I decided to go ahead and write my final blog today since i will not have access to the internet after class on Friday until next week. The video we have been watching in class is about a guys passion for a book that he had recently read called "The Stones of Summer". I believe the guy said that he was supposed to read the book back in high school, he started reading it but never really got into it. Many years later now the man is grown, he now has a wife and kids. I think the story goes that he was looking through all his books one day and came across The Stones of Summer again. The book was pretty much wore out, there was no cover on the book and most of the pages were no longer bound together. The guy eventually started reading the book again and this time he ended up falling in love with it. He got the name of the author of the book and decided to look and see what other books he has written.
However when he starts to look for other books written by this author he can not find anything. So he begins to do some research on the author and try to find out where he lives or what he is doing these days. Turns out he can't find anything on the guy, it's like he just dissapeared like a ghost. This seems to trouble the narrator of the video greatly. So he starts to do some major research on the author and see if he can find him and ask him why he hasn't written anything else since The Stones of Summer. I'm really can't remember what this guy did for a living but i remember him saying that the fall time was his busiest time of year. He eventually gets into contact with many different people such as college professors and book critics to see if he can find out anything. Turns out many of these so called people in high places had never even heard of the book or the author. This surprises the heck out of our narrator. I think its now been a year or two since he has started his digging on the author and he really hasn't found anything major yet. He does get into contact with someone one supposedly was in the same class with the author but that guy doesn't remember the author either.
Our guy finds out that the author went to college somewhere in i think Iowa, so he makes a trip out there to see what he can find. He goes to the library at the college to see if he can find some of the works that the author has done. He ends up finding boxes full of his scratch work with different revisions and things like that. I think after this he eventually gets a phone number for the author and when we stoped watching in class on wednesday he was about to call the author. I'm kind of anxious to see what happens and why the author hasn't written anything since then.
Not to sound like a complete suck up or anything but this to me is one of the best english classes i have been in. I enjoyed pretty much all of the stories we had to read except for a couple of them. Most of the stories were pretty interesting and kept me wanting to read on to figure out what was going to happen. With other classes we had to read stories that i really had no interest in at all. I really enjoyed the discussions we had in class about the stories and hearing all the different input from different people. I also enjoyed getting to see the different clips on youtube about the stories we read. Overall i really enjoyed this class and i have actually recommended it to a couple friends for next year.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Thursday, April 19, 2012
The Eye by Robert Bolano
Although this story was pretty quick and easily understandable, it just seems to me to be pointless. The story is about a character who is known as the "eye". I believe they call him this because he tries to avoid conflict and violence in any way possible, keeping a sharp eye out at all times, hence the nick name.
I think the eye was originally from chile but moved to mexico city which is where he meet the nararator of the story. The nararrator and the eye became pretty close friends while in mexico city. The eye eventually got a job as a photographer, which in turn earned him more money. The eye then started to dress better wearing nice collered shirts and sometimes even a tie. Then the rumors starting going around that the eye was gay, which some say was the reason that he moved from chile in the first place. Eventually the eye got a job offer in Paris and decided to take it. The eye and the nararator went out on the town one last night together and this is when the eye finally told him that he was gay. After the night was over both of them went back home and lost touch for a long time since the eye got the job in Paris.
Two or three years after the eye has left Mexico the narrarator also went to Paris to try and find the eye. Although he was trying to not be very obvious about it. After a while with no luck the nararator was walking home one night and just happened to find the eye sitting on a bench in a little park area. To me this is where the story gets a little weird. The eye gets sent to India i think it is, for work. Here he has to take pictures of the local underground prostitution ring. He gets taken around to all these sketchy brothels and eventually ends up in one with a bunch of young boys in it. Somehow something happens and some of the boys are supposed to be given to a God as some sort of offering and to do this the boy has to be castrated. Well eventually the eye is taken into the back with a young boy were he meets the doctor and sees another young boy waiting to be castrated. The violence factor kicks in for the eye and he grabs the two young boys and runs out of the brothel.
He takes the boys away from the town to a little village were he thinks no one can find them. He constantly worries about the police coming to get him for running away with the boys. When he receives word that the police aren't coming then he gets worried that some goons from the brothel will come get him, which terrifies him even more than the police. While living with the two boys he tells the local people that they are his children. The eye takes up farming and even helps some of the larger farmers in the area when they need it. The eye enjoys living with the boys and begins to think of them as his own children. Eventually a disease hits the area and the two young boys die. The eye is heartbroken and contacts one of his friends from Paris, who i believe was his gay lover while he lived in Paris. The man sends him money to get back to Paris and this is pretty much how the story ends.
