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As a married woman myself I have to say I really enjoyed Ron Carlson’s story. The heart of the message that marriage is not easy, but happiness can be achieved is very beautiful. I am a hopeless romantic and have been married for nine years and I know first hand that marriage is not easy but nonetheless beautiful. I disliked that Linda and her criticism when she should have been supporting her sister. Many times, in marriage everyone wants to have a say so in your relationship but ultimately it takes two not a whole community to make marriage work. Popular Mechanics was crazy. I can see the genius of the moral how divorce tears apart the children but in this case literally. It really amazed me and made me think well what happened that it got so bad because the story just starts right at the climax. Carver leaves the reader wondering what happened before and after which is an inspiration, and I like his style. Short to the point and he really made every word count. The Reunion was quite absurd and hilarious. I think the dad had psychological problems and it was comedic and also sad how his behavior affected his relationship with his son. The three stories definitely had the same theme going for them and that is interfamily relationships.
ReplyDelete-Maria Ramirez Mnotoya
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DeleteA reoccurring theme kept coming through loud and clear in all of these readings. Family dilemmas or dysfunctions with no apparent direction at resolving them. In A Kind of Flying the narrator is expressing the pressures one goes through when unwilling to capitulate to social norms. How things are done and in which way they are accomplished have to be asserted. Any deviations will surely end up in catastrophe. Before the marriage the antagonist played by Linda continually berates her future brother-in-law about the ways things should be done. I believe that every family has someone like that. Even though plans do not go as scripted as Linda wants the marriage has lasted twenty years with three sons to show for it. A successful business. A wife that is pursuing her dream of photography, and a well thought out plan for the future. So successful in fact that when another wedding is approaching the future bride asks Brady for advice. Popular Mechanics reveals a struggle that is common place in today's society. A separation or divorce with the custody of the children or child being caught up in the middle, but in this case instead of the courts deciding the child''s fate the parents, through their pain and anger at each other basically tearing the child apart in the process. Popular Mechanics and Reunion caught my attention due to the extensive dialogue. It felt as though I was there witnessing the struggles. The Reunion is basically a story of a child missing their estranged parent who they haven't seen in several years. We do not know first hand why the separation occurred, but throughout we are given a glaring clue. An insight into the father's character which is intolerable. The feeling of sadness I felt that the child realized his worse fears had come to fruition.That it actually was his father that was at the center of dysfunction in his family, and after realizing that he never saw his father again.
ReplyDeleteSpiro Zagouris
I believe these short stories introduce the same theme: family and their interpersonal relationships. They are similar regarding their theme, but they are different on how they portray it. The first story, “A Kind of Flying” is about the marriage of a happy couple, it addresses their beliefs on marriage and unity. The second story, “Popular Mechanics”, is about a couple that is about to separate, but they have a baby. The events revolve on how the parents struggle with the decision of who is keeping the baby. The third story, “Reunion”, is about a boy that adores his father and wishes he could spend more time with him. As he reunites with his father, he wants to have a great moment with him, but the kid ends up disappointed with his father’s attitude and never talks to him again. Having a relationship with anyone is easy, but taking care of that person and maintaining the relationship is the hard part. In my opinion, maintaining a good relationship is even harder within a family starting with the fact that fights are inevitable between anyone (whether it is a couple, siblings, or with parents). Even though these stories are fiction, I know the events that happened could be very real. I enjoyed the three stories, but I would say that my favorite was “Reunion”.
ReplyDelete-Paulina Longoria
While reading these stories I had really enjoyed the story, "A Kind of Flying", because of it recalling the story of their wedding day and the many unexpected things that had happened in that day. Then to fast forward to a moment in their life where one of their family members was getting married and was recalling all of the amazing, yet surprising things that had happened on the day of their wedding. The other two stories, however, I was not a fan of because of the storyline in it and the actions that had taken place within those stories. The writing aspect was nice in explaining the setting of the story, however, just the story behind both of those was so dark and saddening. In the first story, the ending read something that really stuck to me, "My Advice! She smiled yesterday when I told her. Just get married. Have a friend sing your favorite song at the wedding. Marriage, she said, what is it? Well, I said, it's not life on a cake. It's a bird taking your head in his beak and you walk the sky. It's marriage. Sometimes it pinches like a bird's mouth, but it's definitely flying, it's definitely a kind of flying." Just explaining that life is always full of opportunities, and in order to really live a full life, you have to take risks, and do the things that make you happy.
