I am working on a short film at the moment and was asked to do a similar exercise by the director as character work. I stuck with her, because I was having difficulty with THAT exercise, and this helped me sort through it. For this reason: please note that a dozen or so of these characteristics are not my choice.
—
Sam
Last name Fisher (I feel like)
Recent college grad (from Barnard)
So she’s either smart, or wealthy… probably middlingly both
Studied sociology
From Maine
Didn’t make any very good friends there
Was in a band, a singer
Plays a few instruments, not well
Journals… but performatively. She’s more focused on the aesthetics than being truthful
Feels directionless in life – a poor sense of who she is
So she’s been hopping from friend to boyfriend to friend to hobby for most of her life, hoping to find that direction
Now, applying to grad school… but what for? She’s not sure, but again, hoping for that direction
Currently works in retail, definitely not a passion
The closest thing she has to one (a passion) is music, but…
She’s a fairly insecure person
She has difficulty committing to something she doesn’t feel excellent at, and she doesn’t feel excellent at much of anything
Back to passion – as she’s hopped from person to person most of her life, most of hers are dictated by the people ruling her life at a given time.
A romantic
But perhaps a serial dater
She commits very quickly and very intensely
So while she’s used to getting what she wants from people, for a little while
It rarely lasts long.
Empathizes with Taylor Swift
Listens to Hozier, but not enough to know how to say his name
Raised by mother, father left when she was two – parents were high school sweethearts
Has been doing the same eyeliner for years, and is good at it
Has never worked in food service – except for a brief summer job scooping ice cream
That she left after only a few days – the rush made her too anxious
She has many small plants, and she takes care of them well – they remind her of home, in a way
Plus a fish, in a bowl that’s too small on her dresser
She talks to him but would never admit it
Cries at Love is Blind
Likes the honesty of it – people saying what they want and need undisguised, the idea of being chosen, desired
And to her, it is proof that love can be quick and real
She had a brief party phase in high school
But she wasn’t cut out for it, really – the chaos started to bore and overwhelm her more than excite her, and people were always making passes at her – so now, she’ll go out every once in a while, lean against the wall, have a few drinks
High alcohol tolerance but hates herself for drinking, it reminds her of her mother
More judgemental than you’d think
And blinded by her own dreams and wants – so wrapped up in her own world that she misses the realities of others
Really hates anger – not confrontation, but anger
Wishes she was funnier and seeks out people who are
Always wished she had a little sister
Dreams of having a close-knit family – part of the appeal of Ollie
A beanie wearer
Sticks out like a sore thumb in the city but in a small way likes it
Frequent nightmares since childhood. Sleeps better when she’s not alone. As a kid, with the ancient family dog.
She’d like a dog again, but she doesn’t have the money or the space
She lives in a studio that hasn’t been updated in years & definitely isn’t the safest. Her mother still helps her pay the rent.
She tried to live with roommates for a while but felt suffocated
She’s not very good with money.
A nail-biter and constantly trying to stop
Tried to get a nose piercing once but chickened out at the last second
Dip-dyed her hair blue as a teen to make her mother mad (it worked)
Still thinks about her childhood friends; they’d go on bike rides together, the kids whose parents didn’t need them back by sunset
She misses the ocean – lived close enough to it as a kid that she’s hitch rides with other families and friends to spend the day there, and in the water, not laying about
Spends a ton of time on her phone, often “stalks” on social media, and wishes she didn’t, but feels too alone when she stops
Has a proper old record player and likes to play jazz at night
Likes the idea of cooking herself a good meal, in reality not a very good cook and hates the work of it
Not exactly a lazy person, just motivated almost solely by other people. She did well in school because she was praised for it. Now that she’s out of school, there’s not nearly as many people to seek the approval of.
