Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Too much time on his hands - pet milk
Reading the story pet milk, I noticed at first it was hard to read through and then as the girlfriend became involved, I was more interested. The author's use of time drags on, and I'm just not interested in all the quirky little descriptions he has for explaining the setting. The author writes a bare minimum on Kate, who is the most interesting part of the story. Even as he kisses her and writes on her, he throws in descriptions about his setting I as the reader do not care about. The author explores everything in this story, except what is meaningful: the dynamic of him and Kate. When he does explore it I am ensnared by the reading, and am interested in finishing. The title, "pet milk" and his describing of his coffee is the typical "let me show you how clever and deep a writer I am, as I talk about nothing." But Kate saves the story, something I wonder why it wasn't explored earlier.
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I had the same experience. I was more interested once the girlfriend was involved.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I respect your opinion on Pet Milk, I thought that the story was amazingly written. I felt that I could relate to a lot of what the author had to say, espeically the random little details, such as the lines "dressed in our proper business clothes and still feeling both a little self-conscious and glamorous, as if we were impostors wearing disguises," or "it was the first time i'd ever had the feeling of missing someone I was still with." It is these little details, and even the ones about the radio in his grandma's kitchen and the pet milk in the coffee, that really give background to the story and help us as readers truly appreciate what the narrator is experiencing. These details let us feel as if we are there.
ReplyDeleteI find in the midst of the great moments in life that we find ourselves holding on to the small details. When we are in the middle of an experience that we realize is going to be a memory that we will cherish forever we try to soak in every detail. On the train there is no need to describe the triste more than what it is. The narrator will never forget Kate or what she meant to him. So it is in the details that he is able to make the experience real for him again. This gives the story a remarkable degree of authenticity which you clearly miscontrued to be random.
ReplyDeleteI think the fact that he focuses so much on small details is what sets this story apart from other short stories. There's nothing especially interesting about the story itself, or even Kate, but what keeps the reader interested are the poetic descriptions of the rather mundane little details.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that he delves so deeply into this stuff, the coffee creamer, etcetera, makes this story special. That sensory memory, that ability to tend to officially trivial matters is a distinctly human and somewhat unaccountable quality.
ReplyDeleteThere are literally millions of stories out there that choose to focus on Kate, or that story's equivalent of Kate, and consequently, I'm bored by them.
I agree in some sense, that it can be obnoxious when writers prove how clever they are by sprinkling quirky observations, cute descriptions, and giving seemingly unimportant objects profound significance to cover up the fact that they aren't really telling a story. And this really isn't a STORY, in the turest sense, it's more like a poem or an essay. But I enjoyed it nonetheless I think because the cutesy details I just-so-happened to identify with.
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