Like i said earlier this was a pretty good story. Towards the middle of the story it starts to get a little weird and i really don't understand the point of the story.
I think the eye was originally from chile but moved to mexico city which is where he meet the nararator of the story. The nararrator and the eye became pretty close friends while in mexico city. The eye eventually got a job as a photographer, which in turn earned him more money. The eye then started to dress better wearing nice collered shirts and sometimes even a tie. Then the rumors starting going around that the eye was gay, which some say was the reason that he moved from chile in the first place. Eventually the eye got a job offer in Paris and decided to take it. The eye and the nararator went out on the town one last night together and this is when the eye finally told him that he was gay. After the night was over both of them went back home and lost touch for a long time since the eye got the job in Paris.
Two or three years after the eye has left Mexico the narrarator also went to Paris to try and find the eye. Although he was trying to not be very obvious about it. After a while with no luck the nararator was walking home one night and just happened to find the eye sitting on a bench in a little park area. To me this is where the story gets a little weird. The eye gets sent to India i think it is, for work. Here he has to take pictures of the local underground prostitution ring. He gets taken around to all these sketchy brothels and eventually ends up in one with a bunch of young boys in it. Somehow something happens and some of the boys are supposed to be given to a God as some sort of offering and to do this the boy has to be castrated. Well eventually the eye is taken into the back with a young boy were he meets the doctor and sees another young boy waiting to be castrated. The violence factor kicks in for the eye and he grabs the two young boys and runs out of the brothel.
He takes the boys away from the town to a little village were he thinks no one can find them. He constantly worries about the police coming to get him for running away with the boys. When he receives word that the police aren't coming then he gets worried that some goons from the brothel will come get him, which terrifies him even more than the police. While living with the two boys he tells the local people that they are his children. The eye takes up farming and even helps some of the larger farmers in the area when they need it. The eye enjoys living with the boys and begins to think of them as his own children. Eventually a disease hits the area and the two young boys die. The eye is heartbroken and contacts one of his friends from Paris, who i believe was his gay lover while he lived in Paris. The man sends him money to get back to Paris and this is pretty much how the story ends.
Like i said earlier this was a pretty good story. Towards the middle of the story it starts to get a little weird and i really don't understand the point of the story.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
"The Lazarus Project" by Alexksandar Hemon
The book starts out with Lazarus as a young man seemingly roaming around the streets of Chicago like a homeless person. Lazarus doesn't seem to have any family around him or at least anywhere close to him. It seems that he has come from Bosnia to America for work. One morning Lazarus tries to go to the chief of police's house, which to him seems like a very high scale mansion. But when he gets their the butler greets him at the door and tells him that he is to early to come back in a hour and he could see him. So Lazarus starts to walk around the city to pass the time until he can go back and talk to the chief of police. While walking around Lazarus stops in a store, mainly because he is hungry and the store he goes into smells good. While in the store the store owner and his wife seem to be very suspicious of Lazarus because of the way he is dressed and because he will not speak when spoken to. After a while Lazarus buys some candy thinking they will think different of him because he has money to spend on "pleasure items" as he says it. After that he pops some candy in his mouth and heads back to the chief's house.
When Lazarus knocked on the door the Chief opened it and Lazarus walked in a few steps. Lazarus didn't say anything and the chief just stared him down. At this time we get a glimpse of what the newspapers would say the next day, " In the brief all-comprehensive glance he gave his caller, William P. Miller will write in the Tribune, Chief Shippy took in a cruel, straight mouth with thick lips and a pair of gray eyes that were at the same time cold and fierce. There was a look about that slim, swarthy young man-clearly a Sicilian or a Jew- that could send a shiver of distrust into any honest man's heart. Yet Chief Shippy, never to be unsettled by malevolence, invited the stranger into the comfort of his living room.( page 7)". While standing there Lazarus threw an envelope into the chief's hand and from here seemingly for no reason all hell breaks loose. "I did not wait to examine the envelope any further. The thought struck me like a streak of lightening that the man was up to no good. He looked to me like an anarchist. I grabbed his arms and forcing them behind his back, called to my wife." (page 8) Seemingly for no good reason at all except that the young man looked like a foreigner there was a struggle and the chief eventually ended up shooting Lazarus killing him. Seems to me like racial profiling.
