Feel free to respond in whatever (substantive) fashion you wish to the Alice Munro story! If you're at a loss, some things you might want to think about are how the story deals with the act of storytelling, the line between fact and fiction, and agency between characters and landscape.
Once again, avoid trite comments such as whether you liked the piece or not. As opposed to speculating whether you would or would not have cut something from the story, address the piece entirely on it's own terms--everything here is here for a reason. If you miss something's significance, it is definitely worthwhile thinking about why that didn't resonate with you.
In “The Photographer” by Alice Munro, the narrator is using both fact and fiction to tell a story. We also get to see how she is learning to balance the two in her novel that she is writing within the piece. What details are important in her real life that are needed in the novel, and how can they be changed in a way that maintains their significance to the theme, but without revealing their true identity? The author in general expresses the need for fiction in the narrator’s life. Both the characters and the landscape, and the sensory details used to describe them, create a visual image for the reader of the town and what it is like, or more so the important components of the town that the narrator deems important. These two elements are essential to describing the town and the story. The piece is a good example of fiction in that is demonstrates how real influences in life have led to an imaginary place, where the writer controls the details and what she wants her audience to know. Fiction better allows for a writer to persuade the readers towards certain emotions and feelings. One thing I did find odd about the piece however, is the title. Although in the epilogue we are introduced to the character of the nameless photographer, and get a description of him, I didn’t personally see it as the main focus. The story of the drowning of Marion and what her family was like, as well as the general nature and personality of the town seemed to be of more importance to the writer.
ReplyDelete-Courtney Swarthout
Cortney one thing that you pointed out that I agree with is that the author did use both fact and fiction throughout the passage. For me personally the use of both made the passage a little bit more difficult to understand because I could not decipher between what was actually real and what was not.
DeleteI liked her use of fiction and fact. I feel as though it was engaging and made me want to keep reading to see what was real and was not. I agree it was a little confusing but I liked it nonetheless.
Delete-Kasey Mentzer
About your point on the character of the photographer, I too felt that the photographer didn't seem to play any crucial role within the story, but after reflecting upon the story more I sort of interpreted the photographer character and the speaker to be one in the same.
DeleteOverall I did not find the passage very interesting or entertaining, which made it difficult to keep reading all the way through. At certain parts it was hard to understand what she was talking about so I had to reread quite often. One concept that was very confusing to me was the whole relationship between Caroline and Marion, who I guess are the same person, which in my opinion could have been made clearer for the audience to better understand. Something that was appealing to me was that it was a story about someone writing a story. Throughout the story the tone seemed sad and depressing, and it started out by talking about suicide, which in some cases can be a very difficult topic to discuss. Not only was the tone depressing but the author also described the whole town to be sad and gloomy. However, by talking about suicide in this passage, I think it makes the piece more relatable for some readers who are going through similar situations. So one thing that I do applaud the author for doing is presenting the topic of suicide in a good way, that impacts her audience. Although suicide can sometimes be a controversial subject, it definitely should be discussed more often to enlighten more people about the seriousness of the issue. Also one thing that should have been discussed more, was the actual photographer. I wish more details were given about the photographer, I thought it would be important to discuss it more because the title is "The Photographer," but maybe the author did that for a reason.
ReplyDelete-Alyssa Mahadai
I also thought that the passage was a bit hard to read sometimes. It seemed all over the place and sometimes it was hard to make the connections that were necessary to understand the story.
Delete-Madison Neylan
I agree with you on some of the confusion, especially with the names. I found myself a few times wondering who someone was, and having to go back and read again. I also want to know more about the photographer, and why he is significant enough to be the title of the novel.
Delete-Courtney Swarthout
I really agree with you in that I did not enjoy this story either. I thought it was boring, and a little confusing. I also thought it was hard to read and would get distracted so easily. I didn't really think about the tone of the piece but I think it seems a little more vacant or hallow, than sad and depressing.
DeleteI agree with you on how that suicide is a hard topic to talk amongst one another. Suicide is a big issue that a lot of people, believe it or not, go through than you think. The author made it comfortable to speak about it. The piece started off sad, but suicide is a sad and serious topic. Also, it was difficult for me to understand the story too, but if you read it multiple times, you get a better understanding each time!
DeleteI agree with you the passage was not very entertaining and was hard to follow. I thought it was going to be sad and depressing, but as I kept reading the passage kind of just seemed dull. I think the author did a good hob describing the characters, but there was not really anything that drew me towards the characters or interested me.
DeleteI definitely agree. Suicide is a hot topic and should be discussed, making it a talking norm would take it out of the taboo realm and help people that are going through it.
