GOING Amy Hempel.

To me, being a writer is the ability to tell a good story in a few words. Amy Hempel fits into my box of a good writer.She is able to divert my thoughts in many different ways.The way she starts the story gets the reader involved immediately.My mind started working ,trying to picture whatever she was saying.She starts by talking about the hospital menu. She makes us realize there is a mistake with the spelling of "served" on her breakfast tray. It was rather spelled as "severed".She now connects this to her accident by saying a menu that says pot roast "severed" with buttered noodles is not what someone who flipped his car twice at sixty and landed side-up in a ditch would like to see.This smooth connection reveals her mastery of writing skills- being able to pass across a message without using a lot of words. She keeps doing this through out the story.She also links the nurse's question to her school teacher who talks about Realization.Just when you think she is going to narrate a particular event with details, she takes your mind off it,and starts talking about some other thing seemingly related to her previous topic. This makes her writing interesting and captivating because you leaves you wondering what she would say next.
Her "olfactory hallucinations" is one thing i found very hilarious, as she says she was able to smell the smoke of her parents' house burning three states away.I begin to wonder how this is possible,but then this adds to the 'flavor' of the story. In essence, this story is about her car accident and the memory loss. But the style she uses to say this is what makes it ideal.
Love the story.

Going

It is a strange little tale with many tiny images of madness. The way he used to drive through binoculars is just a tiny fact suggesting suicide and relates to the scorpion stinging itself to death with just one drop of the same Tequila he was drinking. The olfatory hallucinations which are an indication of schizophrenia, the worm smell he sensed after being out – meaning “almost dead” – for two days. Someone who was close to be under the ground, like the worms. The idea of someone being “there” just because the smell of her is there. And finally, the phrase that I liked the most: “I can’t even remember all that I’ve forgotten.”He realizes something that happened to him but does he? How do you do to know you just realized something? What is he realizing? What did you just realize?

Going" by Amy Hempel

Hi everybody,

I was really surprised at how short the story was. I knew it was supposed to be short but when I opened my book I thought "It's only a little more than a page?" The story isn't spectacular but it does have some interesting details. I liked that the character in the story was driving the car and was looking through the binoculars at the same time. I didn't think it was smart but I had to admire it because I don't think I would be able to come up with something so different. But I guess Amy Hempel would have been able to either seeing as how she got the idea from a real life experience.

I also liked how instead of saying that the nurse in the story was very beautiful she managed to convey the idea in a funnier way by saying "...this nurse makes every other woman look like a sex-change." I thought that was a unique way of describing her.

I also found it interesting how in the interview it was said that she wrote a story that was only a sentence long. I don't think if I'd consider one sentence a story but reading that someone has written one definitely surprised me. Does anyone else think a sentence is to short to be a story?

The Writer's Block: Big Me

This story was very interesting but a little dark in the same time. I mean the Character Allison had a bit of a negative energy around her and not just her. Some of the other characters were very sensitive as well. However I am personally a fan of of this type of style of play making or movie writing. It a harsh reminder of what human beings are some are cruel and some not so much. If someone is attacked and stabbed like mentioned a being who wasn't very close with that person probably wouldn't care very much but then again that is not our fault. But I have to say that Ed person is a real sketchy character, going around and slaughtering people

Big Me

I liked this story. I can relate with the way the kid was because I used to be like that when I was young. I invented stories and sometimes I lived in the middle of an alternative reality. That was the result of reading everything I could put my hands on since I was very, very young and also because I think I was (and I may still be) a "martian." For this kid, the force of his imagination was so strong that he ended up even invading the man's space and taking his things. He kept his diary and the fixation made him see every detail through a magnifying lens. He was a writer from the beginning, and he took a very plain character and made him move like a puppet until he felt the fiction was starting to invade reality. He run away from that but he couldn't ran away from himself. That's why he will always remember that first story.

US Drag #2

I finished reading this play and I decided I like it very much because it is irreverent and funny and it portraits people exactly as they are. I think this is the most amusing thing about the play. The characters are sometimes so incredibly similar to a cartoon and yet you know they are believable because it happens you know people who are exactly like that. The characters in the play may be living in a huge city where anything can happen, but that makes them only obscure figures whose lives and problems are laughable and forgettable. They must take every opportunity they have to catch their five minutes of fame, even if it means lying and inventing fake "angst." They want to be taken into account, live under the light and attention from other people, be heroes... but they are so insignificant, they invent suffering they didn't know to end up being pitied, not admired. This play is just a big mirror, when we discover which reflection looks like us, we have to choose... either you cry or start laughing. Or you may hate the whole thing, but you can not be indiferent.

U.S. Drag...

Hey everyone,

So there was quite a bit to digest from this story and I can understand why so many people did not like the ending. From what I read, I felt most of the characters were the same in a sense, except for Angela & Allison of course. It seemed like most of the story revolved around the two of them living their lives with an interesting perspective of the world while the rest of the characters all felt like needy insecure people with problems I won't even begin to go into. However, the edginess of Angela and the soft hearted Allison kept me intrigued throughout the story because they were a good duo in dealing with these people.

The conversations seemed to have a flow that was predictable but at the same time interesting because of how different Angela & Allison were compared to the people they dealt with. The one thing I see similar between all of them all was that they were all damaged in some way and the topic of Ed was a conversation they could unify to. The fact that the issue with Ed was never fully resolved also bugged me a lot.

