Last Goal (very last scene)

David walked automatically toward the huge window. He felt the cold window catch and grasped it. His hands were slightly shaking. When he opened the window a cool breeze waved towards his face. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and savored the fresh air. Some minutes ago, he had eavesdropped on his parents’ talk with the doctors. He had heard everything that he needed to know. His first reaction was to panic. He walked to and fro in his room and could not keep a clear head. He thought of everything but nothing specific. He felt as if he would suffocate in a room full of air. There was no other way as to calm down. He had to order his thoughts and do something, because his parents would soon come back to his room. Then, he had made that decision and now he was standing at the open window. He looked down and noticed that he had to be in the forth or fifth floor. He was not sure. The only thing he knew was that it was a long way down there. He thanked God that he was not afraid of heights. He was wondering whether he would feel the bounce and if so how much it would hurt until it is over. It was ridiculous. Yesterday, everything was perfect. How can one day change everything? He thought of his last soccer game and how he made three goals. He had never thought that this game might be his last one. Now, his life was a mess. He wished that he had not to do the last step but that it was over already. He opened his eyes and stepped on the window sill. Suddenly, he felt strangely brave. Standing on the window sill was standing on the edge of life and death. He felt powerful. Only he decided what will happen next. If he is going to die soon then it is because he wanted it and not because metastases would kill him slowly. All his weight lasted on his feet. He stepped a little forward so that his toes were in the air. He seesawed to and fro and could not decide what to do next. Jump! He moved forward but hesitated. Not yet. He was not ready yet. But he knew the longer he will wait the more insecure he will become. What would his parents think of him? Will they regard him as a hero or a covert? He wanted to stay in his parents’ memory as the boy he was until yesterday. He was wondering if he should leave them a note and explain himself. But if he wrote something he would not have been able to do anymore what he was about to do. Besides, there was not time for that. They could come back into his room any minute. He felt his pulse rising and he could hear his heart beat. His blood drummed in his veins. He heard somebody open his room door and turned around. He looked into the scarred eyes of a young nurse. He did not want to be a burden to his parents. He knew his mom could not stand seeing him dying slowly. He felt helpless. He panicked. He jumped.

When he bounced on the ground and heard his bones smash. He was not dead yet as he hoped he would be. The fall was not as long as he expected. He could not move and he felt that horrible pain in his chest. A rip had drilled into his lungs. He had difficulties breathing. He did not know how hurtful it was to die. He could not think of anything but his pain. From a distance he heard somebody screaming and recognized his mother’s voice. He felt so sorry for her and his dad. But he just wanted to protect him. Before he closed his eyes he was hoping they will forgive him.

Response on “Burning” by Ashley Thompson (VLP)

I like this short story very much since it allows the reader to get an insight into the mind of a person who is mentally ill.

The main character Gerry feels to be on some kind of secret mission finding the burn he permanently smells. Looking for the burn is his “new purpose in life”. He’s checking everywhere. He “started at my bed […] Then under the bed, the floor, the walls, the closets, the outlets”, but cannot find any fire.

The author puts the reader in the Gerry’s position and lets us see and feel what Gerry sees and feel. Gerry is mentally ill. Obviously, he has perception disorders, since he thinks that people cannot see him when he does not see them. He hides under his bed sheets and believes his sister cannot see him. Even when she asks him to get out from under his covers he still thinks she “wondered if I was really under there”. He has totally lost his sense for reality.

At the end of the story we learn that his brother Tony makes him go to the “Sunshine Mental Health Hospital”. The name of this institution is ridiculous alone. Then, Gerry talks to the doctor and tells him about the burn. He insists that he’s fine, but “I don’t think your hospital is”. However, he has vowed “to be quiet about my mission” and pretended to understand what the doctor is saying. But instead, he plans to “get back to the burn later”.

Scene Two of "Last Goal"

This week I want to make up for some blog entries that were due in October. In October, I had little time to keep up with my posts, because I travelled a lot. Since, I’m here for this semester only I wanted to see as much of South Dakota as possible.

***

Until today, David never thought something bad could happen to him. Actually, he felt as healthy as somebody can feel except his nervousness, of course. He tried to recall what had happened a couple of hours ago. However, he still could not believe it.

He had headed for school since he was late again. Suddenly, he felt weird and a little dizzy and his legs became heavy. He fell. He was unconscious before he hit the ground. A concerned woman stopped by and called the ambulance. He was brought to the ER and they run some tests. When he woke up, he found himself in a hospital room. His body was aching. It was the same pain that he had been feeling for a couple of weeks only stronger. At this point he was not concerned yet, since a nurse told him he had a circulatory collapse and that he needs to stay for some more tests. He expected his parents coming soon. He got out of the bed and walked to the window. It was a very beautiful day. There was no cloud in the sky and it was very warm for that time of the year. Actually, he felt pity for all his classmates who had to take their finals today. He heard someone opening his room door and turned around. It was his mom and his dad. He was so happy to see them. But wait! His mom looked different today. She was very pale and had glossy eyes. His dad had this type of wrinkles on his forehead that did not mean anything good. When they saw him, they tried to smile. But both their smiles looked rather constraint than real. And his mother’s eyes told him she did not feel like smiling at all. Now the most creepy moment was reached and his mood changed rapidly.
His parents did not need to say anything. He already knew that something was wrong. His mother then said something to him what was even more scarry than her reddish puffy eyes. She told David that he better sat down because they had to talk to him…

Last Goal

This week’s creative blog entry is the first scene of one of my short story I’m working on right now.


David was very nervous. As nervous as he had never been before. And he was anxious, too. Normally, he was the easy-going guy everybody wants to be. His friends liked him pretty much. And he had tons of friends. There was no party without him, in fact, inviting him guaranteed a successful party. Everybody liked his humorous manner. David loved his life. He seemed to have everything his classmates dreamt of: He had excellent grades, was the best soccer player of his school so that he usually got picked first, and even worse he had too many female friends. His parents were not rich, but they always had money left for him if he needed some.

But something has changed. Today, he was wondering how much luck a single person deserves. Are there any rules for luck and bad luck? He thought of one of his best friends Jimmy who had lost his father two years ago. Or Kathryn, who was still suffering from an accident she had last winter. David, Kathryn and some other guys went skiing. It was supposed to be the best holiday ever. The second day they decided throwing a party and getting some beer. Actually, David was supposed to go. But he got a phone call from his girlfriend and so Kathryn went. A few minutes later the police rang on their apartment door telling them that Kathryn had been hit by a drunken car driver. Frightened, they went to the hospital looking after her. The doctors said that she had luck since it could be worse. Luck? Yes, of course, was she lucky. She was hit by a car and not by a truck. And she was lucky that the car driver stopped even though he was drunk and that he called the police and that he did not leave her alone. However, she broke her hip and has still problems walking. That night, the real lucky person was David, since he got that phone call. And he knew it…

Response on “The Underdog“ by Sean Johnston

In my opinion, the short story “The Underdog“ by Sean Johnston was on the one hand very confusing and on the other hand very interesting in terms of how it describes the violent relationships of the other characters toward the Underdog.

Generally, the story offered very little information about the time it is set in or what war the speaker was telling about. Also, I missed more detailed information about the Underdog himself such as what exactly makes him being the Underdog and how did he slip into this role? To me, the text leaves out too many details what makes it rather hard to approach its content.

