Short Story Fiction Packet Response #2

             A very interesting choice the writer made in the short story "Colonel", was the unemotional and monotonous tone created. The syntax found within "Colonel" is very terse and lacks a certain flow between every sentence. The writing comes across as very choppy. Every sentence is a bland statement describing some feature of the house or conversation that the narrator is involved in. This causes the short story to come across as very robotic and unemotional, as the syntax gives the impression that the narrator is very removed from the events going on. The syntax however changes during the last few sentences of the short story. The sentences are elongated. This causes the impact created by the Colonel's outburst to be much more impactful as in comparison, the rest of the short story is dull. 

I thought that the irony present in the short story “Wallet” was worth noting. The old man attempted to go to the department store in order to frustrate and interrupt the agenda of a criminal, yet the manner his plan is described makes him appear to be committing some crime of sorts. He has a getaway driver and the verb “case” has connotations of crime. He flees the scene when his deception is made known, although his intentions were altruistic. This irony adds a lighter tone to the short story, which is apparent in the way that the boy and old man reacted at the end: in a fit of laughter.

Lastly, I found the use of color to describe the woman in “But what was her name?” to be peculiar. The woman at the start is described as being the color blue when she was born, which is likely the cause of a cyanotic illness also causes heart issues. She is then described as having red feet when she is older, which is likely representative of her life as a stay-at-home wife filled with hard manual work. The ending is very peculiar. She is described as being white at birth when on her presumed death bed, as it says that her “past has taken hold of her—the heart’s last sleight”, which is referencing the heart issues that she has had since she was a child. She is speaking to her “father” at the end, which is assumed to be The Holy Father, God. Her death is considered a new birth into heaven. The color white is often associated with purity and holiness, so that is likely why the color white was described as her birth color at the end of the story. Overall, it is very interesting how the author used color’s to represent points in the woman’s life.  

Fiction stories packet response

I think that the perspective of the narrator in Survivors was shockingly insincere. I understand that a major part of the poem was to describe the prejudice and unfairness that same sex couples are put through, even at death, which makes the prejudice so much more powerful as you’d expect the family of the narrator’s lover to look past the nature of his homosexuality and sympathize with him, but they don’t. However, the narrator himself becomes so preoccupied with these coming attacks of prejudice he is portrayed as being blaringly selfish. He not once describes his grievances from his lover’s possible death. He is only concerned with what will happen to him, not the fate of his lover. The face value intention of the short story seems very counterproductive towards what you’d think the poem would be trying t to present: a pro-homosexual narrative.

               In Misdemeanors I think it is quite interesting the way that the Old Man is portrayed. He is a criminal, which typically is cause to look at a person with disdain. However, I feel slight pity for the Old Man. He wants to be regarded as a “tough ex-con”, but he is no more than a penny pinching old man. The manner in which his heist is described is pitiful: pockets sagging with pennies, wearing socks like gloves, and a passed out getaway driver. The fact that he was one sent away from being considered a felon is also significant. If the conditions of his crime were different, if he weren’t so pitiful, maybe I’d view him in another manner, but I do not. You could say I am one cent away from regarding him in a darker light, but right now he appears to me just as a sad and silly old man.

Morning News confused me a bit. I assume that the narrator was diagnosed with a terminal illness of some kind. The short story seems to be in opposition to religion? He directly mocks God at the end by him remarking that he and his wife buy the largest TV in the whole “God damn store”. He also seems to not have much fear of death, as he remarks, “Where is fear?”, whereas the puritan is fearful of damnation. It seems that a message to be interpreted could be the simple lifestyle that accompanies one who does not believe in a religion, particularly Abrahamic religions.  While everyone else wants to go make the last moments of their life fulfilling, as they are more so consumed with the end, the narrator and his wife simply go out and buy a nice flat screen television. 

