The Same River Twice: Pages 152-188~Chris Offutt

I was very excited to finish The Same River Twice because of how much I have enjoyed reading the book. The way Chris Offutt tied up his memoir actually brought about a few scary scenes during which I was preparing myself for the worst.  One of these involved Rita and her delivery because she was so late--I was convinced that she was going to have a stillbirth.  However, the situation also sparked some memories for me, that my mom always talks about.  On page 178, Chris says, "The baby is two weeks overdue, a sign of intelligence."  I never knew this fact, but I could relate to it because I was born three weeks late.  The irony of this is that I also started school a year younger than the typical student and have excelled without issue.

Another excerpt that grabbed my attention from this section on the book was on page 165, "A four-year-old boy leaned over the water, his body between the rails.  Slowly hi feet rose into the air and I watched his little legs slide overboard."The scene is described longer than that on the page.  This scene terrified me because it was brought about completely out of nowhere.  I was not expecting that whatsoever and was thrown off guard.  Amidst the lolligagging descriptions throughout the chapter, this was a burst of drama, sucking the reader back into the story.  Chris' immediate instinct to jump in the water to save the boy was very impressive.

The last section that I related to was on page 167, "My official poetry notebook rapidly filled with journal entries.  Friendless and stranded as I was, the journal became a prolonged scream into the swamp, the incessant chatter of a man talking to himself.  This was my most productive period." The reason I connected with this was because I tend to do the exact same thing what I am down or stressed.  In times that I feel like I cannot speak to others about my problems, I write them down or talk to myself in a similar manner, which is exactly what Offutt did when he was going through hard times.

Vocabulary I was unfamiliar with:
Malevolent: wishing evil to harm others
Managerial: having to do with manager functions
Lithely: flexible
Druid: a member of the pre-Christian religious order

“The Same River Twice: Pages 54-109” ~Chris Offutt

The Same River Twice has been quite a racy and controversial book so far.  I have found it to be quite intriguing, especially considering that it is a true story and the author’s reflection on his own life (somewhat autobiographical).  The journeys that he has already gone on and the experiences he has encountered are not of your typical American (or at least not of middle-class like we are living in).  My overall impression of the story’s theme at this point in time is self-identity.  Chris has gone back and forth between choosing what he truly wants to do with his life—one moment he wants to be a poet, and then an artist, and then a playwright, but by the very end of the last assigned chapter, he changes his mind again.  I think this battle in self-identity is also portrayed in the way that Offutt has decided to organize his chapters, going back and forth between his risqué, naïve days, and his mature parenthood days.  This shows that he, as a whole, will never forget the two completely different sides that have encompassed his life and who he has come to be.

I would have to say that this book has been the most interesting to me out of the many short stories and poems that we have read thus far.  Not only have I been able to make more connections to previous pieces I have read, but also this book tends to grab my attention much more than others because of both the storyline and the ease of the reading.  Offutt encases his evident talent of imagery in many places throughout the book, which helps us as readers to feel like we are a part of the story, feeling what he is feeling.  On page 73, Chris Offutt talks about the Lamaze pregnancy class that he and his wife are attending.  “Again and again she emphasizes the pain of birth, saying it is similar to having your lips peeled over your head.”  This is a clear example of Offutt’s use of imagery.  Aside from the fact that this quote actually made me cringe, I felt bad for Chris and his wife, Rita.  There is no way in this world that I would want to be attending a pregnancy class that just makes me more scared to give birth.  I feel Rita’s pain in not wanting to attend the class anymore because the instructor’s techniques are not soothing whatsoever and actually seemed to be more on the negative side of pregnancy, rather than preparing the spouses in a positive manner.

            The part of the story that I could relate most to previous reading was when Offutt was riding and driving with Winner, the creepy man with skull tattoos and grungy biker clothing.  First, I thought it was strange that Chris encountered two polar opposite people back-to-back.  Coming from riding with Al, the spiritual, innocent man who was determined on going to heaven, straight to riding with a man who is constantly talking about the devil and cursing every other sentence, must have been frightening for Chris.  The reason Chris’ experience with Winner reminded me of something I had read in the past was the excerpt on page 84, “Maybe he and Winner were both correct—the world was doomed to extinction.  Global annihilation was better than getting old; heaven and reincarnation were the same guarantee.  No one surfed the river Styx.”  Immediately I thought of Dante’s Inferno, because I remembered reading about the river of Styx in Dante’s portrayal of Hell.  I’m still not quite sure if Offutt was purposefully making a reference to The Inferno, or if it was a mere coincidence.

