The Same River Twice Blog, pgs. 54-109

As chapter 5 begins, the author speaks of how he has finally been paid for one of his short stories, so his wife is extremely pleased. He states, "The check validates her decision to have a child with me, proves that my days as a bum are gone." This line really shows how Rita expects Chris to become the bread winner that society expects of men when they have a child. Society places a large emphasis on materialistic possessions and being able to spoil your child. He talks about how the money is immediately spent on things like dinner on the town and curtains for the baby's room. The name of the book is also mentioned in this chapter when Chris goes down to the river. He explains the origin of the quotation and how a Greek named Heraclitus said, "You can't step into the same river twice." Honestly at this point I had no idea what he meant. Of course you can step into the same river twice. Chris then goes onto explain and says, "...and it occurs to me that you can't even step on the same bank twice. Each footstep alters the earth." This is an extremely profound statement. Rita insists on getting amniocentesis to verify that their child will be healthy and well. Toward the end of the chapter we learn that that baby is doing well. In chapter 6, the author continues to express his desire to search for and find something with meaning. There is a lot of water imagery in this chapter, which seems to be a common theme throughout that memoir. You really get a sense of how important Chris's journal is becoming to him. He talks about how his supplies and backpack are dispensable, but the journal is not. In the following chapter, Rita takes a Lamaze class and continues to worry about something going wrong with the baby. The pressure of being too inadequate to be a parents is again a central idea in this chapter. Again the selfishness surrounding being the best parent and having the best things consumes Rita. In chapter 8, Chris is picked up by a missionary, Al. Al immediately starts talking religiously about how it is God's will that they be riding together today. Al believes that Armageddon is coming. He says, "The prophecies are being fulfilled, my friend. Men and women live unmarried and sex is on TV. Grocery stores have electric machines that read invisible numbers. The Antichrist lives in Nevada." Chris also soon meets a man named Winner at a truck stop who seems to be a crystal meth addict. Much of this chapter is the ramblings of these two men. It was hard to follow at times. In Chapter 9, Chris reflects on parenthood. He thinks about how parents are expected to be aware of everything. He says, "A father must face everything. I try to open my vision in the way that helped me see the watermark on the trees." He is trying to use what he learns from nature and the woods and apply it to his life, more specifically being a father. In the final chapter of the reading assignment, Chris talks about the circus and the Parrot Lady who worked there. He says that the dwarfs refer to "upper crustacean" entertainment. Her show was for men only. She undresses during the show to reveal that she has tattoos of exotic birds all over her body. She swallows a giant light that makes her body "glow from within" and illuminates all of the exotic birds and their colors. Most of the chapter involves events taking place while Chris is working on the circus, but ends with him once again heading onward to a new place. He says, "...I was loyal to no direction. I was neither kinker, nor freak, yankee, nor reb, boss nor bum. I wasn't much of a playwright either."

VOCABULARY:
Kinker: A performer in a circus
Dexedrine: a form of amphetamine

"Emergency" by Denis Johnson Blog

The short story "Emergency" by Denis Johnson was a pretty intense read, filled with violence and drug abuse. The story revolved around the lives of the narrator and his friend, Georgie. They both work at a hospital with what is described as a highly incompetent team. It seems as if the author is trying to send a message about the medical system of today. When a victim (Terrence Weber) comes into the emergency room with a knife stuck in his eye, the doctor on duty has no idea what to do. He replies, "I'm not touching that head. I'm just going to watch this one." The narrator and Georgie are high on drugs for most of the story, so it is hard to tell whether or not the events described actually happened or if they were some hallucination dreamed up when they were high. At one point in the story the narrator gets confused as to whether or not he is recounting the story correctly. He says, "Or maybe that wasn't the time it snowed. Maybe it was the time we slept in the truck and I rolled over on the bunnies and flattened them. It doesn't matter."  When I was first reading the story it seemed to me that Georgie had something mentally wrong with him. Throughout the story he is talking about how he can't see and what not. However, I believe that this is just a result of heavy drug use. Something that I found odd is that although Georgie is portrayed as somewhat reckless and inept, he ends up saving the life of Terrence Weber and preserving the life of the baby rabbits for a little while. Toward the end of the story Georgie and the narrator pick up a hitchhiker. It is revealed that he has been drafted into the war and is trying to flee to Canada. I am assuming that this is referring to the Vietnam War, which took place in the late sixties and seventies. This helped bring the drug use throughout the novel into perspective a little bit. This was time when using drugs was a more common thing.

