reading responses, week 4

Wonder Town
I feel like this would have been much more comprehensible if I knew anything about Sonic Youth or about their scene. Although the imagery is technically quite good in this piece, I felt alienated from the piece as a whole, considering I was unfamiliar with much of the terminology. Certainly I can see how this would be a compelling read for anyone familiar with the topic, or with a passing interest in the band and its members, but, as I have neither, it fell flat to me.

Considering my unfamiliarity with the subject matter, although I found certain descriptions compelling, I also found them disturbing - though I suppose there's really no way to sugar coat, for example, a re-enactment of the Manson murders.

I did like the imagery of the band members being more like "conductors" than "players," though, and the description of how they could turn their instruments into a "choir." I suppose this piece is effective, in that after reading it, I looked up some Sonic Youth music on Spotify. Still, since I was largely unfamiliar with everything during my first read of the article, I found my mind wandering. I'm interested to see how people who are in the target audience responded to it.

Shooting an Elephant
I suppose I cannot lambaste Orwell for referring to the Burmese citizens as "yellow," considering the article was written in 1936, but that kind of language was still jarring enough to throw me out of the piece. That aside, the imagery was quite vivid, and I could easily envision everything that happened in this story. I especially appreciated the movement across time and space - I could definitely sense Orwell's representation of himself and could picture myself moving with him through the town, could sense his anxiety and his reactions to everything going on around him, from the death of the villager to the shooting of the elephant.

The death of the elephant was the most vivid part of this essay. Although lines like "The thick blood welled out of him like red velvet, but still he did not die" made me question how, exactly, blood could seem like velvet - that doesn't seem like a likely comparison to me - they also served as very concrete and strong examples of what, exactly, it was like to watch the bullets rip through the elephant's side.

I am only unclear on one thing: Orwell discusses how the best way to kill an elephant is to shoot through the ears. He also continuously talks about what a bad shot he is. I found myself expecting the shot to misfire and actually shoot the elephant in the best possible way (if one can consider any kind of elephant-shooting to be "good"), and I would have liked a little more description about where each bullet landed in order to have a clearer mental picture of how Orwell presumably fell short of the ideal.

Telling True Stories
Although I found much of this repetitive, a lot of it is still at least on the edge of being useful. I agree with Ellen that much of this is "more poetic than technically helpful, more inspiring than informative." I did like the caution Merina puts on reporting other cultures. I also found the question about whether or not to tape interesting, especially after last week's class.

I found that a lot of these little essays and anecdotes gave good advice. However, I walked away from the passages thinking, "well, that's all well and good to hear, but could you provide some concrete examples of how to address these issues" more than once. Don't just tell us that it's important to do something; suggest a way in which to do it effectively. I know that, as a budding writer, I will need to make my own mistakes and learn from my own trials and errors. It would be nice to hear more concrete examples from others about the difficulties they faced too, though, in order to better determine a good starting point.

I also find myself wondering, regularly, how these journalists can afford to follow people around so much when they don't have a book or article deal, as was the case in several situations. I have some strange aversion to so-called "Gonzo journalism" and have not yet been able to identify where these feelings come from - perhaps my Cultural Psychology class primed me to be wary of people who try to immerse themselves in a culture, especially when they are immersing themselves as an obvious outsider - but I know that I will need to work past this aversion in order to be completely able to throw myself into journalism and this class.

Trina and Trina
This was a very compelling, if entirely depressing, story. I was anxious throughout the entire thing - I understand that LeBlanc had to be removed from her subject in that she couldn't really give her money or intervene, really, but I kept thinking, "I don't know how she can be involved in Trina's life and not want to do more to help her." The matter-of-fact tone helped a great deal in the telling of this; it could have easily run to too sentimental.

Part of me wanted more focus, maybe on just a specific stretch of time within the narrative, but I don't see how LeBlanc could have successfully done that - I know that if only a year of Trina's life, or a month of Trina's life, or one encounter with Trina was told, I would have wanted to know how everything turned out.

I really liked the way this piece ended with the voicemails and nothing else. I think it would have been interesting for LeBlanc to bookend the narrative with voicemails or written missives.

The American Man Age Ten
I find it interesting that Orlean chose to do her profile on random boy Colin Duffy rather than Macaulay Culkin. I think she did a very good job, though, especially of capturing the voice of a ten year old boy. Although her flow and style were somewhat convoluted - the way that this took the form of almost a list of preferences and attributes made it hard to follow - I found this to be a good look into a ten year old's life.

I feel like a lot was glossed over, though. Does Colin not want to be Chun Li because Chun Li is a girl? That's implied, but not explicitly stated. I would have liked to see Orlean go deeper into some of the things she brings up in passing instead of making this an overall superficial expose of the child's life, such as in the Street Fighter scene and also in her observations on Colin's preoccupation with money.

I found the voice of this to be wry, in a good way. Overall an enjoyable read, if a little superficial.