A Piece of My Mind. @summerbane - Tumblr Blog

At first I didn’t think that I would like “The Road” because it seemed to be moving pretty slow with not much happening in the story. It seemed like I was reading the same thing over and over and the story just kept repeating itself. Now that I have read more of the story I can say that I am…

nitsirkeellehcim

I agree, the pacing of the book felt pretty slow, but for me that feeling never really left. I felt like I was reading the same things over and over again with the only small differences happening with how and where they found food. I think that the lack of chapters illustrates the life of the father and son really well. Without chapters the book has a somewhat endless feel to it which mirrors the journey of the father and son. The beach was their destination but when that did not pan out they just headed somewhere else because in reality there is no end for them, except death.

summerbane

I agree with you both. As much as I was not a fan of reading the slow-paced, repetitive narrative of this book, I loved the fact that McCarthy wrote it in that way. By getting the feeling that time was just dragging along, the reader gets to connect with the characters on a deeper level. It is one thing to hear what they think (even though in this book not so much) but it is another to feel what they feel. In my opinion, the novel would not have nearly been as effective if it was written and read at a fast pace.

A theme I gathered from the The Road was perseverance. In a time in which it was questionable whether or not it was even worth-while to stay alive, the man endured starvation, severely cold weather, and the loss of his wife just in order to keep hope alive for his son and himself. I think that message is one that a lot of people should hear and take heart to. Especially in our times now, people often give up just as things are getting hard. The man and his son persevered through and survived a lot more than most people in the world did. They were the good guys: they didn’t give up.

graysschoolthing

at fist i thought the road was going to be really dull, but i like the writing style and really appreciate the book because even if the book seems like the first ten pages over and over i think that it takes great skill to write a book in this manner and still have a story line worth sticking with. I wanted to put the book down after the first few pages but decided to stick it out and have really enjoyed the book so far. The author does a good job in making the reader feel exactly how desolate the world is. My favorite part so far is when the kid has his first coke and how he enjoyed it. It reminded me of something I read he other day talking about the feeling you would have if you could watch your favorite movie for the fist time again or re your favorite book for the fist time. This simple thing really spoke to me about how people can still find comfort and happiness despite how hard the times get.

summerbane

Leave it to Gray to make me see this book in a whole new light! Haha. I am really hoping as I catch up and finish this book that I will enjoy the story and how it is written. Gray makes some good points in how through McCarthy’s imagery, the reader feels as if they are experiencing the frigid, cold nights and walking down the road, seeing the bare, grey world around them. Especially in a world in which we don’t know too well, McCarthy’s writing clearly sets the scene and transports us into the moment with the man and his son.

My current opinions regarding The Road are mixed- however favoring slightly more negative. As with the other novels that we have read that I did not care for too much, I am not necessarily drawn to the topic that the book is centered around, but I enjoy and appreciate the style in which the book is written. It may not be my favorite- for instance, the dragging along of the narrative (“get to the dang point!”)- but I understand why the author decided to write it in such a way. If that makes sense. I have come to the conclusion that The Road is not necessarily the best novel for a “short and sweet” kind of girl like myself.

kathief4

Eleven

Avril Lavigne’s song, ‘Here’s to Never Growing Up’, is a great example of most of the main characters in “A Visit from the Goon Squad”. Lou used young girls to hold onto his youth. Bennie used gold flakes in his coffee to try and restore his youthful virility. The characters in this book are related to the music industry and music has always been a creative way to voice human emotion. The passage of time happens to those of us lucky enough to experience it, but time is not kind. We fight to hold onto our youth, but as long as we live, it is a losing battle. 11/8/13.

summerbane

I really love the comparison you make to how the characters not only literally connect to the music industry, but also do symbolically. The punk-rock references throughout the novel really make it unique. In regards to a theme of holding onto youth, I can see how that plays through. A big example is in the scene in which Lou is dying and Rhea and Jocelyn come to visit. While Rhea and Bennie had gone on with their lives and grown up (for the most part), Jocelyn was facing the consequences of trying to hold on to her youth a little too long. What I liked about the book was the ability to relate to the characters. Through the different stories and narratives, I feel like we kind of grew up with Bennie and the others. Just like they faced the struggle and adversity of growing up and letting go, as often do we.

What I really loved most about A Visit From the Goon Squad was the character development- especially of Sasha and Bennie (the main characters, of course). Once I caught on and understood how Egan wrote the narrative, jumping back and forth in time, I enjoyed the perspective. I really liked “meeting” Sasha and Bennie in the “present” at the beginning of the book and then being taken back and seeing them in their adolescents. I think by jumping in time and between narrators, the character development was taken to a new level. That postmodern aspect of the novel made the characters seem more real and dynamic in my view.

gramsey0507

So far my impressions of “A Visit from the Goon Squad” are not great. As with “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” I appreciate the way the novel is written but the actual story itself doesn’t catch my interest. The unique techniques that are used to write the story are very interesting. I feel...

summerbane

I agree and feel a lot like you do in regards to the book so far. In most books I become so into and consumed by the story and the characters that I do not want to put the book down because I feel so connected with it. I have failed to feel that way about this novel so far. Like you said, I appreciate the way the book is written and believe it would make a pretty interesting movie, but novel wise it is falling short of my expectations. However, I’m still hoping I will feel differently once I finish it.

