Emergency by Denis Johnson

Wow that was a weird short story... After reading that story, I was confused and amazed by what some pills can do to a person's thoughts! The story was told in first person, and the first person was not trustworthy due to their use of drugs and misconceptions that they had the reader believe. As untrustworthy as all the characters seemed, they were working in healthcare- which is an extremely scary thought! It seems as though the whole health care system in this Catholic Hospital is flawed, with employees taking pills from the cabinets and treating patients improperly. Georgie was supposed to be simply prepping Terrence Wilson, but he instead just took the hunter's knife from his eye and acted as if his actions would have no repercussions. The procedure was a VERY serious one, and I know this and I'm not even a doctor!!! What is even more ironic is that the doctor responded to Georgies actions with "Where did you get that?" and nothing else. The unordinary actions of the doctor, nurse, orderly, and Georgie were questionable and confusing. After the two main characters left the hospital, they seemed to be driving around pointlessly and experiencing hallucinations- graphic hallucinations. These hallucinations including wintery weather in a summer season as described by the narrator, rabbit encounters, and driving thousands of miles but probably only driving in circles pointlessly. The explanation of their travels to the final character we met, Hardee, also confused me. Georgie seemed to be all-knowing of the weird events that occured and Hardee didn't really question any of the things they said. Hardee seems to just randomly show up on the side of the road, and the narrator just happened to know who it was, so that was weird. To sum up this reading it was creepy, confusing, and I wasn't exactly impressed. The confusement was summed up in the last line when Georgie answered the question of what he does for a living with "I save lives." The fact that he pulled that knife from a victims head with no hesitation was weird, but he did save his life. The fact that he killed the mother rabbit but saved the babies does also prove that he saves lives. However despite all of these reasons, they all have hesistations to why this was a bad idea for him to perform any of that. Georgie might actually save lives and be more practical if he wasn't always drugged up, or surrounded by people who were drugged up.

Blog #8 Crying of Lot 49- Final Chapter

This final chapter of the book centers around explaining the history of the Tristero system. This is explained through a discussion done by Mr. Bortz of The Courier’s Tragedy. The history aspect of this chapter definitely lost my attention; I don’t see intriguing information that could possibly come from learning about the fight for power and money between the brothers. The Tristero system seems to depict a certain form that Oepida could take when gaining control of her new inherited company. Oepida went to Mr. Bortz for answers; simply to understand why Tristero was brought up with The Courier’s Travelers.  I feel as though this chapter discusses a bunch of things that make no sense and do not help Oepida find out what she wants to know. The chapter shows frustration with her quest to find answers because once I was done reading, I still had no idea what was going on. The level of unclarity that Oepida must feel is probably just as bad as mine at this point! The final section and final chapter of this book does end with some answers, but does also end in a cliffhanger. We find out that Peirce owned the bookstore where she bought A Couriers Tragedy and this leads her to see that Tristero’s mystery is related to Peirces estate in some way or another. As Oepida is depressed, Genghis continues to research and find information. He lets Oepida know that Peirces stamps will be auctioned off at Lot 49, and she goes there to see who will buy them- yet that was unfortunately left out of the last chapter! I am curious to know who would buy the stamps and what this persons relationship is to Peirce and Oepida. I wonder if Oepida wishes that her life was back to normal, or never got to this point, where it was a wild goose chase to find out more about Peirces Estate instead of living her own life with her husband. I question if she was ever truly in love with her current husband, and she used this journey as a way to separate herself from him.

The Crying of Lot 49: Chapters 1

     Being totally honest, I haven't actually read a true academically assigned novel since high school. I took English at the University of Tampa last year and we strictly read short stories and excerpts. Needless to say, I was not exactly looking forward to the time commitment that this reading was going to entail. However, I can say that after reading the first chapter there is enough action to hopefully keep my attention for the length of the novel.
     In the first chapter, we meet the main characters: Oepida, Pierce (deceased), Mucho Maas, Dr. Hilarius, and Roseman. Oepida is a woman who finds herself in a predicament when her ex-boyfriend leaves her entitled to his company when he passes; this woman, mind you, is married to her current husband Mucho Maas now. She is confused and not certain of how to do anything with the "messy" company that she was left with and she doesn't believe that her husband will be of much help in figuring it out. Then we find out that Dr. Hilarius (ironic name after hearing what he what he asks of her) calls to ask her to participate in an experiment involving LSD- kind of weird and thankfully she declines his offer. Though maybe if she did participate it would make the story a bit more intriguing!
     Since we are discussing chapter one, paragraph one, in class tomorrow I thought I would discuss it a little also. As I described earlier, Oepida found out she was the inheritor of the Pierce estate. When she heard the news, she was under the influence and many thoughts ran through her mind. She thought of a place in Mexico, a Mazatlan door slamming and waking many birds and in the same thought talked of a sunrise at Cornell University that no one could see. She wondered about Pierce, her dead ex boyfriend, and these thoughts made her believe she herself was sick and troubled. I was a little confused at some of her contradicting thoughts, but at the same time she was under the influence of alcohol so weird thoughts aren't exactly unheard of at moments like that.

