michelledavella

geek love

Thu, 13 Apr 2006 00:42:25 GMT

When I go t to page 303 I realized that there really hadn't been any motherly or fatherly emotional interactions between Lil and Al and the children. On this page Arty is screaming and crying that Oly is pregnant. Lil says that he is drunk or stoned. And Al just says, "Drunk? Have you been hitting that stuff?" It just seems hilarious to me that this is the way the family is interacting. But, then I have to think that this is not a "normal" family situation. And here we are back again with the term normal and what it represenets. The family role in this story is switched for sure. The children are the ones running the show. Arty is the head of the family. The kids are the ones making the money. The parents don't seem to show any loving or emotional interactions with the children. Unless I didn't notice them earlier. But, in this scene Lil bends down next to Oly and asks her if she is pregnant in this sweet tone. She also rubs her face and puts her cheek next to Oly's. This is the first time I have noticed real interaction between Lil and her children in a motherly way.

A quote that stood out to me is on page 309. Oly says, "Understand, daughter, that the only reason for your existing was a tribute to your uncle-father. You were meant to love him. I planned to teach you how to serve him and adore him. You would be his monument and his fortress against mortality." This quote to me sounds so cult-like. The only reason Miranda was born was to tribute to Arty. But, a part of me also thinks the isn't really true. It seems like Oly wanted a way to stay attached to Arty. But, then again Oly didn't really talk to Arty about it at all. So, I'm conflicted on that point.

family oddities

Tue, 11 Apr 2006 20:55:24 GMT

I have been thinking about how there are some weird family relationships throughout reading Geek Love. We touched a little bit upon it today in class. As I mentioned in my last post the whole Arty and Oly thing is kind of strange. I am still a couple pages away from finishing the book so I'm not sure what the deal is with that. The whole sexual element when it comes to the family is weird also. When Oly washes Arty there are some odd conversations. It's like the author is taking the social element that everyone encounters in life and is smooshing it inside this little family. Arty casually asks Oly if she has started bleeding yet and if she needs him to find her a boyfriend. The entire sex element is very nonchalant.

I also think the cult theme is very prevelent. At one point I'm reading about how Arty decides to let the Bag Man marry the twins. And I'm like, "Wait, why aren't they just saying no." I'd laugh because it is so ridiculous. But, it really is like a cult. Whatever Arty says goes. Right now I'm on the part where he is deciding to kill one of the twins to seperate them. It is crazy that Chick is going to let his sister die because Arty said so. Lil goes to see her daughters, and she isn't allowed in because Arty says so. It's very much a cult with him as the leader.

Geek Love

Wed, 05 Apr 2006 22:19:39 GMT

I'm really into the novel now. There are many things that catch my eye while I'm reading. The main one I thought about in the first few chapters. I wasn't sure about the character situation at that point because I was a little confused. I thought that Oly had said that Arty was her daughter's father. That would mean that she slept with her brother. I haven't gone back to check on that yet, but I got to another part of the novel where Oly says she wants to marry Arty and cuddle with him all the time. On the twins' birthday they get their period and this brings on the thought of getting older to Elly I think it is. Iphy assumes she will marry Arty. At first I was kind of stunned that this notion would even be in their head. BUt, if you think about it they aren't in a normal family life. They don't seem to view one another as brother and sisters even though they talk about the family often. They also don't have much interaction with other people or the way society works besides the interactions they have within their carnival. I also found it interesting that at the age of 14 Iphy has still never contemplated the thought of her parents dyings. She seemed utterly shocked to hear Elly say such a thing. Another part that struck me as interesting was when this man with chopped off legs comes to visit Arty. Arty tells him that he only hides his legs because it's what he has basically been conditioned to do in society. He says that if he embraced them and showed them off than he would get girls. I think this is also another way to say that if you embrace who you are then you are more confident in yourself. If you are confident in who you are you are more likely to have a stable group of people as a support system around you. There are so many similarities between the disformaties in the novel and our society. I find it really interesting.

