Which work had some meaning to your own life? Why?
The work that made me think about something is the Cathedral by Raymond Carver. Amongst the stories we have read this story was the most relatable, and the most comical of all too. The perspective of the main character, with his prejudices on Robert and his unhappy relationship with his wife was understandable. Of course having prejudices against a blind man is not a wonderful thought to have, it teaches us to treat them the certain way, the right way. The main character’s wife teaches us a lot of communication, and why it’s crucial to maintaining a healthy relationship.
Which work changed your perspective or any long-held ideas you may have had? Explain.
Fairy tales in general, I thought, was bunch of stories to entertain children the teach them a lesson on what to do and what not to do when they grow up, but never thought about the story having a deeper meaning than that. For example, in Hansel and Gretel, the hosts of the podcast (maybe a radio or a audiobook?) connected the story to Jungian psycho analysis and deeply analyzed the actions of Hansel and the actions of the father. Similarly in Snow White, the reading on its psycho analysis talked about how certain scenes symbolyzes a teenage girl maturing, like when Snow White was put in a coffin and that meant the period of self reflection in her life. Even though I was exposed to fairytales from a very young age, I never thought it would have these psychological meanings so that changed the way I view these stories.
For you, which writer do you feel has the most appealing writing style? Why?
The writer with the most appealing writing style for me was Gabriel García Márquez, because his genre of stories, magical realism, is my favorite genre of all and thus I am used to that style of writing. It constantly puts readers on a edge of their seat, curious of what is going to happen next. The detailed description of the scene makes it easy for the readers to visualize the moment in the story and also the flow of the story was fast-paced, almost music-like, making it easy to understand, and leaves the room for extra time to think about the plot along the way,