ReplyDelete- Makaela Mosley
In all three stories, there was definitely a theme about family and love. In “A Kind of Flying” by Ron Carlson was the most heartwarming one out of the three stories. No one truly knows if a marriage will work out or not, and you can’t just say a marriage will fail because bad things happen before a wedding. Marriage isn’t easy, and no one says it’s going to be, but if you really love that person then it definitely is a king of flying.
ReplyDeleteThe next story, “Popular Mechanics” by Raymond Carver, had a completely opposite meaning to me than the first story. This story, to me, was about people falling out of love because I’m assuming things didn’t work out. The saddest part of this short story was the argument involving the baby. It is never fun to see a child’s life be ruined by the separation of their parents. The parents may have fallen out of love, but at the end of the day they both equally love something that they have both created. They still have a connection with each other, and even if they don’t love each other, they have to find some common ground, so the child isn’t affected by this.
Lastly, “Reunion” by John Cheever, was a story that I could somewhat relate to. When children haven’t seen their dad or mom for a significantly long time, they sort of create this amazing delusion about them. When in reality, most of the time, the child is disappointed about how their parents really are. The father in the story was one of the most annoying characters in the book. It really isn’t a big shock that the boy never saw his father again.
Angela Milan
“A Kind of Flying” was an interesting read! For some reason I was having trouble understanding who was who at the beginning of the story. Later I found that we are following the narrative of the husband in one of the marriages. It had a lovely feeling around the whole story, attributing flying with marriage. “Sometimes it pinches like a bird’s mouth, but it’s definitely flying” tied up the whole thing together like a big bow. “Popular Mechanics” was horrible. Not in its writing but just the fact that my brain jumped to shaken baby syndrome. It was awful to read but the curt writing really paints a picture. I’m sure the writer relies on us to make a mental image of his writing as he doesn’t really describe much but I didn’t like the subject matter. Really powerful stuff when you feel disturbed to read but keep on reading. “Reunion” was a reunion the author did not want. The relationship with his father seemed out of place, more of a friend-friend relationship. The father was abrasive throughout with the reunion having little effect on the sentimental side. It honestly reminded me of working in the service/retail industry. People like him wouldn’t be welcomed and it’s sad he wasn’t welcomed in his son’s life either.
ReplyDelete-Leonardo Torres
“A kind of flying”, by Ron Carlson brings into light how wedding superstitions aren’t necessarily signs that your marriage is going to fail. The bride to be decides to take pictures of the wedding cake before the reception and a bird ends up picking off the figurine of the groom and fly’s away with it. The brides sister tells her that it’s definitely a sign and this causes the wife to grow some unsettling nerves before walking down the aisle. The story goes on with the husband recounting their 20 year marriage as something that was amazing and although there were some hardships, they never lost sight in how much they loved each other.
ReplyDelete“Popular Mechanics” made sense to me but I was left wondering what exactly happened to the baby. I saw the ending as the parents pulling to hard on the child and the baby ended up dying and that was how the decision was made; no one got the baby. This story’s message, for me, was that a toxic relationship between parents does figuratively kill the child/children involved. Divorce is an ugly thing and although parents tell the kids that it isn’t their fault, it messes them up all the same.
“Reunion” is about a son’s image of his father being so tainted after not seeing him for 3 years. The son is so excited to meet with his dad for lunch and even wishes to be photographed with him so he can stay in that moment forever. As their meeting goes on, the father becomes very aggressive and disrespectful to those they come in contact with. After leaving several restaurants, the son leaves his father and never see’s him again.
-Arianna Martinez
This week’s stories stood out to me for the simple fact that they didn’t. They all seemed within the realm of possibility, the one that sort of stood out was Raymond Carver’s “Popular Mechanics” I enjoyed the structure of the story. The ebb and flow of the paragraphs added to the imagery of the story and made it a bit off kiltered similarly to the story. The one I really enjoyed was John Cheever’s “Reunion”. In the short story we are introduced to a protagonist who hasn’t seen their father in some years. In the story our protagonist has fond memories of their father, this is juxtaposed to the reality of the situation in which the dad is a complete tool. This story seems to be straight forward, but there are subtle incongruences that I haven’t figured out yet. Like how he mentions his club, I know that the line is in there for some reason but I can’t figure it out. The same applies for how well the dad knows two different languages, but he only seems to know restaurant jargon: kellner, garçon, camerieri, sommelier. This ontop of the seemingly fluent Italian he was speaking at the end of the story. It left me with more questions than answers. - Jesús Iván González
ReplyDeleteAll three selections were very interesting. They all seemed to revolve around family situations and how different people tend to them.
