"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

mps.. crap in your oatmeal.

WINKY
By George Saunders


Saunders, blunt and yet without a dull moment begins his short story “Winky” in a quite intriguing way. He captures our attention by using a play on words and gives the reader a sort of leading role in the introduction of the story.

“An actor in a ripped flannel shirt stumbled across the stage with a sign around his neck that said “You”.
“I’m lost!” You cried. “I’m wandering in a sort of wilderness!”
“Hey, You, come on over!” shouted a girl across the stage, labeled “Inner Peace.”
“I bet you’ve been looking for me your whole life!”

He also introduces a few characters, Self Absorbed, Blames Her Fat on Others, Disappointed and Too High Strung to Function, who also try to find their way to Inner Peace.

In this candid way, Saunders addresses a few things that keep us from the harmony of mind, body and soul and reminds us that everyone has this same basic need. And in doing so, even before we come to know his miserable circumstance with “crazy-looking, too religious, needs her own place” roommate Winky, Saunders brilliantly helps the reader to relate to main character, Neil.

But for me Saunders uses this play on the word “You” best as the introduction of lesson he plans to teach the reader on the individual level. Although he tells Neil’s story in “Winky”, the piece is not actually about Neil or Winky. Their story is only a part of Saunders’ short story and doesn’t even come along until after he tells the reader exactly what he has to say. By doing this Saunders makes this story about you. Not “You” the actor but you the reader.

So what is this great lesson Saunders shares in hopes to help you find inner peace?

“Don’t let anybody crap in your oatmeal!”

It’s funny, it’s vulgar, it’s practical and quite genius. It’s very Saunders

mps Gesse by Zz Packer

ZZ PACKER - Geese

Packer’s short story “Geese” is the first in this collection to intrigue me. It is the only one of her stories that caused a desire in me to anticipate the next page. And so you can imagine the disappointment that came over me as I read the last sentence. I turned the page after digesting its last few words. There was nothing there. I needed more and knew that I must have missed something. So I reread the last paragraph and it put all the pieces together.

In the second reading I noticed that the ending of this story is unique. Not to all stories but to those within this particular collection. This is the only time in the collection that Packer uses the reflection of a character to conclude her story. This is probably why I didn’t recognize it as what it was.

In it she briefly describes the work of Japanese kamikaze pilots. “How they pledge their lives to the emperor and take flight on suicide missions with only enough fuel for the one way trip.” (Pg. 209) And the narrator also mentions that when Dina had first read about these pilots, in the “all knowing arrogance of youth she concluded that there had to be another way. She in the same circumstance would have done things differently.”

The point that Packer is making here is to liken the Kamikaze suicide missions to the path that Dina is currently on. As she does this we come to find that Dina had been wrong to assume she would have done things differently. If we consider a few instances that occur in Dina’s story before she prostitutes herself, we can see the parallels.
For instance in the beginning Dina makes a sort of pact like the one made to the emperor, with her family and friends that she is going to Japan to make a large sum of money before moving on. Than when she uses the last of the money she has on futile things like buying ice cream for Ari. Like the kamikazes do, she leaves herself in a terrible circumstance, by not preparing for a possible change in plans. Dina in this situation did everything just as the Kamikaze did. She led herself down a deadly path and makes no previsions for escape.

secretary of bestcornergroup08,



melissapierresaint

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere: “Geese” and “Doris is coming”

Comment one:
An interesting sequence of events that jumped out at me in “Geese” was one that took place between Dina and Sayeed. After Sayeed tried to kill Dina the two started to avoid each other at all costs. “Not a schedule exactly, but a way of doing things. If he returned from a day of looking for work he might ask every one how the day had gone. In that case she would not answer, because she was to understand that he was not speaking to her. If she was in a corner of the room she would go to another.”(Packer p.223) For some reason this reminded me of the intricate tango that takes place between a couple that is headed for divorce but can not come to terms with that fact yet. I know there was little if any love between Dina and Sayeed, but I could not help but be reminded of this exact tango my parents carried out for years preceding their own divorce. Nothing was admitted to be wrong, but nothing seemed to be going right either. The lack of communication and retreating to opposite ends of the house were common. For some reason when I read this quote this imagery leaped off the page and into my head, bringing me right back to the hostility of 1999.

Comment two:
In Doris is coming a passage that called to me was on page 246 where Doris is describing her return from school to home. “but she knew her father must be home; she could hear him hammering away. Her father was trying to build a third bedroom where their back porch had been, but the partition made from blankets never kept out the draft. She turned on the kitchen stove to warm the house and start dinner, wondering why her father had picked winter, of all times, to tear down two major walls of the house.” (Packer p.246) She goes on to describe the pock pock of the hammers meeting the nail heads. This jumped out to me being that my father did indeed make the same mistake when trying to renovate our porch into a “new room”. He picked late fall to start this project thinking it would only take a few weeks and that we would be spared from the cold arrival of winter because the gaping hole in the side of our house would be a finished room by then. Oh boy was he wrong the project took like 5-6 weeks longer than anticipated and I can still remember waking up in the morning for school to the pleasant smell of cooking gas. My mother used the same method of blasting the oven to warm the rest of the house. This one brought me back to 1989.

Posted by Michael Clark

"Drinking Coffee Elsewhere" By ZZ Packer

In Packer's short story "Doris is Coming" we read about a young African American girl growing up in segregation. She is from a strict Pentecostal family. Doris was an intelligent girl who wanted to make a difference in her world. She wanted to be part of sit-ins for the equal rights movement. She struggles with her identity it seems throughout this story. She has not joined these movements for fear of disappointing her parents, her reverend, and her friend Mr. Stutz. Finally by the end of the book she takes a seat at the counter of a five and dime shop where they don't serve "colored people." Her brevity and strength made her proud and frightened at the same time. When she leaves she makes a point of telling the woman behind the counter that she is not leaving because she is not welcome but because she must get home. I liked this part. I also liked the description at the end of the story. "The shy had just turned her favorite shade of barely lit blue, the kind that came to the window when you couldn't get back to sleep but couldn't quite pry yourself awake." (265) THis seems to be the state that Doris is in just at this moment. Am in between stage of a person who is changing from a girl to a woman. From a person who isn't sure of her identity to someone who has an idea of whom she would like to be.

Posted By: Krista Behrends

"Drinking Coffee Elsewhere" By: ZZ Packer

In ZZ Packer's short story "Geese" I was struck by the last paragraph in the story. Throughout the story you wonder why Dina is allowing herself to stay in this situation. Why she doesn't try harder to get a job or go home. By the end of the story Dina is living with four other jobless foreigners and they are eating what seems like one small "meal" a week. When it comes down to starving she decides to prostitute herself. After this is done she is on the train home and remembers reading a book about Japanese suicide kamikazes. It is at this point that life makes a little more sense to Dina. She always thought that she would choose a different ending if she were one of these bombers but now she knows this isn't the case. She did exact;y what they did, knowing that the ending only had one outcome. I thought this was a sad story.

