Week of 06/21

Goldberg
The part I really enjoyed about Goldberg was on page 154, the whole first paragraph really stands out. He talks about people reading writing, even their own writing and how they don't comment on the quality. People don't know the quality of their work and how extraordinary it is. For me, it reminded me of the day we shared our fiction with our groups, and most people left really good comments on one of my pieces called What seemed like freedom. The comments were really genuine, (even you said it was a good story) barely any corrections. And it just made me think I never think my writing is good! Kind of like I write and then hide my face, kind of thing. Even as a little girl when I used to do far more writing, getting writing awards in elementary and middle and high school, I still always thought people were exaggerating. So it made me think, I need to give myself more credit and when I read other great writing do the same!

Week of 06/14/2012

I really enjoyed The Falling Girl from Fiction Packet 3. I think the woman falling from the skyscraper building was symbolic for growing up too fast. There are a few reasons why I thought this. For one, I thought it was strange the conversations she was having as she was "falling." One person she caught an attitude with because he questioned why she was falling saying, "you've got your whole life ahead of you." She also talks to people who are trying to invite her to a party but she says she can't because she's in a hurry. Also, in the story, she refers to a woman who is a couple meters above her, falling off the skyscraper but she'd be the one to make it to the party. The language of the story is very descriptive, almost poetic and very pretty. There's a lot of talk about the sun illuminating her beautiful dress and the dark windows of this skyscraper building that can give you a visual picture of a beautiful building in the city, very lavish as well. There were a couple things I thought were confusing or rather I wasn't sure what to make of. The conversation between the couple that enjoyed living at the bottom of the skyscraper. They liked it because they could see the women hit the ground, and also made a reference for the prices being so high because people were jumping off. That was strange I wasn't sure what the symbolism could be for that. There's another part where Marta, the main character who was falling notices other girls jumping and they're saying it's a contest. I thought that was confusing because on one hand I thought maybe she's saying life is a contest between those beautiful girls, which was how she described them. But was she apart of that contest as well? The text talked about her being beautiful, but why did she pass those people trying to invite her to a party if she was too in a contest with the beautiful ones, living a lavish life.

Week of 06/05

I always tend to write about the stories I thought were weird, or confusing. I thought Field's writing was peculiar, but in a good way. I loved the format of the story. I liked the way the quotations were in the center of the page, away from the rest of the story. It made it stand out. Since the main character in the story is silent, I believe the dialogue was placed there because it was important. I'm a bit confused by the italicized text in the story. There is an italicized paragraph that starts, "I surveyed the ceiling of my prison..." and I'm wondering if that was a flashback? I believe the italicized text is important as well since it is in a different format than the rest of the story. At first, I perceived the main character to be a young woman, sitting in her therapist's office. She was silent because she was perhaps sent there, or decided she needed therapy but didn't know what to say. And the girls, were maybe just people she saw on the street that she used as distractions. But after further reading, I believe the main character is a man, perhaps some sort of serial killer. I came to that conclusion after reading, "too bad you have to die in here, sometimes I feel bad and want to disrupt the killing spree." Also there is a line that alludes to him (or her) being a criminal, "I am really the criminal you won't say I am."

What I liked about her writing is how it just grabs you. As I said, I thought it was a bit weird at first but I just kept reading and found myself asking more questions. From the descriptions of several cats, I'm assuming the therapist maybe had a few cats in her office. And I think they were placed in the story to see the true nature of the main character. There is a lot of ___ that serial killers being sociopaths, probably hurt animals in their childhood. I'm wondering if the man was fixated on the cats because he wanted to hurt them, since he did say he was planning to ask if the cat was dead or alive. I'm still a bit confused about the significance of the cats. At the end of the story, it left me wondering if he killed his therapist, or if he just left, or maybe if he was a killer at all.

I did enjoy the Edgar Allen Poe bit, it once again alludes to the fact the main character might be a bit mad, seeing as Poe was seen as mad and also wrote strange short stories.