I think the most striking part of this story is it's cadence. It's chopped up, given in almost a "military" jargon. It's always nice to see the theme of the story matching the way it is written. This story sounds like its being narrated by a Colonel, giving direction or dictating an event the way one would write a report if he or she were a cop. All facts.
The imagery is wonderful too. Its going on and on, and all of a sudden there's a gun on the chair, a bag of ears and a parrot. These are the elements that really do wonders for a creative story. It's too bad this wasn't any longer, i was expecting some kind of Lovecraft ending, but that's probably because it reminds me of Lovecraft.
The little bits of color are the meat of the story, and I have a feeling that's what Carolin was doing when she through in a body part- ears. It's just so apropos.
It would've been really funny if the parrot or the pet dogs snatched the ears and ate them.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I like the term "military jargon" when describing the sentence structuring of the story. I agree that the ears were brought in at just the right point and that more could have been done. Maybe it was just so good that I wanted more...
ReplyDeletenice interpretation
I agree that the cadence is a strong attribute to the idea behind a the general. I also think it has a pace that gives a sense of the panic in the narrator's experience. When his friend looks at him at speaks to him worth his eyes to say nothing. There is so much happening and no excessive details are given. Brilliant.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought about the theme matching the way it is written, but after reading your analysis I think this is a very compelling idea. Do you think that the author did this intentionally? That would have been a very interesting contrast to the dark imagery if it had ended the way you suggest!
ReplyDeleteIts hard to know without having read anything else by the same author whether the style in this story has intentionally been adopted to match the theme, but there sure is no questioning that it fits well.
ReplyDeleteI guess it's simply the act of letting the narrator's voice shrink into the background that brings the violent and gruesome details everyone seems to remember from this story to the front automatically. It'd be a tough thing to try to imitate.