Posted by: Krista Behrends

"Drinking Coffee Elsewhere" second response

"Drinking Coffee Elsewhere" By Z.Z. Packer was an excellent, fast paced story. I Truly felt the anxiety of the first week of college, the nervous awkwardness of trying to fit in, and hoping not to be left out. One particular quote stood out to me the most, when Dr. Raeburn tells our narrator that "you're pretending"(p.142). He then goes on to say the professional term for it is denial, as she sits there stunned by this accusation she kind of goes blank only focusing on the one word "pretending". "I'd hooked on that one word pretending. Dr. Raeburn would never realize that pretending is what had got me this far", she goes on to describe how she felt on the morning of her mothers funeral, that she was given milk to ease her stomach, and how she imagined that it was coffee "I imagined that I was drinking coffee elsewhere". We get a good look into our narrators character with this statement. I remember having similar feelings of uneasiness on the morning of my own mothers funeral, and how I wished that I could be "elsewhere" but I don't think it was coffee that I was longing to drink. I had to push on and kind of pretend that everything was all right, and now almost a year later I still sometimes feel like I am still pretending, pretending that my mother is elsewhere, not in a cold grave but perhaps on a warm beach, an extended vacation. Sometimes it is the pretending that gets us through the day.

In speaking in tongues a comment need to be made about a particular passage that stood out to me. "Dezi kissed her cheek... it was the first time a male had kissed her... she had always imagined that when someone kissed her, her eyes would be closed in anticipation, she would be waiting to receive the kiss" Knowing the circumstances of this scene takes away from how truly romantic this thought that Tea is having at this moment. I reminded me of my first kiss and how I thought it would be perfect, eyes closed, music playing, me saying something romantic, but in reality it was nothing like that. In fact I remember the first one, quick and awkward, and then it was over. Innocence lost forever in a passionate kiss in a dark closet at my neighbors birthday party.

posted by Michael Clark

"Drinking Coffee Elsewhere" By ZZ Packer

ZZ Packer’s short story “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere” was one of the best stories in this book so far. I really enjoyed the story line and the playfulness of the concepts and dialogue. I could almost imagine walking on to the Yale campus and seeing circles of people asking very philosophical questions. I loved Dina’s response, so honest and challenging in the basis of the atmosphere. Can you imagine, you get accepted to a school like Yale and disappoint everyone on the very first day! However, she did get a lot out of it such as having her own room and always being left alone. My favorite part of the story was when her and Heidi hosed each other down in the cafeteria. It seemed to be the peak of the story. Dina finally seemed to come out of her shell and have fun with life. All in all, this was a great short story. I found it unique in it’s emotion and honesty and I truly enjoyed reading it.

Posted by: Krista Behrends

mps Drinking Coffee...

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ PACKER

a comment

While interviewing ZZ Packer, Robert Birnbaum asks if she is considered a black writer. " She agrees that she is but adds “I am writing for black people, but I am also writing for whites, for Chinese, for Americans”. Her point: being black doesn’t limit an author to a black audience.
I thought about how frequently authors will respond to a question like this one in the same manor. Acknowledging their race, and confidently sure that they possess the ability to speak to all people regardless of their differences. I hear it all the time but I wonder if it is true. I understand that anyone who pick up this collection becomes Packer’s audience, whoever they me be. But I wonder if we should be just all more honest about the term audience. Should we be considering other factors…. like humor maybe? [I know that’s a bit random. Try to fallow me]

Packer’s stories are filled with great humor. Maybe not knock your socks off funny. But it’s smart and witty. I found myself laughing a lot but because I’ve had this idea of audience on my mind it made me question; who when reading this book would be laughing with me. Who would understand the humor that she incorporates into her work and who would not? While reading the story “Brownies” for the second time, I stopped a moment mid laugh to acknowledge the possibilities. “Caucasian Chihuahuas…What are you? Caucasian?... That was so Caucasian!” (pg 3&4). Being an insider on the joke, I thought that, that was hysterical! Well that is until I flipped the script. Black Chihuahuas. What are you? Black? That was so Black! It just wasn’t as funny anymore and I assume it might not have been as funny for her White audience. [I couldn’t be sure. I meant to ask someone. But It's such an odd question to ask.]

In any case, would it be completely terrible if White people didn’t think that was funny? You know I’m not sure. And this makes me consider all the other features of a writer’s work that can be lost in translation. It makes me more conscious to the fact that even when you read a story you can be an insider or an outsider and I’m starting to consider that the insiders might be a writer’s true audience. For instance in Packer’s stories she tell of the racial divide and black identity that she is accustomed to, in her everyday life as an American. What I am proposing is that the experiences and circumstance she writes about it are best understood by those who who’ve share them with her. This doesn’t exclude everyone else from being her audience. But it might mean that every story [not just Packer’s] has a true audience. One who is best able to catch emotions and views the author shares with the reader. Even they’re simple jokes.

Now if that is the case, something a simple as race [ha] could not be a sufficient divider for every joke in every story or every circumstance our characters face. But I think it worked in the Chihuahua joke to help me acknowledge all the other factors that celebrate an author’s true audience.

The audience within the audience …boy is that deep.


secretary of bestconrnergroup08,

melissapierresaint




the interview: http://www.identitytheory.com/interviews/birnbaum103.html

Class Canceled November 17

PLEASE NOTE:
Class for Monday, November 17, is canceled. Please bring your assignments for this week’s class to next week’s class, along with the assignment for next week. Your assignment for next week is to finish reading Drinking Coffee Elsewhere and write a response paper, or complete any of the alternatives for writing a response paper (including writing two comments about the reading). So, in total, for November 24, you should have finished reading all of Drinking Coffee Elsewhere and should bring in two response papers, or their alternatives.

The group that was to present tomorrow will present on November 24, in addition to the group that was already scheduled to present on November 24.

I’m canceling class because I’ve thrown my back out of alignment. It occasionally happens, but I’ll be back on November 24.

Please email me if you have any questions.

Thanks,
Karen

Response Papers

As I mentioned in class, you now have another option for response papers. Now that we're in the final stretch of the semester, and your workload is probably piling up, here's an easier option of response papers. You can continue to do response papers as you've done them all along, or you can opt for this alternative.

Instead of completing a two-page response to the stories, you can bring in TWO comments on the assigned reading. Comments can be anything of interest that you've noticed in the stories, for example, a paragraph that included an unusual or beautiful description of something, an observation about the nature of a character, or a comparison between the assigned short story and a previous short story. Be prepared to read your comments aloud in class, as well as remark on other's comments. Your comments will still be graded.

"Speaking In Tongues" By: ZZ Packer

I really enjoyed the two stories in this week’s reading. ZZ Packer’s “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere” and “Speaking in Tongues” were edgy yet sentimental. The rough and tough subject matter that is being faced in the second story couldn’t have been easy to write about in a way that would be easy to read. But, if there is one thing that has become obvious about Packer it is that she is not concerned about making her reader feel comfortable with the subject at hand.
In the story “Speaking in Tongues” we meet Tia, a young church-going and naïve teen from the South running away to Atlanta to find her real mother. Her strength and brevity seemed admirable until you realized that it wasn’t really strength, but foolishness and naiveté that landed her at Dezi’s apartment. In the scene when Dezi begins kissing and undressing her I experienced a mixture of feelings. As I imagined this young woman in my head being taken advantage of by a thirty-two year old man I felt sympathy, anger, frustration, and most of all shock. Yes, my mouth actually dropped while reading this passage. It seems that Packer confronts many scenarios and though it should be expected or not surprising when you come by such events, but somehow it still manages to shock the reader.
The unfortunate truth is that these stories happen more often than any of us would like to believe. Packer just brings it to the forefront of your mind. I really hope Tia made it home.