In high school, volunteered helping middle schoolers with their homework
Likes an iced coffee with a ton of sweetener & flavors – a desert coffee
Loves shortbread cookies
And the flavor of fresh mint leaves
Considers cutting bangs regularly
Sometimes dresses up at home with nothing to do
The sort of person who likes their underwear and bra to match, just because. Gets very perturbed when socks lose their mate
Went through a cowrie shell necklace phase
Gave herself a stick and poke when she turned seventeen – a heart on a painful part of her foot/ankle. It’s mostly faded and she’s not sure how to feel about it
Loves a classic rom com & similarly old musicals where everything ends well – singin in the rain
Read a little more as a kid and wished she did it more. Occasionally picks up the sort of novel that isn’t quite romance but is certainly romantic
Walks to the dog park and pets the ones that come up to the fences. Feels too weird to actually go in without a dog
Wants kids but thinks she’d be a bad mother
Loved to play house as a kid – the sense of control
The sort of child to get strep throat more or less annually. Didn’t mind the flavor of the medicine
Broke her wrist the summer she was eleven and got a pink cast. She was sad she wasn’t at school, no one could sign it
The sort of child who lost their teeth almost all at once, and was very sad about it and a little fascinated by the blood
One of the first girls in her class to get her period
Decorated her own t-shirts as a little kid, with sharpies & paint
Attended summer camp, but never became much of a summer camp kid.
She did get very good at friendship bracelets, though
Wasn’t raised with any religion and sometimes wishes she was
Loved to climb trees.
A barefooted kid
Favorite part about the city is the people-watching & the street performers
Still afraid of the subway but pretends to be very cool about it
Keeps & wears a corduroy jacket of her father’s
She wonders if he remembers her birthday or how old she is
Used to wait too long to do laundry
Wishes she lived somewhere with a view, somewhere she could leave the window open, but she faces a brick wall
Wanted to be a dancer as a kid, but didn’t think she was good enough. Sometimes imagines she is one.
Spends most of her time in her apartment, or between work & different restaurants. She likes to try as many new places as she can – an adventurous, slow eater
Unusually good at staying hydrated and using sunscreen
Has a cheap projector in the apartment that she gets a lot of use out of
She’s lived there for years but it still feels unsettled. She blames not being able to paint the walls.
Favorite color is green
Loves cinnamon
& sandal-woody smells
Old spice deodorant user
When she’s sad, craves cookies, wants someone to hug her or a dog to pet, drinks peppermint tea, and cries. She’s an easy crier in her everyday, private life.
I accidentally put this in the wrong section! Apologies, I will repost it in the character interview section and in future, will try to remember to double-check the headers.
I had to read “Good Country People” (and a handful of the author’s other stories) in high school and was so blinded by my hatred for the bizarre, fetish-y nature of the story to recognize that the writing style was actually somewhat to my taste. Yet another reminder that I can hate the story of something and like the style.
“The Cemetery” stretched me a little far in terms of my ability to understand the content & keep track of the time, but I did like it. Additionally: perhaps the timelessness & disjointedness was intentional. Illness can make life feel that way, and the narrator’s dips in and out of her friend’s(?) life would also create gaps. My own reading of this also surprised me: I assumed the pair were young women & a couple, when they were in fact older & platonic friends.
“Girl” was right up my alley… but I also would have, personally, shoved it into a poetry category, so I was interested to see it here. Similarly: the formatting of “7 or 8 things” would have also led me in a poetic direction.
The way Morrison, for lack of a better term, played with race in “Recitatif” was fascinating.
I have learned that I have an EXTREMELY low tolerance for anything set at a dinner-party-type-situation.
I loved “Tall Tales from the Mekong Delta” almost as much as I hated it. The author’s writing style is so simple and direct that it does a great job of getting across the squeamish, uncomfortable truth of everything going on. I thought the use of dialogue was very effective at conveying the nature of Lenny’s character. The way he speaks is so similar to many men I’ve come into contact with, so much so that the story itself made me viscerally uncomfortable pretty much all the way through. The way we can see the protagonist give up trying to evade him and fall back into her old habits was so heartbreaking and also so convincing; never once did I question *why* she was giving into Lenny’s passes, even if it seemed counterintuitive. He made it very clear from the start that he was never going to give up, and for a woman in these situations, oftentimes it is actively safer to give in than to ask for help. I thought the story was absolutely beautiful and quite well-written, but never would I want to read it again.
Kate Braverman’s “Tall Tales from the Mekong Delta”
“It was in the fifth month of her sobriety. It was after the hospital. It was after her divorce. It was autumn. She had even stopped smoking. She was wearing pink aerobic pants, a pink T-shirt with KAUAI written in lilac across the chest, and tennis shoes. She had just come from the gym. Her black hair was damp. She was wearing a pink sweatband around her forehead.”
