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Although I've read more than one story recently (recently being a month or so ago and being outside of assigned literature from class), they are either too complex or don't really abide by the usual definition of a story. For instance, the only thing I've been heavily reading recently is Douglas Rushkoff's works: "The Ecstasy Club", which is a novel, but it's complex plot filled with intricate details of sociology, psychology and conspiracy make it a hard read to remember entirely, and "Playing The Future" which is essentially is a 300 pg essay like book which tells the story without main characters or a plot.

So, in an effort to not cop-out, I decided that some of my past works do qualify as stories. I read a short story (which also exists as a screenplay, the derivative work before the short story, in which both were stemmed off of a poem I wrote titled "Unfinished"), titled "Inzertz". I believe it was a good choice, albeit a last resort, as I had been meaning to re-write it; thanks to an earlier english teacher's offer, I got my draft a very blunt but necessary review by a friend of hers whom is also creative writer. As it was originally a screenplay, therefore in a hopefully form of a movie, some themes were a bit too blunt in an effort to make the audience understand.

A central theme was the theme of illusion; how often the mind takes both illusion and reality for granted and often cannot discern from the two. Sadly, I haven’t been keeping up with readings thus far in class (just barley however, I am a tormented procrastinate), I hope there is a story in the book that address at least one theme in the story of mine. That way, I could get motivation to re-write it for an option under the Reader's Response.

Another theme was the commenting of social realities and how people interact in social realities (Example: the social "sections" of friends people hang out with, how they act differently depending on which group they currently exist in). Also, getting fairly political, I tie in T.V. as well (Ala The Truman Show, I suppose, but with a much more morbid feel.) I guess you could imagine the The Truman Show with the soundtrack entirely consisting of The Cure's "The Head on The Door" or "Pornography".

The way main character behaves, and reacts, to his environment is what would make the story unique would be my deliberate choice to use the omnipotent point of view to better show a varying degree of an indifferent perspective on some parts, and an almost eerie insight into underlying meanings within dialogue and, hopefully, concealed foreshadows.

Perhaps, I'll post it up here regardless of whether it'll be used for class or not.

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2. Look at "Who's Irish" and "Two Kinds" together. Are there any similarities between the two stories? Which narrator is more reliable? Are there any similar conflicts evident in the two stories? What are the striking differences between the two stories. Write a short blog post answering any of the questions above.- Due Friday

I couldn't say which narrator was more reliable, so much as I could say that I found they differed in certain areas of perception. I found that even though "Who's irish" was told via a mother's perception, and "Two Kinds" was told via a daughter's perception, they had more similariites than I would've originally thought. For one, both stories end in similar matter: "Two Kinds" ends with the daughter finally trying to play piano and also proving herself wrong (or realizing she may have been at error with her past perceptions), and "Who's Irish?" ends with the mother realizing her grandaughter Sophie most likley changed from being so "wild". Also, the mother's perception of the Irish family (The Sheas) is changed when she ends up living with Bess, who even comments that she's become "honorary Irish".

The obvious similar conflicts would be that of a previous generation to those of later generations, which, could be commonly found in a variety of different stories, and helps makes both "Two Kinds" and "Who's Irish?" more relevant and readable. But it also shows that the conlficts between differing generations is not hopeless, as by the end of each story, the alloted generatoin realizes something about the other generation ("Two Kinds": the daughter realizing her mother was right about herself not trying, "Who's Irish?": the mother being more sympathetic to her daughter and Sophie). i found the main differences being the way the story unfolded in each respective story: "Two Kinds" felt much longer with proper english, whereas in "Who's Irish?" the story flowed faster and the reading was more meorable due to the grammar being from the mother's point of view (therefore, from her use of grammar).

All in all, I actually can't really choose from the two in terms of a favorite: "Two Kinds" feels more emotional at times, especially when the mother reacts to the daughter's defiance and at the end when the daughter has an ephiphany. However, in "Who's Irish?", the different elements make the story more unique (the Irish family, the Chinese mother living with the Irish mother, the Irish-Chinese daughter Sophie).

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Intro. Post.

I have "blogged" before in several journals in the past, although I don't like using the term "blog"; it sounds trendy and anoyying along the lines of "generation X" and "Generation Y". I generally don't mind online journaling, it would be near impossible nowadays for someone to not have one, but latley the trend has gotten a bit too saturated for my tastes (the random people commenting on random blogs brings to question humanities obsession with other people's drama).

To imcorporate blogging into the english ciriculum was an evitability and is a sign of the times; a few years ago scientists and professors thought that instant messanging and online journals would decrease reading and literacy rates. Recently, however, it seems these same people have reversed their cries of despair into hails of praise [Links to evidence of this occurence will be posted whenever]. We'll just have to wait to see, I guess.

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1. Decide which character among “Everyday Use", "Story of an Hour", and "Two Kinds" you are most interested in. To which character do you most relate? Which character do you most relate? Which character is the most unique? What makes you interested in this character? - Due Friday

"Story Of An Hour" was intriguing and left the reasons for the character’s reaction to her husband’s death to unconventional reasons [for an unconventional reaction], but was short. “Everyday Use” use to bore me to death the first and second times I read it, but the third more recent time I more fully understood the story. However, it remains nothing too special, as the only thing I find really interesting in that story was the way Dee was portrayed (by the story’s perspective being the mother’s), and how she was portrayed was biased.

“Two Kinds” ended up being the one I was most interested in, also because it was a story I could more relate to. I could relate to Amy Tan in the story because of my brief period of rebellion against my parents reminded me of how she refused to become talented at the piano. The setting was much more relatable compared to that of the other stories: “Everyday Use” being a clash of urban and rural and set in the rural, and “Story of An Hour” being in the city but back in time around late 1800’s to early 1900’s. It is 2005 and I’ve lived in the suburbs my entire life.

I think Amy ends up being the most unique since she ends up sitting down and actually trying to learn something on the piano; as a procrastinator and a perfectionist, I completely identify and sympathize with her. She ends up proving herself wrong in a major way, how her Mother said she could play well if she just tried. I also related to her since she expected that her mother expected her to become this all feared prodigy at the piano, and ended up making it harder on herself. How Amy at the end picks up the piano piece and ends up playing fairly well, and the ending hinting that maybe she was thinking how wrong she was all those years; that is what I found most interesting.

Whereas the other stories would either abruptly end (The sudden death of the main character in “Story of An Hour”), and “Everyday Use” was told essentially by the mother’s perspective and was biased, “Two Kinds” managed to provide me a perspective of Amy without a bias that forever covers the story. The ending, I think, helps peel back the bias, when Amy herself realizes she may have been wrong (and since it is Amy herself, and we are reading via her perspective, we respond accordingly, if we haven’t already, as observable readers). I found this most interesting, as I found it reflected the tendency for humans to be biased in their perspective (The ego), and to see the ego of a character (especially the one we perceive the story through) to be checked by a realization that it may have been wrong, felt more real than either of the two other stories.

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mushinomasquerade.blogspot.com
En190 Blog
Jason

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