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Ron Carlson’s “A Kind of Flying” is a story about a wedding day conflict, replete with of bad omens that, reassuringly, is resolved by a long-lasting marriage. I was not struck by a feeling of the story’s profoundness by the end, which I started expecting, but a general sense of prettiness, with the groom concluding that he felt like a bird flying in marriage. Perhaps the straightforward content holds more meaning for married couples; I can’t speak for myself.
ReplyDeleteIn “Popular Mechanics” by Raymond Carter, we see a horrible relationship at its climax. A man leaves home, and a woman desperately expresses her dislike for him. They fight over their baby before the man leaves the house, in dialogue that is marked without quotations. I think this touch gave it a sense of universalism: these two unnamed people could be any two people in the world. The last sentence evoked a horrible chilling sensation. The offspring’s death was the only possible outcome of this unhappy union.
“Reunion” by John Cheever is written in first-person about a boy whose age we never know, and the reunion lunch he has with his divorced father. I was confused by a sentence the first paragraph, page 156, about how the boy hasn’t seen his dad in 3 years, but when he sees him, feels that it is him. Why the choice of the word “feel,” as though by sight he couldn’t distinguish this man? A pattern of restaurants ensues: four times the father is awkward and rude at restaurants to a waiter, and finally, he is rude to a newspaper seller. The boy insists on leaving back to the train he needs to catch, and the story ends as such, with, “Goodbye, Daddy,” and, “that was the last time I saw my father.” Ultimately, neither one eats any lunch, and I wonder if this is because the dad was cheap, or has no substance as a person symbolized by the implied hunger at the end.
Natalie Roeglin
Ron Carlson’s “A Kind of Flying” is about a man who gets married, with a ruined wedding cake. He explains marriage to his wife’s sister’s oldest daughter, relating marriage to his wedding day. He describes it as hectic, using the pinch of a bird’s mouth, referring to the birds that ruined his cake. He admires his marriage, laying down carpet all his life so his wife could be a photographer, and therefore, he describes his marriage as a type of flying nonetheless. Raymond Carver’s “Popular Mechanics” is about a man who seemingly is leaving the house who wants to take the baby with him. The mother of this baby is in complete hysterics, grasping the baby with all her might. It seems at the end that the baby is pulled apart as they both cannot give up their right to have the child. This made me think of the aftermath of divorced families and the child’s feeling of being in the middle. John Cheever’s “Reunion” is about the last time a boy named Charlie sees his father. He is taken to restaurant after restaurant, even to a newspaper stand, and notices his own father’s rude behavior. He yells as an old man, and seems to be unaware of his own repugnant nature.
ReplyDeleteAlyssa Campos
When reading Ron Carlson's "A Kind of Flying" I felt myself getting more intrigued as it went on and I thoroughly enjoyed it overall, but I just genuinely enjoyed the conclusion even more. On page 155 he states, "Its marriage. Sometimes it pinches like a bird's mouth, but it's definitely flying, it's definitely a kind of flying. I feel as though I love when writers repeat themselves for emphasis especially here because it just feels blissful and serene to me. In Raymond Carver's "Popular Mechanics" I felt my heart ache with just how much they treated the baby like an object as thought it was just a toy or valuable and they were fighting over it. In John Cheever's "Reunion" I get taken on the journey of a boy's reunion with his father whom he hasn't seen since his mother divorced him three years prior. The way the story shifts is somewhat upsetting to me because the boy is so honored to be with his father at first to the point he says "I hoped that someone would have seen us together. I wished that we could be photographed.I wanted some record of our being together (157)." Then we see this shift when he gets to experience the rude behaviors of his father and how he treats people like they're on a lower tier compared to him. He seems to only be rude for his own amusement and doesn't care about how he affects others. This left me to think 'no wonder the boy's mother left him'.
