Baptizing the Gun

Basically the story starts out with a priest having come to the city of Lagos to get money and support for his parishes in Niger. Is stalls out in the middle of a riot and a man comes up to help him. The priest thinks that the man is a swindler by the way he eyes the car. He notices a gun in the legosians' pocket and gets frightened. When the Legosian uses a tone like, "Damn it, man, you don't need a fucking mechanic!" the priest is convinced that the Legosian is out to steal his car or his belongings and money. When the car is finally started the Legosian gets in the car with the priest and he realizes that he is being kidnapped. When he tries to stop the car the legosian yells at him. Everyone in the town seems to have a problem with priests because of their status and money. A police officer states, "So? You Nigerian Clerics just want everything free! You flash your status at every chance." The police take his money and threaten him which shows the real out of control state that lagos is in. Many events go on during the men
's drive. They arrive at a mechanic and the priest still thinks that the Legosian is out to steal his car and belongings. Finally the legosian reaches in his pocket that contained the gun and the priest realizes that the gun is actually a hankerchief at all and is relieved he isn't being kidnapped. The Legosian says, "You know, we need to start trusting each other. I'm tired of blaming it all on our leaders--we've become a difficult lot to help. I was praying hard that I'd connect with you somehow" The Legosian was only trying to connect with the priest and speak about the problems going on in the cities. Because of all the chaos, I think that the priest assumed the man was a bad person.



Swindler- to cheat or defraud money or property
absolution- christian forgiveness

Extra Credit

The first reader read a series of poems that he had written that were inspired by western films that he had seen from the 20s and 30s. I thought it was very interesting how he incorporated themes and names from the movies into his poems to create a whole new piece of work.

The second reader wrote a true story about her experiences fostering a Haitian girl needing serious surgery on her legs. She gave a vivid description of the bond she had with the child and about the hardships of communication. I really loved the story because I felt the emotion for her, living with a child that she knew would have to leave to go home in a year.

The third reading was a series of different kind of poems. Many of them were about technology advancements today. I had a hard time following the poems but I think one was talking about how technology was taking over the world and advancing so much right now.

The last reader was probably my favorite. It was a fictional short story about two freshman living in a college dorm and a series of crazy events happen. The diction that the author chose was funny and relatable to freshman in college. The ending was unexpected, which I liked as well. As much as I wanted to stay to hear the rest,  had to go to the library to study at intermission.

The bridegroom

This short story shows the controversay of homosexuality in this society and time period. From the reactions of the people at the police station, homosexuality was not a common issue or well-known topic. One man asked, "What do homosexuals do?" The time period is definitely older because of the reactions, but I am not sure that China is tolerant of homosexuality even today in 2011. The chief of police described homosexuality as, "It's a social disease, like gambling, or prostitution, or syphilis." It is interesting to see that the men in the society are ashamed of being gay, but also meet to be support...and see other gay men. Many of the men had probably covered up their homosexuality by marrying like Baowen. The marriage arrangement was perfect. Beina was ugly and needed someone that would marry her and Baowen needed to marry to cover up the fact that he is gay. The fact that the uncle is even willing to help Baowen is admirable because of how homosexuality is frowned upon in that society.



Vocab
brazen- bold and without shame

Glengarry Glen Ross

Overall the play showed many of the internal issues that sales businesses can have. It showed how salesmen can trick buyers into buying unnecessary things for their own gain in business. This however is how sales companies make their money.  At first the men all seem to have eachother's backs in the business  so the fight between Roma and Moss was unexpected. It probably occurred because the men were on edge about the prizes and the fact that the bottom to sales men were to be fired. After Roma gets a big sale Moss states, "...your hot, so you think you're the ruler of this place?!" Moss goes on to complain about the fact that he was accused by the cop of committing the robbery. Roma comes back saying, "Is that was I did? Dave? I humiliated you? My God...I'm sorry..." Moss ends up leaving the office saying he is moving to a different state. We see a glimpse of the closeness of the workers when the man that Roma sold a big sale to comes to the office looking like he wants to take back the sale. Levene immediately goes into character as a businessman talking with Roma so that Lingk won't be able to talk to Roma to cancel. The plan is messed up when Williamson comes up to them and tells Lingk that the check is already cashed, which is what Roma was trying to avoid telling Lingk. I think that the salesmen are kind of against and look down on their boss Williamson because he is not actually in the field with them. The ending was kind of confusing to me. Most of them were in on the plan but Levene was the only one that was caught. Roma acted as if he wasn't caught and wanted to maybe cut a deal with Williamson to get profit from Levene's leads. The last line was said by Roma, "I'll be at the restaurant." He told Levene to meet him there but Levene seemed to be taking the blame for the robbery and wouldn't be able to meet the restaurant.

Vocab
Lead- sales lead is the identity of a human potentially interested in purchasing a product

Same River Twice

I thought it was very interesting how the wife was described on page 148 when the narrator stated, "the woman I married has been replaced by an incubator with powers of speech and thought."
I liked the section of the book talking about the baby name. Like many people today, there was pressure from both sides of the family on what to name the baby. One father who had given the same name to Chris' brother wanted Chris' son to be given that name while Rita's family wanted her to name the child after her brother who was killed in World War II.  Because the baby was a girl they ended up agreeing on a name. Chris stated, "after agreeing easily to a girl's name, Rebecca Marie, we fought over what to call a boy. I want a common name that is still uncommon, an older name, one of strength, such as Oak or Thor." Chris was very particular about what to name the baby but I think because it wasn't a debate over a boy name, Chris was a little more lenient. It was also interesting that he talked about the meanings of his and Rita's names, "Rita is a Sanskrit word, meaning "brave" or "honest." My name means "bearer of Christ," a troublesome burden."

