The things heard on the transit-Dialogue exercies

"Hey you know there was a fight that broke out?"

"Doesn't surprise me."

"Man I didn't even see you walk on."

"Saban do anything lately?"

"Nah, dude that's such a good idea...that'd be awesome!...I did that, I couldn't take summer classes."

"I mean you could do that, just take a few like 17."

"Yea 17 keeps me on edge anyway...got any updates today for the crew?"

"Yea Cecilia..."

Response to Richard Bausch's "1-900"

The narrator that Bausch creates here in this story is quite unclear but i think that's what works within the story. He seems disconnected from the rest of us but of course he would be considering he's called a phone sex line wanting to just "talk." I like how hes completely oblivious to the sole purpose of the hotline he's just called. Bausch makes him appear almost disillusioned with life, but we later learn he has a bit of a reason to be. His wife has left him, he's been thrown down the stairs by his brother-in-law, and his sister will never win "best sibling" award anytime soon. It seems that all he has is "Marilyn."

       Its really interesting how the audience is presented with this middle-aged, college educated man who, one would normally think wouldn't call a hotline such as this. His name is as plain as Jane yet this girl, Marilyn(or Sharon which is found out later) finds him interesting enough to converse with him for the entire story before finally hanging up. The audience is drawn in automatically because we feel sorry for John. We automatically think "Why does this seemingly normal man calling a phonesex hotline?" Not that we assume the stereotypical father who doesn't do anything wrong and is perfect and lacking skeletons, but we're drawn into his feelings of selflessness. Its as if he thinks of himself as pathetic and we can sympathize with him.

      Another way that Bausch draws the audience is by actually having the girl on the phone talk back with him. By learning about Sharon through John's eyes helps us understand him better. We understand the things she does that annoy him, and the things he likes and dislikes about the conversation. These things reveal the likes and dislikes during his own marriage. When Sharon attempts to understand him, the audience does also. The more and more Sharon opens up the more he opens up and the more the audience feels compelled to feel sorry for him and pity him. We want the relationship between the two of them to end well and we hope that Sharon can someone find it in her to comply with him. Yet at the same time we know that this whole conversation could just be an outlet...for both of them. One has to remember that Sharon has never been spoken to in this manner and there's reason to believe deep down she's enjoying it-revealing why she stays on the phone as long as she does.

Response to Denis Johnson's "Emergency"

        Throughout Emergency Johnson intertwines a dream-like state with the real-life happenings that occur at an everyday job. It's interesting how he seems to draw on the comical aspects that of a job in the ER but relates them to the audience within this "drug trip." Having experience working in the ER I found the descriptions and attitudes of the Nurse and the doctor quite amusing and for the most part accurate with some exaggeration here and there, but not much. 

          Johnson makes the two main characters seem like the ultimate drug addicts especially Georgie who, after mopping the floor clean still thinks its still covered in blood, which makes for an interesting parallel considering they work in a Catholic hospital. One tends to assume that Catholic hospitals or anything of religious backgrounds are the utmost righteous.Clearly that is not the case here. This hospital doesn't seem like the normal hospital from the start when we're introduced to a man who has a knife through one eye, all the while the untouched eye is glass yet he claims he can still see. The knife is in his eye because his wife caught him "eying" their neighbor which provides some satire as to the reason she wanted to blind him completely. Not to mention one wonders if the hospital is Catholic, does that mean the neighborhood is as well, and if so do Catholic neighborhoods have "eye-stabbing wives?" One asks because Terrence, made a comment about only living three blocks away which is why he was able to walk there. The doctor is hated, but don't we expect that? We assume he is arrogant and only thinks in terms of himself. He use terms such as "eye man" "gas man" that would suggest he really doesn't care who they are or what it is they really do but he knows he needs them because he's way out of his league when it comes to removing hunting knives from the head.

            Interestingly enough, Johnson has the ability to make a drug trip seem more like real life than just being high. In other words he makes it appear as though all of the things the narrator and Georgie experienced could happen to anyone without being high or on drugs. The first part of the story is similar to that of a late night at an ER, meaning its spontaneous and unknowing. The ER has a haunted, mysterious feel to it, and its full of unexpectedness and surprise which is how Johnson relays the beginning of the story. The audience is a bit unclear as to what's going on until the understanding is made that both characters are high. The trip to the fair is where things seems to get ironic because Georgie and the narrator use the fair as a getaway from their hectic lives, when in reality they're already "gone" so-to-speak. This drug trip is almost understandable. Picking up the narrators AWOL friend Hardee is just another plus. It seems everyone and everything along with Georgie's truck that fails to have working headlights. It seems the truck matches its owner.

Draw What You See, Not What You Hear

"Write a short short (500 words maximum) in which the TV plays a role. Let the words/images on the screen interact with or reflect on the situation in the story. Your characters can be watching TV or it can be background noise."

        

Response to Lydia Davis's "Television"

It seems that Davis is trying to show how t.v. has become such a big part of our daily lives and how we long for that connection with its shows and characters. It is so much apart of us that she describes "If dead people walked outside our windows we would be no more excited." This includes the news, game-shows, and regular day-time cop shows. We like to feel as if, what's happening in the world of television relates to us. Her use of imagery allows us to visualize and relate to, even if we aren't married yet, the husband who is glued to the television because of the beautiful female news anchor, or even the game show host that mother likes; we see that.

            She sections off her story in three parts which I think adds emphasis to each point she is trying to convey. In other words, the first section seems to focus on the effect the television has on us in general as a person, a family, etc. The second and third sections appear to almost chronicle her own personal television experience. Her sentences are short and to the point. They grab the readers attention and they work well with this topic. The sentences, paragraphs, and sections all appear to almost mock that of a television show or t.v. movie; they skip details, they're easy to understand, and they don't last long. Davis describes this by mentioning toward the end of her day she wants to watch a movie that will "skip over all the complications, knowing we will understand, so that major events will happen abruptly..."

          Davis shows how television is used to pass or waste time. She says "All this was compressed into the very end of a day in my life that, as the evening advanced had already moved away from me..." Within a television show or movie, which last for about an hour, maybe an hour and twenty minutes, so much has happened to the characters and within their lives, yet for the audience watching the show, nothing has happened. I think Davis is trying to show that by the time we've decided to spend the rest of the day or night watching television, the day has left us and we transform or pretend to be the so desired personalities that we see. We want what we see and we fall in love with and look forward to these people, whether they are game-show host or the weatherman. There is something in television that comforts us and I think Davis conveys this very well with her short sentences, descriptive language, and imagery.

Yes, I'm serious.

Oh snap. My first blog post, and it is truly epic. Yes, I'm serious ladies and gentlemen, I now have a blog and it only took me until my junior year in college to get one. EPIC WINNING.