Long and short stories

The two stories we're reading this week are like mirror opposites of ea. other structurally (though I bet you can find thematic links ). "A Local's Guide to Dating in Slocomb County" is one of the longest stories we've read and "Cross Your Fingers God Bless" is the shortest. What does the length of a story have to do w/ its affect on you as a reader? Both of these stories deal w/ someone living with a catastrophic injury. How do they deal w/ that situation? Why is "Cross Your Fingers" labeled a story anyway? Why isn't it a poem?

"Cross Your Fingers" is actually what we call a flash fiction, a short story that is under 1000 words. Flash fictions often blur the lines between fiction and poem. Do you notice other ways, in addition to its brevity, that make this story like a poem? The shortest paragraph is the penultimate (second to last) and the longest is the last par. What kind of effect does that create? In the last paragraph, Currie writes that all of Annie's friends abandoned her after the bear attack. Why? He writes of these friends: "The only invisible thing they believed in was the air in their lungs, and so what cleaved them from Annie was, in fact, her new credulousness, her good cheer, her refusal to be saddened by the illusion of this new, teeth-grinding circumstance." What is he talking about? And what do you make of the last line of the story?

Stress

Isaac brings up an important issue this week. He expresses himself very honestly and even poetically about the stress he is experiencing. He brings up the good point that often one's friends don't say that best things when you're feeling stressed. (Though yoga is pretty good...) Our friends aren't really qualified to help us if we're having psychological issues and friends just want you to feel better even if you're not ready to feel that way yet. I would like to reprint something from the syllabus for all of you:
 

If you’re depressed, feeling hopeless, or just can’t figure out how to organize your life, you should take advantage of the Counseling Center (Lib 422) which is free to all QCC students: http://www.qcc.cuny.edu/counseling/index.html. 

You don't have to be depressed to see a counselor at the counseling center. You might just need someone to talk to. It's free (in fact, you've already paid for it w/ your student activity fees) and you can just walk in if you're on campus and think about it. I've gone to therapy on and off for over twenty years. When I'm stressed or depressed it's one of the best things that have helped. (Exercise, eating right, and the proper amount of sleep aren't bad either.) If you're stressed, it's probably b/c you're busy and if you're busy you'll say "I don't have time to see a counselor." But if you make the time, just fifty minutes, the act of making the appointment or going up to the fourth floor of the library will make you feel better.

Essays

This is the last week on essays. Next week we're going to start reading fiction and at the end of Nov. we'll start the play. Some questions:

• The major difference between memoir and fiction is that one is true and the other is made up. Why is it necessary to notice this difference? (In the Pushcart anthology, the stories are marked "fiction.")
• We've spent some time talking about rhetorical questions in the recent past. What do you make of Lia Purpura's questions from p. 89 of her essay: "Am I alone in wanting to turn and adjust faucet handles? Repair fixtures with a wrench and a smear of putty? Yank a towel on a roller to produce a clean spot?"
• Purpura discusses several famous artworks. Like Edvard Munch's The Scream from 1893:

 

Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night (1889):

 

 

da Vinci's Mona Lisa (1503-06)

 

And I couldn't find the photograph that she's talking about, but this is what I imagine it looks like:

What do these images have in common?

• She also quotes from several outside texts, a poem by William Carlos Williams and Edvard Munch's journal (w/ the crossed out words still intact). What is she doing w/ these outside texts?

In case you've never heard of William Carlos Williams before, here's his most famous poem, in fact, one of the most famous 20th century poems:

The Red Wheelbarrow

William Carlos Williams, 1883 - 1963

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

Yes, that's the complete poem. What do you make of it?

So what if you're stressed?

I know this is not what we are talking about in the blog, but it is something I feel should be discussed. Stress is something that as college students, we face on a daily basis. Just a couple weeks ago I was stressing to get all the components of the midterm done. Eustress or good stress is essential. It gives you that boost to get over the lump. I wanna talk about Distress, bad stress. Today is my first day off from either school or work since September 18th. I have been working and going to school this entire time and my distress has hit a critical point. All of this on my plate has me really thinking about this issue

I feel that in this day in age we promote stress. Whenever you have something going on and you tell someone about it, they either compare themselves to you or they give you a cheap resolution/pep talk. And if another person recommends me to do yoga I am going to explode!!! Some college students resort to drugs to either stay up or relax. And once we graduate and get that job we dreamed of, we will continue to recognize distress as eustress.

This would be ok but stress is a silent killer. People like myself who are in a constant state of stress commonly experience headaches, lack of energy, upset stomach or lack of appetite, lower immune system even lack of sexual desire. Their are even doctors who link artery clogging, vein thinning, even heart pain to stress. It is something we should all consider when it comes to our health.

Memoir

Both of the essays we're reading this week are memoirs, they're brief true story moments in the authors' lives told like a short story. Some questions I'm interested in:

• Were you moved by either of these stories? (Did you feel sad? Did you laugh? etc.) When and where?
• Why do so many stories deal w/ trauma? (Death in the case of "Winter Wheat" and birth defect for "Voltaire Night") Both stories also deal w/ class, with the speakers struggling to make ends meet. I suppose there are essays about being rich and having everything you want , but there seem to be more about not having enough. Why is that?
• I wonder about Unferth's use of her students' stories, esp. the last one. Are these "hers" to use in her writing?

Hidden identity (gay)

Even though everyday society is more accepting  of LGBT people or atleast pretend to be, there are a lot of people that still feel they have to hide who and what they are. Even though people’s say they are accepting Or don’t care but really mean long as it doesn’t affect them. I have a male friend that came out and a lot of his male friends became distant. It was as if they were afraid gay was contagious. Sometimes I wonder if it’s that they have some doubts about there sexuality that there afraid others might too? The same guy that came out was the same guy a few months ago was acting homophobic.

Isaac Franco

In the movie "Moonlight", the story confronts the hardships of a homosexual man in a poor, black community of Miami. The film shows the protagonist, Chiron in three individual points in his life. During his childhood and teenage years, you seem him get bullied because people knew he was gay. He would be ganged up by the other kids and they would call him names and at one point he was even jumped. I believe violence is a response because as humans, whether we know it or not, we like to isolate things that we believe are not socially normal and rally ourselves together to remind ourselves.  A positive example is when we here on the news that a crime occur. We as a society indirectly tell ourselves that this is wrong by exposing the person who is different. Unfortunately this can become a negative way, forcing others to feel like being themselves is not socially acceptable.