VOCABULARY:
Orderly: A nursing assistant who ensures the comfort, safety, and general well-being of patients in hospitals. He or she might help a person get out of bed, get dressed, and move around.

The Crying of Lot 49, Chapter 6

It is in Chapter 6 of the novel that Oedipa finally begins to give up hope on the whole Tristero theory. She begins to turn down opportunities to meet with people that might be able to tell her more about the Tristero. Oedipa starts to consider that she could possibly be going insane or that maybe Pierce plotted against her and planned this whole thing. She meets up with Bortz who is able to tell her lots of information on how the Tristero came to be. This doesn't satisfy Oedipa. She is eager to find out why Driblette used the alternate line in his version of The Courier's Tragedy. ("No hallowed skein of stars can ward, I trow, who's once been set his tryst with Trystero.") It turns out that Driblette drowned herself in the ocean, so Oedipa never finds out. When Oedipa goes to see Fallopian at the Scope to talk about all of the updates she has discovered, she realized even he is doubting her. He wants to know if she has considered the possibility that Pierce set the entire thing up. He says, "Has it ever occurred to you, Oedipa, that somebody's putting you on? That this is all a hoax, maybe something Inverarity set up before he died?" This really upsets Oedipa and seems to be one of the last straws. Now even the biggest conspiracy theorist she knows doesn't believe in her. Oedipa also finds out what W.A.S.T.E means ("WE AWAIT SILENT TRISTERO'S EMPIRE") This seems like it would be a big deal, but Oedipa still doesn't really understand what it means. Oedipa is feeling more lost than ever. She's lost her husband, Metzger, and all aspects of her old life because of Pierce's death and her obsession with Tristero. Her last hope is Pierce's stamp set. Genghis tells Oedipa that a mysterious individual is interested in the auctioning off of the stamp collection. They think that this possibly could be a member of Tristero trying to keep the stamps concealed. At the end of the book Oedipa decides to go to the auction out of curiosity to see who the mysterious person could be. However, the book ends before it is revealed. THIS ABSOLUTELY KILLS ME! I wanted to find out if Oedipa ever got any kind of absolution.

DEFINITIONS:
Pony Express:  A system of mail delivery operating from 1860–61 between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California, using horse riders.

William of Orange: King of England and Scotland and Ireland; he married the daughter of James II and was invited by opponents of James II to invade England; when James fled, William III and Mary II were declared joint monarchs (1650-1702)

The Crying of Lot of 49, Chapter 3

Chapter three of The Crying of Lot 49 was very odd, and it was also somewhat hard for me to understand. The chapter begins following Oedipa's infidelity with Metzger. She gets a letter in the mail from Mucho. Is this supposed to serve as reminder to Oedipa that she is married woman? Oedipa finds a misprint on the envelope that read, "REPORT ALL OBSCENE MAIL TO YOUR POTSMASTER." The typo of the word postmaster really perturbs Oedipa for some reason, but Metzger just brushes it off. Oedipa and Metzger go to a bar nearby called the Scope where they run into many locals. They meet an eccentric character by the Mike Fallopian who runs a secret society. He proceeds to tell the "couple" about where his club got it name, "The Peter Pinguid Society." Fallopian talks about a lot of politics and history to explain what the group is all about. I became a little lost in this discussion. A mail man comes into the bar with vast amounts of mail, and as it turns out, the town is running a secret mail service. They are going against the government by doing this. At this point, it seems to me that Fallopian is somewhat of a comical conspiracy theorist. The chapter finally got interesting for me when Oedipa went to the ladies room and sees a flyer with a indistinguishable image on it. It looks like some kind of trumpet to me. It is a very vague flyer, and under the picture it says "WASTE only." I have no idea what this means, but it gave me something to look forward to in the novel, sort of like a mystery. The intrigue increases when Oedipa, Metzger, and the Paranoids run into Manny Di Presso while illegally borrowing a yacht. Di Presso is in full scuba gear and informs them that he is running from a client interested in suing Oepida's dead ex-husband over some business related to bones. Towards the end of the chapter Oedipa and Metzger decide to see a play that the Paranoids have mention, "The Couriers Tragedy." Pynchon takes the reader through all of the acts of the play. This portion of the chapter was probably my least favorite. It reminds me of a frame story, which I think is a story within a story. Oedipa hears the word "Trystero," which immediately catches her attention and she becomes paranoid. I am unfamiliar with the word besides the fact that mentions it in the very first sentence of Chapter 3. Chapter 3 left me with numerous questions, which I hope will be answered soon enough in the rest of the novel.