more geek love

Mon, 27 Mar 2006 18:10:36 GMT

Now that I'm getting into the book I'm starting to like it. It was hard for me to establish characters and such in the beginning. Now that I'm getting some history of the family and the children I'm developing an interest in it. I find it a really interesting story about the society we live in. I think in a way it represents perfectly how society ostracizes those who don't fit in with the "norm." When they walk down the street everyone gawks. And that's what it would be like today if people walked down the street like this. I don't think it's meant to represent deformed people, but "Geeks" in any way shape or form. Anyone who is Geeky isn't considered "normal." And what is normal anyway? It's one of the most subjective word in our language. I think this book is just taking the Geek level to an extreme radical view. But, the family also has a it's own way of grouping together and ostracizing each other. Oly doesn't feel like she is big enough of a Geek to fit in with the family. She doesn't play a large enough role in the show. Therefore, she grew up always longing to have more specialties. This can be related to any child growing up who doesn't feel adequate and wants to change something about themselves to fit in. Arty has jealousy issues as well. While the novel may be addressing issues that society has with people who don't fit into the "norm" the Geek family does the same thing. They also talk down on the "norms."

Assignment 3

Tue, 21 Mar 2006 22:14:40 GMT

After the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001 an act called the Patriot Act was passed by our government. Part of this act enables government officials to infringe on some of our freedoms. As stated on Wikipedia, “Much controversy has arisen over section 215, which allows judges to grant government investigators ex parte orders to look into personal records (including financial, medical, phone, Internet, student or library records) on the basis of being "relevant for an on going investigation concerning international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities.” This act could be the beginning of complete control over the public. This is similar to V for Vendetta because they were living in a world where the government watched their every moves and people were being fed information by a voice over the radio. In V for Vendetta there is no discussion about what event, like September 11th happened, to make the world change so dramatically. There are cameras watching everyone, even in government official offices. This is also very similar to the world George Orwell paints in 1984. Today we have survellience monitors in stores “for our protection.” While there are very good reasons to do so, it also shows a link between our lives and the book. If a group of people come together with a good enougj reason to plant cameras on the streets will our lives become montinored by a small group of people like in V for Vendetta? Like in 1984? Women in the book talk about progress when the cameras are turned off for three days. Is it going to be progress that puts us in a world like prison where we are being monitored by someone somewhere at every moment? It is a possibility that critics of the Patriot Act are very concerned with. V is fighitng to make the public realize they need to take a stand because this isn’t a world we should be living in. The government was created for the people by the people, wasn’t it? So why should they be allowed to infringe on our privacy? Here is an article about a small town in California that is standing up for their right to privacy. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A64173-2003Apr20¬Found=true
They think that the Patriot Act is giving the government too much power. V for Vendetta deals with this same theme. V destroys the symbols of government, control, order, and power in London. By destroying Parliament he is showing what is to come. The power was taken away from the people by this central government. They began to feed the people with the voice of Fate who they began to believe really was fate. V had to intervene to show the people how to stand up for themselves again. This is also, in a way, what some critics of the Patriot Act are trying to do. They want to rest of the people to wake up and realize that if we allow this to happen then what will be next? This world could very well end up being a world like V for Vendetta.

geek love

Tue, 21 Mar 2006 16:24:01 GMT

I just started reading Geek Love, and I found it kind of rough to get through the first twenty pages or so. But, now that I have I'm getting more into it. The author likes to reveal facts very slowly. A part of me respects that as a writing style. But, this story is so random that I feel like I want to know the basis of the story before we start getting into character development. First they are all a happy odd family hearing stories in a room. Then suddenly it seemed like she was all grown up and had a child, Miranda, who didn't know who she was. I just discovered why they don't know each other, but I'm wondering if Miranda coming to the house is a conincidence or if she was coaxed by someone. When I first read about the main character with the hump I thought she was a man. I was suprised when she started talking about being Miranda's mother. I'm curious as to why she doesn't talk to Lil, her own mother. With the way the author write so far, I'm sure that's another story she will leave until later on. I think there are a lot of things that make this character very interesting. She is an albino midget who is so completely reserved from society, and she seems afraid of any sort of emotional contact with another human being. You would think it is because of what she looks like, but she tells Miranda that she has never wanted to be normal. She says she wishes she had more specialties like fins or something. Maybe she never got enough attention with her abnormalties so she feels left out in that way. It's kind of a play on our own society. People who aren't supermodel gorgeous don't get that kind of attention and publicity. She isn't enough of a Geek so she doesn't get enough attention as well.

