You start reading the book at 9:14 pm. You're tired, and your eyes are already sliding shut before you even turn the first page. The title jumps out at you. "An?" you think, "shouldn't it be 'the'?" That's what you've always heard in movies at least. You shrug it off, and keep reading. "A cliche beginning," you mutter, shaking your head, but you continue reading. The clock reads 9:21. Your eyes are heavy. Reading in your bed was a bad idea. You wonder what the main character's name is. Your sleepy brain says it doesn't care.
Your mind wanders to what you're doing tomorrow. It's soccer sectionals. You wonder if Kate wants to go. You remember that she still has her French exchange student, Nicholas. You remember that he doesn't speak a lot of English, and cringe at the thought of another awkward conversation. You decide to text Kate tomorrow. You'll probably forget to do that tomorrow.
You're 10 pages into the reading. You flip the pages to see how many you have left. 12. "Leave him!" you want to tell the main character. But you can't. Because she's a character. And you're living her life, not the other way around. You know how it's going to end. You sigh, but keep reading. You can't fall asleep in class tomorrow. You have to finish the reading. You're so incredibly tired. Sleep sounds as nice as a massage. Your pillow looks like one.
"Stop it!" you say to yourself, "wake up!" But your eyes slide shut. Your book falls into your lap, but you don't feel it. You're asleep. You'll finish the reading tomorrow.
VEry nice! Maybe it would be different if I hadn't both read Moore and been in this class, but this was very compelling for me to read. I like the way it comments both on a few random things about Moore's stories but also about Moore's ability to capture the reader's attention (not much, I would say).
ReplyDeleteI read this whole thing before I realized that you were doing the self help style, I should not read past 8:00 pm. Love it, also I feel the whole falling asleep while reading thing really hard. I do wanna say thought that it's interesting the second person sounds. You would thing that it would seem kind of odd, but it didn't stick out in a weird way. I found this with Moore's writing as well. I expected the second person to stick out weirdly, but it's almost as if my brain just made it first person as I read. I'm clearly not in the story, so I immediately put the story in an "I" kind of thing where i'm like " Charlene did this".
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate the style you wrote this in. Like Molly, it took me most of your post to realize what you were doing. I was a bit confused as to what the point of the post was until I noticed your second person narration. This type of narration was not distracting or awkward (like I said, I didn't even notice it at first). I felt the same way about Moore's writing. This is similar to what Molly said, but the second person narration sounds like it could just as well be in first person. In fact, I feel like I process it just like it's in first person. However, if I go through and consciously read it, replacing the "yous" with "I's," it sounds incredibly different. It's an interesting effect.
ReplyDeleteThis was a really creative blog post. To be entirely honest, I didn't understand what you were going for until I finished reading it and i let it sink in for a couple of minutes. I really enjoyed how you were able to comment on Moore's writing style without simply stating what you think. Excellent post!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this! I can totally relate to the reading in bed bad idea situation. I think it worked that you put it in the second person, not only because it relates to "Self-Help" but because it puts me in your shoes. Nice job!
ReplyDeleteThat was great! If this is what the Critical-creative project could be like, I'm looking forward to writing it! I, almost uniquely, it seems, did notice that you were imitating Lorrie Moore's style pretty quickly. This enabled me to enjoy it even more, seeing that you draw parallels not just from the second-person narration, but also from the way Moore tells us about our thoughts, and how much of the story that takes up. I also like how you told about things you will do in the future, like finishing the story. It all was really true to Moore's style. Nice job!
ReplyDeleteYou captured reader's frustration really well. I often find myself screaming at characters to do what seems to be the logical thing (especially when the story is really long) so I definitely feel you there.
ReplyDeleteAwesome! I'm just seeing this now but it's really cool how you worked your own experience of reading a story in second person, in second person; how META! The way in which you described the subconscious things people do when they read was very well executed. Sometimes, I too, admittedly, find myself paying more attention to the page numbers themselves than the text itself when I'm reading late in the evening, tired and fatigued. I also often attempt to communicate with the characters, particularly if I disagree with something they've done. Unfortunately, my efforts are always futile.
ReplyDelete