At this point I realized that Neil was destined to fail. That he would continue to let others "shit in his oatmeal", especially his sister Winky, who he was supposed to kick out of his house. The story ends with Neil wimping out on his practiced speech and letting Winky use his life as her own personal latrine. I mean the guy was at a self-help seminar, did we ever think he would grow a spine from one day of glorified cheerleading from Tom Rodgers, self-help expert. The kind of person who attends these seminars needs more than a protective screen over their oatmeal. This type of person might need to call in A plumber to unclog the backed up waist pipes that he calls life. Metaphorically speaking!

"Winky" By: George Saunders

In Saunders' short story "Winky" we get a first hand look at a possible "cult-like" situation. I really got a kick out of the little play that they put on for the newbies in the beginning of the seminar. I guess the gold hats are all perfect people who have found their "Inner Peace" and no longer need help? But, why are they there? Poor and pathetic Neil Yaniky! Is someone crapping in your oatmeal? This was a very fun and sarcastic story. At the end you are left with two very sad and pathetic middle-aged people (Winky and Neil-Neil) who can't get away from their own issues and live life. Neil is the target audience for these kind of self-help groups. Winky is just a pain in the ass, possibly obsessive compulsive and quite manic! Overall all, I found this to be a funny story, very similar to the tome of Saunders' previous stories that we have read. Sarcasm.

Posted By: Krista Behrends

"The Things They Carried" By: Tim O'Brien

I found this short story heart-warming. I thought it was well written and interesting. How true to life this story is! "The things they carried were largely determined by necessity... necessity dictated." (425) Among the various weaponry, first-aid, and personal items were items not able to be weighed. "As a first lieutenant and platoon leader, Jimmy Cross carried a compass... and the responsibility for the lives of his men... plus the unweighed fear...including a silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried... They all carried ghosts... They shared the weight of memory... Often they carried each other, the wounded or weak. They carried infections... malaria and dysentery... They carried the land itself -- Vietnam, the place, the soil... They carried the sky. The whole atmosphere... they carried gravity... They carried their own lives... They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die... the intangible had their own mass and specific gravity... THey carried the common secret of cowardice barely restrained... in many ways this was the heaviest burden of all... They carried their reputations. They carried the soldier's greatest fear... the fear of blushing... It was very sad, he thought. The things men carried inside." Of all the physical things they carried, Tim O'Brien had a way of making you fell the weight of the intangible.
To carry something was to "hump" it. The hump was described as, "everyhting, a kind of inertia, a kind of emptiness, a dullness of desire and intellect and conscience and hope and human sensibility." (431)
Jimmy Cross carried around his hope for love, his want for Martha, his need for female companionship and home, his desire for affection. This hump he carried around distracted him to the point where he was an irresponsible leader and lost a man. He realized that his hump was too much of a burden. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross reminded himself that his obligation was not to be loved but to lead." (437)

Posted by: Krista Behrends