However, I liked the way the text represented the relationships between the other characters toward the Underdog. It seemed to me that violence plays a big role in this story. It was rather unsettling to read that two characters of the story, the speaker and the preacher’s wife, were tempted to hurt the Underdog physically. Also, the text mentions that the Underdog suffers from several wounds that symbolize physical violence as well. Besides physical violence, the story displays emotional violence, too. So, I think the worst thing for the Underdog is not being injured physically but emotionally. He obviously suffers not as much from “his missing ear” but from being constantly pitied even by his own children.

To sum up, to me the story of the Underdog strikes through its display of different types of violence human beings can suffer from. However, it leaves out too much crucial information which is necessary for the better understanding of the text.

Response on "This House" by Sean Johnston

The short story “This House” written by Sean Johnston is about the troublesome relationship between a mother and her husband (or is it her son? I’m not sure about that). The mother seems to be very controlling and religious and her husband on the other hand sees her as an enemy rather than a caring wife. So when he is actually dead, he comes back as some sort of ghost and watches her. It seems that he enjoys not being criticized any longer by the mother because he says: “You may be thin air, fine, but she doesn’t even hear the sound of glass when you almost drop the bottle pouring.” This passage also presents the main problem between these two characters, namely, his alcohol abuse.

The wife on the other hand seems to be very religious. This becomes very obvious in the following text passage:

“Some day, everything will change, she said, and those that keep their mouths shut will babble with such fierce power the ones that couldn’t shut up will have no choice. They that are fattened and gorged on money from blood will be sickened while the starved finally swallow their own pure hearts and grow to astounding heights. And the blind will see.” This strongly reminds me of the Bible and Matthew’s book which states that "So the last shall be first, and the first last."

In comparison to “The Underdog”, this story is too unrealistic for my taste. The story would make perfect sense if the husband would not appear to be a ghost at the end.

Who Are You? (Part 2)

I try to look cheerful while tears are running down my cheeks. I don’t know why I’m always reacting like this. I should have known better. Really, I should. “Could you please sit down, Mommy? It’s your favorite soup, you know. I cooked it myself. I know, it’s not so good as yours, but I tried my best. Try something of it and tell me if you like it. Okay, you don’t know where to sit down? There is the chair, see? ” When I look at you I can’t hold my tears. I hope you don’t notice it. “After all these years I still can’t accept what has happened. Why you? Why me? Do you know why? No?”
Can she see me? I mean can she really see me? There she sits. She looks as if collapsed back upon herself in a world of strangers. Strangers… “How often was I annoyed about you, Mommy, but only because I didn’t see what you saw. But how could I? You looked as ever in your fancy dress. I didn’t realize you were changing until it was too late. It took very long to understand. You’re now in a foreign country where you are all on your own. You don’t know anybody and you don’t understand their language. Everything is alien. People are talking to you but you wouldn’t understand a word. You even can’t understand what the people around you are doing. It seems all very strange- like strange customs you’ve never seen before. And the worst of all is that you’re constantly meeting unknown people who are talking to you and pretend knowing you for ages. Only ever know and then you would smile at them and pretend to know them, too…

Response on "Consider the Lobster" by David Foster Wallace

This article is very well-written, originally, partly exhilarating and thought-provoking at the same time. In a first part, Wallace is examining one of the biggest sea food festivals of the United States, the Maine Lobster Festival. He makes cynical comments about people’s behaviour during such festivals. However, the article continuously becomes more serious.

Wallace starts his determined inquiry into the in ethics of boiling lobsters alive by giving some background information about the lobster itself and how we usually don’t see him- as a insect living in the ocean. Later he is discussing how lobsters are cooked which was very unsettling to me. Of course did I know that lobsters are boiled alive, but the way he describes how these animals suffer from being boiled does not miss the effect and made me feel uncomfortable. He writes:

“However stuporous the lobster is from the trip home, for instance, it tends to come alarmingly to life when placed in boiling water. If you’re tilting it from a container into the steaming kettle, the lobster will sometimes try to cling to the container’s sides or even to hook its claws over the kettle’s rim like a person trying to keep from going over the edge of a roof. And worse is when the lobster fully immersed. Even if you cover the kettle and turn away, you can usually hear the cover rattling and clanking as the lobster tries to push it off… The lobster, in other words, behaves very much as you and I would behave if we were plunged into boiling water (with the obvious exception of screaming).”

So, Wallace intends to offer a very graphic picture of how the lobster suffers when boiled and intensifies our feelings by stating that we would behave the same way in case somebody places us into boiling water. Finally, he asks the reader if it is possible that “future generations will regard our own present agribusiness and eating practices in much the same way we now view Nero’s entertainments or Aztec sacrifices?” Maybe this comparison far-fetched, however, we should consider how we deal with animals more often.

Response on “Other Math” by David Foster Wallace

This short story was very odd and unsettling. It is a story about a Joseph who has fallen in love with his grandfather and tells him so. Reading the short story’s title I did not expect is to deal with that kind of topic.

Letting declare the grandson’s love for his grandfather seems to be normal at first. Of course, do grandsons love their grandfather! But Reading further, the story becomes very odd since Joseph tries to explain to his grandfather that he really loves him

Generally, the author is playing games with the audience since he destroys anything we would expect to be normal. He adds weird details that do not really fit into an every-day conversation with a little boy, for instance, he is telling about somebody who has fallen in love with a “cadaver” and finally put him away. Also, the grandmother does not act like a we would expect from a grandmother by telling Joseph “Your Gram pa's h and w as a dead thing, attach ed to h is wrist by the same force that flung everything toward him, dead and brown, a flat, square conveyor of chill, an extension I never recognized and certainly never held.”

Finally, the oddest thing of the story is the way the speaker indirectly describes how the boy looks at the grandpa in a rather sexually manner. So he lets the grandpa refer to how the Joseph looks at him which makes the story very unsettling: “Don't say anything, Grampa. Just sit. Just like that. That's perfect.” or “Do an old man a favor and don't stare like that, son. All in all, it’s interesting how the author plays with our expectations of how society should look like.

Who Are You?

The creative part for this week’s and next week’s blog is an excerpt of one of my short stories. The following excerpt is scene one:


“Hey Mommy! How was your day?” Puzzled eyes are starring at me. Today, it’s one of these bad days. Again, I wished I could turn back the time and pretend I was living in 1975. It was a cheesy world for a little girl. It’s amazing how carefree kids can be. I remember our holidays at the coast. We used to go every summer on vacation. It was always the same place and the same people. We liked it though. “Do you remember the day, when I and Jimmy Wallace got into this fistfight? I can’t even remember how it happened. Can you? No? Anyways, when I came home you got mad at me. ’Not again’, did you say. And then I would tell you what had happened and you would grab my hand we would go to Jimmy’s parents in order to talk to them. You always seemed to be so strong and dominant. You were as firm as a rock. Can you imagine how often I wished to be like you? No? Why didn’t I tell you before? Maybe, you would have seen me with different eyes. Anyways, how was you day again? Could you please sit down? I’ve brought some lunch. I hope you like it. I mean you used to like it. Do you know what this is? No?” “Please, Mommy, don’t go to the phone and call 911. It’s not necessary. You know that, don’t you? It’s me, your daughter. What do you mean you have no daughter? Of course, you have. Look at me! I said look at me, please. Don’t you see how similar we look? No? My grandma always told me how similar we look. Remember? No?” I go toward you and try to embrace you. You seem to be as less affected as anybody could be… (to be continued)

Response to Good People by David Foster Wallace

Although the short story is very similar, even too similar to my taste, to Ernest Hemingway’s story entitled Hills like White Elephants, Good People written by David Foster Wallace is well done. It is amazing how the author gives the reader an insight in the main character’s life. We learn that the couple is facing some sort of problem and all indicates that the girl got pregnant and they both have decided to go to a doctor and have the baby aborted. Actually, the text does not reveal if it really is about an abortion. So the author kind of plays with the reader’s expectations and finally, lets him in the dark.