"A Supermarket in California"

This poem by Allen Ginsberg had definite differences to the last poem we read by him, called “Howl,” both in length and in delivery. Though different in many aspects, this poem did not read in happy tones, just as “Howl” did not. The poem gave off a very negative connotation surrounding around a couple of men, Walt Whitman and Garcia Lorca. After doing a little bit of research, I learned they were both homosexual poets just like Ginsberg so I saw more meaning to the poem. After researching I found meaning in the lines stating, “I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber, poking among the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery boys.” This line points out the homosexuality of Walt Whitman and it’s odd that after the narrator points out the other “normal” families, he can just as easily find Walt Whitman portraying homosexual actions. I have to be honest, I didn’t enjoy this poem at all because I didn’t immediately pick up on the homosexuality and after I learned that I found it even more weird. This poem just adds to my dislike of Allen Ginsberg; I don’t find comfort, joy, or pleasure when reading his poetry and I find myself more disgusted after reading it. I feel as thought that is his pure intention though, to disgust and make his readers feel uncomfortable. As for vocab in this reading, I didn’t think it was a difficult piece to understand at a pure basic level and didn’t see the need to look up definitions. As basic as the wording of the poetry was however, it was definitely a difficult one for me to find a deeper meaning or any meaning at all!

The Glass Menagerie

This play is about a seemingly dysfunctional family consisting of a mother and two children. The mother, Amanda, has high hopes, dreams, and wishes for both of her children. Accordingly, she also has very high expectations. Her husband left her and that leaves Tom in the position as the head of the household. I feel as though this is a set up for disaster from day one because they do not have a "normal" life without a father. Though I am the only child in my family, my mom has been divorced since I was only three months old. Since I didn't have a brother, I have always been held at the highest expectations to succeed and help my mom with literally everything, and this includes things that women don't typically do- especially as a nineteen year old. I see my situation relating to that of Tom's because he is held responsible for things the mother would need from a companion and male. On the other hand, I can also relate to Laura because the mother is so bent on finding her a mate. My mother has always laid great importance on me finding the perfect man to complete my life so that I am better off then she is now, but the pressure is just too much. I am so happy with my current boyfriend, and yes she approves, but it is pretty recent. The pressure that she places on my relationship is unreal and definitely not fair. If I was Laura I would feel uncomfortable with my mother looking for my future mate. I don't see too far into this play as far as the importance of "The Glass Menagerie" but I feel as though it has something to do with the music, disasters within the family, and the glass animal figurines. I'm sure as I read more it will become more clear and will also make more sense as I try to understand at a more analytic level.

Blog #3 "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid

Let me start off by saying I was thoroughly relieved at the site of a short story as apposed to a poem! I can understand the short stories a tad bit easier then the confusing, multi-meaning poetry that we had to blog about last week. When reading “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid for the first time, I felt really sorry for the daughter who was being talked down to the entire time. I obviously do not see why the daughter is being called a slut on multiple occasions; the first time being “on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming.” Not only did this bother me as a daughter myself, it also bothered me that any mother would find it reasonable to accuse one’s own daughter of such. A daughter most likely has traits that resemble that of their mother so she is practically accusing herself of the same faults. I thought this short reading was very demanding and strict of the parent to say to the child, and it was certainly handing out a lot of rules for just a young girl. I am assuming the girl is only in grade school because the writer states, “don’t’ sing benna in Sunday school;” which means she has to be young enough to still attend that. Benna, according to an online dictionary, is a genre of Antiguan and Barbudan music and is a calypso-like genre, characterized by scandalous gossip and a call-and-response format. Knowing that, benna is yet another term that is not endearing or motherly.The assertions, directions, and suggestions that the mother informs her daughter of are mostly going to be useful at some point in here future but the constant repetition about her being or becoming a slut really throws me off. The voice in this poem leads me to believe that the speaker is not friendly nor very emotionally attached to her offspring because she is so forceful and not exactly nice. The relationship is depicted a little differently at the end when the mother switches to talking about love and failure. She says, “this is how to bully a man; this is how a man bullies you; this is how to love a man; and if this doesn't work there are other ways, and if they don't work don't feel too bad about giving up; this is how to spit up in the air if you feel like it, and this is how to move quick so that it doesn't fall on you.” These lines all show me that the mother must not totally and honestly believe in love or acting like a completely socially acceptable woman either, as much as she acts like she is perfect and all-knowing of appropriate behavior in the earlier lines. I enjoyed this short story and by comparing it to my own relationship with my mother, I realized just how good I have it!  My mom definitely does not talk to me like that, and teaches me in a very different manner than this mother decided to teach her daughter. It makes me realize how I should probably parent, at least a little bit, like my mom!

Blog #2- Wednesday January 19

“In a Station of the Metro” by Ezra Pound

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet, black bough.

Ezra Pounds “In a Station of the Metro” is just a short poem so I will use that as one of my quotes this week. This poem, though short, is thought-provoking and required me to do a little research of my own. I found the definitions of both apparition, meaning a ghostly appearing figure, and bough, meaning a tree branch. After applying these definitions I sense fear and discomfort in Ezra Pounds emotions when speaking of this experience. The simple fact of seeing a ghostly figure among the crowd in a metro station would be nothing short of discomforting. To be honest, I have difficulty understanding the second line in reference to the first, but I can still piece together very uncomfortable feelings.

The second reading for this Wednesday is “Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year” by Raymond Carver. This poem is rather depressing and a sad view of this boys father as a 22 year old. I feel that the author is comparing himself now to his 22 year old father. The second line, “I study my father’s embarrassed young man’s fan;” leads me to believe that he is not impressed by his fathers actions. As I read farther down into the poem, it says “Father, I love you, yet how can I say thank you, I who can’t hold my liquor either.” This line made the entire poem much clearer, showing the similarities and shortcomings of both the father and the son. I can certainly see this same situation happening in father son relationships today because alcohol is a problem in our society.