DeleteThis piece was very different from anything that I am used to reading. I found it interesting to watch the transition between fact and fiction throughout the writing. The author clearly relied heavily on the facts of the real town that she grew up in, but she described how she turned that into fiction so that she was not blatantly telling the story of the people that she actually grew up with. She talks about how some parts of the story she had to exaggerate to make more interesting, and some parts she actually had to tone down because she felt as if they were too much, even for a book. The entire passage seemed very dark and depressing. It immediately opens up talking about suicide and how so many people from her town have killed themselves. This continues throughout the passage as she begins to explain the stories of many of the people who committed suicide and all of their friends and family members. This is how she wrote her story and decided what would stay and what she needed to take out in order to make it as interesting as possible. The author used a lot of sensory details to describe the town and all of the people in it. I think that this made it more interesting to read because you could really picture the town and place yourself in the story. Sometimes it seemed as if the writing was all over the place but with the use of all of the details and imagery it helped to tie everything together and make more sense again.
ReplyDelete-Madison Neylan
I agree with you, I also thought that the passage was very dark and depressing. I thought that the details of the town and people helped too.
DeleteI agree that this story was different from what I am used to reading. I also agree that the large amount of sensory details helped the reader picture the town but I also think it was a way to reflect the effect that the suicides had on the town.
DeleteThe biggest thing I noticed with this passage/short story was that it did not entertain me at all. I love reading, but I can only do it if I’m pulled in. This story was not enough and I found myself constantly distracted by other things happening and easily pulling myself away from the story. It may have been the story or the way it was written. It also could have been the very distracting environment around me. It was slightly interesting that she was writing a novel within the story. The thought of that seemed a little fun, but it also distracted me a little. Because I was so distracted I would get lost when I returned to the reading and I started getting confused by who all the characters were and how they were related. I tried rereading but I just didn’t enjoy the passage enough. It felt like there were connections you had to make, but I wasn’t capable of making them. Normally, I love making connections and leaps whenever I read something. I enjoy that feeling of accomplishment, but this was different that the stories I normally read and in turn I did not enjoy it as much. It is interesting to me that I didn’t really enjoy this short story however, because I normally enjoy the style of writing the author used. I’m not exactly sure how to describe it, but the style of the writing is very familiar to other stories and books that I have read before and enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteI also found the piece a bit confusing and difficult to read. However, I do think that with reading anything, connections have to be made on your part to better relate and understand the story.
Delete-Deontre Youmans
I think the reason for her jumbled writing style is supposed to reflect her writing process. She is constantly replaying the events in her head and then morphing them into what she wants to write about, similar to how you said you were reading this, it wasn't neat and orderly, it was jumbled.
DeleteThis piece shows how a woman/girl decides to write a fiction novel based on the lives, or lost lives, of a neighborhood family. Throughout her writing process, she decides to take the story of the Sherriff family and change certain details of it, such as their names, what their house looked like, and other aspects of the story. I found reading this piece to be a bit difficult. There were times where the actual story blends into the story she’s trying to write, making the progression of the narrative a bit confusing. While reading this piece, I questioned whether a work can be considered true fiction if it’s based on something true, even if some things are changed. In my opinion, mostly anything originally written or written with inspiration from something that has already existed can be considered fiction. This piece was also loaded, and sometimes overloaded, with detail. The details did help to provide an entertaining and informative level to the piece. However, I felt that some of the details strayed away from the main purpose of the piece making it harder to read and understand. The narrator does a great job of using both fact and fiction in the piece overall and in the novel the woman/girl is trying to write within the piece. At the end of the piece, there is a moment where Bobby Sherriff is compared to a ballerina when he stands up. From reading the last page of the piece there is obviously some sort significance to this action, but it is not understood by the woman or the reader (me).
ReplyDelete-Deontre Youmans
The way the author would switch from talking about her town, with its tragedies of suicide and their impacts on the people of the town and the family members, and what was going on in the past that prompted him to write this short story to discussing how he went about creating a short story was engaging and kept the reader interested. The shift from talking about suicides as a general thing, the author directs the reading to a specific woman and her life and why she committed suicide was smooth and well executed. Both kinds of tension are evident in the passage, with short term tension occurring more often than long term. The long-term tension, I think, was the issue of suicide, whether it be in this town or as a broader subject. One of the short-term tensions that stood out the most was when the author was stopped by one of the Sheriffs, Bobby. The way the author used descriptive details of her encounter with Bobby Sherriff helped paint a vivid picture in the reader’s mind, from the cake the author ate to the lemonade which was served to him. The use of descriptive details, such as the embroidered napkin and the lemonade with ice cubes, mint leaves, and a cherry, help the reader stay entertained and makes them want to keep reading the story, along with the use of tensions. The use of various tensions gives the story depth and character rather than it being flat and boring.
