Monday, November 30, 2009

Comments on Short Stories

1. Dylan, In your story from what I can tell the cool layed back I don't care is I guess what you view cool as. Something I noticed about the setting is that its just the main character and the security guard. The character isn't really impressing anyone besides himself, the guard doesn't seem to care. The character does get away with being late... is it because he is so cool?

2. Abe, I think your story resembles a movie script. It seems like the cool kids get all the attention and the fact that one of your characters has a car makes him superior to the others. I thought the discussion of grades was very interesting and that two of the characters are shocked with the other one because he is a lazy student. Your story seemed very realistic in many circumstances.

3. Amon, I found your story very interesting. I think it deals with the idea of trying so hard to fit in with a certain group. In your story it shows signs of drug users. The character in your story thinks they are cool and tries hard to fit in. When he tells them he doesn't feel well they don't care or listen. Is this what you think cool is or a usual situation?

4. Leah, I thought your story gave a good glimpse of what you think cool is. From your story it seems as though you consider perfection to be cool. Although not only do you view appearance as cool but also personality and brains. I think that sometimes as humans we forget to look at the person as a whole and only what appears to our eye.

5. Mohammed-I think you have a good start to your story but I don't understand what type of cool you are trying to portray. It seems like the character is either the type of person who doesn't follow the rules or too cool for school. Maybe try elaborating on the reactions of the students to him so that it is more clear to the reader.

Something that kept being brought up in all stories whether it was obvious or discreet is attention.  It seems that all the characters got attention from individuals or larger groups of people.  In Dylan's story the attention is all from the security guard but his attitude portrays that the way he acts is very general.  In Abe's story his character gets both negative and positive attention from peers and close friends.  The negative attention is because of his lack of interest in grades and school.  His friends are shocked by his approach towards his school work. The positive attention is from the people that don't know him on a personal level all they see is his cool car.  People don't ever get an opportunity to see a different side to him.  All they see is the materialistic side to him.  If they knew what he was really like underneath it all would they still respect him so much? In Amon's story the character is trying very hard to be cool, by doing this he participates in activities he isn't using used to by feeling scared and asking for support from his peers he picks up negative attention. They begin to view him as a loser and picks up on it so he changes his attitude immediately to fit in.  In Leah's story she shows us only positive attention the girl in her story is defined as what she views as perfection.  Both smart and beautiful, it seems as though the narrator is blown away by her.  Lastly in Mohammed's story his character doesn't care about anyone and is too cool for school.  This in reality can sometimes be seen as negative attention because people look down to him.  

Although from reading all the stories it seems as though we all have our own definition of "cool" in a sense they all lead back to the same concept.  Whatever we view as perfect automatically gives us the natural assumption of coolness.  But no one is perfect maybe in our minds and imagination but everyone has flaws and things that make us tick.  I think as humans we forget that sometimes and we don't take the time to look deeply at the person as a whole. So is anyone really truly cool or are we just illusions of what we want to see in front of us?  

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