Posted by: Krista Behrends

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, by Z.Z. Packer

When first reading this group of short stories by Z.Z. Packer I truly thought I was going to have a long week of reading ahead. I was not able to grasp the angle of her tone being used here, but soon caught on to these splendid, morally soaked passages. Each story has a distinct knowledge of the social high ground, but does not always choose to engage in this knowledge. There is also a distinct religious undertone in her stories. In "Every Tongue Shall Confess" we meet a gospel singer in the church choir, Roberta, who is also a nurse in a local hospital. She has been bullied by the people in her life and by her job. She has been sexually assaulted by the great Reverend of her church but decided not to tell anyone about it due to her own embarrassment. When the Reverend decided one day while driving her home to stick his tongue down her throat and hands down her paints, he became very hostile towards her for not letting him know that it was that time of the month. I thought this situation was awkward for the both of them but really how could the Rev. get mad at her when he was the one who was acting inappropriately. The fact that he got upset about this shows how shallow of a man he is. He is a star at the church and beloved by the community. However like most men of power he knows no boundaries, and sees no faults in any of his actions. Roberta is a dedicated nurse as well as a great singer; she even makes a point of calling all her patients on her days off. It is during one of these calls where her destiny is made clear to her, but not right away and not very clear at first. She mistakenly connects with her patient’s roommate, an old blues guitarist with a deep soul. He also has a thing for Roberta and tries to convince her that they should get dinner together and spend some time getting to know each other. Roberta changes the subject to religion saying that he should be concerned with changing the fate of the bluesmans' soul. She declares that Jesus can save his soul, but only if he let would only let him in. He tries to make a deal with her saying that if Jesus saves his knee he will start going to church regularly. She believes that there is no deal making with god and that he should go to church no matter what happens to his knee. In the stories' climax we see Roberta singing in the choir when she notices the blues guitarist standing with the aid of his cruch, and with his trusty guitar strapped to his back. He decided that seeing her was worth the price of admission, and that it is undeniable that they were placed on this earth to save one another.
In "Our Lady of Peace" we are given a glimpse into the inner city Baltimore school system. Tired of not being able to make her rent our narrator decides that she will become a schoolteacher. Sounds simple enough but is it? This story resonated with me because it shows the true perseverance of teachers, and the strife they deal with on a daily basis. Most people think that there could not be an easier job, summers and holidays off, but as we see here there is a whole lot more than meets the eye. Our narrator has trouble enticing the class with her lesson plans, and controlling the classroom. She turns to Sheba, a juvenile delinquent living at the Our Lady of Peace home for children, which is actually more like a jail. Sheba has a bad reputation; it is rumored that she shanked her former teacher at her old school. The students quickly fall into line when Sheba decides that they should shut up and pay attention. Everything seems to be working out until Sheba turns on the teacher, she gets pregnant and stops coming to class.
While trying to restore peace to the classroom and her life the teacher decides to on a peace offering to Sheba, she offers her a ride home. Things do not work out as planned and our narrator is upset with the world as it is today. She cannot stand the nonchalant attitude of the inner city youth, two of which are taking their sweet time crossing the street in front of her. Fed up with it all she decides to floor the gas pedal to give the kids a scare. She ends up accidentally hitting one of the kids, and flees the scene. She eventually decides that she is no longer cut out for teaching these kids who don't care for learning or advancement in any way shape of form. It took a bunch of chaos for her to realize where her peace lies, one thing is for sure, it is not at Our Lady of Peace.

posted by Michael Clark

Comment on “The Ant of the Self” By ZZ Packer

“Outside autumn is over, and yet it’s not quite winter. Indiana farmlands speed past in black and white. Beautiful. Until you remember that the world is supposed to be in color.” (86) I thought this was a great thought. There are times when I can remember feeling the same way. Everything seems black and white and gray and winter hasn’t even started yet. You know it’s a long road ahead of you before life blossoms again. I thought this quote was a foreshadowing of the events to come and the time that would pass before Spurgeon feels alive again. Another good quote from this story is when a preacher at the March says “… freedom is attained only when the ant of the self – that small, blind, crumb-seeking part of ourselves – casts off slavery and its legacy, becoming a huge brave ox.” (101) This seems to be where the title came from. This story is about the character Spurgeon, who feels like he is only the “ant of the self,” he hasn’t had the chance to chose who he wants to be because he is always a slave to his father’s opinions. He can’t escape the need to be accepted by his father. He is, “that small… crumb-seeking” person trying to have some kind of relationship with his father. He is picking up any crumbs he can, in hope that his father will change or surprise him. It is clear by the end of the story that his father, Ray Bivens Jr. will not change, however, it is unclear if Spurgeon will stop trying to change him. We do know that he realizes how abusive and lacking their relationship is when he watches a father get the man at the station to yell “All Aboard” for his son. Spurgeon comments that he almost cried but instead he just put his head in his hands. This was a very emotional story, one that I assume is all too often true to reality.

Posted by: Krista Behrends

Comment on “Every Tongue Shall Confess” By ZZ Packer

Firstly, I got a kick out of the length of the name of the church and how Sister Clareese never shortened the name but continued to repeat “Brother’s Church Council of Greater Christ Emmanuel Pentecostal Church of the Fire Baptized.” I liked the way ZZ Packer used italics to exaggerate or emphasize words in dialogue. As if, while you are reading you are getting the attitude of the character through the emphasis on certain words. When the father was preaching about call-waiting, for example, you can almost hear the ring of it and his voice. “Jeeeee-uz did not tell his Daddy- ‘I’m sorry, Pops, but my girlfriend is on the other line’; Jeeeee-zus – never told the Omnipotent One, ‘can you wait a sec… Jeeeeeeee-zus – never told Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, ‘I’m sorry but I got to put you on hold…” While reading this I almost heard the preachers’ voice in my head. Emphasis on words is something everyone does in reality and I thought it was interesting that Packer incorporated it in to her stories.

Posted by: Krista Behrends

Professorial Brainstorm

I stumbled upon this recipe for Derby Pie by ZZ Packer. In the name of thorough academic research, I think we should probably bake said pie and eat it while talking about her stories in Drinking Coffee Elsewhere. I'm prepared to bake one pie, and wanted to know if anyone else might be interested in bringing in another pie or something to go along with it. Here's Packer talking about her grandmother's kitchen and the recipe for Derby Pie, which originally appeared in the New York Times:

Derby Pie

By ZZ PACKER

Every Sunday after church, my grandmother's kitchen in Louisville, Ky., became a kind of depository for desserts. Female relatives and friends would drop off cakes and pies on her sideboard the way guests at a wedding fill up the gift table. Most were of the too-delicious-to-be-true black Southern strain: seven-layer caramel cakes, sweet-potato-and-yam pies, cinnamon-flecked peach cobblers or ''Sock It to Me'' cakes with a dollop of sour cream. My favorite was my great-aunt Fannie Lou's version of Kentucky Derby pie.