ReplyDelete"A Kind of Flying" by Ron Carlson was a beautiful story. It takes us on a journey of a wedding day and everything that goes on behind the scenes. It talks about how marriage will not be easy and sacrifices will be made but in the end it's all about love, It's kind of inspiring.
"Popular Mechanics" by Raymond Carver was kind of confusing for me. In the beginning I thought it was between a mother and son but while reading it gave the impression is was between a couple that had a baby and were fighting to keep it. I don't understand the ending and don't know what ended up happening to the baby.
The last selection, Reunion" by John Cheever, was so eye-opening. It shows how people in this world act. There are rude and ugly people in this world no matter how successful. Charlie just wanted a meal with his father yet his father couldn't get over himself and behave like a grown up. It kind of upset me a bit because stuff like this actually happens.
-Rebecca Muniz
All three short-shorts were somewhat bland. The first was odd and had an interesting hook, but the end made the entire short-short seem like a Hallmark movie transcript. The second short-short was somewhat jarring in the end it has, but it felt almost predictable when the couple started fighting about the baby. The last short-short was the most interesting, but only in relation to the other two. It started with seeing the narrator as a naïve child (regardless of age), desperate to bond with a previously nonexistent figure. The way the father was described was somewhat surprising and a bid disconcerting. The choice of the word rankness seems to imply dirtiness and something disgusting, which is odd for a man trying to see the best in an idolized figure. The father’s actions seem to heavily imply mental instability, probably a form of exaggerated obnoxiousness to break any idealism the narrator had towards his father, but all that is left is a man with either no firm hold on reality or an unbearable desire to rile people up even at the cost of his reunion with his son. Overall, I was unable to enjoy the readings and immerse myself in the world of the authors.
ReplyDelete-Hubel Gonzalez
I enjoyed reading “A Kind of Flying” because it tells a story of a marriage and real life, as it goes back to the wedding day and Linda being the older sister described in the narrators opinion as she had more wisdom on marriage life and all that, and as they mentioned her husband having a good job in comparison to Brady’s future husband to work with carpets. Like when the bird took the groom off the cake she kind of made it seemed like It was a sign putting her sister in the state of mind of, will this marriage actually work out. I liked that she ignored her sister and still went on with the wedding even though she asked her husband, “Do you believe in symbols?” She sure was thinking of this but she didn’t let it get to her. It turned out to be a happy married life for 20 years, and I like the last part how Linda’s daughter comes into the store to ask advice since everyone knows they’ve been married for so long im surprised she didn’t go to hjer own other for advice so that says a lot of the story, and well in reference to the title it gives meaning towards marriage being like a kind of flying. –Carina Pompa
ReplyDeleteAll three of these stories seemed quite dull in tone. That is not to say that they were not descriptive and ridden with dialogue. The storyline of each was displayed just as it was, like in real life. They were entertaining nonetheless. I really enjoyed Reunion. I was quite repetitive but it made me wonder more about the characters, and was the backstory may be. His dad is a rude, ill-mannered jerk to every single restaurant employee for no apparent reason, which was completely preposterous. It mentions that he had a secretary and that he is a member of a country club which indicates that he has some sort of upper status or employment. But at the same time, he seems a little bit off. Something is just not quite right, and the fact that his son calls him "daddy" is even more suspicious. It's such a soft, intimate name to be referred to as and the fact that is accepted but such a uptight, rowdy man is confusing. "A Kind of Flying" was nice. It was realistic and funny due to the sister in law not being the narrators biggest fan. But, it portrayed a beautiful love story of two people who allowed each other to go off and live their dreams, whilst staying together. It proved that love doesn't have to be one straight line. All it takes is a little sacrifice on both parts. "Popular Mechanics" was a nice read. Very to the point. The only thing that left me wondering was what happened to the baby in their tug of war. All in all, these readings were refreshing. No fuss, no frill, just life.
ReplyDeleteI want to use this opportunity to say every big thanks to Dr Ekpen for restoring my relationship back to normal by casting a love spell on my partner to love me again. Contact Dr Ekpen today at (ekpentemple@gmail.com) or on whatsapp +2347050270218 if you want to be happy in your relationship again.
ReplyDelete