Man on Wire

The films main character, Philippe Petit, I find to be both intriguing and insane. It seems like you don't see as many people these days pursuing hobbies such as tight rope walking and its kind of depressing in a way. I happen to be terribly afraid of heights and the thought of him up on that wire literally makes me feel uncomfortable. I feel uneasy watching movies where people are in precariously high places, so I really have the utmost respect for Petit. I thought that it was a pretty interesting documentary overall because of the way that it was created; relying on old stock footage, actual footage of Petit, present day interviews and recreations. Its unlike any documentary I've seen before, not that I have seen that many, but I thought that the presentation of it was original.

The fact that they even pulled off such a feat is extremely impressive because it required them to take many things into account. The best method for entry to the building, the easiest way to string the wire, they made models and created costumes and identities, had to hide in silence inside the unfinished world trade center as to not be discovered. Even when Petit's feat is brought to the attention of the police, hes still determined to stay on the wire because it is his dream and he wants to relish it for as long as possible. I'm always enamored with people like Petit; people who have seemingly intangible, absurd dreams but they believe in it so much despite the great odds against them.

The Orchid Thief

The first thing I would like to say about this book is that without being told, you could tell that this book was written by a journalist. Her descriptions about her surroundings, attention to detail, and large vocabulary all point to this profession. You can also tell she did extensive research and became obsessed with the story every bit as much as Laroche was with his various excursions. I also find it interesting that she is jealous of Laroche because he has been so passionate about many things, and she claims she has never truly had this experience. I would argue that she is in love with writing, because you can tell that she enjoys crafting a truly detailed, complex story without making it seem too heavy of a read.

I like the fact that throughout the book, you see her become more and more enamored with this man, John Laroche, despite her instinctive feelings. She finds his aura to be fascinating, follows in his steps into the Fakahatchee Strand in search of the ghost orchid. Her descriptions of the different types of orchids are fascinating because of the fact that some orchids have evolved to look like food, a mating partner, or an enemy of certain bugs in order to assure pollination. Also, in keeping with a sort of journalistic sense of writing, she doesn’t keep a very linear story line. She jumps all over the place, relating John Laroche and orchids to incidents in science and history. Her story about Laroche is peppered with sub-stories meant to help us further understand his, an in turn, her obsession with orchids. With this treatment of the subject, she romanticizes the prospect of collecting orchids, making us feel as if we should attempt to become orchid hunters ourselves.

At times however, I find this story becomes kind of repetitive because of all her stories of interactions with the swamp and other growers, and then getting into the history of all those things as well. It is all very interesting, but it seemed like there were a few sections where she should have trimmed some fat. The sections where she is roaming around the blocks of land with the park ranger is interesting because she relates them to an abandoned suburb; a rather surreal image. When Savilla finally shows her a ghost orchid, we are happy to see that Orlean finally gets some sense of assurance that the orchid is real. I also find it intriguing that she got involved with the lives of other orchid thieves, almost living vicariously through them…or not so vicariously. You can tell the she was completely drawn into this world, to the point of obsession. The ending of the story I found to be disappointing because it was just more talk about walking through swamps, but this time she was excited to do it with Laroche. They see the roots of some ghosts orchids, get lost and then the story just kind of ends. Overall, I really liked the story, but I think with a little revision this could be an amazing story.


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Bullet in My Neck

I think that Gerald Sterns story is a very interesting one because it reminds me of my home city and I think the idea of he and his wife experiencing the event differently is very interesting. In the shadier parts of any big city, you should always be weary of stopping at red lights, and more so if you see people standing around waiting. There’s a street in Cleveland, East 1999/St. Claire, the street that members of Bone Thugz-n-Harmony were raised, where if you stop at a stop sign, you might get shot. Its happened to me before, leaving a concert on the lake front, accidentally making a wrong turn into East Cleveland and finding myself breaking traffic rules and evading pursuers in an attempt to save my life. It’s not as extreme as it sounds. The fact that the both of them had widely different recollections of the events that day is very interesting to me. I would have a tendency to believe the wives part of the story, post-shoot out because your body and mind go wild when they’re in danger. The things he perceived as more extreme, like driving over grass instead of simply driving up a drive-way might have been a result of him not paying attention to detail and simply thinking about the hole in his neck.

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Confessions

This is an extremely depressing story and I’m not quite sure if I understand it completely. It seems like she just started a bunch of things that would make interesting stories, ties everything together at the end, but it left me wanting more. I don’t understand why the dialogue between the mother and daughter in this story sounds like a couple of 3 year-olds talking when the girl is 16 and the mom is presumably much older. I don’t understand how you could go 25 years without remembering as extreme as this and then recall it so easily when someone asks you about your worst experience in life. I especially didn’t like the way she ended the story because she basically made me feel like her mom was crazy, and in turn, she was crazy and that’s why the story is a bit off.

She realizes there might have been a point in her life when she would rather be dead than live with her mother, and furthermore, she’s not sure whether her mom would have killed her or not. Then you have to wonder what kind of a mother would go so far as to threaten their child with a meat clever. The story ends with the narrator asking her mother whether she meant to kill her that day and her mother responds that she has no idea of the incident, claiming she had always been a good child. This response seems to please her, or at least that’s what I inferred from the last sentence in her paper.