Moreover, the text strikes with many stylistic devices that makes the story more vivid. For instance, the speaker point’s at the girl’s cleanliness several times which seemed to be rather unusual to describe a person.

The girl wore a thin old checked cotton shirt with pearl-colored snaps with the long sleeves down and always smelled very good and clean, like someone you could trust and care about even if you weren’t in love.

Sheri’s hair was colored an almost corn blond, very clean, the skin through her central part pink in the sunlight

Describing how clean she is seems to indicate her pureness although she is pregnant.

All in all this short story is a very interesting one by not telling the reader concretely what really has happened to the young couple but by implying so much action.

Response on The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac

Honestly, I am not sure yet whether I like this excerpt or whether not. This is may be because there is so less action in this piece of literature that helps me forming an opinion. This excerpt tells about a character who mentions his favourite place which is under the eucalyptus trees and his relationship to nature and how he perceives especially the eucalyptus trees and some animals.

The first odd thing about the character is how he discovers human traits in the eucalyptus trees:

“I began to notice that the uppermost twigs and leaves were lyrical happy dancers glad that they had been apportioned the top, with all that rumbling experience of the whole tree swaying beneath them making their dance … I noticed how the leaves almost looked human the way they bowed and then leaped up and then swayed lyrically side to side. It was a crazy vision in my mind but beautiful.”

Then he continues describing a “hummingbird, a beautiful little blue hummingbird no bigger than a dragonfly, kept making a whistling jet dive at me, definitely saying hello to me, every day, usually in the morning”.

This seems to create a very harmonic- even too harmonic- picture of the scene. But then he continues to say that he was “afraid he would drive right into my head with his long beaker like a hatpin”.

All in all it is interesting how the speaker creates a certain distance by on the one hand describing the romantic landscape picture and on the other hand perceiving a little hummingbird as a threat.

Creative Entry

In the following entry I tried to create some examples of irony based on last Friday’s session:

The current safety certificate behind the pane of plexiglass hanging incliningly above the seats impends to fell off today rather than yesterday due to a single rusty screw.

She walked on the path watching nature’s beauty, for instance, the little reddish squirrel running across the lawn before she went back to her room and killed a little spider rappeling from the ceiling with insect spray.

Response on Chapter 8

Chapter eight deals with the point of view in literature as well as with the authorial distance and its limitations in terms of liability of the narrator. It also includes aspects of irony which I found very interesting and challenging.

In respect to the liability I would like to respond on the short story entitled Story by Lydia Davis since this story shows in how far psychic distance can influence the reader’s thinking of the story.

Story is about a woman who has an affair with a man who obviously dates his ex- girlfriend. The way the author describes the character’s inner state and thoughts makes the readyer feel sympathy for the narrator. At the end of the story the first person narrator scrutinizes her boyfriends explanations of what had happened that particular night why his ex-girlfriend would be at his place. I think it is really realistic how the narrator measures all possibilties that would explain why the ex-girlfriend would be at his place:

“But what is the truth? Could he and she both really have come back in that short interval between my last phone call and my arrival at his place? Or is the truth really that during his call to me she waited outside or in garage or in her car and that he then brought her in again …”

Finally, the narrator becomes aware that her boyfriend that she cannot believe him but pretends to do so since she is so attached to him and does not want to lose him.

Response on James Joyce’s Araby

Honestly I had did some research on the internet what the term epiphany means since I have not heard of it before. I have found that epiphany is “a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/epiphany).

All in all, this short story is about a boy who lives in a very poor neighbothood in Dublin. He falls in love with his friend’s sister and wants to buy her a present at the Araby market. But he arrives very late so that he recognized that most of the stalls are already closed. He is very disappointed of the baazar and went home.

Reading the story it appears to me that all conflict the narrator struggles with occurs inside his mind. At the the end of the story the nnarrotor transforms from an idealistic boy to an adolescents who does not see things like he did before but in a more realistic and rather disappointed manner: “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.”
Finally, I think that using the technique of epiphany in literature makes stories appear to be very close to real life. I have experienced some kind of epiphany myself. I thought I would be friends with somebody and than after an insignificant incident I suddenly realized that he was not a friend at all.

Short Story Draft: DON'T ASK!

Anne looked at the ceiling watching the dull light bulbs. One of them was flickering like in a horror movie. Her situation was horrible, too. She has just eaten a dish which contained peanuts. She was allergic of peanuts. Luckily, the waiter called the ambulance quickly and she was brought to the nearest hospital. The doctors told her she had to stay there for some days. She was put in a three bed room and she became the bed in the middle. How she wished to have one of the other beds. But they were already occupied by two young women. The one on the left side was sleeping and the woman on the right was starring at the window. Anne wanted to start a conversation. She asked the woman on the right how she was doing? That is always a good question… The other woman turned to Anne and looked very thoughtfully. Her name was Katie but she wouldn’t tell Anne. She hated meaningless conversations. Maybe she could have told Anne that she became pregnant from an alcoholic when she was sixteen. Or that when she had her baby she struggled from financial problems since her fiancé had left her. Or that she saw no other chance to become a prostitute. Maybe she could have told Anne that her pander maltreated her when she resisted having sex with a client who had strangled her some time ago. Or she could have mentioned that she started drinking and doing drugs in order to bear her miserable life. And that her six years old daughter was hit by a car three days ago and died on the way to the hospital while she had another client. Maybe she could have told that she tried to commit suicide since she could not live without her daughter. Or that, unfortunately, somebody had found her in time… But the only thing she said was “I’m good” while turning back to the window…

Response On Chapter 7

Basically, chapter seven deals with the point of view in fiction. It distinguishes between three distinct speakers a story can be told of: the third person speaker, the second person speaker, and the first person speaker. Moreover, it gives an overview on omniscience and whom a particular speaker addresses.

I like the short story entitled Orientation by Daniel Orozco and will respond of this piece of literature. In this story an office worker introduces someone new to his new job. During the whole story, the new employee listens to his colleague. He just asks one question but his dialogue is not included- only indicated by the story teller: “What do I mean? I’m glad you asked that.”

The first part is about general background information about work and the office. But later the speaker includes more and more gossip about the other office workers, for instance, about a man who is thrilled by using the women’s bathroom. Another favourite topic of his is about other people’s relationships: “He has a secret crush on Gwendolyn Stich […]. But he hates Anika Bloom.”

The story becomes supernatural and some kind of surreal at the end. The speaker tells about a woman who can say when people die. Moreover, he mentions that one of his colleagues is a serial killer.

All in all, the speaker provides so much background information about the people working in this office which make it rather unlikely to recall all the details. Moreover, since only one character speaks (the speaker) the story is told from his point of view only. So maybe not everything he told is true.

Response On: The Valley of Spiders by H.G. Wells

This excerpt is about a group of men who are riding through weir territory. The master of this group is determined to find a young woman who ha just escaped him. The men are attacked by big white globes which appear to be spider webs and being filled with spiders. When one man saves his master’s life he falls off his horse and is committed to the spiders. Instead of helping him out of this situation, the master takes his horse and rides away. Another man cannot understand his master’s behavior and it comes to an argument in which the master kills his subject.

