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- Reading responses must be AT LEAST 200 words.
- Include your full name at the end of your comments. Unnamed comments will be deleted.
- From the "Comment As" drop-down menu, choose Anonymous, then click "Publish."
- Reading responses are due by midnight on the night PRIOR to our discussion of the required reading.
What I liked about the story of ¨A kind of Flying¨ by Ron Carlson is that despite all the obstacles that were in their way, Brandy and her boyfriend knew how to solve everything and continue with their wedding plans because the broom fell out of the wedding cake. However, Brandy knew how to improvise with a frog man on top of the cake. What I did not like about the story is that Linda always judge him and brandy for every little thing they said. Also, that Brandy was so imprudent when she put the cake in the middle of the street to take a picture that is not something really smart to do she could possibly got ran over by a car.
ReplyDeleteI guess what I like about the story ¨Popular Mechanics¨ by Raymon Carver is that if the girl was a bad mom I prefer the guy to keep the baby. I can see that she is not really a good person because she was yelling at him at the beginning of the story. What I did not like is that she kicked him out of her house in a very rude manner because she was laughing at him and celebrating that he was leaving instead of talking about the situation in a peaceful way. They were scuffling for the baby I did not like that because he is not a toy they could possibly knock down him and hurted him.
What I liked about the story of ¨Reunion¨ by John Cheever is that the son and the father meet in a train station. Sonny and his father were happy to see each other, I like how Sonny had this odd feeling of his father being a stranger but later he realizes is his father. They went to eat something to a Restaurant in New York city. What I did not like in the story is that Sonny had a bad experience hanging out with his father because they went to a restaurant but his dad had a bad attitude towards the waiters. They switch to different restaurants in the area but still he was really mean to them. He seemed to want to undermine the waiters. A waiter repeated his order and he got really upset. To be honest I do not see anything wrong when the waiter repeats instead I see as something good because they want to give you the right order. Sonny after all the bad experience he prefers to escape to the train station without saying goodbye to his dad it was the last time he saw him.
Oscar A. Jacome Serrano
In the story “A Kind of Flying” by Ron Carlson, it made me wonder what will go wrong or right at my wedding day. On page 153, Carlson says “and before Brady could run forward and prevent it, she saw the groom plucked from his footing, ankle deep in frosting”. When I read this, you could just picture the faces of the people there who saw it happen by the detail Carlson gives. If that was my wedding, I don’t know how I would react, but it wouldn’t be pretty. Overall, the story is pretty funny and it makes you think about the future. In “Popular Mechanics” by Raymond Carver, the ending left me very confused. The story builds up, beginning with an argument that is forcing the man to leave, but they fight over who gets to take the baby. At the end, they are both pulling hard on the baby and then all of a sudden it says “in this manner, the issue was decided” and I have never felt so anxious to find out what happened in a story before. In “the reunion” by John Cheever, the story was a little bit more sensitive especially to kids who had to deal with divorce. Personally, I never had to deal with it, but I feel for the kids who have; they are the strongest types of people.
ReplyDelete-Alec De La Garza
After reading ¨A Kind of Flying¨ by Ron Carlson, I liked brandy and her boyfriend’s efforts to go over any inconvenience and continue on with their wedding plans. Something that somewhat annoyed me was how Linda always judged Brandy’s relationship for any little thing that she thought she should make comments about. Besides that Brandy was reckless, and it made me anxious. What caught my attention in ¨Popular Mechanics¨ by Raymon Carver is that if the mother of a child wasn’t a good mother, the child should obviously belong to the father. What really ticked me off was that when the mother brutally kicked her son out, she decided to celebrate and cheer instead of talking about it like a human being. While recklessly arguing over the child, they could’ve possibly hurt him. Lastly, the story ¨Reunion¨ by John Cheever is about a father and son reuniting but the son is a little hesitant at first because he feels unfamiliar with him. While eating in New York, he had trouble being relaxed due to his father having an unnecessary attitude with the waiters. As much as they switched places, the father seemed to keep his attitude up. Basically, the father’s temper was a serious issue, because the waiters were just doing their jobs.