Although there were many parts of the story so far that grabbed my attention, such as the description of the Parrot Lady’s act (so bizarre), the third passage that really got me thinking was on page 102, when the circus members are tormenting Gabe the Gorilla.  Because they feel bad for doing such inappropriate acts and violating Gabe’s privacy, they try to make up for it by apologizing to him and giving him bananas.  “Arnie went last.  He was crying.  He opened his pants and said, ‘See, they ain’t that much to mine either.’  Arnie stuffed four bananas through the cage and claimed credit for bringing all the men to apologize.”  What this scene made me realize is that the gorilla didn’t really know what the men were saying to him, yet he was smart enough to associate the giving of bananas with apology because of their wrong-doing.  I never really thought about how humans are the only animals to have a sophisticated language and that most other animals communicate through body language, which is how Gabe still understood the point that the men were trying to get across.

Vocabulary I was unfamiliar with:

Fisticuffs: combat with the fists

Equanimity:  calmness

Coalesce:  to unite or grow together

Affront:  to insult

"Cathedral" ~Raymond Carver & "The Things They Carried"~Tim O'Brien

"Cathedral"

Raymond Carver's, "Cathedral," was a very unique short story and I enjoyed reading it because it seemed to sort of teach a lesson.  The story begins by making a clear display of the husband's feelings toward the blind man, Robert, and how he seemed to almost have a feeling of disgust toward him.  I believe this feeling came from his inability to relate to Robert.  However, by the end of the story, the husband's outlook has completely changed because the experience of drawing a cathedral with Robert allowed him to experience a little of what his life is like, thus making him able to relate more.

A couple quotes stood out in the text.  On page 110, the husband is speaking about his wife's experience with her first marriage and how badly it affected her.  He says, "She got to a feeling she couldn't go it another step.  She went in and swallowed all the pills and capsules in the medicine chest and washed them down with a bottle of gin.  The she got into a hot bath and passed out."  I was utterly shocked while reading this because of the way Raymond Carver changed the subject so quickly.  One moment he was describing the relationship between the wife and her first husband and the military, and the next moment he has switched to an extremely depressing subject.  I felt that the wife's reaction to moving around was a bit extreme and because suicide is so dramatic in the middle of the context of the story, this scene jumped right off the page.  The second quote that made me think was on page 111, "All this without having ever seen what the goddamned woman looked like.  It was beyond my understanding.  Hearing this, I felt sorry for the blind man for a little bit."  After reading this, I realized how truly depressing it would be to never be able to see what the person you're in love with looks like.  I know that for me, personally, I'm not sure how I would handle being in a situation like that.  I feel that despite how much personality and mental connection matter, being able to see your "lover" is equally as important.  After all, I believe that one's initial attraction to someone is based solely on their attraction to the other's appearance.  This quote made me feel very bad for the blind man, even if it didn't matter that much to him.

My overall reflection on this short story, aside form the plot, was that I realized that Raymond Carver seems to use a lot of repetition throughout the story.  At first it was only the wife who kept asking or saying the same things over and over, but then on page 118, the husband begins to to it as well.  I'm not quite sure what Carver was trying to get at by being so redundant, but it definitely caught my attention while reading.  Also, my own personal connection with the story was the fact that Robert kept calling the husband "bub," because I use the same nickname with my friend--and its not a very common nickname!

"The Things They Carried"


Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" went about telling a story in two different ways: imagery and repetition.  There were also two sides to the story: a love story, and the mens' battle at war.  O'Brien's allusion to "the things they carried" served as a deeper meaning than literally what they carried.  Although he does describe exactly what each troop carried and how much it weighed, the deeper meaning to this was the mental weight that war held in the troops' minds. The way that O'Brien also describes each and every element that the men are carrying allows us, as readers, to picture them "humping" all these things around and how much weight truly lies on them.  The story sort of gives the audience an insight to men's lives at war and the toll that it takes on their mental state.

