Okay....
So I realize it's a Saturday night and according to the official college kids handbook I should be out making some bad decisions right now, but because I am sick (and a loser) I've been reading, and can I just say....what the hell?? These stories make no sense....
I mean....is it just me?? It CAN'T be just me.... I KNOW I'm not the only one who thinks that there's something just not right about these stories.... I mean really....would it hurt to give me just a LITTLE bit of clarity? I don't want to have to read the story nine times and think about all the historical and philosophical and mythological and whateverolical meanings it could contain....
Tell me a story about a kid on a bike....tell me how the bike is a magic bike that flies him to another world where he meets talking trees. Then tell me how he flies the bike back home and no one's the wiser. THAT I can follow. Don't tell me a story about some dude who steals a painting...goes to prison....is scared of zombies and snatches some little kid from his home. I don't get it. What's it all MEEEEAAAANN??
Help.....
Also....I'm very sick and I'm high off nyquil....many apologies if this post makes no sense...whoop...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
I'd like to know how one might marry a dead person and have dead children with them. I have visions in my head, and none of it really makes sense.
I thought the story you mentioned is actually one of the most easily explained in the book, which is why I picked it for my discussion topic in class. It's one of the few stories where you can wholly contribute the irregularities to Soap's insanity. Perhap's he's not actually crazy, but at least there are no loose ends which you can't blame on his possible craziness.
Soap was a very interesting character. Regular people are too easy to decipher, to be able to tell what they're thinking. But Soap was in a completely different world with zombies, iceburgs, and art. I wouldn't mind tuning into his thoughts at least once.
I guess I just have too literal? of a mindset to be able to appreciate Link's style of writing. I much prefer a storyline that's clear and direct. I just don't enjoy stories that require you bring in some outside knowledge, or that require you to make interpretations.
I think that Link makes a huge point about the flaws of fantasy in "Some Zombie Contingency Plans." This is probably a big stretch, but Soap (or the narrator) notes that people always have plans for zombie attacks. Notice, however, that zombies, or anything fantasy-like whatsoever, do not appear in this story. (which really made me wonder...why, exactly, is this a fantasy story?) And poor Carly doesn't realize just how messed up Soap is until it's TOO LATE.
SO!!!...everyone seems to be ignoring problems in the real world. Eh? Eh? At least that's what I got out of it.
oh I am so with you Casey.....I don't understand what exactly makes that story a fantasy story...
I am incredibly curious as to where the author gets her inspiration. I honestly feel a *need* to look inside her head. These just aren't normal stories. I hate that, because Logic has always been my best friend. And he has to go away when I think about Link. But I think of it as a kind of exercise to use a different mindset. At least, that makes me feel better when I get frustrated.
Janessa, this may have been the NyQuil talking:
"I just don't enjoy stories that require you bring in some outside knowledge, or that require you to make interpretations."
Yet, in your example, the reader would have to bring in her own knowledge of bikes (they don't fly) and trees (they don't talk), in order for the story to work at all; and the reader couldn't help making her own interpretations of whether the kid was someone to root for, whether the kid's motivations were sound and actions justified, whether the bike and trees acted with internal consistency, etc.
you realize of course that i wasn't referring to basic things like that. but I mean who ever said that Soap was insane? I mean it's very very possible I missed it, but I don't recall the author ever mentioning a psychotic imbalance. That means you have to take that situation and interpret it to mean that he's a psycho-man. I would rather the story come out and say that he is or he isn't, instead of just leaving me hanging to wonder.
I agree with the logic-based group here. I do not like these stories that have no closure. No ending. But on the other side of that argument, there is NOTHING in my opinion, that would need closure because if there is plot in the majority of these stories, I am missing out on it. Nor is there any explanation as to why any of this stuff happens. There is no fantasy world in which Link has placed her characters unlike HP or LOTR or A Wrinkle in Time...So unless we are just supposed to assume EVERY character is insane, I don't see how I should be reading the stories.
Post a Comment