ReplyDeleteClarissa Partida
In "A Kind of Flying" I thought it was a pretty funny story, I always kind of figured weddings be a lot but it really shows you it’s that and much worse. I thought it was a cute little story, and really enjoyed it. The next story “Popular Mechanics” made me really anxious. At first I thought it was another divorce story, but when it got near the ending that’s when it freaked me out a bit. When they were fighting for the baby, I could feel my heartbeat pumping because I was worried for the baby. Then the ending just made my heart drop. I can guess what happens but it still shook me to my core. The last reading “The Reunion” is something I deeply related too. The main character had these expectations of his father in the beginning and as the story progressed it just got tarnished. He started to see the man his father was, and maybe even realize that he was better off. Its sad reality for a lot of children who come from divorce, sometimes your parents still stay in contact, or they don’t. Sometimes you get so excited to seeing them and you realize maybe it was better if you never met them at all.
ReplyDelete-Alyssa Rangel
Aside from the happier tone of “A Kind of Flying,” the readings this time all took a sort of dark or sad turn. “Popular Mechanics” was the most shocking to me and I don’t think that a story has made me audibly gasp in a long, long time. But with an ending like that, how could you not? It’s very sad seeing both, what I assume to be parents, both having well intentions of caring for their infant child. Clearly, both parties love the baby and believe that they are more equipped than the other at being able to raise it. However, because of their own rage towards each other, the baby had to be the one to pay the price and ended up going home with no one. Ever again. “Reunion” really kind of hit me hard because I can only imagine that feeling of knowing your parents is just trying to kill time to avoid having to spend quality time with you. It’s so sad and as a kid, which I get the feeling is when the story takes place, you don’t notice that feeling until you look back on it and realize “wow. My dad was trying to avoid me.”
ReplyDelete-Bethanee Campos
Reading Fiction short stories has made me realize that there is so many things that we have read thinking that they are non-fiction when in reality they’re fiction. All of these short stories seemed non-fiction to me, and i enjoyed reading all of them. I really liked “A kind of Flying” because when I was in middle school I helped my mom plan her wedding with my dad and a lot of the time both of them were really stressed out since it is so much work they have to do. The short story “Reunion” made me 100% certain that I never want to be a server because of the rude customers. I felt for the character having to see his dad act that way. “Popular Mechanics” was my least favorite just because I wasnt able to see/read the ending and find out for certain what really happened, but I liked that I was able to think of my own scenarios and make it more lighthearted or more suspenseful. Like maybe someone else saw what was going on and called CPS just like something horrible could happen too. Raymon Carver did an amazing job at keeping the reader on the edge of their seat.
ReplyDelete-Cecilia Cantu
The three readings were very enjoyable and easy to relate too, at least for me. In "A Kind of Flying" it made me think of the future whenever my wedding day comes,hopefully. I don't know how I would react to such incident happening. I always tend to stress and over think about what could go wrong and having something actually go wrong would probably ruin my whole day! Ineed it gave it a humurous side to the story with several other happenings it had. It seemed to me that "Popular Mechanics" along with "The Reunion" were very similar of concept since they revolved around parents arguing or a separation taking place. "The Reunion" focused on the fact of a child actually having to go through a divorce and I know for a fact that, that indeed is just as hard for the parents as it is for the child. I myself went through a separation, not divorce precisely, but it was still very difficult to just take the decision knowing it was going to affect our child. Coming from a united family and never having to endure such a situation i felt sort of lost as to what the best decision would've been. However, being in a toxic environment is never good for any child. I am very thankful that my son's father actually wants to be a part of my son's life and cares for his happiness above all, because I know it doesn't always have a good side due to the fact that some other parents that are selfish and put aside the children's' needs and feelings, like the story.
ReplyDeleteThe three readings were very enjoyable and easy to relate too, at least for me. In "A Kind of Flying" it made me think of the future whenever my wedding day comes,hopefully. I don't know how I would react to such incident happening. I always tend to stress and over think about what could go wrong and having something actually go wrong would probably ruin my whole day! Ineed it gave it a humurous side to the story with several other happenings it had. It seemed to me that "Popular Mechanics" along with "The Reunion" were very similar of concept since they revolved around parents arguing or a separation taking place. "The Reunion" focused on the fact of a child actually having to go through a divorce and I know for a fact that, that indeed is just as hard for the parents as it is for the child. I myself went through a separation, not divorce precisely, but it was still very difficult to just take the decision knowing it was going to affect our child. Coming from a united family and never having to endure such a situation i felt sort of lost as to what the best decision would've been. However, being in a toxic environment is never good for any child. I am very thankful that my son's father actually wants to be a part of my son's life and cares for his happiness above all, because I know it doesn't always have a good side due to the fact that some other parents that are selfish and put aside the children's' needs and feelings, like the story.
