Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Meta...what?????

Ooooook folks, seriously, what is up with Kafka and the giant beetle? The climax of the ENTIRE book is at the beginning, and the rest is just a jumble of words and ideas. The writing isn’t fluid and there is no clear plot or idea. Even though there are some humorous parts, overall it is not a very good book in my opinion.
Everyone, of course, is entitled to his or her own opinion, but this garbage about how people think that Kafka was a literary genius and how they think Metamorphosis is an amazing book with depth….alllll crap!!!! Honestly, I think people just stumbled onto a book that they didn’t really understand, and tried to find “hidden meanings” to make sense of the book and make themselves feel better. What it looks like, is that Kafka had a general idea of what he wanted to write, but didn’t have the patience or the discipline to sit down and organize all of his ideas on to paper. This book looks like some sort of shitty first draft. Kafka himself even thought that Metamorphosis was no good.

Just look at the main points of the book:

Gregor turns into a beetle.

Gregor worries about not being able to go to work.

The rest of his family (who are in debt) finally get jobs.

His father lodges an apple in his back while his mother runs at his father half naked.

His sister cries, is bratty, and plays the violin.

There are three bearded men.

Gregor dies.

A deep meaningful message? I don’t think so. If some college student were to give a story like this to his or her professor, they would probably get an awful grade. But slap a name like Kafka on the cover, and all of a sudden it’s a literary work of art. It makes me wonder just how much emphasis our society puts into the name when we are judging the quality of work. Take music for example, hip-hop is fun and popular and all, but it’s not exactly meaningful. Less well known artists have better and more meaningful lyrics, but they don’t have a name like Kanye, so they don’t get any attention. It’s not just in music and books, it’s everywhere, people see a name associated with an item and based on that name they decide whether it’s good or bad. It’s such garbage. People always say “don’t judge a book by its cover”, but that’s exactly what we are doing.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Bad Mama

Sooooo yeah, that little story that we read, The Life You Save May Be Your Own, PRIME example of bad motherhood. Seriously, this woman needs to get on Dr. Phil or something, because you don’t just give up to your daughter to some creeper character you only met a few days ago. When she first met the sketchster, Mr. Shiftlet, he talked allll about how you can’t trust anybody at all.

“…nowadays, people’ll do anything anyways. I can tell you my name is Tom T. Shiftlet and I come from Tarwater, Tennessee, but you never have seen me before; how you know I ain’t lying?”

How in the heck did that not tip her off that this Shiftlet guy is shady? Seriously? Honestly, no mother in her right mind would let her daughter marry some freaky one-armed stranger AND give him money. So even though she says that she wouldn’t give up her blond little angel Lucynell for a “casket of jewels,” I think that she’s lying and that she really wants to get rid of her daughter. Think about it, she says that her daughter is deaf, but there are hints in the story that suggest some sort of mental problems as well. Taking care of someone like that for nearly 30 years can’t be easy, even the most loving of mothers would need a break from time to time. But this woman doesn’t just want a break, she wants to get rid of Lucynell for good! She offers the sketchy Mr. Shiftlet money, a car, and the property to the house. Does that not sound like a bribe? Plus, she is the one pushing for the marriage, talking about how sweet Lucynell is, how pretty she is, how he should want a wife that won’t (can’t) talk back.

I imagine karma kicking in and doing something awful to this poor excuse of a mother. She forces her daughter to get married to some ugly sketchy guy and then that con-artist leaves her allllll alone in some diner with another sketchy guy drooling all over her sleeping body. If I were to write a sequel to this story, Mr. Shiftlet would crash the car and die and that awful mother would get struck by lightning.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Observartions of the Elusive "Sutton Pie Safe"

The short story, The Sutton Pie Safe, is all about subtle observations. Although most of these observations are only made by a ten-year-old boy, they are surprisingly revealing. What’s even more surprising is that these observations, these “hidden meanings” are really the story behind the story.
For instance, if you were to half-heartedly read over this story, you would probably think that it’s about some pissy, southern dad who doesn’t make a snake skin belt for his son because he’s all upset that his wife sold his father’s pie safe to the rich Mrs. Hanson. What’s really going on though, is that there’s some sort of chemistry, some sort of heated past between Jack and Mrs. Hanson that ended badly. This is evident by the following observations made by the little boy:

“Her wave was uncertain. When I looked at my dad, he seemed embarrassed to have been caught without a shirt. He raised the gun in a salute, decided that wasn’t right, lowered the gun and waved his other hand instead.”

“It seemed to me that his wife must be a good deal younger than he was.”

“Once he was gone, Mrs. Hanson seemed to settle back, to become more businesslike.”

“You’re not going to leave me anything, are you?”

What I make out of this, is that Mrs. Hanson and Jack know each other, hence the awkward wave. When you run into an ex, you don’t know whether to be cordial or to just ignore them. The fact that Mrs. Hanson’s husband is a lot older then her hints that she merely married him for the money and is/was having some fun on the side with someone else. There would be no reason for Mrs. Hanson to be tense and to “settle back” once Jack leaves unless there was further animosity between them, perhaps an affair that ended badly. Lastly, when Jack says to his wife that she’s not going to leave him anything, it insinuates that he did something wrong, like had an affair. Also, maybe he’s also saying this to Mrs. Hanson. Maybe she’s the one who told his wife about the affair and is now taking the pie safe from him as well. She deprived him of their affair, his wife, and now is pie safe.
These are, however, just observations. But that’s the real point of the story, that beneath every story and situation, there’s another story with a deeper, darker meaning. It’s not just some story about a pissy, southern dad, it’s not about an angry lover seeking revenge, and it’s about looking for what’s not right in front of us.