Goon Squad.

I am still not too sure how I feel about this novel. I appreciate the postmodern uniqueness of the narrative in how you hear little bits of everyone’s lives. I think it’s so interesting because I have always held the idea that “everyone has a story” that has made them the person they turned out to be. I enjoyed being introduced to Bennie as a successful middle-aged man and then going into the next chapter and seeing him as a teenager. The part of this that I don’t necessarily like is that by hearing mini stories of several characters, we don’t really get a well-rounded story of a main character. I am hoping once I finish the book all of the loose ends will tie together; if not, A Visit From The Goon Squad may not be one of my favorites.

"Real Housewives of Disney- Beauty & Beast"

I realize a lot of people are posting videos this week, and as one of those who cannot come up with my own spin on a classic fairytale, I too turned to YouTube. Through some searches I found this; it may be either my love for The Beauty and the Beast or the fact that it’s late at night, but I found this hilarious. The spin this video portrays is that Belle has fallen in love with Beast’s monster side and she loses the “spark” between them when he starts becoming more human.

It is always fun to play on classic fairytales just like in Generation X. I think the ties to all of the different Disney stories is what made that excerpt most enjoyable for me.

its-ashree

I know this post was suppose to be writing a story but I can’t so hopefully this video makes up for it. Listen to the lyrics closely now.

Generation X is not your normal fairy tale story and it wouldn’t be something I would read to my little cousins for sure. I want them to be able to enjoy their childhood till they come across stories like these when they get older. I enjoyed reading it a lot. It reminded me of the TV series Once Upon A Time, which I recommend you guys should watch.

I like how this story is like awe another love story and then when you get to the ending its sad and funny. I’m still laughing how the sisters were just like what he said about the bringing back to life was just a bunch of bull shit. But hey it could be true because where he lives the technology is very high tech.

October 25, 2013

summerbane

This is AMAZING! Not only am I like you and can’t write my own postmodern spin on a classic fairytale, but now I feel completely untalented after watching this guy’s video!

I will be the first admit my love for all of the Disney princesses and the magical idea of a “happily ever after.” Although I hate to break the trance of the fairytale magic, I do see that it is important to acknowledge reality in life and in these stories. I think this video did an incredible job of relaying these classic stories in a realistic light in a unique and fun way.

Thinking about all of the readings we have worked through so far, and working our way through the idea of Postmodernism, I feel like I have made incredible progress in understanding new forms of literature and appreciating styles that are technically written “outside of the box.” Before this class, any reading I did was linear, “played by the book” novels. That was my comfort zone. It is always refreshing to venture outside of those comfort zones, especially knowing there are twenty-something other people doing the same thing. I am thankful for this class and what it is teaching me, as well as excited for what is in store for the next half of the semester.

starespera

After reading “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” I began to realize that the style of writing and the pictures were more intriguing and had more impact than the story itself. I do not know if it was because the ending had no conclusion, but I think it was because the book had a lot of artistic qualities. It was creative, fresh and it somehow linked to my favorite hobby: photography. In photography, there’s so much more to it than just the point and shoot, it is far more complex. There’s perspective, angles, lighting etc. that one has to consider. I can link photography to the novel for the simple fact that the author had taken a story and shot (wrote) it in different perspectives. The author was also flexible with the style of writing and used different techniques, and like in photography, one can use different techniques to paint a specific scene or express a certain emotion. The pictures were just as intriguing as the style of writing. I am a very visual person so being able to see what Oskar was seeing was almost fortunate. The last pictures were the ones that had the greatest effect on me. Even though I was witnessing a man falling, the author’s twist of putting it backwards made the book even more beautiful. It looked like the man was going up to heaven, and that’s definitely comforting.

summerbane

I love your take on this book. Linking Foer’s work to photography creates a beautiful comparison. The way Foer manipulated the photos and writing in the book is what made me love it so much. Not only is his style unique and refreshing, but it also serves as almost a visual aid if you will. I felt like I was even more inside of Oskar’s head while looking at the pictures that were in his “things that happened to me” folder. Also, I loved the scenes with the grandfather where the pages of the book were depicting the pages of his daybooks and how Foer gave the reader the responsibility of figuring out the other end of the conversation. Because of his style, Foer made me feel alive inside of the novel; I felt what they felt, I saw what they saw, and so on and so on.

Not-so-Happily Ever After.