DEFINITIONS:
encapsulation (pg. 31): to be enclosed; to be summarized or condensed
allegory (pg. 31): a representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another.
Czar Nicholas II (pg. 35) : Russia's last emperor  

"The School" Blog

It was very difficult for me to try and decipher what the underlying meaning of this short story was. The only thought that came to mind the first time I read the story through was, "Wow, that was depressing." The story begins with the class of children planting numerous orange trees that eventually end up dying. Soon the reader comes to find that this is only one of many occurrences in which something that involves this particular class dies. I like how the the narrator is speaking as if he is casually telling a story to friend or two. "Well, we had all these children out planting trees, see, because we figured that...that was part of their education..." The language is easy to understand and straight forward. As the story progresses, the subjects that die become more and more shocking. It begins with orange trees, snakes, herb gardens, tropical fish, and a salamander, but it soon advances to a puppy, parents and grandparents of the children in the class, and even two classmates. At the end of the story, the children address the teacher and ask him where all of these things that died went? "They asked me, where did they go? The trees, the salamander, the tropical fish, Edgar..." He answers them honestly saying he  doesn't know. The children then go deeper and begin to ponder whether death is the meaning of life. At this point I began to question the age of these children. From the beginning I assumed that they were rather young, but at the end of the story they seem to be so bright and wise. For example in this line, "Then they said, but isn't death, considered as a fundamental datum, the means by which the taken-for-granted mundanity of the everyday may be transcended in the direction of--" I definitely was not speaking like this when I was a child. Then the class begins to ask the teacher about sex. I am not really clear at all on what the meaning of this portion of the story is. Perhaps a loss of innocence? Finally at the very end of the story a new gerbil is brought into the classroom and "The children cheer wildly." Does this represent hope perhaps? Even though the children have had rotten luck in the past, they are optimistic that the new gerbil will be a turning point and break the curse. Maybe he will actually survive. This is how I wish to interpret the ending. However, it could just be an endless cycle, and the gerbil may soon bite the dust, just like those who came before him.

VOCABULARY:
Gristede's: A chain of small supermarkets

"The Flowers" and "Girl" Blog

The short story "Flowers" by Alice Walker seemed at first glance to be a tale of the joyous wanderings of a young girl named Myop. I was stunned when it took such a devastating turn, and Myop discovered a decaying body in the woods. I have actually read Alice Walker before in one of my high school English courses and recall that she is an African American writer. It seems that Myop belongs to a family of sharecroppers, "Turning her back on the rusty boards of her family's sharecropper cabin." Because Alice Walker often writes of African Americans, I assumed that Myop was an African American whose family is bound to sharecropping as a means to support themselves. The majority of the poem speaks of Myop happily talking a walk and admiring the beauty of her surroundings. On a whim she decides to take a new path instead of keeping to the path she normally takes. When she finally decides to turn back, she immediately senses a change in her surroundings. "But the strangeness of the land made it not as pleasant as her usual haunts. It seemed gloomy in the little cove in which she found herself. The air was damp, the silence close and deep." It is at this point in the poem that I noticed a drastic shift in tone. The carefree tone quickly changed to a gloomy one. Myop then discovers the body of a man. The describe the man wearing overalls which automatically made me assume the man was a worker, possibly a sharecropper. It makes me wonder if this could have been a racial crime. They describe the remains of a noose which makes me believe he was hung, or hung himself. The poem ends with the line, "And the summer was over." Perhaps Walker was referring to the not only the end of a season, but the end of Myop's childhood and the loss of her innocence.

VOCABULARY:
Myop: Possibly short for myopathy meaning "nearsightedness

"Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid is composed of a mother's harsh instructions to her daughter regarding cooking, cleaning, love, and how to behave in certain social situations. Because the name of the story is "Girl" and not woman, I assume that the mother is talking to an adolescent. "Girl" is also a rather vague and impersonal description, as opposed to something like daughter. The mother is very stern and detailed in her instructions to the daughter. She obviously feels as if she cannot handle much on her own or without any guidance. The mother is also very judgmental of her daughter, often referring to her as a slut. "...on Sundays try to act like the lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming." I also noticed that many of the mothers instructions revolve around the men in the society. The poem must take place in a time when gender roles were predominate in society. "...this is how you behave in the presence of a man..." Obviously women were portrayed as subordinate to men. Almost the entire poem consists of these directions and accusations the mother imposes on the daughter.

