David Sedaris' Us and Them
I really appreciated and enjoyed this memoir. In terms of literary techniques, Sedaris made use of the pop culture theme on several different levels. The presence of television, the traditions of Halloween, and even the theme of manners when interacting with people resonated with the theme. This observation kind of makes me sound like I can't read anything for pleasure, but it was the first thing I noticed and I dig it. Actually, I found the story to be very enjoyable. The author's change in voice from a reflective adult to a cute, cynical little kid. There was one paragraph that really spoke to me... The narrator mused on what it must be like to be "so ignorant and alone" to be without television. He claims, and I quote, "Staring at an Elmer Fudd lunchbox, I tried to divorce myself from everything I already knew: Elmer's inability to pronounce the letter r, his constant pursuit of an intelligent and considerably more famous rabbit. I tried to think of him as just a drawing, but it was impossible to separate him from his celebrity."
Susan Jane Gilman's Mick Jagger Wants Me
Ok, so after everyone in class talked about our reactions to the blogs, I found out that I didn't dig this story like everybody else did. I couldn't really relate to the author, as the last band I went "crazy" for like she did was probably the Spice Girls. As it is somebody else's memoir, somebody's memory, I can't be critical. But personally, I found the actions of the girls to be pretty lame. The only redeeming quality I found throughout the text was at the very end, when the narrator refused to spoil her perfect fantasy by intersecting it with reality. I'm sorry, but she totally let herself go, and if she had chosen to go after Jagger, she probably would have been hungover, smelling of B.O. and Mary Jane. It wasn't my favorite.
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