V for Vendetta

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 00:12:00 GMT

V for Vendetta is a very different read from anything I’ve experienced before. It’s very odd to read something and look at images at the same time. It’s not that hard for me to visualize everything because I’ve been getting used to making storyboards for ads. Anyway, once you get the hang of reading in this style it’s not too difficult.
From the first scene this story reminded me of 1984 by George Orwell. The whole idea that one body is trying to run the lives of the rest of the public is very similar. The third scene shows an image of a camera on a street pole with a sign that says, “For your protection.” This is the same thing as having Big Brother watch you. In Chapter Two there is a scene where there is a sign on the wall that says, “Strength through purity, purity through strength.” I know it’s not really the same but for some reason it reminded me of 1984’s, “War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.”
I’m not sure if I’ve figured out the whole Nose Mouth and Ears thing but I’m thinking it’s representative of different parts of the government that are trying to control certain aspects of the public. This is also similar to 1984 where they have the Ministry of Love and things like that. Both stories were also based in London.

Assignment #3 Setting, Death Defier

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 01:57:25 GMT

Scene 1: Car breaks down in the desert of Afghanistan
In class we talked about how a car is never really a car in a fiction story. The car is a vehicle. Since this story focuses on death and the car breaks down it is showing that the vehicle has stopped. This is a symbol of the death to come, and the death all around them. This enhances the conflict because it leaves Donk and Graves stranded in the desert. It makes their fate seem even more unstable. Being in Afghanistan during war is already a life risk. Now, they are stranded with no vehicle and even more vulnerable. If the story were in another country with conflict the story might not change so much. But, if it were in a place that doesn’t have human conflict or war going on everywhere then the story would not be so fitting. Since the car stops it leaves Donk stranded it shows his inner conflict with death. It is a way to make him deal with it. On page 174 it says, “The shattered but still in tact windshield sagged like netting.” This reflects Donk because he is shattered from his father’s death but on the outside appears to still be in tact.
On page 181 Afghanistan is described. It says, “…the country felt as empty and skull-white as a moon.” Using the word skull is another reference to death. The use of the words empty could also portray Donk’s feelings.

Scene 2: Donk’s flashback of Kunduz
Page 178 reads, “Donk snapping Kunduz’s ragtag liberators and the dead-eyed prisoners locked up…” to describe the setting in Kunduz. Death is surrounding them everywhere. He says that the prisoners are “dead-eyed” which could relate back to his photography. When Donk photographed the woman dead it could have been said he had a dead-eye because it seemed that the photograph didn’t haunt him. The setting in Kunduz enhances the conflict because it gives the reader even more of a sense of the death images that have been surrounding Donk with what he has been seeing all this time.

Scene 3: Donk’s flashback of Tajikistan
Page 178 reads, “All were waiting for official clearance before venturing into Afghanistan.” Although this doesn’t portray the scenery around them, it explains what people are doing in the setting. This could be relevant to the waiting game in death. Donk is waiting to die. Graves is waiting to die. Everyone is waiting to die. In this scene everyone is waiting to go to Afghanistan. They are willing to go to a place where everyone is dying.

Scene 4: Ahktar’s Village
The setting as Donk drives into the village is a “smear of homes and buildings…covered with scrabbly, drought-ruined grass” and there were phone poles knocked over onto the ground. This gives an empty unloved feeling. It shows that there is conflict going on in the setting. It also says that the air thickened and became smoky. This gives a dreary emotion often associated with death. Another thing that comes to mind is cremation. On page 189 Akhtar points toward kites and says that they are free. They were not allowed to fly kites before, but now are. This could be seen as a reference between life and death. In life if you are not free then how alive are you?

