Getting Rid of the Gun by Joyce Thompson; Pages 314-317
With such a plethora of choice for our first Short Takes assignment, it was tough deciding which to choose. Getting Rid of the Gun seemed safe due to the title reminding me of the Vampire Weekend song Giving Up the Gun.
In the piece, Thompson talks of a gun owned by her (or a fictional character's) father. Once found,
a few dark secrets of the deceased father began to surface. However, the darkest secret, the secret of what was done with said gun, never came up. It seems as Thompson is telling us that many, no matter how pure in society eyes, have their own skeletons. As much as we try to put influential figures on a pedestal, we must come to terms with the thought that those we look up to can be just as evil as anyone else.
On a lighter note....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bccKotFwzoY
That's really one of the hardest things for me to accept, that a loved one might not be entirely worthy of the high regard I hold them in. Writing about something like that might be a really effective way to work through those personally-tabooed feelings.
ReplyDeleteSolid response. I just read through this essay and thought something was missing actually. I needed more about the daughter's connection to the father. Anyway, in future posts, try to point out some specific features of the writing that you're interested in. For me, it's one sentence early on when Thompson uses three consecutive adverbs--"simply, mostly, silently." It slows the sentence down and actually performs the "inertia" she's been describing.
ReplyDeleteDW
This sounds like an intriguing premise for an essay, so I may have to check it out.
ReplyDeleteI like this song, too.
I read this story for this week's "Short Takes," and I really liked it. I think the idea of parents' secrets is scary in a way. If you have a sugar-coated view of their relationship (like I do of my parents'), discovering skeletons would be really difficult. Thompson doesn't seem so bothered by it though, probably because she has a hard life of her own now as a single mother. I'd take the money without much question, either, if I was her.
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