Vocab
impugned-  verb. Dispute the truth, validity, or honesty of a statement or motive; challenge; call into question
gizzard shad- a fish of the herring family

Emergency

The short story "Emergency" by Denis Johnson was a little bizarre to me. It is narrated by a man and tells the story of him and a fellow hospital worker, Georgie. The story starts out with Georgie cleaning of the floor of a hospital room covered in blood but we are told that the floors are basically already clean. At first I thought that Georgie was just out of his mind but we find out that he is a druggie along with the narrator. They both steal pills from the hospital. Georgie states, "There's so much goop inside of us, man...and it all wants to get out." This statement was one that reassured me that he had a drug problem but also led me to believe that he may have another problem as well. He may be trying to escape life with the drugs. This is ironic because he works in a hospital.

When one patient came in with a knife in his only good eye, Georgie is to prep him for surgery. When the patient had come in, the doctor stated,"...we've got to get a team here, An entire team, I want a good eye man, a great eye man...I want a brain surgeon...I'm not touching that head. I'm gonna watch this one. I know my limits. The doctor at the hospital felt that even he couldn't heal the guy. However, when the drugged up Georgie prepped him for surgery, he came back with the knife in hand and the patient could see and walk and move.

The two men continue to do interesting and unrealistic things throughout the story. I came to the conclusion that the reader was looking through the eyes of the drugged up person rather than what was really going on in Georgie and the narrators lives. The patient with the knife in his head could have actually died from having the knife removed, but in the eyes of Georgie and the narrator he may have been alive. It was almost like a dream reading through the story with its bizarre events.

Vocabulary
none

Chapter 1 Crying of lot 49

The novel starts out Oedipa receiving a letter saying that her ex boyfriends has left the will execution to her when he died. Because he left this to her, it makes me think that he was a big part of her life or maybe wanted her to continue to be part of her life after his death. Her reaction when she realized he had died and that she was the executor the book stated, "Oedipa stood in the living room, stared by the greenish dead eye of the TV tube, spoke the name of God, tried to feel as drunk as possible." I was a little confused about this reaction and whether she was reacting about his death or about the fact that she is the executor. The chapter goes into a little bit of detail about his personality and how he used to do celebrity voices. She describes the voices he used in a previous phone call as, "...slavic tones as second secretary at the Transylvania Consulate, looking for an escaped bat; modulated to comic-Negro, the on into Pachuco dialect,..." I think that this will have a significant meaning later in the book, the fact that he has many voices that he used when speaking to Oedipa. The receiving of the letter goes into detail about her and her husband, Mucho's, relationship. He used to be a car salesman which is probably where the "lot" in the title comes from. She says, "He believed to much in the lot, but not at all in the station," about her husbands jobs. Maybe she means he isn't happy or passionate anymore because he is no longer working "on the lot." It will be interesting to see what the significants of the lot will be. It seems like this change in him is causing a downfall in their relationship.  There are also some psych references like when the doctor calls for he to be in a drug study....may foreshadow later events or a past event. The doctor wants her to participate in the effects of LSD and other hallucinogens on housewives. The chapter kind of opened up many different possibilities for how the book will continue.

9/16 readings

The first poem "A supermarket in California" starts by pointing out the authors thoughts of Walt Whitman. The poem makes it obvious that Walt Whitman is somewhat of a hero to the author. The poem goes on like it he is searching for similarities in Whitman's work and in the real world. He walks into a supermarket and then the poem reads, "What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at night!..." It is almost like the author is creating a more lively situation in the supermarket than there really is. Maybe he is searching for the world Walt Whitman created in his work? The author then states, "I saw you, childless, lonely old grubber, poking among the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery boys." This line may mean that the author thinks that Walt was a homosexual or liked young boys. The author then goes on to talk about him following Whitman through the grocery store like he is trying to follow in his footsteps? I'm kind of confused about the ending but I think the author is lost in modern society and wants to be back in Whitman's world?

Father Poems

I enjoyed reading and comparing the two poems "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath and "Photograph of my Father in his Twenty-Second Year" by Raymond Carver. I sensed resentment for the father in the words of both of the authors. I tend to have a hard time analyzing poetry but for these two poems I was able to find multiple possible meanings and themes. The end line of Carver's poem, "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?" kind of tied to poem together for me. I took from the poem that the son resents his father for being a drunk or alcoholic when he was a child and passing the trait down to him. As a child the father never did father-son things with the son, which is shown in the fish line. The father may have never figuratively or literally took the son fishing or never taught him what fathers should teach their sons, making the son resent the father.

For me, Sylvia Plath's poem was a little bit harder to interpret. When I first started reading the poem I didn't pick up on the fact that the relationship with the father was negative. Plath used many symbols of her negative relationship with her father. For example, "An engine, an engine, Chiffing me off like a Jew. A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen. I begin to talk like a Jew. I think I may well be a Jew," showed that she was comparing her father to a Nazi. She felt she was a prisoner or outcast to her father or maybe was abused by her father. The author then begins to talk about the fact that she married her father. This may mean she married someone like her father that was abusive. The main repetition in the poem was the line, "Daddy, I have had to kill you." She then begins to talk about killing two people: her father and husband. This was because they both were abusive. She says she is through with both of them in the end. I'm not sure whether she actually killed them or just "left" them and killed was a symbolism but the poem had a very powerful theme because many people say they "marry their dad"meaning they marry a man similar to their father.

In the Station of the Metro- Test Blog

Wikipedia stated that the poem was originally a Haiku but was changed to a two line 14 word poem.

1. According to Wikipedia, the Metro that Ezra Pound is referring to was in Paris and is probably in a the metro station there. The poem is meant to show a different view of the station