Scene 5: Inside the compound
Donk looks around the compound and sees men that look, “beaten, bullied, violent.” He then triggers thoughts of Afghanistan, “men, men, desert, men, men, men, guns, desert…” This portrays death once again. Guns symbolize death. The description of the men resembles that of death. All of the scenery is bleak, smoky, or gray.

Scene 6: General Mohammed’s Quarters
When Donk went to General Mohammed’s Quarters he was alone. This could symbolize how we come into the world alone in birth and leave the world alone in death. The desk is described as plain and wooden. On page 199 it reads, “Behind the general, on the wall, hung a green and black flag last used in Afghanistan during the reign of its deposed king.” This also references to the turmoil in the country which relates back to death and human conflict. It can also be seen as the journey the country has traveled relating to the journey Donk has traveled dealing with his thoughts and emotions and the journey he will be traveling through Afghanastan.

Scene 7: Desert scene in search of grass
On page 202 it talks about the hills they are traveling over. “They cleared it easily, and though another, steeper lay just ahead, Donk was pleased. These foothills were not very challenging.” It then goes on to talk about how he had climbed steeper mountains and rougher terrain. This could foreshadow how Donk is headed toward death. Although he has had a troubled life behind him he is heading toward the end of it all.

Scene 8: Donk’s death
On page 210 it says, “The, oddly, Donk seemed to be looking at the trees and the grass from much higher up.” Although he is not dead yeah this is referencing his death like an outer body experience. The grass is described just before Donk steps on the bobmlet. It says, “the trees were especially boilable, thick, and tussocky.” This could signify the change from life to death. When water boils it changes from a liquid to a vapor. It could be seen that Donk is changing from body to spirit.

stone animals

Sun, 19 Feb 2006 23:09:45 GMT

I'm not too sure what to think about Stone Animals. I know there is some symbolism going on with the rabbits, and I guess I was disapointed with the end because I couldn't place just what it was all about. I was expecting something else to be going on with all of the haunting issues. There was a lot of really wacky stuff going on. The mother is dreaming of eating paint. She is obsessed with paint. But, I'm just not catching what all of this is supposed to be representing. I thought it was really interesting that she saved her marriage by creating a nonexistant affair. It seems like the people in the family don't communicate well with one another. It seems like the mother and father speak to each other about things but there is no emotion there. It also seemed like there was something political going on in the story because there were references made to bombings on the train. I can't grasp what it is all about though.

death defier

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 20:33:55 GMT

Death Defier was hard for me to get into. It began with a car crash, but you soon found out that they were in Afghanastan reporting the war. Throughout the story I kept trying to figure out what the point was. My take on it is that it's a story dealing with death. First of all it's taking place in the midst of a war. Donk has all these leftover feelings about his father's death that he never really came to terms with. Graves is dying of Malaria. The soldiers kill the donkey for no apparant reason, and then Donk dies from a bomlet.
One line I found striking was when Graves says, "Isn't it strange that in the midst of all this a man can die from a mosquito bite?" People are all over the place killing each other for one reason or another. As a journalist, Graves has been in the midst of this avoiding bullets and being murdered yet he ends up dying from a mosquito bite. Donk also dies in this sort of irony. On pages 211 it reads, "He had stepped instead on a bomlet...that had not detonated above the eradicated convoy but rather bounced away, free and clear, and landed here in the grass." If the bomblet had exploded where it should have, in the convoy, then Donk wouldn't have died either.
While I was reading the story I wasn't too fond of it. But, looking back at some of the meaning I think it's very relevant to how everyone experiences death in life.

