The Weird Thing about this Blog

The weird thing about this blog is that it has no regular readers. Something I have come to realize recently is that if you have a blog, regularly posting is crucial if you wish to build an audience. I wish that an audience existed for my blog because I would have people to talk to about stuff literary and otherwise.

This blog has existed for almost five years and some posts such as this get a lot of views for some reason. I imagine this is because the majority of people who read George Saunders also happen to be high school english teachers who assign Saunders' stories and none of them want to read stories so they all google search "George Saunders puppy summary" so they don't have to actually think about or read the actual text.

My intention with this blog was never to rack up views. If attaining views was my goal then there would be a lot more posts on here about Minecraft, Donald Trump and the Transformers movies, etc. With that in mind, from this point forward I am going to treat this blog as a kind of diary. The key thing about this diary will be the regularity of the writing that appears on it instead of the irregularity. Eventually maybe an audience will come but that is not my goal. My goal is simply to build a regular writing habit. There will be summaries of short stories that I enjoy and want to emulate not for views but for the joy of breaking apart a story and seeing how it works. Currently I am reading David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest and it is a total blast. It has reminded me of my love for language. I find that a philosophical interest in language is one of the traits that many writers share. I will most likely be writing about Infinite Jest soon because that is what I am currently reading and I am dying to write about it.

Anyways that's it for this post. Signing off to go read more Infinite Jest. I'm on page 103 of 1,079. Wish me luck.

"Tell The Women We're Going"

Another Carver story that left me speechless, "Tell The Women We're Going" deals with the relationship between two friends named Bill and Jerry. Bill and Jerry are inseparable growing up until college when Jerry drops out and gets married to a woman named Carol. Bill becomes a third wheel and whenever he goes to hang out with Jerry, he feels awkward because Jerry and Carol will start making out in front of him. Bill eventually gets married to a woman named Linda. The two couples then start hanging out regularly.

Carver reveals that Jerry and Carol have had two kids and Carol is pregnant with a third. Life has sped up quickly for Jerry who has found himself tied down in his early twenties. Meanwhile Bill seems to have his shit together compared to Jerry. Bill marries later and finishes college. One afternoon Bill and Jerry are relaxing drinking beer when they decide to go for a drive. Each has about five beers playing pool. At this point I realized that both Bill and Jerry are unlikable characters. They're on their way back home when they spot two women on bicycles and Jerry tells Bill to turn around the car so they can talk to them. Bill starts up some small talk but the girls don't really seem interested in what Bill has to offer. They follow the girls who ditch their bikes and start walking on trail. Bill and Jerry follow. Bill doesn't seem interested in following but Jerry urges him to keep up.

During this part of the story, there's a sense that something bad is about to happen. That moment happens when Jerry uses a rock to kill both of the women.    Bill says that he only wanted to have sex and would have been fine if that didn't happen but he's still an accessory to murder. The murder is a gut punch to the reader because nothing in the story suggests that Jerry is a murderer. Jerry's actions are irrational so one can assume that he's a psychopath. This story is appealing in its simplicity and bizarre turn of events. It sticks out more than Carver's other stories because of its violent ending.

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