ReplyDeleteFaith Ortiz
In the first story, " A Kind of Flying" we are placed in the setting of a wedding that is receiving many negative signs not to go through with this marriage. The soon to be bride is so adamant about getting a perfect picture of her wedding cake next to a church that she is completely stunned that these two birds ruined the wedding cake by grabbing one of the wedding toppers in its mouth and flying away. Now this was leading us to the end of the story where the groom spoke about how marriage is. To which the grooms response after a long happy marriage was "It's a bird taking your head in his beak and you walk the sky. It's marriage. Sometimes it pinches like a bird's mouth, but it's definitely flying, it's definitely a kind of flying." In the second story, " Popular Mechanics" this story line is quite a common one that I have never experienced and wouldn't want to. The baby in the middle of this argument represents those children that are in the middle of a divorce and unfortunately have to deal with whatever decision is made. A broken relationship is shown in this story, and the baby had no choice of who was going to keep it. The violence and aggression that this couple felt towards each other was expressed through the way they were fighting over the baby. The last story, "Reunion" was very bittersweet, but I enjoyed it because it showed the son closure. The numerous times that his father was rude to complete strangers gave the son and readers an insight as to why the mother may have wanted him out of his life. This was very interesting to include because often times the children never understand why their parents separated, and with a story like this the boy got to experience first hand his father's rude behavior.
ReplyDeleteLianna Andrade
In "A Kind of Flying" by Ron Carlson, Carlson tells a story about how marriage is a long journey that requires not only a lot effort, a lot, but also sacrifice. I really liked it because of how bittersweet it was. In "Popular Mechanics" by Raymond Carver, Carver wrote a short story about two parents who were fighting and the father figure was moving out. The father wants to keep the baby, but the mother doesn't want him to have the baby. They physically fight with the baby and to me, the flowerpot that they knock over and break is foreshadowing that the baby would break. They both just want to win. The father figure doesn't even want the baby, he just wants the baby so the mother won't have it. In "Reunion" by John Cheever, there is a boy named Charlie that has gone to New York to visit his grandmother and wants to see his father before he leaves. He ends up seeing his father, a very rude man, and realizes he was never the father he thought he was.
ReplyDeleteSidney Carranco
‘A Kind of Flying’ by Ron Carlson was a great look into the befores and afters of marriage. Everything could be taken as a bad omen during that part of your life, and you’ll have people like Linda who (in my opinion) are nothing but bad energy. One little thing, like the bird snatching the groom topper, isn’t going to decide the fate of an entire marriage. It’s unpredictable and not always perfect but like Carlson wrote, “It’s not like life on a cake. … Sometimes it pinches like a bird’s mouth, but it’s definitely flying.” ‘Popular Mechanics’ by Raymond Carver had me immediately invested in the story and how it would turn out. I do feel like the story was cut too short, or that everything happened too fast. This is a story I think is very relatable though, as a person whose parents are divorced. I think the breaking of the child at the end could be something that is seen in their future. The parents aren’t going to stop fighting and once custody is decided the child will be broken between the two parents, both of them more than likely continuing their fighting to become the favorite parent. ‘Reunion’ by John Cheever had me cringing the whole time. In the beginning the divorce is mentioned along with a line that started with, “The last time I saw my father was…”, and it leads us to assume that the father left and never wanted anything to do with the child. It’s as the story progresses that we learn not only why the divorce happened in the first place, but why Cheever never saw his dad again.
ReplyDeleteTeresa Villarreal
Ron Carlson’s, “A Kind of Flying” left me flying as well. I thought it was sweet and honest, and it was nice to finally read a short story that didn’t involve something sinister or twisted. The story was straightforward with a touch of humor and a minor disaster that left the couple with a story to tell for the years to come. You can feel the husband’s love for his wife, and although he didn’t have much to give in terms of luxury, he worked hard every single day so that his wife could live out her dream. When no one believed in her dreams of traveling the world as a photographer, he did and he made sure that she got to experience all she ever wanted. I really enjoyed this short story, especially the symbolism of the groom flying.