The Kentucky Derby is run the first Saturday in May, and in addition to bourbon-heavy mint juleps, hot browns, burgoo and other Kentuckified foods, Derby wouldn't be complete without Derby pie. (I should say so-called Derby pie, because by trademark, only Alan Rupp, of Kern's Kitchen Inc., can make a true ''Derby pie'' -- though to my mind, a batter of melted butter, egg yolks, flour, chocolate chips and walnuts poured into a pie crust seems as elemental and universally delicious as ice cream.)

My first time eating Rupp's ''real'' Derby pie came when I went to the Bristol Bar and Grill on Bardstown Road in Louisville as a teenager. Like my great-aunt Fannie Lou's pie, Rupp's is a veritable dessert casserole, and like a casserole, the pie must be served warm. Not sizzling, not tepid, just hot enough to be on the verge of melting, so that there is just the right amount of -- how else to put it? -- goo. And this ''goo factor'' is why reactions to the pie range from incoherent babbling to orgasmic moans. The yolky messiness of it transports you to some prenatal limbic state, evoking the euphoric feeling of licking cake batter from the spoon, eating raw cookie dough or stuffing melting s'mores into your mouth.

Official Derby pie is supposedly made with a layer of chocolate chips lining the bottom of the crust, the batter poured over the chips to keep them undisturbed and the heat of the oven baking the topmost layer so that it forms a kind of flaky-crispy crust. When you cut into it, you can see the sedimentary layers. I prefer my great-aunt Fannie Lou's version, which looks more like a cross-section of half-molten conglomerate rock. And hers is best enjoyed a day or two after it's baked, when all the ingredients have had a chance to work their magic on one another.

Though I've eaten many versions of the pie (some use pecans instead of walnuts, some add bourbon to the batter or make it less viscous with additional flour, some top it off with bourbon whipped cream), I haven't found any that improves upon Fannie Lou's. I do, however, expect that someday someone will subject Derby pie to the grand unified theory of Southern cuisine: ''If it tastes good now, it'll taste even better fried.''

Fannie Lou's Thoroughbred
(Almost Derby) Pie
[serves 6]

1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust
4 tablespoons butter, melted
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 cup semisweet-chocolate chips.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the crust in a pie plate and prick the bottom with a fork. Cover lightly with a sheet of foil, pressing it gently into the crust and making sure the edges are covered. Place weights (metal pie weights or dried beans) on the foil to weigh down the bottom and hold up the sides of the crust. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove foil. Continue baking until the crust is firm and has lost its sheen but is not browned, about 5 more minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the butter, eggs and vanilla extract. Add the brown sugar and flour and mix until thoroughly blended. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the walnuts and chocolate chips.

3. Pour the batter into the crust. Bake until puffed and golden brown, about 30 minutes. Remove from the heat and place on a rack to cool. Serve warm.

ZZ Packer is the author of Drinking Coffee Elsewhere: Stories.'

civil war and the bad decline

Cilil War and the Bad Decline starts out , Whenever a potential big investor comes for the tour the first thing I do is take him out to the transplanted Erie Canal Lock. We've got a good ninety feet of actual Canal out there and a well-researched diorama of a coolie campsite. Were our faces ever red when we found out it was actually the Irish who built the Canal.The title story, about a Civil War theme park terrorized by teenaged gangsters, though at first I was unable to understand what was going on, I found this captivating and wanted to continue reading on. I found Saunders to be captivating and funny throughout reading I found myself laughing out loud. I think his descriptions come alive through humor, and help the reader continue on and stay interested. The main character explains how he has no better career options and works at a theme park, how him and his wife are not doing as well as they could , and feels like he may be a slave to his boss.The book has many characters , the people who attend the theme park and usually writes in a first person , thus far. The theme park is getting taunted by a gang, and the main character wants to take care of what is happening at his theme park. For the most part, I enjoy the stories, the way the author writes. but a lot of times i felt like he was asking too much of me as a reader, the stories to far out that i have trouble suspending my belief. at times they read like an madlib, combining five completely unrelated subjects into one short story.

"Civilwarland in Bad Decline" by George Saunders

In the book of short stories Civilwarland in Bad Decline, by George Saunders we encounter a few mildly confusing yet somewhat entertaining stories that involve everything from ghosts with morals and guilt to themes of poverty vs. decency. In the first we encounter a Civil war themed park with a gang violence problem. The investors of the park are going to pull the plug on the project soon if the ownership cannot make the place a safe attraction for family fun. Local gangs are running ramped in the park, tagging graffiti on old colonials and even beating up patrons. The park takes action by trying to hire one of the soldier actors as "security". He is told to scare the gangs with warning shots. Along comes Samuel, a Vietnam vet that was dishonorably discharged for violence, true irony. Sam impresses the owner by intervening on a situation where a gang tried to rape a teenage girl attending a cousin’s baptism on the parks grounds. Sam kills six of the gang members, sending a message to the rest of the community. Our narrator is caught between a rock and a hard place, morally speaking, he feels it is wrong to kill these gang members but if he speaks up he may lose his job. He cannot afford to take the moral high road with a wife and two children at home. Sam suffers from post traumatic stress syndrome, just as Mr. McKinnon, the father of the civil war ghost era family that haunts the park does. We see similarities between the two near the end of the story. The pair both suffer from skeletons in their closets, causing them to feel only two emotions hate and hate. The symbolism here is how ghosts from your past can haunt your present.
In "the 400 pound CEO" we encounter Jeffrey an overweight office worker who is constantly harassed by his co-workers about his weight and unsightly looks. He was not always so large, at one point he would describe himself as portly, which is a nice way of saying fat but without such a negative connotation. His job is to sell humane capture and release of pesky varmint like raccoons. Certain housewives cannot deal with killing such pests and it weighs lighter on their conscience if they go the humane route. The problem is they are capturing and killing the raccoons anyway. Jeffery's boss is a rotten man with many deficiencies. He spent time in jail for intentionally backing over a frat boy with his car. While in jail he conceptualized his rouse. He even has an S&M chamber in the basement of the office. When an animal rights activist uncovers his mode of operations we finally see Jeffery step out side the norm and stand up to his boss. He was going to kill her in the woods and burry her in the same mass grave as the raccoons. Here Jeffery intervenes accidentally killing his boss. In the end he is sentenced to 50 years to life in jail, suffering for the rest of his days for doing what was right. His boss gets off easy with death while he has to endure nightly go-rounds with an inmate that has made him his property. If he just let evil run its course he might not have ended up in such a bad situation. He made a choice to do what is right; sometimes the law is blind to right and wrong. At least he can take solace in knowing he did the right thing regardless of the repercussions.