I chose the first few sentences of Braverman’s “Tall Tales from the Mekong Delta,” because I thought it to be such a strange way to open a story. These first few sentences are very straightforward, and they are doing the opposite of what are writers are taught: they are telling instead of showing. This is a bold choice, especially for the beginning of the story, but the rest of the story follows a similar pattern of boldness. Braverman presents disturbing facts with pointed clarity, and she lets the reader know her writing style right from the very beginning. The repetition of “it was” could be off putting to some readers, but she chose to include the choice anyway, which adds an authentic rhythm to this excerpt. Although this description is a list of facts, it paints a picture of the character, and this picture is carried with the reader throughout the piece.
I thought the Tell Tales from the Mekong Delta was incredibly beautiful and helpful in making the transition to the fiction unit. I tend to love stories with connected characters. I was incredibly intrigued by all of the dialogue between the two main characters. I felt like Lenny had a distinct way of speaking and talking to the main character. His dialogue showcased his personality well and gave much more insight into his character. He always uses her name, attempting to convince her of something, and revealing he knows a lot about her.
I found it interesting how the narrator is essentially falling for Lenny and everything he says over and over again, similar to how she relapses and craves drugs. They are both things she knows are bad for her, but she will continue to do each of them. It is almost like she may feel like it is inevitable that she will relapse, so she is accepting things that she knows are bad for her into her life. I loved this story and the connection and dialogue that the characters have.
I felt like the essay in What We Talk about When we Talk About Love was a very well-written essay that resembled the conversation that was happening in the essay. There was a lot of dialogue that was a lot of showing and not telling for the reader to sense the conversation going in all these different directions and question how they even got here in this conversation in the first place. I also sensed a lot of emotion from the characters as well, including Terri’s defense on her abusive ex as well as Mel’s emotions being unleashed from him almost showing that he is letting go of the idea of being perfect as a doctor.
I am responding to one line from the Amy Hempel reading. The line is: “Gussie is her parent’s three-hundred-pound narcoleptic maid.”
I find this line to be problematic and I want to address it. I imagine that the author did not intend harm. I imagine that the author was simply attempting to be descriptive, trying to paint a picture of this woman, which seems harmless enough, especially when she seemed to have used the woman’s fatness as a neutral descriptor, which I highly encourage in speech and writing.
That said, she didn’t do it right. It seems innocent, benign, even. However, she did not describe the body size of any other characters. Only describing the body size of the fat character allows the reader to assume the rest of the characters exist in thin bodies. Letting us make this assumption normalizes thin bodies and others fat bodies.
I wish writers would stop doing this. Not only are they perpetrating the othering of fat bodies, but I instantly stopped liking the narrator which I don’t think the author intended.
“What We Talk about When we Talk About Love” was very interesting to me because nothing happened, it was just dialogue. I personally always struggle with writing dialogue therefore I was so invested in how the author creates the characters’ personalities simply through dialogue. The relationship between Mel and his wife felt completely different than the one between the main character and his wife/girlfriend (?). The idea that there is no answer to the question what we talk about when we talk about love is very interesting, it really shows that no one really knows what we are talking about and this is shown through personal experiences by the characters in the story.
I really enjoyed the story “Good Country People” as I shared in class the author introduction paragraph made it very clear to me that the remaining of the essay will have individual shoving things under the rug. Such as the following quote:
Mrs. Freeman could never be brought to admit herself wrong to any point. She would stand there and if she could be brought to say anything, it was something like, “Well, I wouldn’t of said it was and I wouldn’t of said it wasn’t”.
Donald Barthelme’s short story “The School,” is a darkly humorous and absurd tale that touches on themes of death, meaning, and the human need for reassurance in the face of life’s uncertainties. The students ask existential questions about the meaning of life and death, and even request a demonstration of love-making as an “assertion of value” in the face of their fear. It is a commentary on the human struggle to find meaning and purpose in a world that often seems chaotic and unpredictable. The teacher’s inability to provide satisfactory answers to his students’ questions reflects the inherent difficulty of confronting life’s big questions. Additionally, it raises questions about the purpose of school and how education goes beyond just maths and science. This piece highlights the absurdity and poignancy of our attempts to make sense of the world around us.