ReplyDeleteI own a collection of short stories from Raymond Carver, so it was neat seeing a piece of his work as one of our texts. Carver has a unique writing style that includes a lot of dialogue without breaking up the story with quotations. I noticed that about his writing when I was reading his work a few years back, and “Popular Mechanics” is a great example on how his stories contain so much meaning while being written in a way that seems fast paced. I don’t often enjoy when there is not a distinct separation from dialogue to storyline, because the reader may end up confused, but I think that that is what Carver accomplishes in all of his works. He wants his audience to be so immersed into what his characters are saying that leaving out quotation marks adds an added factor that makes the reader pay extra attention to what is being said and who it’s being said by. For example, there is a back and forth in the couple’s argument where there is no “he said” or “she said” indication, and I find that similar to reading a script, and somehow it left me with a clear vision of this couple falling into this intense moment of passion, hatred, and heartbreak. Sometimes defining who is saying what can come off as trivial. I find it neat that Carver is always one of two extremes; sometimes every dialogue ends up with “he said” and “she said,” (155) and it becomes overbearing, and there are times when he doesn’t add it to the dialogue at all (156). With that being said, this story is incredibly heartbreaking and as someone who has never been a witness to their parents being happily married, it is symbolic of how divorce can “rip” a child in two because both parents feel they deserve more than the other. The end may seem gruesome and extreme, but Carver doesn’t back down from truth when it comes to his writing ability.
John Cheever’s, “Reunion,” was a sad tale of a young boy meeting up with his father only to be disappointed by his rudeness and disregard towards others. Charlie, the son, is incredibly excited to see his father for the first time in three years, but is left feeling withdrawn as he witnesses the way in which his father is obnoxious and rude towards those he deems below him. Charlie ends up leaving his father with one last goodbye as his father tries to get a rise out of a man selling newspapers and magazines. Before Charlie is a witness to his father’s awful nature he acknowledges that he is a product of him and will end up with some of his personality, which is why I find the ending even more heartbreaking because Charlie leaves knowing that his father’s DNA is part of his make up. I think that that’s why Cheever begins the story by saying, “the last time I saw my father,” because Charlie realized that he would be better off if he never saw his father again, and seeing how his father acted was a great way for him to learn that respect is important when communicating with anyone, and that he doesn’t want to end up being like his old man.
Kimberlee Salas
“A Kind of Flying” by Ron Carlson was events leading up to a marriage. The narrator, and Brady, have to deal with their loved ones constantly giving them advice. On their wedding day, the groom on the cake was snatched by a crow, Linda obviously seeing this as a sign. In the end the narrator states that he has been with his wife for twenty years, and describes marriage to as a a bird’s pinch, “but definitely feels like flying.” I found “Popular Mechanics” by Raymond Carver, to be very intriguing. The dialogue helped the flow of the story, and though there was a lot of action going on, I felt as though Carver captured it quite well. There was no quotation marks used when both characters were speaking, which I did not understand. It is always a vicious battle when ever a couple splits up and there is a child involved. In this situation, it did end in a physical fight, all three parties being effected. In “Reunion” by John Cheever, I found it interesting when the narrator smelled his father for the first time in so many years. He stated, “It was a rich compound of whiskey, after-shave lotion, she polish, woolens, and the rankness of mature male.” (pgs. 156-157) This was a significant moment for him, and so I believe it was an effective way to display that.
ReplyDeleteValerie Jackson
These three readings have left me with a lot more questions than answers. In A Kind of Flying, the author Ron Carlson presents several scenes and characters which tie together throughout the story. Ron Carlson presents some of the headaches and misadventures which befall the narrator and his wife. Also, the narrator talks about marriage, and the sensations associated with them. The narrator never had a chance to leave and travel as his wife or her sister could. He stayed behind and gave his wife wings to soar and pursue her adventures. However, he confesses that though marriage can be difficult, it is a journey, and though he may not have traveled as much as Linda or his wife, he has had a journey of his own. Popular mechanics by Raymond Carver is short, yet intense and leaves the reader wanting more. For some reason, the father and husband decides to leave his wife, yet not his child. Depending on the reader, several biases may shape the way we look at this story. Do we see a father leaving and taking the baby from an abusive mother? Does the father want him so she can't have him? Depending on our experiences, we may see things a certain way. As to what happens to the baby at the end, it is left for the reader to ponder about. Reunion by John Cheever demonstrates the failed reconnection of a father and son. Though the pair were not close, we see the dynamic is skewed, leaning to the father and his lust for recognition and power. As a friend of mine once said, "he walks like his shit don't stink." This is the personality which I see reflected by the father of the narrator. In each scene, the father is loud, rude, arrogant and demanding. The son only wants to reconnect, yet the father is hellbent on showing who's the boss. It is the father's pride that drives him, his ego which pushes his son away at the end.
