This week we were asked to read two excerpts, one from Billy the Kid by Michael Ondaatje and Micro fiction by Jerome Stern. Both pieces made me really think and sometimes even re-read sections to try and grasp the meaning.
I would like to start off by saying that Billy the Kid was extremely confusing, which Professor Mangini said would happen. If it wasn't for his underlining and comments on the sides I would not have noticed the sense of color being used throughout this entire piece. Since we are still working with the sense of place I have been trying to keep a close eye for it with-in this piece. This section of the story opens up with a poem which I am assuming represents the Chisum's house. It describes how everyone at one time or another came to this house for a meal or comfort. As I began to read I found out that the narrator (who might be Billy the Kid) was burned and nursed to health by Mrs. Sallie Chisum. Towards the end of this section it talks about animals. "Still every animal that came within a certain radius of that house was given a welcome, the tame, the half-born, the wild, the wounded" (35). This means that Sallie is a natural healer and loves to help others or maybe she is bored because she is forced to shut out the outside world by John and it is her only way to feel powerful? Well as you can see with my response I am still jumbled and not sure what to make of it.
On to Micro fiction......
Micro fiction consisted of four short stories that were fun and interesting. Throughout all four I noticed everyone had their own "problem". I know every story should always have a problem and a solution of some sort but these stories seemed so real because they were written with detail and description of a certain point in time. "Wrong Channel" was a humorous story dealing with a lady trying to get her green card but her interpreter is not giving the right information. "Mockingbird" is about a a couple who recently started dating, is having a conversation based on real life experiences. The girl finds out the man she is head over heels for may not actually be who she thought he was. "Lands End" is about a girl who seems to be injured on a beach and seems lost and confused. It leaves you wondering what is going to happen to her. "Waiting" is about a girl who lives this repetitive life of substitute teaching hoping for a real job and making her father happy. Everyone with-in these four stories had a problem to overcome but as a reader we were not given the solution.
I would like to start off by saying that Billy the Kid was extremely confusing, which Professor Mangini said would happen. If it wasn't for his underlining and comments on the sides I would not have noticed the sense of color being used throughout this entire piece. Since we are still working with the sense of place I have been trying to keep a close eye for it with-in this piece. This section of the story opens up with a poem which I am assuming represents the Chisum's house. It describes how everyone at one time or another came to this house for a meal or comfort. As I began to read I found out that the narrator (who might be Billy the Kid) was burned and nursed to health by Mrs. Sallie Chisum. Towards the end of this section it talks about animals. "Still every animal that came within a certain radius of that house was given a welcome, the tame, the half-born, the wild, the wounded" (35). This means that Sallie is a natural healer and loves to help others or maybe she is bored because she is forced to shut out the outside world by John and it is her only way to feel powerful? Well as you can see with my response I am still jumbled and not sure what to make of it.
On to Micro fiction......
Micro fiction consisted of four short stories that were fun and interesting. Throughout all four I noticed everyone had their own "problem". I know every story should always have a problem and a solution of some sort but these stories seemed so real because they were written with detail and description of a certain point in time. "Wrong Channel" was a humorous story dealing with a lady trying to get her green card but her interpreter is not giving the right information. "Mockingbird" is about a a couple who recently started dating, is having a conversation based on real life experiences. The girl finds out the man she is head over heels for may not actually be who she thought he was. "Lands End" is about a girl who seems to be injured on a beach and seems lost and confused. It leaves you wondering what is going to happen to her. "Waiting" is about a girl who lives this repetitive life of substitute teaching hoping for a real job and making her father happy. Everyone with-in these four stories had a problem to overcome but as a reader we were not given the solution.