ReplyDelete-Kasey Mentzer
I found the reading very hard to stay focused in because I found it a little boring and confusing. The fact that she was writing a story within the story was confusing because they started to overlap in my brain so I had to go back and reread some parts, but I didn't find it very interesting and I found myself zoning out. I could tell that she was pulling from her real life situations- which would be the factual aspect- and including it in her writing and elaborating on it and bringing in new ideas to the scenarios- which would be the fiction aspect. She wrote how she had to add some fictional details and exaggerations to make the writing more interesting for the reader and then at other parts maybe had to delete some details so it wouldn't be so overwhelming. The writing was very detailed, which is very good and helpful, but I think there is a certain extent of detail that should be included. The details about her town and all of the citizens who lived in the town were helpful in creating an image in my head of the story which kind of helped make more sense of the story. The overall tone of the story was sad and depressing because of it being about suicide because of how many people in her town committed suicide. She included stories that were about people committing suicide and how their family members and friends handled it/responded to it.
ReplyDeleteThe way that the author goes into detail about how the families responded to the suicides was extremely sad and personal.
Delete-Ryan Telford
“The Photographer” by Alice Munro had a special aspect on the town she lived in. The way she described the town was more on the negative side and sad. An example that shows this is when the author’s mother was able to name who committed suicide and how they did it. Even though “The Photographer” is a piece of fiction, there are facts incorporated into this piece as well. I enjoy how the author was able to take a serious matter and include it into her storytelling. The author includes a lot of detail in this writing. I was able to feel and visualize myself into the setting at times. Some descriptive details that stood out to me were “mustard-colored stucco bungalow” and “tidy lawn and picked-clean flower beds.” I feel as if I was able to visualize these things. The only thing is that sometimes I thought that there was too much descriptive detail going on that it was too much for me to visualize or “handle” making me feel too overwhelmed. Also, there were a lot of characters going on in such a short piece, but as I kept rereading this piece, I had a better understanding of each character. The character’s names may have been replaced and some other things in the story as well, but you were still able to grasp what the author was trying to say and her intentions. I would say Alice Munro was not the typical fiction writing style as I expected it to be.
ReplyDeleteThe story “The photographer” mixes fiction and nonfiction together in the same story, making it hard to see the difference. The author was very creative in how she accomplished this. The narrator, Del, talks about her childhood town and the suicides that occurred there but then switches to talk about a fiction novel she is writing about the story of her town. In this novel, she tells almost the same exact story just in a different setting with different character names. Often, I was left confused on what was true and what she had made up for her own novel. I also wondered if it was all fiction, that the narrator talking about her childhood home was also fiction created by the author. I found that focusing on picking apart what was fiction or nonfiction distracted me from the storyline itself. Because of this I had a hard time putting the correct name to the character, especially when the characters were almost like the same person. However, I also found it interesting that the author wrote a story of someone writing a story and still made it interesting. I personally believe it would be very difficult to write in the style that the author does but it must also be hard to write about the topic. Suicide can be a difficult topic to write about when trying to reach the audience but, also making sure not to offend anyone. Due to the topic being one of suicide I found the tone very gloomy and depressing. This was reflected in how the town was described. The author loaded the story with details, portraying the town in her novel as a harsh and dirty place when in reality the house most plagued by suicide still had a “tidy lawn”. The details in the novel seemed over exaggerated, the only thing that helped me distinguish between reality and the novel.
ReplyDelete-Isabel Tomsich
In this story, the author wants to write a novel about a family that has had a string of rather unfortunate events. Two of the Sherriff’s children are killed, one by alcoholism and one by a mysterious drowning, while the other child went to college but ended up in a metal institution. The speaker is weaving between her reality and her fantasy. The speaker spends a lot of time talking about that her town would be like in her novel, but she never tells the reader what it actually is. I find this type of writing style to be very confusing because it is a) hard to tell what is fact and what is fiction, and b) I have to infer what the town actually is based on the fantasy description of the town. I had to read this story twice to fully grasp what was going on. At first, I did not connect that Caroline was the name for Marion in the speaker’s novel. I think the title of this story, “The Photographer” is attributed to the fact that without this mysterious man that Caroline supposedly killed herself over, is somehow connected to how Marion actually died, but the author does not reveal that information to us. If I lived in a town with Bobby Sherriff, I would do everything I could to avoid him because the way the author portrays her interaction with him is kind of scary. If I was walking by the house of someone that I did not know that well, I would not be too inclined to stop and have cake and lemonade with them. The author wants the reader to be uncomfortable during this interaction because it somehow connects back to her novel, whether this is part of her novel or her world is up for debate, but either way, the purpose for this interaction is to show how deaths, especially suicides, can affect family members and sometimes they cannot control how they feel so they bottle their emotions up until they cannot handle it anymore and totally lose it and have to go away for a little while.
