Gail Godwin's "St. George" by Jane Curtin
I enjoyed listening to "St.George" because Jane Curtin introduced the characters by taking on their role, as the story progressed. Primarily, she tries to portray the dragon as both a big strong man, and a soft cuddily dragon, as she reads the dialougue between Silas and Gwen. Since Jane Curtin mockingly gives human characteristics to the dragon, such as describing his delightful towards the t.v show, the story was brought to life. Later on, when Silas is buttoning his shirt, Jane is presenting the humanesque aspect of this dragon making it even more believable. Jane created a very unique voice throughout the story by altering it as she speaks as a specific character. When portryaing Gwen who was getting a master's degree, and who wanted to wait to fall in love, she exagerated the encounter between Gwen and the dragon at the coffee shop, by stating that Gwen was searching for someone who she couldn't get attatched to. Additionaly, Jane uses her own emotions, as the third person, to portray her opinion on specific characters. For example, Jane sarcastically describes the dragon's continuos visits to Gwen's home, and with an annoyed tone, she explains how Gwen rambles about "the disease". With these different reading techniques, Jane Curtin brought the story to life, and made it very amusing.
The Trickle-Down Affect by James Naughton
James began the story by intorducing Deb, a young boy who had both an easy, and difficult life. As a young boy, he had two sisters, a famlily ranch, and recieved first pick on horses. Fast-forward to his adult years, the ranch was given to the elk-tooth bank, his sisters were in Oregon, had sadly developed an allergy to chocolate and just within the first minute I had gone on an emotional roller coaster, and James had created a voice for this story that made the listener pity Deb. I absolutely loved how James continuously changed the way he portrayed Deb, because it altered the listeners opinion of him. Sometimes the listener pitied Deb, and sometimes James exlpained his drinking habits, lack of income, and sad broken marriages, forcing the reader to blame Deb for the outcomes. I also liked how James focused on the smaller aspects of the story, such as the drought affecting everyones ranch, causing them to wait for rain like mice. By detering off of Deb's poor situation, it was amusing to hear James make fun of everyone's bad luck. In general, James Naughton cleverly encompassed Deb's character, making this reading very unique.
Gomez Palacio
I didn't like this story as much as the previous ones, especially because the reader was very monotonous. The narrator describes his last days in Mexico, where he lists events that take place, with no real emotion or reaction to them. Although the reader did change his voice when speaking as the main character, he didn't portray his own reaction, or bring the story to life. It is clear through the story, that the narrator disliked traveling through all these cities on his way to Gomez Palacio, but the reader didn't show disgust, or anger in his voice. Only through the context of the story could I identify the narrators true emotions. Although the reader does sarcastically describe, for example the pleasant taste of coffee, this change in tone didn't come often, making this story very dull.
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ReplyDeleteThe Trickle-Down Effect
ReplyDeleteThis number one thing I found most tedious about listening to this podcast was the terrible attempt at a southern farmer's accent made by the narrator. While the descriptive parts sounded fine, the dialogue between Deb and his ex-wives sounded very forced, and took a lot of emphasis away from the actual story. However, the unexpected ending slightly made up for this.
All accents aside, I agree with Ariba and think that the narrator did a nice job of making the listener question whether or not Deb should be pitied. While it was sad that his life took a turn for the worst between losing the ranch and being on the losing end of his multiple marriages, he was also at fault due to his drinking. His entire lifestyle revolved around paying off his bar tabs for each week, so it was interesting whether this was the cause or effect of his marriage issues.
Not sure if I already commented this.... this blog confuses me a bit so just to make sure potentially reposting this????
ReplyDeleteSt. George
Okay, so first time I listened to this I might’ve taken it a bit too literally and thought the entire story was stupid and a bit gross.
On the note of what Cassie said about the theme of being lonely, I have a question then. Did she actually care for Silas or was she just lonely? Like, it could’ve been that she was literally just that lonely, but she seemed to care about him and where he was
I really liked the narrator because they were fun and upbeat sometimes and they really added personality and you could tell that she liked cared. Her voice would get droll when saying “on and on” but upbeat when you could tell the character was excited. Where some people might choose an accent or a different voice it was unnecessary here because she did such a good job with just portraying the emotion. She did a really awesome job reading it with a funny tone as well. Like, just immersing herself so that when something was supposed to be funny people laughed. I liked her more than Trickle Down Effect Person, although that might be because I preferred this story.
Trickle Down Effect
Perhaps I’m just not as forgiving, but I disagree Ariba. I felt no pity for Deb at all. He was awful from childhood (“lording it over his sisters” and getting first pick and stealing devil’s food cake). He was spoiled and seems sort of rude. This proceeded into adulthood. I could’ve felt bad that his ranch was given to the bank, but then I don’t because he’s such a mess. He regards a good marriage as being “small feet and a big ***” and yes it’s intended to be comedic for the audience but it just paints Deb as even more of an asshole. He’s a heavy drinker and he’s clearly not willing to make any sort of effort for anything except drinking.
I totally agree that the small little details that really weren’t necessary were nice because they added to the story’s effect and really brought you into it. Like, I enjoy the cute little made up explanation of a “trickle down effect” for the bars and all the smaller explanations that Prue made an effort to talk about.
In regards to the reader, I mean I didn’t really like the story but I never once got the sense of bored monotone and I didn’t really complain at all about the way it was told. I liked that he really made an effort with the accent and his natural voice sort of carried a… western feel about it.
St. George: I did not really like this story very much. I felt like there was no climax, and the whole story was kind of pointless and over the top. I also was and still am confused about what is real and what the dragon is supposed to represent. I think that the listener was supposed to feel sympathy for Gwen because she is lonely and desperate, but I felt more annoyed by her than sympathetic. However, I think that Jane Curtin did a very good job portraying how Gwen felt and acted in a sort of confused but confident voice. She used great tone of voice to emphasize and highlight the strange behaviors of the dragon and Gwen. Also, when she was describing Silas and how he is nonchalant, she became much more monotonous to show the difference of him talking and Gwen talking (with much more inflection). She also slowed down to drag out certain parts of the story that were very over exaggerated. I also feel like her tone was somewhat sarcastic, as if she was making fun of Gwen and the fact that she can't get her life together, which made it more funny. Overall, I didn't really enjoy the story but I think that Jane Curtin did a good job telling it.
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