The love story portion of "The Things They Carried" was what actually caught most of my attention.  On page 371, the passage speaks about the pebble that Martha sent Lieutenant Cross, "Lieutenant Cross found this romantic.  But he wondered what her truest feelings were, exactly, and what she meant by separate-but-together."  This whole scene reminded me of one of my favorite books and movies, "Dear John."  It seems as though many love-military stories, encompass this scenarios of the person at war wondering how much the person at home really does love them.  In both cases (Dear John and The Things They Carried), the men at war end up burning all the letters and pictures of the loved one.  I found that ironic.


Words I was not familiar with:
Encyst: enclosed
Unencumbered: to free of burden

“Crying of Lot 49: Chapter 6”~Thomas Pynchon

I have to admit that I was eager to start and finish this chapter of “The Crying of Lot 49” because I knew it was the last chapter and I had hopes that it being the final opportunity to make some sense of the book, would clear up the entire purpose of the story.  Thankfully, it did, and I now understand why we discussed, “meaningless vs. full of meaning,” “everything is connected vs. nothing is connected,” and so on.  Within the last few paragraphs of the entire book, the reader is essentially informed that there has been one person controlling all of Oedipa’s actions (persuading her to go on this journey) and she is finally given the opportunity to see who that person is.  Unfortunately, Pynchon leaves his readers on a cliff hanger and we never get to see who’s been leading her on through this practical joke the whole time!  But at least with this knowledge, we as readers now know that the “Trystero story” essentially did not mean anything to the heart of the story, Pynchon rather created a mystery story, with deeper meaning found in the purpose of Oedipa as a character and her meaning of life (problems, losing her friends and family to this search, drugs, and failure to communicate).

Although much of this chapter seemed disconnected until the very end tied the whole book together, there were a few passages that stood out to me.  On page 126, Oedipa reflects on how pathetic she has come to be, “...my husband, on LSD, gropes like a child further and further into the rooms and endless rooms of the elaborate candy house of himself and away, hopelessly away, from what has passed, I was hoping forever, for love; my one extra-marital fella has eloped with a depraved 15-year-old; my best guide back to the Trystero has taken a Brody. Where am I?”  Even though this entire time Oedipa’s character has somewhat annoyed me because of her naivety and lack of realizing what is truly important in life (losing her friends and family to this nonsense), this passage actually evoked some pity in me.  Many aspects of her life were truly falling apart to the point that she couldn’t even ground herself anymore, which made me feel bad for her for the very first time.

The second passage that stood out to me was on page 137, during which is seems as though Oedipa is giving up on her journey.  Although we do find out, by the end of the book, that she continues far enough to discover who has put her to “all of this,” this passage, “…She knew that if she went back to Vesperhaven House to talk again to old Mr Thoth about his grandfather, she would find that he too had died.  She new she out to write to K. da Chingado, publisher of the unaccountable paperback Courier’s Tragedy, but she didn’t, and never asked Bortz if he had, either…” implies that she has just had enough with doing so much and just leading herself into more confusion.  What I didn’t understand at the time of reading this was why she would come this far (almost to the end of the book) and then just give up completely.  Ultimately, we discover that she does not give up, so this was actually cleared up for me upon finishing the chapter.

The final passage that I found interesting was on page 140, “Meaning what? That Bortz, along with Metzger, Cohen, Driblette, Koteks, the tattooed sailor in San Francisco, the W.A.S.T.E. carriers she’d seen—that all of them were Pierce Inverarity’s mean? Bought? Or loyal, for free, for fun, to some grandiose practical joke he’d cooked up, all for her embarrassment, or terrorizing, or moral improvement?”  This thought that the entire journey that Oedipa has been on to find the Trystero was indeed a prank being played on her reminded me of a movie that I watched in my Psychology class in high school called, “The Truman Show.”  My immediate relation to this sort of fictional world that Oedipa may have been placed in was the thought that maybe “The Truman Show” was based lightly off of “The Crying of Lot 49.”

Words I was not familiar with:

Infanticide: the killing of a human infant

Tabernacle: a tent sanctuary used by the Jews to carry the Ark of the Covenant