until gwen rewrite

Thu, 09 Feb 2006 16:57:19 GMT

The fairground is empty, and you and your son walk around for a bit. You stare at your son gazing over at the abandoned booths with tarps lose and waving in despair. It’s time for him to remember, and he says, “It’s coming back to me. A little.”
You say, “Yeah.” It’s too late. He doesn’t know anything, and even if he did you know he wouldn’t tell you, at least not until Gwen. You’ve been waiting for the conversation to come up.
You stand patiently as he walks over to the fresh mound of dirt you patted down only days ago. His worn boots shuffle over the recently tilled square, and he says, “Mandy?”
You chuckle softly, more to yourself than to him, and look past him to the rusted cage with soft stains of a clown’s face fading from the wood behind. He didn’t really have to ask, and that’s why you didn’t really have to answer. She wasn’t going anywhere anyway.
“I held it in my hand, you know,” he says.
“I’d figure,” I say.
The silence nestles between them, and you begin to feel anxious and irritated. The impatience rises in your voice but you don’t think he knows why you brought him here. He continues rambling on about the diamond- the diamond you know he’ll never give up.
“Covered the center of my palm,” he says.
“Big, huh?”
“Big enough.”
“Running out of patience, boy,” you say, tired of playing the run around.
He nods, “I’d guess you would be.”
“Never my strong suit.” He was always such a needy child, and your patience wasn’t the only thing lacking in that family.
“No,” he says.
“This has been nice,” you lie, and sniff the air. “Like old times, reconnecting and all that.”
Your son begins talking, but your mind is on the gun digging in your hip. You’re imagining the smooth trigger nestled in your fingers, and you just can’t bear the talk anymore.
“I told her if you ever caught up to her, to take you to the fairground,” he says.
“Who’s this we’re talking about?” You realize the conversation is upon you, and this means it’s closer to getting this all done and over with.
“Gwen,” he says her name in almost a whisper.
“You don’t say,” you say while pulling the gun from your dirty brown jeans. You tap it restlessly against the outside of your knee. He doesn’t know how loud she cried out that day kneeling in a place children used to laugh. You almost felt something during her sobbing monologue that passed slower than you thought it would.
“Told her to tell you that’s all she knew. I’d hid it here. Somewhere here.”
“Lotta ground,” you say as your mind focuses in on the red streaks across your t-shirt that day. Her lipstick smudged your shirt while you tried to place her in the hole. Afterward you spent months digging up dirt all around that damn fairground.
You turn to face your son, and you’re beginning to think about how much time he spent in prison- years. And then you wonder why they were really at the fairground. Why had he told the girl to bring her here? He knew you too well, and he knew you would kill her. You begin to think that the balance may have shifted, and you grip the gun against your groin, waiting.
“The kinda money that stone’ll bring,” you tell your son, “a man could retire.”
“To what?” he says.
“Mexico.”
“To what, though?” he says. “Mean old man like you? What else you got, you ain’t stealing something, killing somebody, making sure no one alive has a good fucking day?”
You feel the hair on your neck begin to prickle and spike. Your heart is beating loud enough for your son to hear in the empty fairground. You suddenly realize that he knows you’re here to kill him, and he didn’t do anything to stop it. The balance is off. Your son has sat in prison for years figuring out your every move. He’s in control.
You look down at the gun weighing down your hand, standing still with the empty pulse of your still blood. You look up at your son, “This going to fire?”
He shakes his head, and you gently lift it up and down with your hand. You can feel that it’s loaded. You can feel the weight.
“Jack the slide,” he says.
You yank back hard with no result. You should have been prepared for this. You should have known he would figure you out. But, you never thought he had it in him. But you should have. After all, he is your son. You taught him everything he knows.
“Krazy Glue,” he says. “Filled the barrel too.”
In the corner of your eye a blade appears from your son’s pocket. You can feel a sort of pride hiding somewhere in your gut. It’s an analogy. He is to knife as you are to gun.
He says, “Wherever you buried her, you’re digging her out.”
You nod, “I got a shovel in the trunk.”
He shakes his head and lets a smile slip over his quivering lips, “With your hands.”