VOCABULARY:
barehead: having your head uncovered
fritter: a piece of fruit

"Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year" and "Daddy" Blog

One of the poems we have been assigned to read in class is "Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year" by Raymond Carver. From what I can tell, the speaker in this poem is looking at a photograph of her father on fishing trip from when he was a young man, 22 years old to be precise. I immediately assumed that the speaker was a female, but I think that was simply because I was trying to identify with the speaker. In reality, it probably makes more sense that the speaker is male because he is talking about fishing with his father. The son begins the poem describing the surroundings in the picture, and it is in this first stanza that I concluded the father was on a fishing trip. The speaker says, "...he holds in one hang a string of spiny yellow perch." In the second stanza the speaker talks about how his father has always wanted to be something he isn't, "He would pose bluff and hearty for his posterity, wear his old hat cocked over his ear. All his life my father wanted to be bold." In this last statement I sensed some resentment from the speaker. It seems as though he was saying that instead of yearning to be a good father to his son, he instead yearned to be revered by his comrades. I could not recall the exact definition of posterity, so I looked it up at dictionary.com and discovered that it meant future generations of. This was consistent with how the second stanza was describing the father's facade. It is in the final statement that the son makes his resentment towards his father especially clear. He says, "Father, I love you, yet how can I say thank you, I who can't hold my liquor either, and don't even know the places to fish." This makes it apparent to the reader that the speaker's father was never there for him as child or even an adult. He holds a grudge against his father for not being there for him like a father should be, for not taking him on fishing trips or spending quality time with him. This is what I gathered from the poem, and I look forward to seeing what my classmates thought in class tomorrow.


The poem "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath was a little more difficult for me to understand than Raymond Carver's poem "Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year." From what I gathered, the poem is about a woman whose Nazi father died when she was very young, but the memories of him still haunt her. She ends up searching for a husband who resembles her father, and the speaker describes her husband as a vampire who "drank her blood" for seven years. The speaker also talks about attempting to kill herself while trying to rid herself of these men in her life. I get the impression that by the end of the poem the speaker finally shuts them both out of her life, "staking them in the heart." At the beginning of the poem the speaker compares her father to black shoe that she has had to live in. Not only does this evoke images of being trapped, but the color black also brings about negative connotations from the very beginning of the poem. "...black shoe in which I have lived like a foot for thirty years, poor and white, barely daring to breathe or Achoo." These lines in the first stanza describe the speakers fear of her father really well. She describes her father with terms like God, statue, and big which let us know how helpless she felt around him. Because her father is said to be a Nazi, she assumes the part of the Jew or the victim. "An engine, an engine chuffing me off like a Jew. A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen. I began to talk like a Jew. I think I may as well be a Jew." To compare her feelings toward her father to going to a concentration camp is a pretty big deal. It illustrates again how deathly afraid of him she was. Stanza 8 is really confusing to me. I think the speaker is describing some of the landscape of Germany. She also speaks of her "gypsy ancestress." I suppose this means that at least one of her ancestors was a gypsy, but I am not sure of how this is relevant. I vaguely remember learning about the Nazis exterminating gypsies, but I am not 100 percent sure. In the next stanza the speaker admits how she has always been scared of her father with his "neat mustache" and "Aryan eye," which is again speaking of his Nazi qualities. The mustache reference seems to put her father in a category with Hitler. In a following stanza the speaker says, "...a cleft in your chin instead of your foot but no less a devil for that..." This statement confused me at first because honestly who has a cleft in their foot? However I typed cleft foot into google and discovered the often times the devil is portrayed as an animal-like creature with hoof-like feet. This is consistent with the rest of the line when the speaker discusses the devil. Finally the speaker tries to kill herself in the 12th and 13th stanzas to reconnect with her father but fails. She then begins searching for a man who resembles her father. This man is describes as black and evil, but she decides to marry him, "And I said I do, I do." In the final stanzas the speaker overcomes both her father's haunting memory and the man she has married who resembles her father. She says, "If I've killed one man, I've killed two---" and "There's a stake in your fat, black heart..."

VOCAB:
Tyrol: Part of the Alpine mountain region, it borders Germany
Aryan: Hitler's perfect race, blond hair and blue eyes
Panzer-man: German tank drivers
Luftwaffe: German word for air force
(FOUND ALL OF THESE TERMS ON WIKIPEDIA)

Meghan McDonough
MWF 9:05-9:55