I honestly didn't like this story. I feel like both couples have comepletely distorted love to being something that two drunk people share that makes them tolerant of each other as they drink their sadness away. THe story has a woman who was physically abusd by her ex-husband, but still seems to think that he loved her even though he tried to kill her.he stalks her after they seperated and tries to kill her new boyfriend, nly to end up killing himself. That isn't love. That's just obsession mixed with somekind of demonic anger problem that stems from eccess drinking, which is what the two couples are doing in the story in the first place
Mel, the most talkative character, told a story about an old couple who got into a car accident and were taken to the hospital he works at. I guess you could say what the old couple had was love, but Mel, who also spent five years in seminary, seemed to not understand the lesson their relationship was showing him. Andif the story hadn't told me that Mel went to seminary for five years, I wouldn't of guessed that he had even gne to church in five years.
How the story was written captured what I imagined two drunk couples talking about love would sound like. I just didn't want to know these backard perspectives on love from these characters who wouldn't who couldn't tell the diference between love and being tolerant of someone. Mel and Terri were together for about a year before they got married. I would need at least a year to be able to tell if I could see myself marrying this person, and probably more than that to be able to see if this was the person I was meant to marry. In the end I guess that the story annoyed me more than anything.
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This is a solid post. Good job. You've honed in on a number of important and subtle aspects of the story. I don't think that you've followed through with them to make a productive reading. But you've honed in one them and that's a strong start.
ReplyDeleteHere are some things that you bring up that could be explored more deeply, and you could explore these things by asking what the story itself might be saying (as opposed to simply what the characters are saying, since the story can't agree with the characters since they don't even agree with each other):
(1) The connection or relationship between "tolerating each other" and "loving each other"
(2) The relationship or seeming contradiction between Mel's time in seminary and his actions and his ideas
(3) The role of alcohol
(4) Mel's understanding of the old couple he tells about
Also, I would be careful of dismissing their views, because they seem to have a lot of experience with what they are talking about. And because, by dismissing their views, you could end up dismissing the story which has something to say beyond what any of the individual characters say.
I'd encourage you to struggle with stories longer in the future. If everything in a story all fit together in a way that you liked and agreed with, then you could just say, oh, and move on. If there are some uncomfrotable and rough aspects to it (as with people), you can work to make a productive interpretation.
I have to agree with you, John Tavanyar, about how you didn't like this story. To me it wasn't the most exciting thing ever either. I like how you said that their definition of love was 'distorted'. That was an excellent use of vocabulary! Go you! And I also liked how you picked up on what drinking did to this couple in the story. But ya I kinda wondered that if he spent 5 years in a seminary studying the Word, why would he be getting drunk when in clearly says in Ephesians 5:18 not to? Hmm
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