Actually I do not like this excerpt because of the story itself which seems to be very unrealistic to me. Moreover, it is very peripatetically written I think.

However, the excerpt strikes through its unusual and colourful description of the landscape as in the following passage:

“It spread remoter and remoter, with only a few clusters of serethorn bushes here and there, and the dim suggestions of some nowwaterless ravine, to break its desolation of yellow grass. Its purpledistances melted at last into the bluish slopes of the further hills--hills it might be of a greener kind--and above them invisiblysupported, and seeming indeed to hang in the blue, were the snowcladsummits of mountains that grew larger and bolder to the north-westwardas the sides of the valley drew together. And westward the valleyopened until a distant darkness under the sky told where the forestsbegan.”

All in all, this excerpt has not convinced me and I will probably not read the whole book.

Creative Work: Short Story Based on the Exercise on Page 46

Ariadne had a bad dream. When she woke up she felt very uncomfortable. She tried to remember what the dream was about. But she had no clue. She couldn’t remember the last time she did not wake up tired and cross. She decided to get up even though her alarm clock had not rung yet. She sat down on her round wooden table in the dining room and had breakfast. “Are five rooms not too many for one person alone?” her fellow student Angela asked her once. She denied. “I don’t think so. Anyway, I wouldn’t know where to put my stuff if I only had one room, you know”. There is her beautiful kitchen. Actually, she did not want it. This was not because it did cost a fortune but she didn’t like the color. But her mother insisted on this kitchen since it looked like the kitchen of her friend’s daughter and even more precious. Next to the kitchen there is the bathroom which was redecorated last month. Most people like white, shiny flagstones. Her mother does like white. But to her they looked cold and less comfy. And there was the living-room with the dining table and too much chairs around it. Her mother always said one has to be prepared for guests. Actually, she once used only two of them when her friend Angela stopped by her place. Next to the living-room there was her bedroom with her big bed. It used to stand in the center of the room. After a few nights she decided to move it to the right side of the room. But when her mother visited her she moved it to left side like she had seen a picture in a furniture magazine some days ago. Ariadne tried to imagine how it would be to live in an ordinary dorm sharing her room with a totally unknown person. Impossible for her. Not enough space for her favorite furniture and books. Where to put the piano? It needs a room for itself. Though she hated the piano lessons but a piano looks so nice, doesn’t it?
Ariadne looked at the huge grandfather clock standing next to her TV and realized that she would be late for classes again. Her teacher told her if she comes late again, he will inform her parents since she was under eighteen. So she headed for classes. Arriving at the college building she saw Leroy and became startled. He looked as ever, behaved as ever, and laughed as ever while talking to his friend Andrew. She knew that he’d probably not laughed at her but it was enough to make her feel insecure. She didn’t saw the last step. She fell badly on the steps and broke her ankle. Leroy rushed to her and offered to take notes for her. She answered that this wouldn’t be necessary. She would ask somebody else though knowing that shewon’t do this. She couldn’t stand Leroy. Not anymore. One teacher who observed everything called the ambulance. So she went to the hospital. One doctor told her that she had to stay there for at least one more day. But she didn’t care. She was too embarrassed about what happened. What would Leroy think of her? Why hadn’t he called yet? Jerk! Finally, her mother arrived. She brought a huge bouquet and put it to the cupboard next to Ariadne’s bed. She wanted to know how this accident happened. But without waiting for Ariadne to answer she told her daughter how excited she was to going to the Caribbean Islands next week…

Response on Edgar Allan Poe’s Short Story The Black Cat

This short story is a typical Poe short story and I like is very much although it is violent: It is a story about a man who is haunted by a mental disease which lets him maltreat his animals and even his wife. When his disease becomes worse he even hangs his favourite black cat named Pluto and kills his wife with an axe.

The first paragraph is very interesting since the teller knows that he is going to die soon and furthermore emphasizes that he is not insane. But reading further one can see his insanity. Only an insane person could behave like this. I mean who could mistreat animals? Or kill his wife?

I like the mysterious elements in the story, for instance, when the teller discovers “the figure of a gigantic cat” on the wall they day after he had killed his black cat and his house had burnt down. Or under which circumstances the police finds out about the murder of his wife.

All in all, this story strongly reminds me on two Steven King novels, namely The Shining in which an alcohol addicted writer moves with his family into a hotel in order to be a house keeper. But he becomes haunted by ghosts who let him try to kill his family with an axe. The other novel this short story reminds me of is Pet Semetary. When the second black cat appears after the teller had hung Pluto I thought is was the revived version of Pluto. So it would be interesting to find out if Steven King’s novels are based on this short story.

Character of My Short Story

My character is a young woman in her mid-twenties. She has long dark hair which she prefers to wear loose. There is nothing special about her or clothing or her face or her language. Basically, she looks like any ordinary young women anywhere.

She doesn’t like to catch attention. Maybe she is even a little shy. On the other hand it is easy annoy her, because of her lack of patience her mother always criticised. At first glance, it seems that she and her mother are as different as anybody could be. But, actually, their relationship is close which none of them is aware of.

She wants always to know what people are thinking: about her, about their neighbourhood, about everything, even about thinking itself. She wants to look into people’s heads since she has misjudged people too often. She has a lot of acquaintances, fewer real friends. But sometimes she rather likes to be alone reading a book or doing nothing but thinking.

She lives in her own little one-room apartment. There are only few furniture in her apartment. Actually, everything one needs but nothing more- no personal items that reveal what type of person she is. She’d like to have animals, somebody to care for since her apartment appears blank to her.

Actually, she feels more comfy outside than in her apartment. She likes colourful things and places, for instance, Venice. One of her favourite activities is going out for dinner with her friends. She prefers Italian restaurants but doesn’t mind trying something else.

Response on Chapter 10

This chapter deals with the themes of short stories and how to approach them. I find the first short story entitled A Man Told Me the Story of His Life by Grace Paley very interesting. It is a story about a man, named Vincent, who dreamt of becoming a doctor when he was seventeen years old. So he learned “every bone, every organ in the body”. However, his teachers convinced him to become an engineer since he did a good job on his math tests. Later in the text, one learns that Vincent has even saved his wife’s life. His wife was sick and Vincent checked his books and told the doctor what his wife was suffering from and that she needed an operation soon.

It is very interesting to see how other persons somehow can decide about which path you’ll take. The character in the story trusted his teachers because he knew not better. But the text gives no concrete clue whether they and even the headmaster pushed him in only one direction without considering some other test.

At the end, Vincent tells about that he had lead a good life- he had a good job, a wife and three children. However, I find this statement extremely questionable. What if he had fulfilled his dream of becoming a doctor? And what about other people who suffer from a decision others had made for them? The passage about his good life makes the authorities being right. But on the other hand, saving his wife’s life shows his real vocation.

Response on “Train Dreaming” by Kathryn A. Wilson

The poem “Train Dreaming” by Kathryn A. Wilson is a very nice work since it deals with a every-day topic which has been experienced by everyone I guess- going by train. The speaker talks about how she likes being on train during night and how it differs from staying at home in her own “bed” that is “too big”.

It helps her to fall asleep if she pretends “to feel the rock and moan of the cars/ ca-thwack/ ca-thwack/ ca-thwack”. These lines literally create of the sound a train makes and remember me of train rides I made before. However, in contrast to the speaker I prefer sleeping in my bed, because the sounds a train makes do not really comfort me. So, I can only think of uncomfy rides. And I was also able to sleep, however, I awoke more exhausted than I was before.

