Scars

I would simply like to simply have a little sigh of relief that I will not be commenting on the Nabokov's Lolita today, however I am starting fresh and new with the two short stories of "Emergency" by Denis Johnson and "Home" by Jayne Anne Phillips. Both of which were quite interesting to read, and both seem to deal with some kind of scar or damage to the human body, which must be a symbol in some fashion. But here we go...

Starting with "Emergency," I thought this was definitely an interesting story. It seemed as though, the speaker and Georgie were both tripping on something while it was going on though. The sentences and thought patterns never seemed to be coherent. And it does indicate that they both abuse drugs, even while working, "A champion of the drug LSD..." (279). There seems to be some symbolism in this story with the knife that is inside Terrence Weber's eye. I'm not sure exactly what it means, but his poor fellow was stabbed by his wife, already has a plastic eye for his other eye (so therefore is already half blind), and walked three blocks to the hospital to get this checked out. Then, when the doctor comes to see him his first question is, "What seems to be the trouble?" (276). I mean, what in the world?! This guy has a knife sticking out of his eye, it is quite OBVIOUS what the trouble is! This actually reminds me of a similar situation that happened to me when I was four years old. I had an eye injury where I was cut by a pocket knife on my cornea (thank goodness I didn't go to the ER with a knife stuck in my eye). Anyway, ironically it was my left eye, just like Terrence, and I have joked with people before that it is a glass eye (which it definitely isn't, thankfully it did nothing to impair my vision, actually it corrected it). Actually I told that story to a fellow classmate of mine, Andrew Finley, and he believed me for a fraction of a minute:) But on with "Emergency," another quote I found quite interesting was in the beginning of the story when Georgie says, "There's so much goop inside of us, man and it all wants to get out" (274). This makes me feel that somehow when the narrator and Georgie make their escape, they're escaping more than just the hospital that they work in, they'r escaping something else as well. Maybe the constraints of society, their past, or even just every day living (which could also play into the use of drugs), I'm really not quite sure...just some speculation.

Now "Home" by Jayne Anne Phillips I have to admit I didn't get off to a good start with because initially I, for some reason, thought the narrator was a man (I guess that's just what I've been accustomed to lately) and I thought this man was having homosexual fantasies, but that obviously wasn't the case. It's about this girl who must move home to live with her mother to save money. Her mother and herself don't really get along because her mom just seems to think she puts out to any man that will take some. They both seem to have an unhealthy view of sex though. Because the mother and daughter were abused by the father in previous years so they both would view male figures in an unhealthy from that situation. The mother states that she would never want to have sex again because it was screw up everything and who would even want her now and the daughter is sleeping with Daniel, who is apparently seeing another girl whom he is serious with. Both mother and daughter seem to have some kind of identity issues that neither one are willing do deal with, especially not with each other. They both seem to go after the wrong men. The mother only married the father, it seems, because he had a sick mother that she could take care of. And the daughter loved a man named Jason who eventually went crazy. An interesting part that is to be noted is that the daughter admits to her mother that she doesn't think she's ever had an orgasm. I'm not sure the complete significance of this, but there must be some type of suppressed passion in her life that she's not willing to give up.