Monday, January 24, 2011

What we talk about when we talk about love

Wow, what a story. Raymond Carver uses a very interesting style of language as he tells this story. This seems like an autobiography, and the story itself seemed very choppy, but it flowed in the same time frame throughout. One of the things that i would give Carver praise on, is the way that he depicts his characters, especially Mel. Right off the bat he states that he is a Cardiologist and 'can talk', which makes the reader assume that he is kind of arrogant or a know-it-all. As i was was reading this story, one of the main things that i noticed was how Terri and Mel have a bitter past. Carver does a great job in depicting the image that they are not over each others past. One thing that i am having a difficult time with, is what is the main point of this story? It seems that Mel has a twisted version of love because of the past relationships. One of the points could be that love is what we think it means. For Terri, she said that Ed loved her, even though he physically abused her and violently dragged her around the room. This was his way of showing her love, but for Mel, he thought that this was absurd and that it was not even remotely close to love. Also, we see the idea of 'the one' in this story. I have had many friends ask me if I believe that there is 'one' person for you to fall in love with. Obviously, Mel thinks that we can love many people, as he states that if someone dies in a marriage, the other party will quickly fall in love and find a replacement. This story as a whole seemed dark and kind of ironically depressing. Mel is kind and gently at first, then towards the end of the story, he is dropping 'F' bombs all over the place. He seems also to be an alcoholic. I also saw another idea in this story as Nick and Laura seem to have a wonderful relationship, as they are 'still on the honeymoon', while Mel and Terri seem to be stuck in all of their past and hurt in relationships. The ending of this story blew my mind and even after re-reading that passage, i still have no idea why it ended like that. It said the room went dark and it was silent. This part left me very confused and it did not help with the theme of the story as it added to the confusion. I really hope we are able to discuss this in class tomorrow as i would like to see what my peers think that this ending might have meant.

1 comment:

  1. "what is the main point of this story?"

    I think that there's a lot of different/related meanings that can/should be taken from the story--and from the ending especially, which, as confusing as it may be at first (or always), seems particularly powerful and moving to me, and not necessarily in a warm and fuzzy way.

    But the "main" point, at least from my perspective, is the people themselves, the characters in the story, that we should be able to feel for them, to have compassion on them, and to see ourselves as well in the story, at least to a certain degree, and to have compassion on those parts of ourselves that are not yet fully in alignment with love.

    (By the way, make sure to turn off the "comment verification" on your blog so its easier to leave comments. Go under "comments"--one of the tabs within "settings"-- and select "no" for the option "Show word verification for comments?" Thanks.)

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