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…
Montag, 12. November 2007
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.
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.
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.
Abonnieren
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