City of Eclogue Post

What stuck out to me initially in some of the poems was the use of, occasionally unexpected, vulgar language. There are numerous instances of this. Such as on page 56, “our fucking jobs”, or page 15, “and fucked you woke.” The use of slang, particularly vulgar slang, helps gives the reader what perspective the author is coming from, a more personal one. The poems become a sort of diary for the author to vent through, giving much of the book a lot of emotional weight. Although much of the writing isn’t exactly colloquial, it isn’t formal or prose in any form, as there is little punctuation which gives the writing a more personal touch.

A common style used throughout most of the book is gaps between words or the organization of poems into unique stanzas. Both of these techniques can cause the reader to pause, which can add significance to the following phrase after the gap or individuate each of the stanzas so as to give more importance to the entire passage, as often a passage that is an unbroken wall of text can have trouble delivering meaning as well; more meaning is absorbed compartmentally than as a whole. A good example of the gaps is the poem “Beauty’s Standing” beginning on page 41.

Often the gaps in “Beauty’s Standing” can be substituted for dashes, commas, or semicolons etc, but the gaps give the impression that the poem is be read out loud, each pauses is the author giving emphasis, i.e., “re: the water              the heat       is out of control      the land toxic.” Commas or the word “and” could have been substituted but the separation pronounces each much more effectively. The lack of following proper grammatical rules also furthers the impression that this is a personalized account. This perspective needs to be effectively maintained if a genuine  and personal perspective of civil rights issues, city corruption, social issues and environmental issues is the goal.

Day 1 Poetry Packet Anslysis

It was very interesting to see the similarities across the author's different poems, in regards to his style and theme. Overall there is a definite trend of geology used as descriptors throughout the poems. Words such as erosion and sediment give a much stronger connotations than other possible word choice. The earth is grand and and ancient. It can be intimidating and is physically of large scale. So the choice of diction that this author uses makes a lot of the poems seem very momentous and impactful to the reader. It also seems that contrasting tones is a common method for this writer. Despite all of the stronger word choices associated with geology that the writer uses, it is contrasted by softer words, such as "speckled" or "powdered". 

As shown in the very first poem on the first page, there is clear contrasting between cold, like phrases such as "cold deep", and warmer temperatures. This theme coupled with the geological diction can give the impression that conflictions found o cwithin within the poems, if present, are conflictions of large proportions. In addition to geology, the natural forces in general are used to create a more impactful message to the reader. In the poem "Lens", the author utilizes weather, specifically rain clouds, as a simile in order to demonstrate the degree to which the character described in the poem was evocative of feelings of promises never delivered. 

One of the interesting methods used to present a poem was used by Jeffrey Angles. He formed the poem like an upside down triangle. The pace of the poem seems to quicken  with every line. Angles changes the temporarilty of the poem, increasing it as the poem progresses in order to create more tension and to build up the poem before it reaches it's end. I've never seen a method like this used before and it's effects are quite apparent. If the poem weren't structured this way the end would likely carry very different interpretations. Without the structure the ending would seem duller, as it describes a bird catching a cicada in it's beak and describes mountain breeze. This way the eventful tone created within the first few lines by the agitated and fleeing man is carried on throughout the rest of the poem.

Self-Introduction

Hello! My name is Cameron Mitchell and I am a freshman this year at EMU. My current major, Special Education, doesn't require much in terms of literary practice, but I wouldn't discount myself as an enthusiast of literature. I also am a large fan of western philosophy, so I am attracted to novels such as The Stranger by Albert Camus, which has underlying existentialist/absurdist themes. Dystopian novels such as A Brave New World, A Handmaiden's Tale, and 1984 are also of interest to me. As for background on myself, I spent my very early childhood in Overijse, Belgium, although I was born in California. I then moved to Clarkston, Michigan and have spent most of my life there. I am very happy with my current residence in Ypsilanti and I am eager to continue my education here. All of my classes so far seem quite interesting, so I quite excited for this creative writing class and all that it brings.