The speaker describes how she feels in her bed and she says “Whilst on train, one’s body feels equally worse in the morning”. But she likes waking up “someplace new and interesting”. It is nice, indeed, falling asleep at one place and awake someplace else. These lines strongly remind me of my childhood. Whenever my family and I planned a trip I went to bed very early because I could not wait to leave. And time seems to pass much faster while being asleep than it would while being awake.

Anyway, I’m not sure if the poem really is about being on a train, because the speaker stresses how bad and uncomfy she feels in her big bed that “spits (her) up on the couch/ like an unwanted bone”. So I guess she feels misplaced at home for some reason and only appreciates going by train, because she can escape from home, then.

Response on Transplant by Joanne Kyger

This week we analyzed some poems written by Joanne Kyger. One poem that struck me most but has not been discussed in class is entitled “Transplant”.

It is a poem about a woman who breaks off with her partner although she still loves him. In the first stanza the speaker provides reasons for her hard though necessary decision. She says that her husband “had […] (her) all mapped out”. In fact, the poem strikes through its geographical images that are linked to the relationship of the former couple.

In the second stanza the speaker mentions how much she misses her husband. Through her language she indicated that she misses him not only psychologically but also sexually: “breathing without your mountains around/ to mirror the white crested peaks of my heartbeat”.

The next stanza is my favourite one since it features through very impressive images. In this stanza she wants to know if it was fate which brought her to her husband. She describes how the Spaniards came to America with “their boot soles were heavy with dirt from the mother country”. I like the ambiguity of this statement. At this point the reader may wonders was she means by this line. By describing them with dirty boot soles she may indicate their dirty intentions which led them entering the “New World”. But, actually, the speaker aims at something else, namely, on seeds that were brought with the dirty boot soles to America. Seeds that only coincidently reached the country. So she wants to emphasize that she may also was brought to where she is now coincidently, because she “arrived here stuck to the bottom of Gods great invisible shoe”-or destiny.

All in all, this poem features through a very figurative geographical language which makes it very unique.

Crative Entry (Open Mic Reading)

When she woke up that morning she felt uncomfortable. She didn’t sleep a wink. However, she was wide awake. She looked at the watch that stood on the commode next to her bed. “Two hours left”, she thought. She felt how merciless the time was flying. She watched the second hand. Tick. Tick. Tick. Faster and faster. “That’s the strange thing about time”, she thought, “If you want her to pass by fast she won’t do you that favor. It seems as if one minute is forever. As if time knows how to make you feel helpless. We are so dependent on her aren’t we?” The coffee tasted different this morning. She tried to arrange her thoughts. She knew it was her duty. She had no other choice. No longer… It made perfect sense one month ago. But now? Something has changed but she didn’t know what. She decided to pull herself together. That was the only thing she could do. When she left her apartment she tried to look as ever. “People can only look in your face, not in your heart”, she thought. She enjoyed the distraction on the street. She felt relieved but she knew it was only for some minutes. When she arrived at the building the uncomfortable feeling came back. It was even worse now. She opened the big door with her trembling hands, passed slowly the hall and stopped at the big stairway. Every step she took made her heart beat faster…

Response On Chapter 12

Chapter 12 begins with a rather untypical sentence for a book that stresses creativity I guess. It is a quote in which J. D. McClatchy states that “A writer’s life is lived not in bed or on the road but at the desk.” Actually, I do not agree with this statement at all. Of course, a desk is an important place to arrange one’s thoughts. However, I think a poet can only write about things he sees or that he has experienced. So how can a desk be more inspiring than being on the road and watching his surrounding?

However, this chapter offers some useful tips how to finish one’s own drafts. One passage entitled “Writing Communities” emphasizes that the same poem “that seems great today can seem dumb tomorrow and wonderful again the day after”. That is way the author suggests letting other people read the poem since oneself is too involved in his own work so that one is rather unable to read it objectively anymore.

In the following sub-chapter the author provides some proposals how to get organized with his own works. It includes such basic ideas as “use a system of manila folders […] labeled NEW (,) […] FINISHED (,) NOTES” (,) “OLD MSS” (,) and “PUBLISHED”. Furthermore, it provides some clues where to send a finished poem (I’m wondering if a poem can ever be finished?).

Basically, this chapter offers detailed information what one has to consider when he sends a poem to a Magazine.

Derrick Brown - The Kurosawa Champagne

I think the performance of this poem is very unique. I like the way the poet added music to his poem and the passages in which he sang his poem. It is very extraordinary way of reading one’s poem I guess. So music plays an important role in his performance. But it’s not just the music which makes it so special. It’s also the way he reads the poem and the way he stresses certain words in combination with his gestures. It made me feel his affection to that woman and involves the listeners I guess.

Actually, this poem is about the love of a man to a woman. However, through his language one can hear how desperately he loves her. His feelings to her make him even suffer and let him act in a rather self-destructing way. He totally surrenders himself to her which is emphasized through several passages in this work. Actually, he uses many negatively connotated words such as ‘hate’ or ‘die’, for instance, in the following passage: “You’ve a daily pill case but there’re no pills inside. It holds the ashes of people who died the moment they saw you.”

The way he described his’ woman’s beauty is also great: “The mathematical equivalent of a woman’s beauty is directly relational to the amount or degree that other women hate her. And you dear are hated a lot. You’re boots are soundtracked with adultery...” I like his formular of the beauty of women since I think it makes perfect sense.

Synesthesia

Synesthesia is a very fascinating phenomenon. I can remember, when I was in elementary school I associated several colors with some of my class mates’ names. For example, I associated the name Kai with purple combined with green stripes, Christian with red, etc. Strangely, I did not associate all of them with a color.

I don’t know why but today I’m not able to combine colors with names anymore. So if I would hear, for instance, the name Kai I would not think of purple anymore, but just remember what I felt once hearing this name (as one example).

I’d like to have the ability to associate words or music with colors. It must be very helpful to see sounds or to hear colors in order to create poems or fiction.


In the following, I tried to pick out some lines from one of my poems and turned them into Synesthesia.

* (and escaped from the bitter paradise) where red roses are shrilly screaming…

* (the nights on the lake) when the dark water softly embraced us...

* the cruel pen who tears red wounds in the soft, white paper...

Resonse on Capter 11

Chapter 11 gives an overview of the different stages poems need to go through until they are finished. These stages are called “Exploring“, „Trying Out“, “Focusing“, and “Shaping“.
In my opinion, the most difficult step is to focus on the content. As the book explains in this stage it is important to “Sharpen[…] fuzzy spots- unintentional ambiguity, exaggerations, private meanings, confusing omissions, and especially purple passages“.

Another important step is the shaping of a poem- a process in which the words of the poem must be deployed into lines. The writer has to decide whether he or she wants to use free verse or meter, rhyme, or non-rhyme, etc. The structure of a poem makes it often more vivid and relates to the content especially in Marianne Moore’s poem “The Fish”. Shape and content represent an entity. The arrangement of the particular lines and stanzas, respectively, mimic the fluidity of water or even waves. This poem strongly reminds me on a German poem called “Das Karussell” by Rainer Maria Rilke. It is a poem about a carousel in which the speaker observes a carousel that features through miniatured copies of animals such as a “white elephant” or a “lion”. The striking formal feature is that the reader can perceive the carousel’s rotation since the “white elephant” occurs repeatedly and at frequent intervals.

Returning the Moore’s poem I think she did well in making poem and structure an entity. Trying to create an appropriate and challenging form makes a poem even more special, I guess.