Posted by Michael Clark

"Jesus' Son" reaction assignment

"Jesus' Son" is as frightening look inside the life of a bottom feeder, harvesting all the drugs that trickle down to his spot in the cold abyss he knows as life. On the contrary to most people I have discussed this work with, I enjoyed this roller coaster ride with my arm raised in the air. I feel that there is hope for our narrator when it is all said and done. In "Car Crash While hitchhiking" he is involved in this horrific car wreck but is not hurt. He stands around as if nothing is wrong, almost as if he is hallucinating the whole scene. I feel his main problem is recognizing weather things are really happening or if they are a product of the drugs he has been ingesting. He is very descriptive of the pain and carnage going on around him, but is unable to feel the pain, only see it. Although he does nothing of real help in the situation, the optimism here lies in the fact that he can at least recognize that there is something askew. We can feel that he has guilt about the way he lives his life. In "Out on Bail" we see on page 40, where they are going to forge the Social Security checks, how he believes that this is the last time he will pursue a crooked fix. He truly feels guilt about the way he does business. That he will turn his life around, not right now, but when the time is right, he will get it going for himself. He may even start tomorrow.
This is a typical addicts train of thought. Just this one last time, just one more fix and then He'll start the turn around. The problem is addicts think this before every fix, they truly believe that this one will be the last one. Until the next one that is.
The metaphors Johnson uses in this book are deep and direct, sometimes so direct that we can barely notice them. In "Work" he keeps describing how there is something about the bartender that he loves, but can not put his finger on it. Maybe it is her generous pouring style, or maybe it is that fact that she was his mother. It is revealed in the final sentence of the story that the woman was indeed his mother. The whole time Johnson spends on her he describes her caring, motherly approach to the pouring of a drink. These subtleties were almost overlooked by me until I read the last sentence, but then it was quickly realized that all that description was motherly metaphors. To go further with it I started to think on a deeper level that alcohol is the mother's milk of an alcoholic, who would be more appropriate to be serving it than his mother herself.

Michael clark

“Jesus’ Son” By: Denis Johnson

I must start out by admitting that I am not a fan of this book. I can deal with life problems but I have a hard time reading so many stories about drug problems, death, depression, dread and despair. The tone of this collection is dark and depressingly hopeless. The imagery that Johnson often uses to aid the reader to see the world as he does makes me feel as if color has been taken out of the world. If any of these short stories were made in to a movie (which I know it was) I would expect it to be dreary and all in black, white and grays. I will not write the book off however, I do believe Johnson does a good job at realistically approaching the life of a lost drug addict. So far, my favorite short story in this collection is “Work” because it made me think for a moment that he may see the light and seek help. He described the day he worked with Wayne pulling electrical wiring out of Waynes’ old house. He says it is “one of the best days of my life.” (62) When he describes why later on in the story he says, “But this afternoon, somehow, was the best of all those times. We had money. We were grimy and tired. Usually we felt guilty and frightened.” (65) This describes the feeling that many people have at the end of a work day. You can usually rest better after a hard day of work because even though you are tired you feel that you have accomplished something. Accomplishment is what made the main character feel the way he did. Some of the metaphors he uses are despairingly realistic to how one may feel when all hope is lost. In “Work” he says that the radio is “playing tunes of alcoholic self-pity and sentimental divorce.” (66) In “Emergency” it was said that “The road we were lost on cut straight through the middle of the world.” (79) Is nothing ever good or happy? I found one line in Johnson’s story “Car Crash” that I felt explained the whole of the main character’s life. He said, “Down the hall came the wife… She didn’t know yet that her husband was dead…She shrieked as I would imagine an eagle would shriek. It felt wonderful to be alive to hear it! I’ve gone looking for that feeling everywhere.” (11) Here, I believe the author is giving us some insight in to why drugs are so important to this man. They are the only thing that makes him feel. Even if that feeling is a hallucination or a dream he just wants to feel.

Posted by: Krista Behrends

Check your short story IQ

Think you read the first story, "Car Crash While Hitchhiking" in Jesus' Son carefully? Test your memory with this very short online quiz. Completely optional...

http://wps.prenhall.com/hss_master_lit_1/28/7280/1863858.cw/index.html

mps Denis " Jesus'son" Johnson

JESUS' SON
By DENIS JOHNSON

I didn’t like “Jesus’ Son”. Blasphemy I know. But its hard being at the bottom and in this collection of short stories Denis Johnson definitely takes you there. This work is so clearly described, that it’s easy to be completely engulfed by the dark and uneasy settings and drama of each story. “The downpour raked the asphalt and gurgled in the ruts,” (p. 4) With words like these, Johnson takes us into the dismal life of a drug abused young man, where even the rain fall can be one of most abysmal, disgusting and lowly of things. Good thing our main character’s only goal is to find his next high. He’s going to need some type of ambition to get out of the slump he’s in.

Nowhere in the duration of all one hundred and sixty pages does Johnson make it easy to believe our main character was going to get out of the mess he’s in. But in the few moments that he wasn’t pathetic and disgusting, I sort of liked him. Once in each of the two stories, “Car Crash While Hitchhiking” and “Out on bail”. In these stories the main character, in his maybe unfamiliar circumstance asks the questions and makes the same inferences that the rest of us do in this life. It’s what makes him human. “I was overjoyed,” he says “not to be dead. Generally the closest I ever came to wondering about the meaning of it all was to consider that I must be the victim of a joke… [But] I had a moment’s glory that night, though. I was certain I was in the world because I couldn’t tlololerate any other place.” (p. 41). In this statement he addresses a few common thoughtful experiences: feeling like life is just a game being played against you and accepting that where you are, is where you need to be. On page 10 I was captivated when he said, “I looked down into that great piety of a person’s life on this earth, I don’t mean that we all end up dead… I mean that he couldn’t tell me what he was dreaming and I couldn’t tell him what was real.” How often it occurs. Ours dreams, hopes, our pain and realities, rarely can they be shared. We can’t exchange our weaknesses and strengths.

Johnson’s voice in this work is disturbingly honest, dirty, confused and somehow still sure. I didn’t like it but I appreciate its originality. I also enjoyed its style. How many collections like this one can command the street credibility that Jesus’ Son does? I assume very few.


Secretary of bestcornergroup08,

melissapierresaint

Assignment Amendment for Jesus' son

The professor has asked me to inform the blog users that we are only responsible for the first six chapters of "Jesus' Son" this week, not the entire work as stated on the syllabus. We will get to the rest of the book the following week.

happy reading!

mike

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven: A Drug called tradition.