The changed point-of-view does switch up the story a bit in this scene. However, the twist in this scene was that Bobby knew his father was taking him there to kill him so he filled the gun with Krazy Glue. In the original story it was interesting to see the reaction the father had to discovering what his son had done. Having the story come from the father’s point of view is also interesting because the reader is able to hear what is going through his head while he discovers what is happening. The way I wrote it, the reader also doesn’t know what is going on until the father does. He doesn’t figure it out until it’s too late. It is interesting to see his change of view as to what his future will be because it suddenly changed in that instant.
In this story the ending would have to be different because the father gets killed by the son. So, there would be no emotional ending about Gwen and Bobby. It would have to change around to be about father and son. The author chose to use this character because it adds more elements to the story. The relationship between Gwen and Bobby is a background theme throughout the story while we are reading about other relationships that go on.
From the father’s point of view the reader also gets a sense of what Gwen’s death was like, that she cried and that her lipstick was smudged against his shirt when he was trying to bury her. These little details are something we miss out on from Bobby’s point of view. However, the entire dynamic of the story has changed because the reader doesn’t understand the love between Gwen and Bobby.
The father also underestimates his son and what he has done to him over the years. He didn’t realize what he was capable of or how well he really knew him. He never paid enough attention to him, and that’s what it comes down to in the end. I think Bobby is a better character because it allows the reader to get a better sense of emotion in terms of relationships. Gwen wouldn’t really have an emotional impact on the reader because she would only be seen in terms of a means to an end. She knows something about the diamond and is killed because of it. There would be no details about the way she cared for Bobby. The story would have to be twisted to revolve around the relationship between the father and the son.

Mon, 06 Feb 2006 16:30:40 GMT

I thought Eight Pieces for the Left Hand was extremely interesting. Once I read the first story I realized that each one would have a little twist or ironic ending. Each story was so unique and different from the next but they each seemed to have a common theme where something unexpected happens. It almost seems to give you a nice feeling at the end to have that sort of unexpected pay off. In a way it felt like a riddle because you knew there was some sort of twist that would happen. Story four was the only one I thought may not have quite fit in like the rest. I thought it was interesting how the woman sent back the collar instead of telling the other woman what happened to her cat. But, I thought the other stories had more unique twists to them.
I thought Until Gwen was an excellent read. I felt that the use of second person made me feel closer to the character and his feelings for Gwen. I was caught off guard by the fact that the father took his son to be killed. But, I loved the twist where the father realized that the son had figured it all out and put Krazy glue in the gun.
I’m not sure if it was just me, but I found the part with George shooting his mother on page 29 and 30 to be hilarious. The way he accidentally shot his mother and was in shock I guess, and then accused Gwen and Bobby of shooting her while it was blatantly obvious that he was the one who shot her. But, I also liked how the humor was twisted around on page 30 and used to symbolize how they would be pinned for it. Bobby says, “We shot an old lady. That’s how it’ll play out though. You know that.” I really enjoyed this story.

First Four Measures

Tue, 31 Jan 2006 03:48:03 GMT

First Four Measures was an interesting read. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting out of it. In the first paragraph Nathaniel Bellows writes, “I thought of my teacher and where he was while the woman played- leaning back in his chair near the windows or sitting next to her on the bench with his hand covering her face?” and I automatically suspected something odd going on with the piano teacher. However, the story turned more toward a maturation plot about the boy and his relationship with other, primarily Mrs. Spence. Then he went on to talk about how the piano teacher really pushed him in ways his previous one hadn’t. So, I started thinking that maybe this was just his way of teaching- obviously, until the reader sees how uncomfortable the boy is and the excessive touching.

I thought this was a really interesting way to write about a combination of topics. It showed how a young boy can find a deep and meaningful relationship with one stranger while falling into an unhealthy and uncomfortable one with another. I also found the dinner conversation to be very interesting at the end of the story. The boy was very wishy-washy about what had happened with his teacher. I think it was a realistic view of how a boy that age would actually feel in that situation- embarrassed and confused.