11 responses to “Week 7 Reading Response (Weds)”
I am working on a short film at the moment and was asked to do a similar exercise by the director as character work. I stuck with her, because I was having difficulty with THAT exercise, and this helped me sort through it. For this reason: please note that a dozen or so of these characteristics are not my choice.
—
Sam
Last name Fisher (I feel like)
Recent college grad (from Barnard)
So she’s either smart, or wealthy… probably middlingly both
Studied sociology
From Maine
Didn’t make any very good friends there
Was in a band, a singer
Plays a few instruments, not well
Journals… but performatively. She’s more focused on the aesthetics than being truthful
Feels directionless in life – a poor sense of who she is
So she’s been hopping from friend to boyfriend to friend to hobby for most of her life, hoping to find that direction
Now, applying to grad school… but what for? She’s not sure, but again, hoping for that direction
Currently works in retail, definitely not a passion
The closest thing she has to one (a passion) is music, but…
She’s a fairly insecure person
She has difficulty committing to something she doesn’t feel excellent at, and she doesn’t feel excellent at much of anything
Back to passion – as she’s hopped from person to person most of her life, most of hers are dictated by the people ruling her life at a given time.
A romantic
But perhaps a serial dater
She commits very quickly and very intensely
So while she’s used to getting what she wants from people, for a little while
It rarely lasts long.
Empathizes with Taylor Swift
Listens to Hozier, but not enough to know how to say his name
Raised by mother, father left when she was two – parents were high school sweethearts
Has been doing the same eyeliner for years, and is good at it
Has never worked in food service – except for a brief summer job scooping ice cream
That she left after only a few days – the rush made her too anxious
She has many small plants, and she takes care of them well – they remind her of home, in a way
Plus a fish, in a bowl that’s too small on her dresser
She talks to him but would never admit it
Cries at Love is Blind
Likes the honesty of it – people saying what they want and need undisguised, the idea of being chosen, desired
And to her, it is proof that love can be quick and real
She had a brief party phase in high school
But she wasn’t cut out for it, really – the chaos started to bore and overwhelm her more than excite her, and people were always making passes at her – so now, she’ll go out every once in a while, lean against the wall, have a few drinks
High alcohol tolerance but hates herself for drinking, it reminds her of her mother
More judgemental than you’d think
And blinded by her own dreams and wants – so wrapped up in her own world that she misses the realities of others
Really hates anger – not confrontation, but anger
Wishes she was funnier and seeks out people who are
Always wished she had a little sister
Dreams of having a close-knit family – part of the appeal of Ollie
A beanie wearer
Sticks out like a sore thumb in the city but in a small way likes it
Frequent nightmares since childhood. Sleeps better when she’s not alone. As a kid, with the ancient family dog.
She’d like a dog again, but she doesn’t have the money or the space
She lives in a studio that hasn’t been updated in years & definitely isn’t the safest. Her mother still helps her pay the rent.
She tried to live with roommates for a while but felt suffocated
She’s not very good with money.
A nail-biter and constantly trying to stop
Tried to get a nose piercing once but chickened out at the last second
Dip-dyed her hair blue as a teen to make her mother mad (it worked)
Still thinks about her childhood friends; they’d go on bike rides together, the kids whose parents didn’t need them back by sunset
She misses the ocean – lived close enough to it as a kid that she’s hitch rides with other families and friends to spend the day there, and in the water, not laying about
Spends a ton of time on her phone, often “stalks” on social media, and wishes she didn’t, but feels too alone when she stops
Has a proper old record player and likes to play jazz at night
Likes the idea of cooking herself a good meal, in reality not a very good cook and hates the work of it
Not exactly a lazy person, just motivated almost solely by other people. She did well in school because she was praised for it. Now that she’s out of school, there’s not nearly as many people to seek the approval of.
