tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784792693731086566.post6597009626659674629..comments2023-06-26T01:19:25.968-05:00Comments on Everything But the Fiction - The New Yorker Fiction Blog: Antonya Nelson's SHAUNTRELLEDrewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02706738167106227281noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784792693731086566.post-67117370025398614762007-07-25T10:41:00.000-05:002007-07-25T10:41:00.000-05:00Whew, in a way I think you got me here Scott. Trut...Whew, in a way I think you got me here Scott. Truthfully, I think the line about her checking her email struck me so strongly because – similar to you – I related to it, but I was hoping that sort of desperate grasping for contact dissipated with age; guess not. Damn. Alas, I will admit that moment is tragically honest. Also, in retrospect, I do see what you mean about holding on in the face of change, and Fanny Mann is doing more than holding on, she is fighting against the change – no matter how desperate ones sees plastic surgery, it is a way of taking one’s physicality into his or her own hands; an assertion for control. So to answer your question, I think Fanny’s changes are positive in that despite the loss of her best friend she still exerts hope, and (of course) negative, in that her hope is dependant on capturing the munificence of some robber baron. The main character, however, doesn’t seem to have changed to me. She made an ill conceived decision to leave an aloof husband for an aloof mistress (what’s the male synonym for mistress?). She hasn’t changed, which is why her character, in my opinion, is the worse of the two, at least the most painstaking for the reader. <BR/><BR/>If I had thought to pick a favorite line in the story, the one you quote would certainly have been it. Great choice. <BR/><BR/>I will post on A.L Kennedy’s “Wasps” very soon.Drewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02706738167106227281noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784792693731086566.post-67537129199521550542007-07-25T05:54:00.000-05:002007-07-25T05:54:00.000-05:00I thought your analysis of the story was very insi...I thought your analysis of the story was very insightful. I read the story, then read your blog, and then read your blog again, and I think you are absolutely right about the connection to the transformation of the characters and the transformation of the setting. However, I found it interesting that the tone of the story and your analysis of the tone depicted gentrification as negative. Whether that is true or not is another discussion, nevertheless, does this mean the transformation of the female characters, both dealing with the realization of possibility lonliness and holding on to the possibility of a salvation--boyfriend coming back or friend beating cancer--is negative. I didn't think the characters were as weak as they were vulnerable. And isn't everyone vulnerable to change? Is vulnerabilty to negative? For example, I thought the scene with the women getting up late and hoplessly checking her email was very honest and in a lot of ways I was proud of both characters by the end of the story. They had preserved. And in like, doesn't that sometimes feel like the only thing one can ask for. <BR/><BR/>So, I was wondering what were your feelings about whether the characters transformation was positive and negative? <BR/><BR/>On a closing note, my inital feelings about the story were ambivalent, but subsequent to reading your blog, I really enjoyed it. This, I suppose, is what your blog is suppose to do.<BR/><BR/>P.S. My favorite line was when the narrator describes her former lovers as, "dead, disappointed, and dissapointing, respectively."Scott Colomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13422467600868392936noreply@blogger.com