Response on: Carson McCullers' The Ballad of the Sad Café and Other Stories

Actually, I had some problems interpreting the excerpt. To begin, the story seems very odd to me: a hunchback and a strong woman fighting with each other. The excerpt can be divided into three parts. First, the speaker is describing the people watching the two protagonists wrestling with each other. The second paragraph deals with the woman almost winning and pushing the hunchback down. In the last part, the hunchback regains control of the situation.

It is interesting how language is used to describe the characters in this story. The protagonists seem to appear as creatures rather than human beings. The man, Marvin Macy, is characterized as “hunchback” with “clawed little fingers“. Besides, Miss Amelia is described with “strong big hands“. Both are fighting with each other while making “deep hoarse breaths“. The whole scene is observed by other quests in the café who are making “strange noises“, too. So the characters feature through their animal features which make them appear rather inhuman.
Besides their outer appearance which strongly reminds me on animals, their behavior is not human as well. They act like beasts: “It was a terrible thing to watch […] At last she had him down, and straddled; her strong big hands were on his throat“. Another passage underlines these animal features: ”Yet at the instant Miss Amelia grasped the throat of Marvin Macy the hunchback sprang forward and sailed through the air as though he had grown hawk wings. He landed on the broad strong back of Miss Amelia and clutched at her neck and his clawed little fingers”.As I mentioned at the beginning, this excerpt is very odd. But the way the author dehumanized the characters so that we rather think of a fight between animals than humans makes it quite interesting.

Writing Fiction, Chapter 4

I think developing characters can be very difficult. Especially, when writing, for instance, a short story one has to know before how the character is supposed to look like, how he feels in certain situations, and the general traits the author wants to portray. Generally, authors are assumed to “have the lucky, facile sort of imagination”. However, not every writer has this ability. Chapter 4 provides a good approach to this problem. It introduces a so-called Character Journal. How this is supposed to look like is described the following:

“Use the journal to note your observations of people. Try clustering your impressions of the library assistant who annoys you or the loner at the bar who intrigues you. Try to capture a gesture or message that physical features or clothing send.”

Honestly, I have never heard of this technique before, but I like this idea very much. Gestures can reveal so much about oneself without even knowing it. And many of these gestures are most likely recognized by the reader.

To conclude, integrating a character journal during the writing process helps the author to describe the character. And how, for instance, a character acts or how it looks like reveals the specific traits this particular character has. So this is a much better way to describe these traits. A text becomes more interesting when the reader is challenged I guess. That is why the author should avoid serving the character traits on a silver plate but rather show indirectly the character’s personality in the story.

Response on "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg

The poem is very special since it reminds me more on speech than on a poem I think. For instance, the long sentences, the repetitions, and the length of the poem itself. Moreover, it has a very persuasive tone I guess trying to make people aware of social issues. For instance, there are a lot of images revealing social criticism: there are passages dealing with crime, violence, drugs, madness as well as sexual references, for example:

“in a Turkish Bath when the blond & naked angel came to pierce
them with a sword“

“who copulated ecstatic and insatiate with a bottle of
beer a sweetheart a package of cigarettes a candle and fell off the bed“

“who howled on their knees in the subway and were dragged off the roof waving genitals and manuscripts, who let themselves be fucked in the ass by saintly motorcyclists, and screamed with joy“


Moreover, the text is full of references which make it rather hard to approach its full meaning. However, I like the third part most where he directly addresses his friend Carl Solomon whom he met at Rockland. I have read that Rockland refers to a psychiatry. It’s interesting how the speaker experiences visions and hallucinations and how this is expressed through very unusual choice of his words or language in general.

Finally, Ginsberg’s language is very radical and violent. I think that is concerning the time this poem was created. I would have expected such kind of poetry some years later I guess.

Response on Joseph Heller's "Catch-22"

This excerpt is very different from what I’ve read before. What struck me most on the story were the last few lines. It made me want to know how this story ends. Why did the man punch the doctor’s nose? Actually, the doctor helped them and explained to them how to have sex. So why is the man that mad with the doctor?

Actually, there are more incidents in the story that are odd. Another thing was the sequence of Saint Anthony. I had to look up who this saint was. I found that he helps people against infectious diseases especially herpes. So does the woman suffer from an infectious sexually disease? If so, why doesn’t she know who St. Anthony is? And if not, why would she wear this necklace of this saint? Besides, I’m wondering why the doctor has no practice anymore? Is it because of the rubber dolls since he narrator tells that he had to “keep (them) locked up in separate cabinets to avoid a scandal”?

So what wants the author us to tell? I think there is some critique in this excerpt. I mean the narrator calls the newly-weds a „couple of young kids”. They have been married for one year and she is still virgin, moreover, both are thinking they have had sex without even knowing what sex is. So I think society has not prepared them for their adult life and marriage, respectively. Maybe that’s the point of this story.

However, I would like to know how this story ends and will probably read the full version of Catch-22.

Response to the Woody Guthrie exerpt

This excerpt made me feel impressed by the way Woody Guthrie uses language in order to describe “the wild canyons of Wall Street” and its effect on people. Through his language he creates a vivid picture of a hectic and therefore threatening city. He repeats the word “afraid” three times in one sentence. Basically, his technique of repetition is probably meant to emphasise the threat that is caused by the very big skyscrapers that make the individual appear to be very small and meaningless. Another very important symbol is the ticker which indicates how much affected people are by today’s fast moving and hectic life which makes especially poor people suffer who are living “on the slummy edges”. This picture is even more intensified by the use of many negatively connotated words such as “deaths”, “divorces”, “lies”, and “explodes”.

The threatening first impressions of the speaker are followed by the contradicting image of a seaman. Everybody wants to escape his duties and the hectic life sometimes I guess. And the picture of a seaman illustrates that intention quite well. Being a seaman and sailing across the oceans means some kind of freedom the “canyons of the Wall Street” can not provide, they can only provide material thing.

Actually, I like the way the speaker appreciates the simple things of life. He just walks around watching people. He even begins to sing in the street while children listen to him and wants him to sing louder.I would probably never sing on the street, but I think it is sometimes important to escape the every-day life and just enjoy little things.

Response in Chapter 5: The Sound (and Look) of Sense

Response on Chapter 5: The Sound (and Look) of Sense

Thinking about rhyme and his effects is very interesting. In elementary school I had to learn many poems by heart. And as far as I can remember they always rhymed. At that time I liked rhyme since it was easier to learn I guess.

In this chapter the author states that especially in English language it is hard to find exact rhyme which is obviously the case for the words “circle” and “month”. When writing poems I have also experienced how difficult it is to find rhyming words especially as a non-native speaker.

However, I prefer poems that do not rhyme since rhyme often appears to make the poem some kind of harmonic. It could also draw the attention away from the poem’s content or make the tone change. When I wanted to create a poem that was partly about the sky the words “flying high in the sky” popped up immediately. It’s because these words can be found in many songs so that they have become overused I guess. Actually, I did not want to create any rhyme at all. The point is that many line endings do not surprise the reader or listener anymore since they occurred to our ears so many times just because they rhyme.

Basically, I think rhyme is only a good thing if the poet wants to create a poem that is really ironic. So the harmonic effect of rhyme would underline the irony intended. And this kind of contradiction would probably make the poem more provoking.

Exercise on line breaks: On the Road

Suddenly I had a vision of
the Dean,
a burning shuddering frightful Angel,
palpitating toward me across
the road, approaching like a cloud, with
enormous speed pursuing me like
the Shrouded Traveler on the plain,
bearing down
on me.
I saw his huge Face over the plains with
the mad, bony purpose and
the gleaming eyes;
I
saw
his wings.