In high school, volunteered helping middle schoolers with their homework
Likes an iced coffee with a ton of sweetener & flavors – a desert coffee
Loves shortbread cookies
And the flavor of fresh mint leaves
Considers cutting bangs regularly
Sometimes dresses up at home with nothing to do
The sort of person who likes their underwear and bra to match, just because. Gets very perturbed when socks lose their mate
Went through a cowrie shell necklace phase
Gave herself a stick and poke when she turned seventeen – a heart on a painful part of her foot/ankle. It’s mostly faded and she’s not sure how to feel about it
Loves a classic rom com & similarly old musicals where everything ends well – singin in the rain
Read a little more as a kid and wished she did it more. Occasionally picks up the sort of novel that isn’t quite romance but is certainly romantic
Walks to the dog park and pets the ones that come up to the fences. Feels too weird to actually go in without a dog
Wants kids but thinks she’d be a bad mother
Loved to play house as a kid – the sense of control
The sort of child to get strep throat more or less annually. Didn’t mind the flavor of the medicine
Broke her wrist the summer she was eleven and got a pink cast. She was sad she wasn’t at school, no one could sign it
The sort of child who lost their teeth almost all at once, and was very sad about it and a little fascinated by the blood
One of the first girls in her class to get her period
Decorated her own t-shirts as a little kid, with sharpies & paint
Attended summer camp, but never became much of a summer camp kid.
She did get very good at friendship bracelets, though
Wasn’t raised with any religion and sometimes wishes she was
Loved to climb trees.
A barefooted kid
Favorite part about the city is the people-watching & the street performers
Still afraid of the subway but pretends to be very cool about it
Keeps & wears a corduroy jacket of her father’s
She wonders if he remembers her birthday or how old she is
Used to wait too long to do laundry
Wishes she lived somewhere with a view, somewhere she could leave the window open, but she faces a brick wall
Wanted to be a dancer as a kid, but didn’t think she was good enough. Sometimes imagines she is one.
Spends most of her time in her apartment, or between work & different restaurants. She likes to try as many new places as she can – an adventurous, slow eater
Unusually good at staying hydrated and using sunscreen
Has a cheap projector in the apartment that she gets a lot of use out of
She’s lived there for years but it still feels unsettled. She blames not being able to paint the walls.
Favorite color is green
Loves cinnamon
& sandal-woody smells
Old spice deodorant user
When she’s sad, craves cookies, wants someone to hug her or a dog to pet, drinks peppermint tea, and cries. She’s an easy crier in her everyday, private life.
I accidentally put this in the wrong section! Apologies, I will repost it in the character interview section and in future, will try to remember to double-check the headers.
I had to read “Good Country People” (and a handful of the author’s other stories) in high school and was so blinded by my hatred for the bizarre, fetish-y nature of the story to recognize that the writing style was actually somewhat to my taste. Yet another reminder that I can hate the story of something and like the style.
“The Cemetery” stretched me a little far in terms of my ability to understand the content & keep track of the time, but I did like it. Additionally: perhaps the timelessness & disjointedness was intentional. Illness can make life feel that way, and the narrator’s dips in and out of her friend’s(?) life would also create gaps. My own reading of this also surprised me: I assumed the pair were young women & a couple, when they were in fact older & platonic friends.
“Girl” was right up my alley… but I also would have, personally, shoved it into a poetry category, so I was interested to see it here. Similarly: the formatting of “7 or 8 things” would have also led me in a poetic direction.
The way Morrison, for lack of a better term, played with race in “Recitatif” was fascinating.
I have learned that I have an EXTREMELY low tolerance for anything set at a dinner-party-type-situation.
I loved “Tall Tales from the Mekong Delta” almost as much as I hated it. The author’s writing style is so simple and direct that it does a great job of getting across the squeamish, uncomfortable truth of everything going on. I thought the use of dialogue was very effective at conveying the nature of Lenny’s character. The way he speaks is so similar to many men I’ve come into contact with, so much so that the story itself made me viscerally uncomfortable pretty much all the way through. The way we can see the protagonist give up trying to evade him and fall back into her old habits was so heartbreaking and also so convincing; never once did I question *why* she was giving into Lenny’s passes, even if it seemed counterintuitive. He made it very clear from the start that he was never going to give up, and for a woman in these situations, oftentimes it is actively safer to give in than to ask for help. I thought the story was absolutely beautiful and quite well-written, but never would I want to read it again.
Kate Braverman’s “Tall Tales from the Mekong Delta”
“It was in the fifth month of her sobriety. It was after the hospital. It was after her divorce. It was autumn. She had even stopped smoking. She was wearing pink aerobic pants, a pink T-shirt with KAUAI written in lilac across the chest, and tennis shoes. She had just come from the gym. Her black hair was damp. She was wearing a pink sweatband around her forehead.”
