Good day and welcome back, class. Hope all is well with you.
It is week 10, the penultimate in the course! Today we will review a story by George Saunders, and perhaps we will do so in the group format used previously. Saunders is considered a contemporary master of the short story and very articulate on the matter of his artistic process (see the links below).
(Essay:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/04/what-writers-really-do-when-they-write
There is an element of the macabre in his work, mixing uncomfortably with the day-to-day ordinary. The haunted house motif introduced early in "Puppy" seems to me to embody this point of view on human consciousness, a bit spooky. His characters want happiness, comfort, peace of mind–but live in a branded, material world riven by disorienting, challenging forces and ironies of all sorts. What separates and connects the haves and have nots? For example, what do Marie and Callie have in common? How does their meeting illuminate the limits to their knowing one another? What is the difference between growing up on a farm and "near a farm"? we might ask Callie. Within the ordinary abides a sinister something, like the proverbial corn fields that will be harvested.
Short Essay Final week 11.
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