ReplyDeleteVictoria Rodriguez
The first story "A Kind of Flying" was something I could really relate too. The chaotic nature of the family and the closeness they display as they spew nonsense after nonsenses is something that I can identify with, especially with the mere size of a traditional Mexican family like mine. Beyond that, I really didn't take much, it was kind of just like seeing a scene play out and there was nothing that particularly gripped me about this one. "Popular Mechanics" riveted me from beginning to end - it's fast paced, gripping, tragic and urgent. The short-sentence structure served as a great way to really sell the urgency of the situation, and the ambiguous ending was very much intense and the abrupt nature of it leaves a lot to the imagination - something I always appreciate in storytelling. "Reunion" was quite heartbreaking as well. It submerses the viewer in what is a real-life predicament of terrible people and the disappointment of realizing someone that is closely-related to you is a despicable human being. If anything, I would've liked to have seen a clearer juxtaposition between expectation vs reality, but nonetheless it's still extremely effective.
ReplyDeleteLuis A Garza
“A kind of flying” is very relatable in the sense of growing up in a family with those almost exact circumstances. I did see a lot of comparisons of my Hispanic family into the chaos from this reading. I enjoyed it because it reminded me of simpler times in life. “Popular Mechanics” was a mess before changing my major to English, I was a Social Work major and I could completely see the warning signs of the toxic relationship that was displayed. Especially with the way that she was handling the baby did not sit well with me because I am not one that like to read anything that involves children. I did not really like this reading at all… It was intriguing and the short sentences allowed me to see how blunt and true to the point that the reading is, but still did not like it. “Reunion” the only thing that stood out to me was how the father treated the waiter badly and that is not appealing. I have friends that are waitresses and I would never encourage or be a bystander to a person treating any waiter badly. The waiter was only trying to do one’s job and it is disappointing to see that these things still happen to waiters.
ReplyDeleteKrista Olivarez
I’m not very fond of the type of story told in “A Kind of Flying”. I think it has something to do with how unclear the first half of the story is. It’s something of a cardinal rule of writing to establish who is who before getting to the plot, if it’s important to the story. “A Kind of Flying” just doesn’t. Instead the things about the story I recall are a carpet salesman, a lieutenant colonel, a traveling wife, and a traveling photographer. Small changes, such as additional background or insight into the characters, probably would have made me enjoy it more.
ReplyDeletePopular Mechanics is a hard story to read. Once more, we know practically nothing about the characters. At first, the man seems to be significantly more graceful than the woman, but he loses his composure when it comes to his child. This leads to a fight. The fight leads to an ending to the story which I hope is ambiguous.
“Reunion” is a story worth a decent amount of analysis. It’s possible that large parts of the story are literal, but there seems to be a large amount of metaphorical or symbolic elements to the story. The meaning of them is definitely not obvious.
Christopher Hinkle
I really enjoyed “Popular Mechanics” it was a really good look at an accident gone wrong. The ending could be looked at as a little abstract, and not so straight forward. When Raymond Carver wrote “He felt the baby slipping out of his hands and he pulled back very hard. In this manner, the issue was decided.” Some readers would easily take that as, the man in the story “pulling harder” and thus gaining control of the baby, when in fact it was quite the opposite. By pulling hard and not letting go he hurt the baby, by hurting the baby, society, and the legal system would now see him as some sort of threat to the baby, and he would no longer be able to keep him like he wanted. I also really enjoyed “A Kind of Flying” by Ron Carlson because I thought it was a beautiful reminder to live life for yourself. Had the woman in the story listened to her sister about the “omen” and telling her not to marry her husband she may have not married the love of her life. 20 years, and 3 kids later the couple is happier than ever. I liked when Carlson wrote “For years I laid carpet so my wife could be a photographer, and now she’ll be a photographer so I can retire and coach baseball” . Compromise, isn’t that what love is all about?
ReplyDeleteAisha Teegarden