Next we get into the part with the main character. He mostly talks about the differences between American's and Bosnian people. His wife is a neurosurgeon and he is a writer. He seems to feel pretty bad or just simply embarrassed that his wife makes way more money than he does. He wants to do a story on the shooting of Lazarus that took place by this time a 100 years ago. But to do this he has to get some money and preferable a grant. He goes out the celebrate the Bosnian independence day and ends up meeting an older couple that own all kinds of foundations and surely have lots of money. The elderly woman finds out who he is and starts talking to him about all the articles and columns that he has written and about how much she likes them. Later on they start dancing it almost seems to me like he is just trying to get friendly with the old lady so that she will give him his grant. As the couple dance away he keeps stepping on her feet and eventually she falls down in pain and he drops down on his knees to see if he can help. But, everyone else thinks they are doing some kind of dance and pictures are taken and the old lady turns from pain to happy again. The book says, "Later on, all the Bosnians in the organization committee were delighted and praised me for giving Susie a good old time, for now that she and Bill had been exposed to the ecstatic joys of Bonian culture, a hefty check was doubtless in the offing." (page 16) So he pretty much did just get friendly with the old lady just to get at her money.
To me one of the more interesting parts comes up next when he runs into an old high school classmate Rora. He goes up to Rora expecting a big hug or slap on the back and ends up getting nothing. He then goes on to tell some stories of Rora back in high school. He seemed to be the cool kid in school always missing class never seemingly to worry about anything. He went to all kinds of exotic places, drove planes, fancy cars, sleep with older women, and ate lavish foods. All the kids were in awe of him and loved to here of his stories when ever he came back. There were lots of rumors about Rora's family, about his dad possibly being a spy or in some secrete agency, his family in some kind of mafia business and they were all killed so he lived with his dads friends and even some speculation that Rora himself was a spy. To me Rora seems like a pretty cool guy.
I know i havn't got into the story to far yet, it's kind of hard to find time to read towards the end of the semester but I think this story is starting to grab me a little more.
When Lazarus knocked on the door the Chief opened it and Lazarus walked in a few steps. Lazarus didn't say anything and the chief just stared him down. At this time we get a glimpse of what the newspapers would say the next day, " In the brief all-comprehensive glance he gave his caller, William P. Miller will write in the Tribune, Chief Shippy took in a cruel, straight mouth with thick lips and a pair of gray eyes that were at the same time cold and fierce. There was a look about that slim, swarthy young man-clearly a Sicilian or a Jew- that could send a shiver of distrust into any honest man's heart. Yet Chief Shippy, never to be unsettled by malevolence, invited the stranger into the comfort of his living room.( page 7)". While standing there Lazarus threw an envelope into the chief's hand and from here seemingly for no reason all hell breaks loose. "I did not wait to examine the envelope any further. The thought struck me like a streak of lightening that the man was up to no good. He looked to me like an anarchist. I grabbed his arms and forcing them behind his back, called to my wife." (page 8) Seemingly for no good reason at all except that the young man looked like a foreigner there was a struggle and the chief eventually ended up shooting Lazarus killing him. Seems to me like racial profiling.
Next we get into the part with the main character. He mostly talks about the differences between American's and Bosnian people. His wife is a neurosurgeon and he is a writer. He seems to feel pretty bad or just simply embarrassed that his wife makes way more money than he does. He wants to do a story on the shooting of Lazarus that took place by this time a 100 years ago. But to do this he has to get some money and preferable a grant. He goes out the celebrate the Bosnian independence day and ends up meeting an older couple that own all kinds of foundations and surely have lots of money. The elderly woman finds out who he is and starts talking to him about all the articles and columns that he has written and about how much she likes them. Later on they start dancing it almost seems to me like he is just trying to get friendly with the old lady so that she will give him his grant. As the couple dance away he keeps stepping on her feet and eventually she falls down in pain and he drops down on his knees to see if he can help. But, everyone else thinks they are doing some kind of dance and pictures are taken and the old lady turns from pain to happy again. The book says, "Later on, all the Bosnians in the organization committee were delighted and praised me for giving Susie a good old time, for now that she and Bill had been exposed to the ecstatic joys of Bonian culture, a hefty check was doubtless in the offing." (page 16) So he pretty much did just get friendly with the old lady just to get at her money.
To me one of the more interesting parts comes up next when he runs into an old high school classmate Rora. He goes up to Rora expecting a big hug or slap on the back and ends up getting nothing. He then goes on to tell some stories of Rora back in high school. He seemed to be the cool kid in school always missing class never seemingly to worry about anything. He went to all kinds of exotic places, drove planes, fancy cars, sleep with older women, and ate lavish foods. All the kids were in awe of him and loved to here of his stories when ever he came back. There were lots of rumors about Rora's family, about his dad possibly being a spy or in some secrete agency, his family in some kind of mafia business and they were all killed so he lived with his dads friends and even some speculation that Rora himself was a spy. To me Rora seems like a pretty cool guy.
I know i havn't got into the story to far yet, it's kind of hard to find time to read towards the end of the semester but I think this story is starting to grab me a little more.
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