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Winter Wheat

I found this story very relatable because I see a lot of myself and my grandpa in McDuffie’s grandfather. We both love telling a good story or joke, whether to impress someone or to get a rise out of them. We both know a little bit about everything so we’re very good at small-talk, or at least faking it. And I’m not sure about my grandfather but I know I lie to people all the time because they never know whether or not I am being serious. Also, the grandfathers repeated failures that he tried to disguise as calculated mistakes rings true in my heart too; always telling myself I’ll learn from it this time. The bit about McDuffie’s grandfather building one of their houses touches me as well because for years, my grandpa was a carpenter and he built every house he lived in as well.

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Tenino

Like many pieces of non-fiction writing, you always have to ask yourself why you think this person felt it necessary to tell this story and why it is that you should care about this. It is a story within a story about people and places we don’t know, and we’re not even sure when the story itself is taking place. Having asked myself these things, I found this story to be very intriguing and extremely relatable. I could envision myself going on a very similar adventure as this, trying to connect things from the past to things in the present, all the while giving me a better picture of the world around me. I enjoy the idea of discovering things previously unknown to others or myself and then sharing whatever I have learned. I explore historical sights all around Athens and try to read up on local history as much as I can because it shows you how this place became what it is today.

I can only hope that my grandmother kept some type of diary at some point in her life and that someday I could go on a similar journey. My grandma grew up in the South during the Great Depression and from what I know, had a pretty hard life in general. However, I have never really inquired into her history because she is always too concerned with my life. Experiences like these give you an amazing insight into what a family member was like at various points in their life, and Blew should feel lucky for the experience.

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Brief History of My Thumb

The idea of hitchhiking these days, as she indicates, is unsafe on the part of both driver and hitch hiker. You never know if the person you are getting into a car with or the person you are allowing in your car has good intentions. This is the part of the experience that she enjoyed the most though, the mystery of it all. In essence, she enjoyed the prospect of entering new worlds; with each car, town and experience bringing something meaningful to her life. The woman who tells her of getting raped while hitchhiking doesn’t seem deterred from engaging in the act, nor does it deter Perillo herself. The Heraclitus quotes she uses are an interesting example of how she explains her love for the road and hitchhiking. A river is never the same each time you step into it because its contents are forever moving, whether downstream or back up into the clouds. Similarly, a road is never the same because there are always new people travelling on it, so you can never be sure if it will be as safe as your last experience.


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Moving Water, Tucson

Peggy Shumaker creates a very interesting narrative and a memorable protagonist, despite the fact that her story only runs for a few paragraphs. We get a sense of the children’s lives in the desert and the mystery that the floods bring and what will come about because of them. It carries with it the idea that water is life, water is death and that water is creation. They’re never quite sure how forceful the storm will be or what it will bring, but they know that they must respect this uncontrollable force. When they all see one teenager attempt to take on this force of nature, this force of life, they are in awe, jealous, concerned and happy all at the same time. The story presumably ends with the death of this teenager, but that conclusion is left for us to decide. We’d like to think that this kids bravery in the face of certain defeat could end some other way, but more than likely, he perished.

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Time Indefinite

I found Ross McElwee to be both fascinating and extremely disturbing. The fact that he spent most of his life observing through a camera lens shows that he has some problems coming to term with reality. When you’re looking through a lense, its almost as if you see yourself living in a movie instead of reality. The fact that he would attend all his families social gathering and film the entire things instead of socializing almost makes it seem as if he sees himself as a member of his own personal society. When he shows up to his blind date, video camera in hand, it seems as if he wants to push society away and live in a world of his own. I was stunned when he actually found a woman to marry him, and more stunned to see that she was actually an attractive woman. I couldn’t see how she could put up with such a person, or that she would let him film her gynecologist appointment.

The format of this movie is very similar to a personal essay because his narrations are the most telling in the film and the film itself is almost a back drop for his musings. I also find it amusing that he has such a bleak outlook on life but still wishes to bring a child into this world. This whole film is largely about life and death, and he seems pretty fixated on the notion of our fragile existence. When Charlene criticizes him for bringing their son into this evil world, he takes no heed. I guess this is in line with how many people, myself included, can contradict themselves within a piece of work because our thoughts and actions aren’t always in line with one another.



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Brevity: Issue 31

I found the pieces in this issue of Brevity to be quite intriguing, with prose that evokes distinct images in my mind and get me in the moment. However, due to the short length of these pieces, I found that they left me wanting more, as if the stories ended without resolving, seemingly without purpose. Sherman Alexies piece about a reading he did in Germany was amusing because of the interaction he had with the woman about the United States unjust treatment of Native Americans. Miller’s story “Swerve” also caught my attention because I’ve been in situations similar to this, where I have regrettably taken the wheel at a time I shouldn’t have. I had similarly manic thoughts as I sat in a jail cell, following my arrest for driving under the influence a few years ago. These types of stories, or snippets of peoples lives are a welcome deviation from normal, long-form essays because they may not be telling a whole story but you still take away some lesson or tidbit about this events meaning in their lives.

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