Response on "The Kool-Aid Wino "

This excerpt tells the story about a young boy, called the Kool-Aid wino, who has been born into a very poor family. He suffers a rupture that cannot be cured since his family has no money for an urgent operation. His friend gives him a nickel so that the wino can buy a package of grapes for making Kool-Aid.

The author’s use of words is extraordinary. He combines terms that do not really fit together. He calls the blankets under which the wino sleeps as “tattered revolution of old blankets” or the “diapers” of his younger brothers or sisters “in various stages of anarchy”. This is probably meant to emphasize the bad living conditions of wino’s family. The whole family is working hard on the fields nevertheless to poor to buy adequate blankets or new diapers.

Generally, the author’s language is very pictorial for example when describing the grocer’s birthmark: it looked “just like an old car parked on his head”. Moreover, when refers to a field he compares it with “a feathered pig”. This is a rather untypical way to describe landscape.

The most striking paragraph in this story is the Kool-Aid ceremony performed by the wino. In general, making Kool-Aid is nothing special. But for the boy it has a great meaning. Though he takes too much water and omits sugar, since his family can’t afford any, he is helpful. He can’t work on the fields as the rest of his family, but he can make Kool-Aid for them.

The text gives us an insight on the daily life of a poor boy and his friend. But it leaves open an important question. We don’t learn about the other boy’s background and why he’s giving money to the wino to by a package of grapes.

Response on: Vonnegut, Kurt. 1969. Slaughterhouse-Five. New York: Dell Publishing, 1991.

By picking the topic of procreation the author tries to alienate what we know about human procreation. People are used to believe there are just two sexes on earth, namely, males and females. But Kurt Vonnegut speaks of five distinct sexes- each crucial for procreation process on the planet Tralfamadore. He disproves the common idea that such creatures look different from humans. In contrasts, all their special characteristics cannot be perceived by humans since those differences are only visible in the fourth dimension. But humans only know three dimensions.

The most effective sentence is when the Tralfamadorians tell Billy that there are actually seven sexes on earth responsible for the creation of babies. This questions everything what Billy himself or we have known so far. The reader is intended to query if life is really how he or she perceives it? Is there something we don’t see? It is a good technique of the author to make the reader doubt human existence.

The last paragraph is striking, too. The Tralfamadorians try to help Billy to figure out which humans belong to which sex. They say that there could be babies only with homosexual males, but homosexual women are not needed. But this totally contradicts our idea of procreation, since there are needed both a male and a woman to create a baby.

The explanation the Tralfamadorians give him sound “gibberish” to Billy. But that’s just because Billy cannot image that there can be more than two sexes. So one can question if everything which is not visible is therefore not true?

My Cell

Come into my cell,
Make yourself at home
Feel the calming darkness
Sun will never freeze you again.

Come into my cell,
The coolness will comfort you,
There is nothing to fear inside
Just blank walls whispering their story.

I am caught in my own cell,
I have been in here for so long
All emotions are left outside the bars
Waiting patiently for my pardon.

Short Story

"Tiny Cat"

She walked along the footpath watching everything with interest. It was hot and the sun burnt on her skin. She had not any plans for this afternoon and decided to get a cup of coffee. There were many bars, cafes, and restaurants over the road. All of them looked really inviting. But she was looking for a special one, for one she had recently heard of. It was said to be the best in town and she wanted to see for herself if this was true. She needed not to search very long. It was right next to a restaurant she had already been some days ago. Although it was an inconspicuous little building, she liked it.
When she entered the door, an unfamiliar smell reached her nose. However, it smelled good even if she didn’t know what it was. She looked around the interior. It was just a little room with about twelve tables on the right sight and a long counter on the left. She saw one bar keeper greeting her when she came in. The other one was busily doing anything. As she greeted him back he smiled and turned away. All in all it was a very well-furnished place. She liked these small wooden chairs and tables that reminded her on her grandmother’s living-room where she spent many afternoons when she was a child. She wondered how many people would be here since every seat was occupied except two on the bar. For one second she did not know what to do either leaving or staying. She felt the looks in her back and was embarrassed for all guests would have noticed her insecurity. However, she took a seat and put her handbag next to her. The first thing that caught her eyes was a big colourful sign above the shelves on the bar. It said: “Coffee 1.50, Espresso 1.50, Cappuccino 2.65”. She liked cappuccino and ordered some. The bar keeper was smiling again as when she entered the restaurant. But his smile made her uncertain this time. She wondered how people would perceive a woman going into a restaurant all alone. She peeked around but, actually, nobody looked at her which made her feel relieved. She noticed that almost all guests were eating a dish which looked very delicious. One of the bar keeper, the busy one, was preparing some more of these dishes. Sitting in front of him she saw how he arranged everything very neatly on the plate. The smell she recognized when she came in the restaurant became stronger. She became aware of how hungry she was. Actually, she was a careful woman never ordering things she did not know. But today she wanted to get rid of her old behaviour and be stronger and more independent. However, she asked one bar keeper for the ingredients of the dish everybody’s eating and he specified everything. But she hardly understood a word, only some words that sounded like ‘chicken’ and ‘pasta’. But she was not sure at all. She shortly considered asking again, but desistanced from it for it would not have changed anything. She had already tried to do so before, just a few days ago when she was in another restaurant. She had been asking the waitress for a dish three times and the waitress had become more and more irritated. So the only thing to escape from this rather uncomfortable situation was to nod and pretend to understand everything.
To avoid a similar situation she ordered this dish without answering again. “Almost everybody’s eating this dish”, she thought, “So it must be good”. Just about five minutes later her meal was served. She poked it with her fork and, actually, discovered some chicken on her plate. She felt very proud because she had obviously gotten him right. After she had eaten some of the chicken, she suddenly felt sick. It was hard for her to breathe and she felt her pulse rapidly increase. Some seconds later she lost her conscience.
When she woke up artificial light dazzled her. Her eyes were aching and she was cold. She still had problems to breathe. She smelled a very obtrusive odor and knew immediately where she was. She directly thought of her family and what they were doing at the moment. Her parents would probably work in the yard and her little sister would play with her two cats. How glad would she be if they were just sitting right next to her bed. Suddenly a nurse came in looking seriously at her. She told her that she had suffered an allergic reaction caused from peanut oil that were in the food she ate at the restaurant and that she was lucky that the doctors diagnosed so quickly was had been wrong with her. But she stopped listening to the nurse. She didn’t need any explanation since she knew already what happened. Actually, she was a careful woman never ordering things she did not know. Never, except today. From a distance she could hear the nurse saying that she would be allowed to leave hospital the next day. But the only thing she was thinking of was that little stuffed animal, this tiny cat, she was going to send to her little sister as a birthday present.

About the Writing Process

Creating a meaningful piece of literature appears to be very challenging. Sometimes it is very difficult to find something to write about. It can be helpful to become aware of one’s inner thoughts and feelings. It is probably easier to write about things one is in involved in or which make one happy, sad, or even topics one is just interested in. If one has finally found a topic to write about the difficulty which remains is to put all those thoughts into proper words, since sometimes it is just easier to think about something than to find appropriate words for the same subject.

During the writing process a major aspect the writer has to consider is that not always the most spectacular and most surprising writing is the best for this might make a story appear exaggerating and even artificial. Another thing is that the writer should be interested in making the audience read between the lines in order to filter out what he intends to point at. Not infrequently, lines that seem to be meaningless at first glance can develop depth while re-reading them several times (as it is the case in some of Ernest Hemingway’s short stories).