In “A Drug Called Tradition” a short story by Sherman Alexie. This story is featured in the book “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven” we see more play on the theme of social class. only this time it is seen from the bottom looking up. Sometimes people of a lower social class have nothing but their traditions, when these traditions fall by the wayside a severe self deprecation begins to take shape.
Thomas builds the fire is an Indian living on a Spokane Indian reservation, who is not sure of his place in the social spectrum. Thomas came into money when a power company leased some of the land he inherited to run power lines across. Thomas is a humble Indian who usually gets handed the bill for the alcohol fueled Indian pow wows. The Indians on this reservation seem to be blinded by the effects of alcohol. Ancient traditions have been replaced by binge drinking. Indulging in the consumption of alcohol is all they have left. They blame the white man for these burdens but do nothing to change their situation.
Thomas is a known storyteller. He is infamous for his gift for gab. One day while the effects of the drugs he and his friends had taken were starting to wear off, Thomas began to tell one of his morally soaked stories. The story he begins to tell features him and the two friends he is with as young Indians, before alcohol had diminished their dreams and aspirations. In the story the boys were being offered their first drinks ever, but instead of accepting they refuse the drinks. In refusing they are able to see a glimpse of a future that could have been rich in heritage and traditions. Traditions are important for the Indians, a silent protest against the white man. The only way they can fight against the white man is to stay rich in tradition, the one thing that can not be stolen from them. “I dance one step and my sister rises from the ash, I dance another and a Buffalo crashes down from the sky into a log cabin in Nebraska with every step an Indian rises, with every step a Buffalo falls…they knock all the white people from their beds, send plates crashing to the floor” (Alexie p. 17). It is apparent that the dancing represents the traditions and the buffalo disrupting the white mans sleep and destroying their valuables represents the power of staying true to you traditions. These traditions are the only bullet the Indians have left in the battle against the white mans oppression. The white man never considers the social class of the Indian man. For the Indian man to overcome this social oppression they must see beyond themselves, turn their backs on the bottle of alcohol and stay true to their traditions. In doing so they can overcome this obvious social oppression.

posted by Michael Clark

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven was my favorite collection so far. Sherman Alexie drew on his personal experiences growing up on a reservation to write this collection of beautiful, funny, sad and all around entertaining short stories. He writes in way that makes the reader feel as if they’re not reading, but listening to him speak. Alexie uses language that isn’t typical in literature, he writes like he speaks; he curses, he’s sarcastic and funny. The language also gives a better sense of the imagery so you can see and hear everything that was going on. In the introduction he admits that the mouse really did run up his aunt’s pant leg as depicted in “The Fun House” and his father really did put a passed out drunk on a roller coaster in “Amusements” and there are other examples as well. In my personal opinion some of the best stories are drawn on truths, and then exaggerated of course.


-Kaitlyn Lyons

The short stories are interconnected, but each is story is extremely unique . All of the stories center around the life of the Native Americans, or Indians, on the Spokane Indian Reservation. The book explains Victor Joseph and his friends and family and the lives they share and live . He tells some of the stories from his first-person perspective which makes the stories very interesting to read and help keep you awake. Alexis Sheridan is a writer able to use the ability to use imagery help paint the picture of the story she is trying to tell. By using flashbacks and poem passages it enables the reader to become more engaged in reading . Her writing is able to posses a character of its own and helps follow the story.
All of these interconnected stories share many of the same common themes . Through the books humor , honestly you are able to see the characters come to life while dealing with ethnic pride, native american stereotypes, substance abuse, poverty and dysfunctional families. Sermons story A train is an order of occurrence designed to lead some result. I found this shared the common theme of a family unable or having a hard time fitting in. This reminded me of the last story we read in the last collection of a family having top assimilate and finding difficulty between cultures. This story also portrayed another theme of the book which was alcoholism , when he speaks about drinking, and passing out. This I found entertaining and brought of the lightheartedness throughout the story. Thomas builds the fire, offers up another character in my opinion pointing out what seems to be the obvious in stories, because it is the only truth the stories hold, and yet is not taken seriously. this particular short story was my favorite. I really enjoyed the overall humor of being put on trial for being real and saying what is true.
Overall I enjoyed this book immensely . There were many themes that were carried throughout the entire text and all the stories were connected.

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven - Part II

In the second half of Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven I read of more sorrow, tradition, and humor. But, even more impressive to me in this set of stories was the imagery that was used. I always find it intriguing how the simple use of describing something specifically can add such power to a story. In Alexie's The First Annual All-Indian Horseshoe Pitch and Barbecue something so simple as laying under a picnic table was described so gracefully that it made me want to be under that very table. “There is something beautiful about the cool grass beneath a picnic table. I was there, half asleep, when my love crawled under, wrapped her arms around me, and sang into my ear... The sunlight squeezed through spaces between wood, fell down knotholes, but just enough to warm my face (146).”
Have you ever read a passage from a story and it seemed to transcend reality and put you in that place in your mind? Alexie has this gift. His description and imagery has the power to make you feel as though you are watching a movie or physically there watching the events play out. The passage from Alexie's Family Portrait that was describing sniffing gas also made me feel like I was watching a movie rather than reading a book. “Everything underwater, like walking across the bottom of Benjamin Lake, past dead horses and abandoned tires. Legs tangled in seaweed, dance, dance again, kick the feet until you break free. Stare up at the surface, sunlight filtered through water like fingers, like a hand filled with the promise of love and oxygen (197-98).”
I find it truly amazing to come up with such vivid analogies. For me to think up something as colorful and real as the passages that I pointed out would take me forever. It is truly a fantastic talent and a mark of what an amazing writer Alexie truly is.


Posted by: Krista Behrends

mps The... Fist Fight in Heaven

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven
By Sherman Alexie

This collection of short stories was has rightfully be said to startle and dazzle. It is the smartest collection of stories I’ve read to date. Using a free yet very descriptive style Alexie sets the tone for a poetic introduction to the oppressions and liberations of the Native American Culture. Alexie’s voice and word choice is dirty and honest but it is also spiritual and natural which makes it feel so pure… “Soon everybody from the party was on the lawn, dancing in the snow, fucking in the snow, fighting in the snow.” (Every Little Hurricane p.10) It’s a witty, lyrical interpretation of whom his people naturally are, laughing loving and fighting. His voice and style are also remarkably funny. It’s humor miraculously manage to dodge themes of misfortune, depression, and loss of his people. So instead of being dark or even sarcastic it is simply smart and clever. “…She named him ------- which means: He Who Crawls Silently Through the Grass with a Small Bow and One Bad Arrow Hunting for Enough Deer to Feed the Whole Tribe… We just called him James.” (Jesus Christ’s Half Brother is Alive and Well on the Spokane Indian Reservation p. 110)
It is Alexie’s voice that keeps these stories, all of which lack any sort of victory or overcoming, from being hopeless. It’s humor and honesty enveloped presence of mother earth’s character preserve us and allow us to accept that things are not good. But at least we can still laugh, we can love, and in time, yes eventually we’ll die.
I was captivated by Alexie’s story; A Train is an Order of Occurrence Designed To lead to Some Result. (P130) The story carries a theme common with most of the stories in the work. This inability the people have to fully assimilate to an American culture that is not their own. I was surprised by our main character Samuel’s optimism and than tickled by the renovations he made in his apartment (making it resembled the inside of a tipi.) eventually I was humbled as his view of the world became more familiar to the view I’ve come to know from other pieces in this work. Something like coming to terms with being at the bottom and deciding what to do about it. “Some times it’s called passing out and sometimes its called falling asleep (p138) Alexie says, after Samuel trips on the tracks of an on coming train. “ There is something about trains, drinking and being Indian with nothing to lose.” I enjoyed this intimate story of Samuel, just a fish out of water. He did his best but didn’t survive on the outside.

secretary of bestcornergroup08,

melissapierresaint





interview with sherman alexie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWolPAoDk3g

