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SUGGESTION BOX

« 10:01: Beginning the Discussion | Main | 10:01: The Case for Description »

Oct 06, 2005

Comments

Kassia

As I mentioned previously, I felt like I was part of a writing exercise. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I stopped looking for a story and learned to appreciate the exploration of character. While this wasn't always successful, there was one moment that gave me pause:
There is no one on the other end of Lakeesha Johnson's cell-phone conversation. There never has been. She is talking to a dead plastic mouthpiece because she wants her friends to believe she has friends. The reason possessing friends is so important to Lakeesha is that possessing friends isn't very important to her.

While the segment went off on a tangent that didn't feel like it fit with this great opening, I found myself considering this commentary on our world again and again. So much of being alive is playing the game, even though for many of us, the game is contrary to our natural state. You have to say hello every time you pass a co-worker in the hallway even though, really, what is the point? You said hello once (channeling Jeff Kent here). Someone is winning in these constant encounters, but when you watch it on a micro level, it's not clear who gains.

Yeah, guess who spent too much time locked in an office today...

Bud Parr

" I stopped looking for a story and learned to appreciate the exploration of character. "

It's as though Olsen was building a composite character, with all these frenetic snapshots of individuals as a whole complete mister average american.

Kassia

The composite character is a notion I played with -- but didn't really explore much further. I can see that as angle. Of course this raises the question of just how many sexual perversions lurk in the hearts of the average American.

I loaned my copy of the book to a friend who really digs this type of writing, but think your comment puts the character (something like Esmerelda the Eternally Bountiful -- you know who I mean) in a different perspective. Less so the mouse, but one does need a vehicle for the eternal soul.

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