Friday, February 1, 2008

Botch Post

Well, I have to say that Ford is very different from Link as a short story writer, but reading the two so closely together made for an interesting juxtaposition. A contrast of tastes on my literary palate, if you will...

Right. So, "Botch Town" seemed to be an all around favorite among the class (it was mine as well!), and I was wondering if anyone could put into words why she/he enjoyed it so much? Personally, I was enchanted by the well fleshed out characters (especially Mary), and the humorous eccentricities of the family and neighbors. The fact that Jeff's ancient neighbor settles into a lawn chair to shoot squirrels in the summer, and hands out tissue wrapped figs at Halloween is simply priceless.

At the end of the piece in the story notes, Ford reveals that the narrative, "Botch Town," is the contents of the long discarded composition notebook of our narrator. As we see throughout the story, the contents of Jeff's notebook revolves mostly around descriptions of his neighbors. Do you think Ford effectively molds this story into or around the contents of Jeff's notebook? If you were to open the faded black and white cover, and flip through the yellowed pages... is "Botch Town" what you would expect to find?
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2 comments:

jessie said...

I think you have a point about the notebook. Even when Jeff is not recounting the history of some neighbor to himself, the information revealed about the denizens of Botch Town very much revolves around action observed by the children. The reader never gains much insight to other characters beyond what can be observed through the window. This tactic is great because the reader is then left to use their own knowledge to guess who might be behind all the peeping-tom episodes, or who will be targeted next. You learn just enough about everyone to make anyone a suspect.

February 3, 2008 at 9:48 AM
Casey S. said...

Jessie, thinking of BOTCH TOWN as a universe we can only see through the 'window' of Jeff is a really fascinating notion.

Here's a question: I have had several English professors who always discouraged trying to piece together facts about the world of the story that aren't presented by the author. For instance, one stalwart old curmudgeon would go totally rabid if any student dared to mutter, "I wonder what happens to the characters after the end..." To his credit, he held the firm belief that the 'window' the author provides the reader with is the way the author WANTS us to see the story. The size, color and transparency of this window is INTENTIONAL. But I've noticed that people rarely like this idea. They enjoy drilling a peephole beside the author's window and gazing into said author's creation without his tinted glass. Hence fan-fiction!

What do you guys think about that? Is it fair to ponder more deeply about the denizens of Botch Town when we aren't given solid information by the author?

February 4, 2008 at 9:45 AM

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