{"id":469,"date":"2008-09-29T18:06:44","date_gmt":"2008-09-29T22:06:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/?p=469"},"modified":"2008-09-29T18:06:44","modified_gmt":"2008-09-29T22:06:44","slug":"response-to-afternoon-a-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/2008\/09\/29\/response-to-afternoon-a-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Response to afternoon, a story"},"content":{"rendered":"

I can\u00a0relate to some of the frustrations about afternoon, a story<\/em>\u00a0not having a clear story line.\u00a0 Some pages of the so-called “story” don’t always relate to subsequent pages,\u00a0and this caused me to feel a little bit stumped while I was reading.\u00a0 I\u00a0would say that afternoon <\/em>doesn’t fufill our need or desire for closure,\u00a0but I\u00a0do think that\u00a0this was Michael Joyce’s intention.\u00a0\u00a0The work raises a lot of questions for the reader – something I think all\u00a0enjoyable texts\u00a0do.\u00a0 It’s ironic, however, that although we desire closure, we\u00a0are also intrigued by ambiguity and uncertainty.\u00a0 As readers, we like to ask questions about the larger meanings behind a work.\u00a0 What\u00a0is the writer doing here?\u00a0 How does he or she do it?<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 What is the significance of this particular\u00a0character, object or scene?<\/em>\u00a0 How does this apply to the real world?<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There’s something appealing about a\u00a0text that leaves readers on the\u00a0edges of\u00a0their seats\u00a0and gives them the feeling that they want more.\u00a0 Just as afternoon<\/em> doesn’t have a clear story line, our lives don’t follow a\u00a0predetermined path.\u00a0\u00a0Our life experiences are often scattered and disconnected and leave us feeling baffled, like afternoon<\/em> does.\u00a0 This is perhaps why the hypertext appeals to us and why we can identify with Peter’s character, who doesn’t seem so stable.<\/p>\n

So one thing that intrigued me while I was\u00a0perusing\u00a0afternoon<\/em> was the\u00a0different references to tigers.\u00a0 The character of Nausicaa\u00a0mentions them when she reflects on a businessman she once met in India who “kept white tigers in a chrome steel cage surrounded by orchids.\u00a0 Afternoons his servants would walk them through the gardens on long leashes.”\u00a0 Nausicaa\u00a0then recounts her dreams of the “white tigers in the\u00a0cool garden.\u00a0\u00a0[She] would think of them stretching their flanks, their paws like velvet across the cool stones of the garden paths,\u00a0their tongues slowly lapping the curved surface of the gold radio.”\u00a0 Another reference to tigers comes when Peter describes the humidity\u00a0– “Four full days now it has crouched over us, the humidity like the exhalation of tigers, scratch of tough leather across the piss damp concrete.”\u00a0 I thought the juxtaposition of hard and soft\u00a0was interesting here.\u00a0 By\u00a0this I mean that when I\u00a0usually think of tigers, I think of them\u00a0as hard, aggressive animals.\u00a0 The mention of the “chrome steel cage” also evokes the idea of hardness for me.\u00a0 On the other hand, the\u00a0mentions of “orchids,” “long leashes,” “dreams” and “velvet” evoke the idea\u00a0of softness.\u00a0 It’s an unlikely combination, and I’m not quite sure what the meaning\u00a0 behind it is.\u00a0 However, I think the releasing of the tigers from the cage and into the garden might be symbolic of Peter’s unraveling or unpacking of memories that might reveal\u00a0that he did in fact\u00a0witness his son’s death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I can\u00a0relate to some of the frustrations about afternoon, a story\u00a0not having a clear story line.\u00a0 Some pages of the so-called “story” don’t always relate to subsequent pages,\u00a0and this caused me to feel a little bit stumped while I was reading.\u00a0 I\u00a0would say that afternoon doesn’t fufill our need or desire for closure,\u00a0but I\u00a0do think … Continue reading Response to afternoon, a story<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":478,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions\/478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2008\/343\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}