Thinking back on everything we knew when we were young, you can easily understand why many of us were not happy with the ending of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. As children who were raised watching Disney movies and reading fairy tales, we were spoon-fed the idea that “everything was perfect in the kingdom and they all lived happily ever after.” The ugly truth is that that idea of life is not always true- it just took Jonathan Foer to break it to us. Trust me, I absolutely hated the ending just as much as the next person, but in Foer’s defense, the way he chose to wrap up the book depicted reality far more than any other ending could have.

kathief4

summerbane

kathief4:

I have finished reading “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”. I feel that the ending left the reader hanging. I want to know what happened next! Did Oskar’s grandparents reconcile? Did they live happily ever after in the airport terminal? Did Oskar ever get to meet Stephen Hawking? Does his relationship with his mother ever improve? Does Oskar ever tell her about the phone messages? I was looking forward to the story ending and the tying up of loose ends. I knew Oskar’s dad was dead, but there was a nagging question of whether he just went away like his father before him. I was also hoping to learn that Oskar’s mother never worried about where he was because she knew he was secretly being followed by his grandfather. I am really disappointed in the ending. 10/3/13

I had the same feelings regarding the ending of the book. I am one of those people who don’t want you to just tell me that that something ended happily, but tell me exactly what happened to make it happy. And in regards to Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, the author didn’t even tell us that “they lived happily ever after.” Like you said, it just ended. If I read a novel like this one, by the end of it I have an attachment to the characters (no matter how annoying) and I want to know in detail how their lives and characters evolve.

kathief4

Four. Random. Today in class we discussed four writings by different authors. I must admit that I found them all to be quite random. Most of them didn’t makes sense to me. They seemed to be trying to make sense of a lot of randomness and vise-versa. The readings somewhat reminded me of American humorist Jack Handey’s ‘Deep Thoughts’, “I think a good novel would be where a bunch of men on a ship are looking for a whale. They look and look, but you know what They never find him. And you know why they never find him It doesn’t say. The book leaves it up to you, the reader, to decide. Then, at the very end, there’s a page you can lick and it tastes like Kool-Aid.”

After discussing them in class, they made more sense, but I still don’t care for this writing style. I didn’t care for the serious nature of Linda Barry’s comic strips. I was lost on what Laurie Anderson was trying to communicate. Even after listening to her tell ‘The Ugly One with the Jewels’, all I could relate it to was a beatnik from the 1960’s. ‘Beloved’ was a difficult read to make sense of, but I did gather that it was a slave story of the impossibly hard life that was forced upon them. ‘Shiloh’ was the most linear story and for me the easiest to follow. I can see the cultural side to all of the stories AFTER discussing them, but don’t think I would have found that cohesive line of thought without the class discussions. 9/18/13

summerbane

I can completely relate to you, Kathy. I, too, have such a hard time reading pieces like these and trying to figure out the real meaning behind them. But as soon as we discuss them in class and get some insight from Prof Clark, they start to make a little more sense. I would much rather read a linear, simple to read piece because, well, that’s what I’m used to and that’s what is easy to read and understand. I really did not enjoy any of the four writings either; and although it is nice to get the opportunity to practice breaking them down, I for one am not getting any better at it! Haha.

Reality.

Despite O’Brien’s beautiful words and vivid imagery, I made it through the whole book with dry eyes. Well, I almost did. Not until the very last story of the book did I tear up; and that’s where I started to question myself. How is it that I could read O’Brien’s descriptions of the war- all of the physical and emotional burdens that the men faced, the presence of death among the innocent, etc. - and it not bring me to tears? However, in the last story when O’Brien is telling the story of Linda, I could not hold back the tears. I am certainly not placing the blame on O’Brien’s writing- I’m bringing myself to question.

After continually rolling this issue around in my head, all I can think of is that no matter how vivid the description, a man being killed while innocently peeing or playing a game of catch just does not register as real to me. I have never seen it happen with my own eyes (thankfully). And yet, we are always hearing stories of young, innocent children dying of terminal illnesses. Maybe that’s why Linda’s story seemed the most real to me. Meaningful or not, this is occurrence has stayed with me long after finishing the book and has been making me consider how naive I (and maybe others) can be to the ugly truths of our world.

graysschoolthing

Lemon Tree

summerbane

A true story:

As I mentioned before, I started The Things They Carried with an extremely closed mind. I was not looking forward to yet another war based novel. However, one slow day at work I was reading the novel and had just read through the story in which Curt Lemon dies and the men sing this song. By this point, my opinion of the book had completely changed and I was so enthralled in it that I was not paying attention to the store or our music playing. A few moments later, an elderly couple coming into the store drew my attention away from the book. I overheard the woman say to her husband, “Can you believe it? I haven’t heard this song in ages!” As I listened to the song that was playing, wouldn’t you believe, it was Lemon Tree.

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