tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196813830708036159.post4433658501097934192..comments2023-01-21T12:14:17.714-08:00Comments on Miserable Pile of Secrets: ComradeHenryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10826787550676541006noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196813830708036159.post-68505626110966521172011-03-04T19:18:47.296-08:002011-03-04T19:18:47.296-08:00Hahaha, "trained gorillas"! My narrator...Hahaha, "trained gorillas"! My narrator once referred to this rabble as "hairless chimpanzees," but no one really "got it." <br /><br />Now I want to hear this Leslie Nielsen piece.Czardozhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15328299312884380446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196813830708036159.post-50380970305543580702011-03-01T19:31:32.430-08:002011-03-01T19:31:32.430-08:00Aheh, well, for some reason, the professor really ...Aheh, well, for some reason, the professor really liked it. After returning our papers and opening up discussion for volunteers to read theirs aloud, she finally asked me specifically to read mine. (I was never going to volunteer myself.)<br /><br />This was right after one girl had read her very funny piece in the absurd vein of Leslie Nielsen's work. It was a tough act to follow, but at least everyone was in a good mood when I started. Then, as I got going, the room got dying, and, like a romantic evening gone rough, then gone ugly, it was as though I had strangled the breath out of the room. It was pretty well gone somewhere around "primordial ooze," with the exception of one audible snort when I got to describing myself as walking "coolly and methodically."<br /><br />When I finished, there was no reaction at all, as though nobody was sure whether what had just happened had really happened, if it wasn't still happening. The professor finally broke the silence by asking me to repeat how I had described the material we had studied in class.<br /><br />I responded, "I believe the narrator described it as 'the most boorishly irreverent yet sensationally sentimental material that manages to shock and confound its way into official favor.'"<br /><br />(In case you're wondering, the exact piece in question was the short story "Peter Shelley" by Patrick Marber, about a fourteen-year-old who loses his virginity to the sound of the latest Buzzcocks single.)<br /><br />"And is that what 'the narrator' really thinks?" she asked.<br /><br />"I don't want to speak for him, but that is what he said."<br /><br />She let me off the hook then with a laugh, and we all moved on. It was only the second week of class, and I'm happy to report that everybody made it out of the quarter okay.Henryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10826787550676541006noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7196813830708036159.post-31898013689696405182011-02-28T01:06:07.514-08:002011-02-28T01:06:07.514-08:00How'd this go over in class?How'd this go over in class?Sam Kahnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10410276773844583437noreply@blogger.com