I chose the first few sentences of Braverman’s “Tall Tales from the Mekong Delta,” because I thought it to be such a strange way to open a story. These first few sentences are very straightforward, and they are doing the opposite of what are writers are taught: they are telling instead of showing. This is a bold choice, especially for the beginning of the story, but the rest of the story follows a similar pattern of boldness. Braverman presents disturbing facts with pointed clarity, and she lets the reader know her writing style right from the very beginning. The repetition of “it was” could be off putting to some readers, but she chose to include the choice anyway, which adds an authentic rhythm to this excerpt. Although this description is a list of facts, it paints a picture of the character, and this picture is carried with the reader throughout the piece.
I thought the Tell Tales from the Mekong Delta was incredibly beautiful and helpful in making the transition to the fiction unit. I tend to love stories with connected characters. I was incredibly intrigued by all of the dialogue between the two main characters. I felt like Lenny had a distinct way of speaking and talking to the main character. His dialogue showcased his personality well and gave much more insight into his character. He always uses her name, attempting to convince her of something, and revealing he knows a lot about her.
I found it interesting how the narrator is essentially falling for Lenny and everything he says over and over again, similar to how she relapses and craves drugs. They are both things she knows are bad for her, but she will continue to do each of them. It is almost like she may feel like it is inevitable that she will relapse, so she is accepting things that she knows are bad for her into her life. I loved this story and the connection and dialogue that the characters have.
I felt like the essay in What We Talk about When we Talk About Love was a very well-written essay that resembled the conversation that was happening in the essay. There was a lot of dialogue that was a lot of showing and not telling for the reader to sense the conversation going in all these different directions and question how they even got here in this conversation in the first place. I also sensed a lot of emotion from the characters as well, including Terri’s defense on her abusive ex as well as Mel’s emotions being unleashed from him almost showing that he is letting go of the idea of being perfect as a doctor.
I am responding to one line from the Amy Hempel reading. The line is: “Gussie is her parent’s three-hundred-pound narcoleptic maid.”
I find this line to be problematic and I want to address it. I imagine that the author did not intend harm. I imagine that the author was simply attempting to be descriptive, trying to paint a picture of this woman, which seems harmless enough, especially when she seemed to have used the woman’s fatness as a neutral descriptor, which I highly encourage in speech and writing.
That said, she didn’t do it right. It seems innocent, benign, even. However, she did not describe the body size of any other characters. Only describing the body size of the fat character allows the reader to assume the rest of the characters exist in thin bodies. Letting us make this assumption normalizes thin bodies and others fat bodies.
I wish writers would stop doing this. Not only are they perpetrating the othering of fat bodies, but I instantly stopped liking the narrator which I don’t think the author intended.
“What We Talk about When we Talk About Love” was very interesting to me because nothing happened, it was just dialogue. I personally always struggle with writing dialogue therefore I was so invested in how the author creates the characters’ personalities simply through dialogue. The relationship between Mel and his wife felt completely different than the one between the main character and his wife/girlfriend (?). The idea that there is no answer to the question what we talk about when we talk about love is very interesting, it really shows that no one really knows what we are talking about and this is shown through personal experiences by the characters in the story.
I really enjoyed the story “Good Country People” as I shared in class the author introduction paragraph made it very clear to me that the remaining of the essay will have individual shoving things under the rug. Such as the following quote:
Mrs. Freeman could never be brought to admit herself wrong to any point. She would stand there and if she could be brought to say anything, it was something like, “Well, I wouldn’t of said it was and I wouldn’t of said it wasn’t”.
Donald Barthelme’s short story “The School,” is a darkly humorous and absurd tale that touches on themes of death, meaning, and the human need for reassurance in the face of life’s uncertainties. The students ask existential questions about the meaning of life and death, and even request a demonstration of love-making as an “assertion of value” in the face of their fear. It is a commentary on the human struggle to find meaning and purpose in a world that often seems chaotic and unpredictable. The teacher’s inability to provide satisfactory answers to his students’ questions reflects the inherent difficulty of confronting life’s big questions. Additionally, it raises questions about the purpose of school and how education goes beyond just maths and science. This piece highlights the absurdity and poignancy of our attempts to make sense of the world around us.