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie

In the first half of Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven I discovered a colorful, captivating and sadly realistic collection of stories. We follow Victor through his memories as a Native American growing up on a modern reservation. All the stories seem to be a mix of truth and story-telling. The present is often broken up by looking back to tell a story of the past. Each story is almost interconnected as if this book is one whole short story with chapters even though this is not the case. What makes it appear this way is the idea that Victor is the narrator and usually a character in each story. In Every Little Hurricane we are introduced to Victor as a nine year old boy who tells a story about a party in his home. Fights break which leads to more fighting. This story is told in a way that the narrator is telling the story but it seems to be coming from the memory of Victor himself. In Amusements the story is told in the first person by Victor himself. It is a story about One Indian names Dirty Joe who gets drunk at a carnival and Victor and Sadie put him on a roller coaster while he is passed out. It somehow makes you laugh and cringe simultaneously. Finally, in Fun House Victor is the narrator who is telling a story about his Aunt who one day has enough with her husband and son and spends the day floating on her back in the creek.
Most interesting to me in this collection is the character Thomas-Builds-The-Fire, he is a main character in and out of these stories. He seems to foreshadow events in Victor's life and on the reservation. In the short story The Trial of Thomas-Builds-The-Fire he is described as someone who has “a storytelling fetish accompanied by an extreme need to tell the truth (93).” He is on trial in this story for telling the truth. Often Thomas weaves stories from his minds eye and people don't like to hear them because they know that his stories hold the truth. So, instead they write him off as crazy or delusional. There was one story he told that, to me, foreshadowed Victor's character and summed up the stories in this book. In Alexie's A Drug Called Tradition Victor, Junior, and Thomas go out by the lake and take a drug in hope to see their calling or what they are supposed to do with their lives. To finally get their Indian names. Instead Thomas tells them, “Your past is a skeleton walking one step behind you, and your future is a skeleton walking one step in front of you... these skeletons are made of memories, dreams, and voices... That's what Indian time is. The past, the future, all wrapped up in the now (21-22).” This being the second short story in this particular collection really struck me. It is the reason, it seems, why the stories are told the way they are. The narrator's style of story telling always includes stories from the past, memories, and a question about tomorrow while happening usually in the present. I found this fascinating.

Posted by: Krista Behrends

Group Presentations

Choose one of the following. The presentation will be worth one response paper. The week your group presents, you do not have to turn in a response paper.

• Imagine you are turning one of the short stories into a film and are pitching it to producers who are considering funding the project. Make your vision for the project and your enthusiasm clear. Discuss setting, vital scenes, plot structure, and character. You can also discuss music, actors, and location. Act out one scene..

• Create a video or a short play of one pivotal scene from one of the assigned short stories. Show or perform this scene (try to incorporate setting) and discuss its importance to the story as a whole.

• Create your own response and interpretation to one of the short stories through any means you’d like, but submit the proposal in writing for approval at least one week prior to your assigned date to give your presentation.

The presentation should be 10 –15 minutes, should incorporate craft terminology, shed meaning on the text, and engage the class. Creativity is encouraged.

Ordering Jesus' Son

Since the bookstore doesn't have copies of Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son, please remember to order a copy this week.

Here are a few options:

1. Search www.IndieBound.org to order from your local independent bookstore.
2. www.powells.com or call 800 - 878 - 7323.
3. Try Abe books:
www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=denis+johnson&sts=t&tn=jesus%27+son&x=0&y=0

~karen

post

blog brittany rehain

Week 2 response upload... Revelation" by Flannery O'Conner

"Revelation" was interesting to me as well. Again it took me a moment to decide how I felt about the narrator, but soon found out that she is reliably nuts. Mrs. Turpin sees herself one way when it is quite obvious that many see her as the polar opposite. She is under the illusion that she is a kind, compassionate person who goes out of her way to help others. She portrays herself to the others in this waiting room as such. At the same time as she is coloring the picture of herself as a saint she has internal monologues that are utterly disturbing and plain disgusting. She often thanks god for making her who she is, and how she would feel if she were lower class. She often debates which extreme "negatives" she would rather be if forced to choose by Jesus himself. She debates weather she would rather be white trash or a person of color. Mrs. Turpin is compulsive and judgmental. We see examples of this throughout. For instance how she notices peoples feet all the time or how if it were her office the ash trey would be cleaned out on the regular. At the story's climax a young woman ends up attacking Mrs. Turpin, and says a haunting phrase to her. "Go back to hell you old wart hog". She dismisses the girl as a loon, but the statement begins to sink in to her psyche. She can not even close her eyes with out seeing an image of an old wart hog. Mrs. Turpin has a revelation at the story's end where she sees a procession of people ascending into heaven. Perhaps she will finally see that we all begin and end in the same place, that in heaven there are no classes. Maybe it is about time she implemented this into her life here on earth.

posted by Michael Clark

Week 2 response upload... "the girl with the blackened eye" by Joyce Carol Oates

I would first like to mention that the blog situation is already helping me uncover themes that I was having a hard time putting my finger on. The two stories that Stood out the most to me were "The Girl with the Blackened Eye" by Joyce Carol Oates, and "Revelation" by Flannery O'Conner.

In "The Girl with the Blackened Eye" we are told about the horrific experience of a young girl who was abducted for a period of eight days. The narrator seems to be reliable and starts off with explaining how normal she is, just like any other girl at her high school. How she was abducted, but also how it could happen to anyone. she compares her experience to situations that are out of our hands like a plane crash or being struck by lightning. That but with a human element. the human element is what makes this such a scary story, the fact that not only could this happen to any of our daughters, but that it indeed does happen. She begins to realize that her captor seems to be taking pity on her, giving her small morsels of food and drink, what she describes as barely enough to sustain life. Her abductor has been through this before and usually ends up suffocating his victims after he "tires of them". Interesting to me was that he knew early that he was not going to kill her, saying "I don't know why yet that you have been spared". She questions what makes her different than the other victims. She believes that she looks old for her age and when abducted she was mistaken for an older girl. That he only noticed how young she was after a few days of emaciation have set in, revealing her small mid-pubesent frame. He begins to break all his own rules, parading her around in his car in plain sight, even though there are signs of physical abuse all over her body and of course her blackened eye. At this time she begins to wonder if she will be noticed from the TV news reports or if she will be dismissed as a girl with a black eye who had it coming.
Also interesting to me was the transference that seems to be taking place here. the abductor and abductees seem to in some twisted way care for one another. This is not uncommon in kidnapping situations. He would carefully buckle her in the car and ask if she was OK. Meanwhile she has plenty of chances to escape but chooses not to for one reason or another. In the conclusion she makes an interesting point about how her life was most "real" for those eight days, and that everything else from then on was surreal.

posted by Michael Clark

Revelation by Flannery O'Connor

Krista Behrends

Hello everyone here is my response to this weeks readings.

