I haven't posted since Thursday, and I'm sorry for the delay. I know the three of you were crushed. I went to Colorado from Friday-Sunday with some friends from UNL so I was unable to post. I was able, however, to get in some quality Cary Holliday (sp? I don't have my book right now) reading time.
I thoroughly enjoyed the story about the girl whose was obsessed with the lost hot-air balloon father (again, no book to reference for a title). I thought the idea was intriguing, and the story was very well written. It kept me off balance but not in a bad way, and I felt satisfied with the ending. It is nice to finish a story without very many questions about what happened for once. Unfortunately, nothing else has really impressed me yet, but I'm not done with the book so hopefully there is at least one more jewel in there for me to enjoy. It's not that I find her writing bad, it just doesn't distinguish itself very well. She's no Barthelme.
I think Michael pegged Bapsi's visit well in class. I was unable to attend the reading at night, her forum talk at 1pm was fairly boring. She did have neat things to say and neat stories, but she just wasn't able to keep the attention of the audience. My favorite part was the story about the looters coming to their compound. I imagine it was a little more intense and complicated than she described it, but the way she told it cracked me up. "Hey, we're here to loot from you guys." "No thanks, but would you like some water?" "Darn, we were really looking forward to looting, but I guess water is cool too." Unreal. OK goodnight.
5 comments:
I was going through blog withdrawal, I'll admit it. No one blogged over the weekend, which just means that everyone but me has a life, but still.
If it makes you feel better, I repeatedly complained that our cabin in Colorado did not have internet access. When confronted with the argument that Colorado is a state about getting back to nature, I replied "I suppose you should shove your cell phone up your ass then, hm?" Bret - 1, Friend - 0.
That does make me feel a little better, actually.
Cary's last name is spelled Holladay.
To me, comparing/contrasting Holladay and Barthelme doesn't really work. Apples and oranges. Bathelme is a satirist who uses collage to great effect. Holladay writes about a real place and real people with a kind of lyric whimsy, constantly underscoring that stories don't exist in a vacuum from other happenings, than one story leads to another--like the way she leaps from the chickens to the boy with breasts in the manna story.
I didn't think she was boring...what bores me is those people who give speeches and follow a strict outline. That reminds me of when I was in speech my freshman year, COMM 1. I didn't really start "preparing" for the speech until the night before I had to deliver it. But, it was more fun that way.
What kinds of things did you do in CO? Did you bag some small game, or perhaps even a bear? Did you rough it, and sleep on the ground? Did you ride a moose? I don't know about you, but these are the kinds of things I would if I went to CO.
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