This course has been my first experience with short stories,
and it has definitely been a great ride. We read such a variety of short
stories, and I was exposed to so many different narrative voices, writing
styles, and a huge variety of subject matter. For many of the stories that we
read in this course, I wished that it had been a whole book rather than just a
short story. I wanted to know more, and I didn’t want to accept the fact that
this was the end of the story. Oftentimes the small glimpse we get into
characters’ lives wasn’t enough for me. But for the short story “Adams” in our
latest book, I was completely satisfied with it just the way it was. It was the
definition of “short and sweet”, and it might have been the first time I was
content with only seeing a glimpse of this character’s life. Although it was
one of the shortest stories we read this semester, it might have also been the
most hilarious story.
There are a
few major reasons why this story amused me so much. One reason why this story
was so entertaining was because of its narrative voice. The narrative voice,
the way Roger talked and explained things to us in itself, was very comical yet
real. Through this story George Saunders continues to use unusual yet appealing
narrative voices that we first experienced in “Jon”. The way Roger talks makes
you feel as if you are watching his whole thought process. He basically says
everything he thinks, and so you can see the different connections between his
thoughts and why he came to a conclusion. Roger doesn’t try to clean his story
up, he just leaves it the way it is and writes down whatever comes to him. I
especially liked the part in the text where Roger said “So I wonked him again,
as Lynn came in, saying, Hey, Roger, hey. With Roger being me.” (102). This
passage in particular gave me this feeling that Roger was telling this story
instead of writing it, and I could almost hear his voice in my head narrating
this whole situation.
Two other
reasons why this was one of the most entertaining stories so far was because of
its hypocrisy and absurdity. Roger throughout this story is obviously the one
doing all of the wrong, “wonking” Adams (or at least attempts to) every chance
he gets, barging into his neighbor’s house and knocking over his wife and
children, and even stealing knives and guns and chemicals from Adams. Yet
throughout the story Roger is planning ahead and preparing to react to the bad
things that he predicts Adams to do. He even puts himself in Adam’s place and
prepares to react to the revenge that he would take upon himself if he were in
Adam’s shoes (What?). Overall the whole hypocritical and absurd situation
taking place in this narrative was wildly entertaining for me. Did the rest of
you enjoy "Adams" just as much as I did?
Interesting. I did enjoy "Adams" for sure, but it wasn't my favorite short story from this semester. It was a satisfying one, yes, but there are just so many other short stories that I loved from this semester. One of my favorites was definitely the one from "The Things They Carried" about the wife of a soldier, and what she went through. I can't remember the names/details of the story exactly, but I just remember that that one really stood out to me, and helped me begin to understand the impact that short fiction can have.
ReplyDeleteI hesitate to call it "my favorite", or "the best", but I will say it made me laugh the most. The way in which it's narrated is extremely unorthodox, but I love it. It sounds much more like a written transcript of an interview, possibly outlining a witness' recount of a crime, than a formally written and published story. Ove the course of the semester, I've found that the stories with the most obscure, or unique, or original perspectives are the ones I'm most drawn to. I wrote in a recent blog post that children have seemed to make for interesting narrators, as well as second person in general. Saunders presents an entirely new approach that I have very much enjoyed so far.
ReplyDeleteAdams was really quite the story, I wouldn't quite call it my favorite but it definitely gets points for uniqueness. I had to read it twice to really appreciate it, as the first time I was just trying to comprehend Roger's process. But overall, it was just fascinating to read.
ReplyDeleteRegarding your and Martin's comments, I agree that this wasn't my favorite short story from the varied collection we've gotten to read, but in his post Minwoo never claims it to be the 'best', just the most entertaining. In this respect I agree; while it was hilarious in its absurdity and comic irony, there were, to me, subjectively 'better' short stories.
DeleteTo clear up some misunderstandings, I would like to say that I was not trying to argue that this was my favorite story of the semester (as Timmy already pointed out). There were so many other great stories that we read this semester, and like the rest of you I would not consider this as the best/my favorite one. I was simply trying to make the case that personally, this may have been the short story that was best for pure entertainment and a good laugh. Anyway, thank you all for reading my post!
ReplyDeleteI found "Adams" really interesting (I wrote my blog post entirely on it discussing some things) and thought a lot of the same thoughts you did. I definitely thought of Adams as hypocritical. I thought that both Adams and Roger definitely had a super strange relationship. I wonder if Roger thinks like this all the time or only gets into this mode of thought when it comes to protecting his family. Maybe he is telling this as sort of a rant and this isn't what he's like all the time?
ReplyDeleteThe part where he puts himself in Adams's place, and thinks of how all this must look from his angle, is definitely one of the most interesting and strange moments in this interesting and strange story. It would seem to suggest a capacity for empathy, compassion, and even self-knowledge--a moment of clarity where he briefly realizes how insane he is acting. But then he just uses it as further justification to *really* try and get all the potential weapons out of Adams's house (which is such an insane way to try to end a fight).
ReplyDeleteThe part of "Adams" that intrigued me the most was Roger's justifications of why he "had" to go into Adams' house and wonk him, or take all of the weapons out of Adams' house, and eventually go back to remove all of the chemicals. He used relatively rational justifications, though these were very centered around him and his family. In the end, he even justifies fighting with Adams' kids and the implied burning of their house by his need to survive and be with his own children.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Minwoo on basically all the aspects covered in this post, of how "Adams" and "Jon" both had that half-formal half-conversational manner (and sometimes half try-hard), of how the plots can sometimes be confusing and dumb (especially in the title track where a piece of what candy stabs an orange? like umm what). However, Saunders did have a point to all of the stories, most of them commenting on the advertisements we have around us. This story, however, didn't have as clear of a point to me as the others, but nevertheless has been a very entertaining one.
ReplyDelete