ReplyDelete- Jose Montoya
“A Kind of Flying” by Ron Carlson was different to read I was not sure how the story would go if they were happy the ending helped me find that they were with just a simple life when Carlson says “just get married. Have a friend sing your favorite song at the wedding… it’s not life on a cake. It’s the bird taking your head in his beak and you walk in the sky” (155). It seemed that even though he felt negativity on his wedding day he would not change it at all. In “Popular Mechanics” you can see the how a bad relationship can get ugly really quickly. I am not sure that I like this story it was dark and they way they fought for the baby was scary. It leaves you with a sense of knowing that the baby did not make it. Which was horrifying to me. John Cheever “reunion” was a horrific yet funny story it is about a boy who is on a trip but has time to see is father that he has not seen in 3 years. The father shows that he is a complete jerk to everyone and does not give the boy a chance to catch up with his father at all. They get kicked out of several restaurants before the son finally giving up and saying goodbye to his father. I like this story out of all of them I was appalled of how the father treated people and was looking forward to the ending to see what the son would do about it.
ReplyDeleteAndi Rubalcava
“A Kind of Flying.” Ron Carlson.
ReplyDeleteThe usage of dialogue in this piece better portrays the characters and their interactions with events brimming in ominous symbolism. I believe this is especially the case with the the bride’s sister Linda, who at first comes off as a rather rude person, but genuinely wants the best for her sister. Her worries bounce around several possibilities: The groom leaving her sister one day, the man condemning her sister to a life of domestic servitude, and to even one day getting killed. One such line: Brady lifted the frogman from the top and Linda grabbed her hand: “Don’t you ever lick frosting from any man’s feet.” (David Starkey. Creative Writing: Four Genres in Brief (p. 162).) A few curious things to note: The song “El Paso” is a rustic western tale of machismo over a girl before the cowboy up and abandons his love and life to escape the jealous crime of murder lingering behind him; it is implied he is shot during a pursuit after him and dies from his wounds, leaving his love and life behind for good. There seems to be an implication that the narrator is from the western area of the States, perhaps even from Texas, and could possibly be Hispanic. The song is alien to his bride’s family, and the narrator even mentions “...and because there wasn’t a song called ‘Stevens Point,’” (David Starkey. Creative Writing: Four Genres in Brief (p. 161).) implying that he knows little to nothing of the place him and his wife are to wed.
“Popular Mechanics.” Raymond Carver.
Distance is important in this piece; the early interaction between the man and the woman give testament to how emotionally distant the two are - the man is packing without much of a word given, and the woman stands from a distance spouting abusive language. It is only when the baby is involved that the two bear enough to get close - aggressively close - to each other in want of child custody. There is no discussion, there is no civil communication, there is only possession in want, and it is deeply implied the child becomes a tool for either of the one to possess and hold over the other to deeply hurt the other. The baby is incapable of supporting itself physically and emotionally due to its obvious infantile state, and is held victim in this abusive relationship. The last line “In this manner, the issue was decided” is an especially curious one to use, as it doesn’t specifically implies to who decides and what issue is decided, yet states the manner of behavior the two display is what will decide. It is most likely obvious that the issue decided is the child, in which the abuse and separation in the relationship will break the child, perhaps physically and/or emotionally.
“Reunion.” John Cheever.
DeleteThe title of this piece is ironic, as a reunion generally implies two or more people who have known one another to meet again, yet the narrator implies this meeting is as if it were the first due to the prior time the two met, presumably because the narrator was much too young to remember the father. (Quite honestly, I’m not sure what the narrator’s age is, as the Distance and affection is especially important in this story, especially with the narrator’s admiration for his father; when the distance is closed, physical intimacy is possible, from a slap on the back and a hug. When the distance is closed, details are met in a myriad of overwhelming scents - that one could only smell at a close distance. What is rather curious throughout the story is the narrator’s silence, a docility in the presence of the adults; the narrator only ever speaks when he is wanting to leave, and the narrator implies little to no second-hand embarrassment in his thoughts and actions, possibly to leave such emotions to be felt by the audience in lieu of the boy. Another curious detail is how the last phrase casts an almost ironic echo, as “...the last time I saw my father” is the very phrase used to begin the story. At this point, especially with such vivid awe-inspiring language given at the beginning, one has to wonder how much the meaning behind such a phrase has changed by the end of this tale.