I was curious about why the play ended with Christopher and not the girls and it made me wonder what the play writers true intentions were in terms of what we should get out of this story. Maybe it's a tale about the loneliness some people endure because they don't possess a natural charisma that many do. Perhaps the play writer wanted to emphasize the extremes people go to for love and affection and Ed is simply the character that displays those extremes.

I won't dismiss this play as being complete fail because it did keep me interested, but I would have to see it to get a fresh perspective. Overall, as creepy as the dialogue may have been, I think it was an alright play. Hopefully, I will be able to come to a firmer conclusion after watching the play.

~Sal

US DRAG PART1&"BIG ME"

US DRAG part1.

Allison and Angela's Dialogue is so well written it makes it very easy to hear the voice of the two Characters. There's a Flow in the dialogue in all of the conversations that makes them all feel so real which helps it capture almost a mood in each of the conversations with out much narrative explanation unless it was something the what i would call out of the ordinary. One thing about the play so far is some of the characters come off extra odd like when Christopher wants Angela To lay in bed with him and he says "Could we like.. Just lie on the bed and have you hug me?" and Angela just says "i guess so" and lays in bed with him and considering how odd Christopher has already came off and the main issue so far seems to be abuse on woman you think Angela would be a little more on guard and staying SAFE!

US DRAG

As I had said before, I did not like this play. I don't really see a story in it. Nothing was really accomplished or done or explained in the end. ED was this mysterious character that hurt certain characters but he didn't really bring the characters together, I guess as I had expected. I feel like the characters didn't really change or grow except for maybe Allison I believe. In general it was a boring read and it needs some more drama, action, and meaning in the play.

The Writer's Block: U.S. Drag

The Writer's Block: U.S. Drag: As you guys wrote, I was somehow frustrated by this story. I wondered where our frustration came from, and came to guess that there is a difference between the theme which the writer tries to write and our interpretation. When we readers started reading, we believed that this story was a thriller. Although the writer poses us a riddle, she never allows us solve it. As a thriller, the story is incomplete because “There is no Ed”. However, as the writer quotes from Burroughs’s Naked Lunch in the beginning, this play is about “U.S. drag”, the contemporary sickness, in which people indulge in self-consciousness, money, fame, anxiety, sense of helplessness and loneliness. To some extent, I think the writer succeeded in depicting them. Each character is interesting, and the conversations between Angela and Allison are real. However, the development of the story is imperfect. For instance, I felt the scene where the two guys, Christopher and James, and two girls met was unnatural. Also, I didn’t really get the subtle change of Angela’s emotion.

U.S Drag

Like i said earlier,i did not like the end of the play for a couple of reasons.
Firstly because, whenever the characters of the play met,they most often talked about this mysterious guy "Ed" who was responsible for some serial killings and attacks.They tried to device plans and strategies to catch up with the "Ed" guy,and they came up with the "no help" strategy.It seemed that a common way for Ed to get his victims was by asking for help.So they thought refusing to offer help to strangers would help minimize Ed's attacks.But at the end of the play,nothing about this is mentioned.The playwright doesn't even mention if they were successful or not,and if they were,to what extent they were successful.
Secondly,the fact that Christopher ends up saying at the end of the play that he doesn't believe in Ed is very contradictory to me.All through the play,we have seen them working together to curb Ed's attacks, and all of a sudden,he changes his mind.We the audience,or personally,i donot understand the inconsistency in the character's state of mind.If there is a reason for this,i think we should be led into it.Perhaps,there is an intriguing twist to the story.If the play had just extended a little further to convey the reason behind Christopher's new stand point,i would have been satisfied.But as it is, the end of this play still needs to "end".

US Drag Second Response

Hi everyone,

After finishing the play I kind of fell silent and after thinking for a little while came to the conclusion that the ending was a little bland. If someone were to ask me how I liked the ending I'd probably shrug my shoulders and say it could have been better but it could have been worse. Or maybe I'd just say I don't know.

I think the play should have been longer. It felt a little rushed and I would have liked it better if they had found Ed in the end. It just seems like it was cut short.

I liked the characters in the play. I wouldn't change them. I especially like Christopher as a character because he makes you want to laugh because off how dramatic he is but he also says things that make you want to hit him, which makes you like the play to some degree because it gets you to respond emotionally to the characters. One example of something Christopher says that makes things interesting is that he believes that Ed doesn't exist. This comment made me want to laugh because I thought that he was crazy for saying it but I thought it was interesting because it does make for an interesting story because it creates conflict.

Overall the play was pretty interesting and I still wouldn't mind seeing the play on stage, in spite of it's faults. I just hope that on stage the play doesn't seem to confusing when it comes to transitioning from pace to place and I hope it doesn't feel like it's being rushed.

US Drag Review Part Deux by Mark Mullaney

After finishing the reading I found myself not liking any of the characters. They didn't seem to be well rounded and almost all had the same personalty only with different neurosis. The two main characters were the most developed but even so I wasn't aware of their personalty changes, that became part of the conflict, until the characters came out and said "you've changed". Maybe it works out better when an actor can add more to it, but on paper it's pretty weak.