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.