09/2.0/2024

 Melissa LaRochelle

09/20/2024                      Week 3 Reading

Diary of a Void: This story was a little confusing for me.  I thought she’d simply lied about being pregnant and that she was faking the stages but halfway through we have a bit of a jump where suddenly she’s very pregnant and the baby is kicking? A little confusing. I’m interested in everyone’s input on this one

The Lonesome Bodybuilder: This story is one I thought would be about female empowerment but it ended up being something else. A woman feeling ignored and belittled by her partner and seeking change, deciding to be a bodybuilder. This hobby is particularly unique considering how much of Japanese culture revolves around being very small, while bodybuilding revolves around being very big. She’s treated differently by her peers and strangers, and still ignored by her husband. And after all the pain and loneliness she’s been through, in the end she stays with her husband who hadn’t even noticed her bodybuilding. Felt like a step back.

There’s No Such Thing As An Easy Job: I found this story interesting. It outwardly seems like a monotonous job that our speaker is dredging through on a daily basis, confiding in the reader about the absurdity of convenience store prices and the act of surveying someone who does so little everyday. But there is so much mystery in this story. What is the contraband item they’re looking for? Who is it from? What are the stakes of this surveillance case? One would assume that the stakes are high if the speaker isn’t even allowed to fast forward on the tapes, and yet the speaker themself has no idea the severity of the case they are pouring hours of their day observing. There are no ‘easy’ jobs. There are jobs that require a lot of patience, mental fortitude, intelligence, coordination, and people skills. Even when it appears easy on paper, such as watching tapes, the importance of the job remains in the details.

The Woman in the Purple Skirt: At first this story seemed kind of sweet in a way. I can definitely relate to seeing a stranger that stands out and imagining what their life must be like. You create a storyline in your head of who they are. As the story progressed, however, I couldn’t help but feel this level of observation was kind of creepy. I mean, the speaker knows where she lives, knows what jobs she has when she has them, knows her daily schedule, and even followed her on her way to work for her first day. I also found it interesting that the speaker was surprised that the woman giggled at the end, as if that were out of character. They wouldn’t have a real way of knowing whether that is out of character or not because they’ve never even spoken to her! It is so odd that they seem to have a parasocial relationship with a person in their real life. 

Note: tons of capitalization in this story, like everything related to this woman is its own title.

The Most Boring Red on Earth: I liked this story a lot. Obviously, there is once again a theme of magical reality, such as last week, where we’re seeing something ordinary be made extraordinary. The difference with this story however, is that the speaker seems surprised by this magical turn, rather than it be a norm in her world. It’s also  wonderful symbolism to show that just because your period is a repeated event in your life as a woman, doesn’t mean it’s less special. Your period can remind you how our bodies can literally create a human being. Our uterus can create and destroy as it does every month and that is something to marvel at.