Gary Tolar
What was interesting to me in A kind of Flying by Ron Carlson was that on page 153-154 she mentions “that, is a definite message”, when the bird takes the groom off the cake the day of her wedding day. I myself, personally, believe in signs and those cliché sayings on “everything happens for a reason” and such, so when I was reading this I was so sure she was going to bail, if this were me id be hoping a stethoscope to my gut to hear some type of advice on how to handle this situation. But the fact that “she didn’t let up” on page 154, deciding to avoid the symbol and result in a happy ending life of 20 years. On page 156 “in this manner the issue was decided”, meaning, in my opinion, that because they clearly never got along in a civilized decisive couple, led to see that throughout this story they are ending on not only bad terms but literally getting physical on a baby that they both cant decide who to let keep in the meantime until they involve the authorities. Look forward to talking about Popular Mechanics more in-depth during discussion. In the Reunion story by John Cheever was very uneasy for me to read, I felt sympathetic towards Charlie, the son. The ending was interesting to see that Charlie despite the fact that, that is his father and personally I felt Charlie should love his dad no matter what, claimed that on page 158, was the last time he saw his father.
ReplyDeleteStephanie Ruiz
While I was reading the story “A Kind of Flying”, I felt like I could relate to the story because when it comes time to getting married so many things go through your mind including all the bad things that can go wrong. I liked the way that Ron Carlson ended his story by comparing the feeling of getting married to the feeling of flying, like an intense feeling in your stomach. The story called “Popular Mechanics” was very easy for me to imagine because there are a lot of movies out there that portray this kind of domestic struggle time and time again. The interesting thing this time was the fact that it was all written and up to me to create the imagery instead of it being created already. You get the feeling of what goes through somebody’s mind while being in that kind of struggle. The last story “Reunion” had me imagining the worst possible type of relationship that a son can have with his father. It seemed to me like the father had some type of mental issue that kept him from bonding with anybody, much less his son. The description in the beginning made the father out to be a successful businessman of some sort because he had a secretary when his son went to visit him. All three stories have the same theme of family tied to them.
ReplyDeleteFrancisco Rosales
"A Kind of Flying" is about a beautiful moment that will be remembered for years to come. The reader is put into a setting of a wedding between and bride and groom. The main problem occurred the bride was trying to take a photo with the wedding cake and some birds ruined the cake. Th entire problem reflected an issue with an actual marriage and how it can be rough at times, but can still be beautiful. In "Popular Mechanics" it has a deep meaning of how a child/children deal with the issue of divorce between their parents and the hardships that come with it. "Reunion" is a wonderfully awful story about a relationship between a father and son and how the father cannot connect with anyone around him including his son.
ReplyDeleteCaesar De Luna
The readings for this week all were centred around the topic of marriage, divorce, and family in general. In "A Kind of Flying", the author presents his marriage in a very relaxed manner. He acknowledges that his marriage isn't picture book perfect, but it's still a wonderful marriage regardless. I find it very interesting how the only advice he has to give his niece concerning her upcoming marriage is, "just get married!". This is then later contrasted by the following story, "Popluar Mechanics", depicting the almost polar opposite of the previous example of marriage. Not only was the marriage the polar opposite, but the entire atmoshpere and writting style of this story was so morbid with what was implied by the end of the writing. This story was the one that caught my attention the most, even though I disliked the way its sentences were arragned. I found the final story the strangest with the author refering to his father as "Daddy" and his almost strange obsession with his father who he hasn't seen in three years. I find it a little humerous how that infatuation later dissipates by the end of the story once the auther realizes his father is a faliure.
ReplyDeleteRicardo Garcia