The group of short stories that we recently read seems to have a common thread of loss and dealing with life’s obstacles. In Lorrie Moore’s writing People Like That Are The Only People Here: Canonical Babbling in Peed Onk, Flannery O’Connor’s Revelation, and Amy Hempel’s In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried, we see three different stories of friends and family dealing with struggles in the same setting. They all take place in a hospital or doctor’s office. The most interesting connection to me was Joyce Carol Oates’ The Girl with the Blackened Eye and Lorrie Moore’s piece. In both writings there is a disconnection of mind and body. Oates writing was about a girl who was abducted and tortured physically, sexually, and emotionally. It is her looking back at what happened. But, she disconnects herself from the situation by referring to herself in third person often and speaking about it as though she were not actually there. For example she says, “I’m saying these things were done to me but in fact they were done to my body mostly (201).” This is an understandable disconnection with one’s body when you go through such a dramatic event. She also looks back as though she is telling someone else’s story when she says, “In the backseat the girl was crying. If she had tears she would have cried (206).” This is another example of disconnection in the main character. Similarly, the Mother in Moore’s story always refers to herself as Mother with a capital “M” and Baby and Husband. She never gives the family names as if it was only a story and not real. As if giving names to the family members would be to admit that the pain was real. I thought this was an interesting connection.
The story that was most interesting to me was Flannery O’Connor’s Revelation. Interesting diction was used. Again you see the use of language to show the difference in class. O’Connor’s character Mrs. Turpin uses an interesting way to describe the other characters. Most of the surrounding characters are not given names. Rather, they are named after a trait that Mrs. Turpin notices. Such as “the well-dressed lady” or “the ugly girl” (254). The readers know early on that Mrs. Turpin is not a good person but Mrs. Turpin herself takes longer to have this revelation. Dramatic irony comes in to play when Mrs. Turpin sees the events that played out differently than the readers see it. She absolutely is an “old wart hog” (266). My favorite part of the story is when she is hosing down the hogs while screaming and challenging God. All the while she is hurting the pregnant sow and saying that she was a woman of God that did good for the church (273). Until she saw people of every color and walk of life walking toward the gates of heaven she still did not have her “revelation.” Even after that the reader still doubts whether Mrs. Turpin got the message. I truly enjoyed Flannery O’Connor’s storytelling skills in this short story.

Posted by: Krista Behrends

Gryphon by Charles Baxter.

Gryphon, a short story by Charles Baxter to me is an interesting and complex story. The story speaks of a Miss Ferenczi, an artsy nonconformist substitute teacher in rural Michigan. The children in the story are excited that their usual teacher Mr. Hibler is coming down with a cold. They know that if Mr. Hibler is sick they will get the usual run of the mill substitute teacher that will have them playing board games and recess all day. They think, like all younger grade-schoolers, that a day with a Sub is almost as good a day off. They are in for a surprise when Miss Ferenczi is called in for duty. Miss Ferenczi starts out by immediately drawing a tree on the blackboard, this seems harmless enough, but when questioned why she was drawing this she simply said "because this room feels like it needs a tree that's why". The students are realizing that the day of fun they had expected was not going as planned. Miss Ferenczi immediately established that she was not going to be like the other substitute teachers by issuing an ultimatum to the staring students. She warns that the children not stare at her. That they may continue to stare until the bell rings but after class begins she will not tolerate the staring. she said " looking I will permit. staring no. it is impolite to stare and a sign of bad breeding. You can not make a social effort while staring."
At first glance it seems that Miss Ferenczi is the real deal and should not be questioned, but soon after her underbelly is exposed. John a student from class answers the question six times eleven is sixty eight, and Miss Ferenczi said "fine". Then the students begin to question her, knowing that six times eleven is indeed sixty six. Here is where her pathology begins to take shape. She tell the kids that sometimes it is sixty eight. The kids continue to question her asking when is it sixty eight? she replies "in higher mathematics, which you children do not understand". I wonder if this was a common mistake and that Miss F. just was not paying attention and simply approved the wrong answer, or if she is so anti establishment that she will sabotage the minds of these conforming youth.
Miss Ferenczi begins to teach the unit on Egypt. Again she goes away from the book and its teachings and begins to try to explain reincarnation to the kids, scaring them a bit, using terms like you will be judged by how you lived "well or ill". This will determine weather you go up or down. She even tells the kids there is no death, so there is nothing to be afraid of. Now the kids think she is a loon but are too "in place" to say something to her. They let he continue on her rants about astrology in ancient Egypt. She really loses them when she starts to explain the Gryphon, a mythical half bird half lion.
On the bus home that afternoon the kids are vehemently discussing Miss Ferenczi's web of lies.
"Six times eleven isn't ever sixty eight, it is sixty six, I know for a fact" said the foul breathed Carl Whiteside. The narrator is in sensory overload when he arrives home, and begins to explain why his substitute teacher is crazy. His mother just dismisses him an shoves him in the direction of his afternoon chores. Before he starts however, he sneaks off and grabs the dictionary. Determined to prove Miss Ferenczi wrong once and for all he flips to the G's. To his surprise he finds the definition for Gryphon, and of course it tells of a fabulous creature with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion. Credibility restored... for now.
The next day is where she really goes too far. She begins reading the fortunes of these poor students. Which you may think is fine, telling some that they will be happy, or live a fruitful life. It is when the cards tell her that one of the children, Wayne, will die an untimely death. This does not go over well with the student. He tattles on Miss Ferenczi to the principal. Miss Ferenczi is told to go home. Our narrator is torn between his allegiance for his new idol Miss F. and his friend. he starts to tease Wayne about being scared of a card and that he is chicken. this ends in fisticuffs between Wayne and the narrator.
This story illustrates how naive children can be. That they really are hanging on our every word. I can relate to this one in many ways. I remember believing and questioning at the same time everything my grade school teachers would say. One teacher of mine, Ms. Toumey, told me once that if someone slapped me on the back while I was making funny faces that my face would be permanently stuck that way, FOREVER!! I believed her and even began telling everyone else to be careful because it could happen to them as well.

posted by
Michael Clark

Optional Alternative for Response Papers: Blog Posts

Hi Class,

Here's an option for posting to the blog instead of submitting a response paper.

Let me know if you have any questions.

~Karen

Optional Alternative for Response Papers: Blog Posts

Submit two blog posts and comment on two posts not your own.

Important: Cut and paste your posts and comments, print them out, and submit in class as you would a response paper.

1. Create two blog posts:

a. One post on the overall group of stories assigned:

Post should cover: What connects the stories? What craft issues tie them together (theme, voice, character, tone, etc.)? Write about the general impressions of the text.

b. One post examining one particular short story:

Focus on one particular story (preferably one you loved) from the assigned text. This should explain why the story engaged you and should not be a plot summary. It would be helpful to discuss the aims of the story and what is at issue both on the surface and sub-textually in the piece. You should point to specific moments in the text to illustrate your points. Be sure to address the impact of the story on you as a reader and what does it leave you with after you’ve read it? What moments were the most striking for you? Why did you choose this story to annotate?


2. Post Two Comments on two posts not your own:

a. Post two (civil) comments on other people’s blog posts. Further the idea presented with additional examples, respectfully disagree providing evidence from text, ect.


Optional:
Post links to short stories you’ve read and liked, author interviews with authors we’re discussing for this class, etc.

Hey there classmates!

This is the blog for the modern American short stories 3070.21 Monday night class.
It is simple to navigate and should be easy for all us computer illiterate night schoolers.
mike