ReplyDelete-Kyle Post
“The Photographer” by Alice Munro in my opinion is all about the line that fact and fiction tread on. This entire exert is trying to confuse the reader, making them question what is real and what is fake. We follow a series of descriptions by the author, talking about the different suicides in the beginning and then leading into the novel she is writing. The entire atmosphere of this piece is sad and unhappy, the truth of our reality can be sad to face. This is why our main character is writing her own novel. An escape from reality is what she wants, since she’s so tired of hearing about the suicides and the tragedies that her mother brings up often. You can skip to any paragraph of this piece and you’ll find yourself wondering whether it’s fact or fiction. The language used is descriptive, but the backstory the main character gives on her real and made up characters is where things get interesting. Often times in our society, we lose sight that everyone in the world lives just as a vivid and complex as the one we live, and we find ourselves putting ourself first over other people. The main characters imagination runs freely, creating her characters for her novel from real life facts. This is where fiction takes over for non-fiction, you are able to come up with your own world, with your own characters and their own stories. Reality is a closed box - what’s outside the box is where we’re able create and explore our minds.
ReplyDelete-Ryan Telford
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI also felt that the overall theme of the story was very sad. I definitely knew the author was trying to get the reader to feel these emotions because of talking about the emotional topic of suicide. I agree that the language was very descriptive, however, I sought it out to be almost too wordy making it hard to follow and understand throughout the transition of the real story, vs her imagination.
Delete“The Photographer” by Alice Munro was, in all honesty, extremely difficult to read. The speaker recounts in grueling detail how pieces of her life contributed to her future work without making any clear distinction between what is real and what is in fact her own creation. I found it quite interesting at how the piece is titled “The Photographer” when in the story the photographer plays only a small part in the overall arc of the fictional story as opposed to the actual piece as a whole. But when reviewing the short story further, I made the inference that The Photographer, in a way, mirrors the narrator in the sense that both of them viewed the world around them as gruesome, dull, and depressing. Through the details and descriptions provided by the author, it seems that the novel was her way of depicting how she felt about the town she lived in and the people around her. I feel that Munro’s choice to make the line between fact and fiction so discreet aided to the idea that to the speaker, her world and the world of her novel were one in the same, which if you think about it, is true. One thing that I felt distracted the reader from understanding the story was Munro’s inability to properly stick to one thought and develop it before proceeding with the story. Throughout the piece, she would often jump around to different thoughts and ideas and then backtrack to something said a few paragraphs before.
ReplyDeletecompletely agree, it was very vague. However with deeper digging, many themes arise
DeleteI agree with Jonathan. The story was very difficult to read. I had to go back multiple times in order to get a decent understanding of what is going on. I also agree with what he said about the significance of "the photographer" in the excerpt. "The photographer" should have been talked about more in the epilogue, especially because he is the title of the whole section.
Delete-Victoria Dumornay
I really enjoyed how the author of this short story immediately grabbed my attention with a kind of dark opener. I expected the story to be more about the darkness and eeriness of the town rather than about the people of the town. I like the way the author portrayed the people of the town in their own light was really nice because it displayed each of them personally. I felt like it made it easier to get a sense of each person in the town and their characteristics. The authors use of descriptive language made it easy to paint a picture in my head of what was going on, however the story was confusing because there were so many different characters and some characters with the same name. It was clear that the author entwined a lot of fact and fiction which was interesting to see. She used her personal experiences, but changed names and certain scenarios and certain circumstances so in my opinion sometimes it was hard to tell things apart. I do think mixing both fact and fiction is very creative and can give an author a very good base for a creative outlet and a story.
ReplyDeleteThe author had a very specific writing style throughout this piece. During her writing process, she chose to be very descriptive when talking about the Sherriff family in the story. The authors strategy of writing was to take certain parts of their lives and change them to be something else, sort of telling the real story but changing it to her own style. I found this to very different from anything that I have ever read. I thought it was somewhat hard to follow because of all of the information in all of the paragraphs about the lives/suicides of the people. However, when talking about characters and certain situations I found it be helpful to paint a vivid picture in my head. I considered the theme of the story to be very depressing due to the many conversations about suicide and how many people in her town have done it. One part of the story confused me quite a bit. I didn’t understand the ending where the author talks about the ballerina being similar to Sherriff. It seemed to have left a missing part of the story that I couldn't put together. I think it was mostly because I was already a little confused with the style of the writing where the author goes in and out of her own life and brings in a fiction story along the way. In the end, I think the transitions going in and out of each story was slightly hard to follow.
