Re: RARA-AVIS: this week's reading

Bill Hagen (billha@ionet.net)
Wed, 10 Sep 1997 23:33:41 -0500 (CDT) >Any comments on this week's reading? I'm particularly interested in
>hearing what people thought about the rather bleak Sampson story. I
>think I liked thinking about it more than reading it. The opening,
>however, seemed particularly strong--that TV description seemed pretty
>disorienting. What I found strange was just how aimless the story
>was--no gimmick, no twist, no change (except the small effort of the
>last sentence). In spite of the violence of the hard-boiled, I think of
>it as a little more fun, a little more ironic perhaps, than this
>story--which isn't to say that I didn't like it, but I think I liked it
>as something else.
>
>Doug Levin

I've been away, and I haven't quite figured out where we are. Thanks for
mentioning Sampson. Who else are we responding to this week?

I too liked the Sampson story, the overall flow and some of the dialogue.
The scene in the appliance store was first rate--a convincing craziness, a
momentum into violence that typifies this character. Was reminded of
"Natural Born Killers," on the one hand, and, with ugly-dumb girl doomed to
be killed or abandoned, of something out of the world of Flannery O'Connor.
Although a number of the sentences seemed "flat," the only event that
struck me as forced was the last line--suddenly this animal has a"pleasant
baritone"? But that's a minor thing in a story that sticks in the mind, as
Doug said. You worry about people "like that" or "pushed to that" who are
"out there."

Bill Hagen
<billha@ionet.net>

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