Besides, poems are even more difficult to create. Poems are not just a sequence of words. They are much more than this. What makes them so challenging is that it is sometimes rather hard to interpret them. Additionally, though the poet intends to express something not all readers necessarily perceive and interpret poems the same way.

Creating pieces of literature can evoke emotions either during the writing process itself but also while reading them. So literature can help to deal with problems and concerns. Through writing one can express oneself and even make people consider particular issues.




Analysis of John Lennon’s writing style in:

Subtitle "Lucy in the Scarf with Diabetics"

This excerpt emphasizes Lennon’s socio critical attitude toward war, politics, and economy. Continuously, he is playing on words. In the first line the word issue has been turned into the phrase “atissue (bless you)” expressing the sound of sneezing which is intensified by the additional words “bless you” standing in brackets.

Furthermore, Lennon predicts another world war since he does not only say “if […] the Third World War […] breaks out” but also “when”. So he is pointing at a certain time in future. The term “RANDUM” might refer to the term ‘memorandum’. Lennon probably wants to criticize that politicians make decisions concerning war, but they will never be the ones who fight, instead the common man is supposed to fight as the question “WHO WILL RUN THEM?” suggests.

In the next paragraph he refers to “President Exxon” probably meaning President Nixon who constantly tried to expel Lennon from the United States. Lennon displays Nixon as a child drinking “his cocoa” and being watches by “His Matron”.

Lennon also criticizes the Billionaire Howard Hughes who became rich through Hughes Aircraft Company and the foundation of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Pointing at Mr. Hughes ‘empire’ and fortune Lennon names him Howard “MR. HUGE”. But he does not only misspell his name he also uses capital letters in order to emphasize Hughes’s power. By writing that “Howard HUGE Memorial Hospital […] will only admit dead people, for fear of Spreading Some Unconscionable Disease” Lennon indicates that this scientific institution was originally not solely intended to help people.

All in all, this excerpt includes many time references that were current at Lennon’s time. To understand the whole text requires specific historical knowledge. His playing on words makes his statements even more critical and challenging in terms of understanding.


“Tiny Cat”

She walked along the footpath watching everything with interest. It was hot and the sun burnt on her skin. She had not any plans for this afternoon and decided to get a cup of coffee. There were many bars, cafes, and restaurants over the road. All of them looked really inviting. But she was looking for a special one, for one she had recently heard of. It was said to be the best in town and she wanted to see for herself if this was true. She needed not to search very long. It was right next to a restaurant she had already been some days ago. Although it was an inconspicuous little building, she liked it.
When she entered the door, an unfamiliar smell reached her nose. However, it smelled good even if she didn’t know what it was. She looked around the interior. It was just a little room with about twelve tables on the right sight and a long counter on the left. She saw one bar keeper greeting her when she came in. The other one was busily doing anything. As she greeted him back he smiled and turned away. All in all it was a very well-furnished place. She liked these small wooden chairs and tables that reminded her on her grandmother’s living-room where she spent many afternoons when she was a child. She wondered how many people would be here since every seat was occupied except two on the bar. For one second she did not know what to do either leaving or staying. She felt the looks in her back and was embarrassed for all guests would have noticed her insecurity. However, she took a seat and put her handbag next to her. The first thing that caught her eyes was a big colourful sign above the shelves on the bar. It said: “Coffee 1.50, Espresso 1.50, Cappuccino 2.65”. She liked cappuccino and ordered some. The bar keeper was smiling again as when she entered the restaurant. But his smile made her uncertain this time. She wondered how people would perceive a woman going into a restaurant all alone. She peeked around but, actually, nobody looked at her which made her feel relieved. She noticed that almost all guests were eating a dish which looked very delicious. One of the bar keeper, the busy one, was preparing some more of these dishes. Sitting in front of him she saw how he arranged everything very neatly on the plate. The smell she recognized when she came in the restaurant became stronger. She became aware of how hungry she was. Actually, she was a careful woman never ordering things she did not know. But today she wanted to get rid of her old behaviour and be stronger and more independent. However, she asked one bar keeper for the ingredients of the dish everybody’s eating and he specified everything. But she hardly understood a word, only some words that sounded like ‘chicken’ and ‘pasta’. But she was not sure at all. She shortly considered asking again, but desistanced from it for it would not have changed anything. She had already tried to do so before, just a few days ago when she was in another restaurant. She had been asking the waitress for a dish three times and the waitress had become more and more irritated. So the only thing to escape from this rather uncomfortable situation was to nod and pretend to understand everything.
To avoid a similar situation she ordered this dish without answering again. “Almost everybody’s eating this dish”, she thought, “So it must be good”. Just about five minutes later her meal was served. She poked it with her fork and, actually, discovered some chicken on her plate. She felt very proud because she had obviously gotten him right. After she had eaten some of the chicken, she suddenly felt sick. It was hard for her to breathe and she felt her pulse rapidly increase. Some seconds later she lost her conscience.
When she woke up artificial light dazzled her. Her eyes were aching and she was cold. She still had problems to breathe. She smelled a very obtrusive odor and knew immediately where she was. She directly thought of her family and what they were doing at the moment. Her parents would probably work in the yard and her little sister would play with her two cats. How glad would she be if they were just sitting right next to her bed. Suddenly a nurse came in looking seriously at her. She told her that she had suffered an allergic reaction caused from peanut oil that were in the food she ate at the restaurant and that she was lucky that the doctors diagnosed so quickly was had been wrong with her. But she stopped listening to the nurse. She didn’t need any explanation since she knew already what happened. Actually, she was a careful woman never ordering things she did not know. Never, except today. From a distance she could hear the nurse saying that she would be allowed to leave hospital the next day. But the only thing she was thinking of was that little stuffed animal, this tiny cat, she was going to send to her little sister as a birthday present.

Analysis of John Lennon’s writing style in:

Subtitle "Lucy in the Scarf with Diabetics"

This excerpt emphasizes Lennon’s socio critical attitude toward war, politics, and economy. Continuously, he is playing on words. In the first line the word issue has been turned into the phrase “atissue (bless you)” expressing the sound of sneezing which is intensified by the additional words “bless you” standing in brackets.

Furthermore, Lennon predicts another world war since he does not only say “if […] the Third World War […] breaks out” but also “when”. So he is pointing at a certain time in future. The term “RANDUM” might refer to the term ‘memorandum’. Lennon probably wants to criticize that politicians make decisions concerning war, but they will never be the ones who fight, instead the common man is supposed to fight as the question “WHO WILL RUN THEM?” suggests.

In the next paragraph he refers to “President Exxon” probably meaning President Nixon who constantly tried to expel Lennon from the United States. Lennon displays Nixon as a child drinking “his cocoa” and being watches by “His Matron”.

Lennon also criticizes the Billionaire Howard Hughes who became rich through Hughes Aircraft Company and the foundation of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Pointing at Mr. Hughes ‘empire’ and fortune Lennon names him Howard “MR. HUGE”. But he does not only misspell his name he also uses capital letters in order to emphasize Hughes’s power. By writing that “Howard HUGE Memorial Hospital […] will only admit dead people, for fear of Spreading Some Unconscionable Disease” Lennon indicates that this scientific institution was originally not solely intended to help people.

All in all, this excerpt includes many time references that were current at Lennon’s time. To understand the whole text requires specific historical knowledge. His playing on words makes his statements even more critical and challenging in terms of understanding.