ReplyDeleteWithin “The Photographer” by Alice Munro, there is a contrast between two main things fiction and non-faction that work together to create the piece. The details of non-fiction are needed to cement the setting and aspects of fiction are needed to make the story interesting. It also allowed for the push of the story to move forward. Vivid imagery of the encounters that the narrator faced such as the one with Sheriff, Bobby push forward the story to be a little more interesting but overall the story seems to be a little plain. Hard to understand and a little confusing when reading make the reader sort of lose interest. The story heavily relies on characterism and vivid imagery to keep the reader interested as the story isn’t enough. Though when connecting the aspects of the story to the neighborhood and the people within it the story seems to be parallel to the vivid imagery and characterism. Even at the beginning of the story when the narrator talks about the characteristics that fit into the environment such as all the suicides that follow up in the town. When going through the names, details of aspects of the looks of the house, and other details of other parts of the story I find that the story does a good job. But with all the details the understanding of the passage is hard and that to me is the main problem. Not only that but she also tries to infuse the story with aspects of the parts she is attempting to write. The continuous amount of information supports this as well and again strays the story away from the story and adds to making it confusing.
ReplyDeleteIn the Photographer, I noticed a great deal of imagery and descriptive language. She starts off the story very vaguely, and mysteriously. In doing so, It really caught my attention, because it made me more interested in the story. The town itself was very small, so the author made an effort to highlight each individual. This added a sense of togetherness, which further illustrated how close the townspeople were and at the same time, brought me closer to the story and these individual characters. Much like a photo, the way in which people and the scenery are described much like a photo, a vivid snapshot. The part where the sheriff is mentioned and the two kids are killed really set the tone of the passage and this tone carried through till the end. The big mystery of the novel however, is what the actual town looks like. The author describes what the ideal town would look like, but rarely touches upon what is happening now. It seems as if she imagines this fantasy world in an attempt to escape the reality of the small town. Much like the photographer inside of her, she imagines the perfect shot that she hopes to emulate into her dream town. The passage overall is very vague, and left me wondering what actually happened.
ReplyDeleteThe epilogue of “The Photographer” by Alice Munro was overall very confusing. I had a lot of trouble understanding what the reader was talking about majority of the time. Also, the author jumped from one story to another, which made it difficult to follow. I was hoping that Alice Munro would elaborate more on the stories in order to get a better picture. However, I was able to gather some information from the epilogue. I noticed that the author combined both fact and fiction together in order to explain the story. She was able to explain stories that happened in the past, but still tied fiction into it in order to make it more interesting. The only downside of this is that Alice Munro would change the characters’ names for that fictional side (Marion=Caroline?), which made it little more confusing. Another factor that I found interesting about the epilogue of “The Photographer” was that even though the theme of the entire excerpt (death and suicide) has a very dark tone to it, the narrator speaks of it in a somewhat light manner. Not many negative or dark words were used in it. I wish Alice Munro would have talked more about “the photographer” in the epilogue. Since it is the title of the epilogue, I believe that it should have elaborated more. She should have talked about man difference factors, such as why the excerpt was given that name. “The photographer” was not given enough recognition.
ReplyDelete-Victoria Dumornay
“The Photographer” by Alice Munro is an example of melding of fact and fiction. She takes some pieces of life and adds in sprinkles of fantasy. I kind of interpreted it as a coping mechanism for all of the unfortunate events that surrounded her life (e.g. death of the children, suicide, etc.). Additionally, in a way, this excerpt reminded me of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five where he uses aspects of fact and fiction to show how he interprets life, also caused by it being a coping mechanism as the main character suffered from PTSD. I digress, a key thing that stood out throughout this piece was that the author included massive amount of detail. In different parts of the story, I could feel literal chills down my spine. She was able to, in my opinion, drag the reader into her realm, regardless whether or not it was real which is a key indicator of a “good read.”
ReplyDeleteI also saw that the author uses different details to counteract each other, like an oxymoron. The gloomy town versus the tidy lawn. I feel that the usage oxymorons serves as an indicator of splitness of the piece.
I also thought “The Photographer” was a great choice for the name of the excerpt because Alice Munro, like a photographer, framed how she wanted her story to be read. Each piece of meticulously set up and the entire excerpt is her photograph. It shows that things can be framed and be not necessarily true but still creates an effect.