Uni Students are too Stressed to Read Hemingway

Uni students are too stressed to appreciate stories such as "Big Two-Hearted River" parts I and II.  I think the point of the story itself is very similar to why Nick takes pleasure in tasks such as setting up a tent and doing all the small things that contribute to a good camp.  Nick loses himself in the work and ceases to think about other things besides the job at hand.  Reading this story can have a similar affect, if it is approached with the right mindset.  Hemingway's meticulous description of Nick's time in the woods cannot be appreciated if the reader only wants to finish the story so they get credit on a quiz.  One must relax and lose track of time while reading slowly to feel the same pleasure that Nick feels setting up his tent or fishing the river or hiking through the woods.  Just like reading this story, all of these things Nick does are technically work, but when Nick does them, he does them out of choice making them not work but relaxing pastimes.  We need to read this story with a similar mindset, not reading to prepare for the quiz but to relax and enjoy some good writing.

I believe that this idea is most applicable to stories such as "Big Two-Hearted River" but it should help the enjoyment of any story to read it with such a mindset and not just for the grade.  This is easier to do with stories such as Tim O'Brien's since they are generally more engaging and easily accessible to the casual reader.  Most Uni students have relatively full schedules, and finding the time to relax and read slowly is hard, especially when they don't appreciate the book because they cannot slow down enough to really understand stories like "Big Two-Hearted River."  This is like one of Mr. Butler's vicious feedback cycles, resulting in our class disliking In Our Time.  Hopefully I will remember these thoughts as we continue reading new authors this semester.  It will help me enjoy their writing for what it is instead of comparing it to authors I like more such as O'Brien.

Why I Love The Things They Carried

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien is the most powerful short story collection I have read.  I think that it has such power not because O'Brien's war stories are more exciting/emotional than everyone else's, but rather it is O'Brien's method of storytelling that captivates the reader.  He starts with a relatively ordinary wartime fabula, for example a death of a soldier.   He then masterfully weaves a sjuzet that draws out all of the emotion, all of the irony, and all of the truth of this fabula.  He is not afraid to bend the truth or entirely make up things to enhance the story.  In fact, he even tells us he is doing exactly that several times throughout the book.  But, when he tells us this we have no guarantee that he is telling the truth, since on the cover page it clearly says "A work of fiction by Tim O'Brien."  He does more than any other author I have read to blur the line between truth and fact, leaving the reader frustrated with uncertainty.  But, this serves to tease the reader into reading more deeply, and in the end we as readers realize that the facts do not matter so much as the narrative that O'Brien has created.

People generally think that they find stories more powerful if the stories "actually happened."  However, to back a story up with sources and real life evidence takes much of the emotion out of it.  And despite an abundance of evidence, even a  "nonfiction" book is still biased by the author's views and cannot be considered an accurate rendition of the fabula.  O'Brien clearly sees this and does not try to stay completely true to the fabula.  He even tells us in "How to Tell a True War Story" that part of the narrative must be made up to help readers to believe the unbelievable.  O'Brien clearly focuses not on the actual facts but on the message he wants to tell and how he wants to make the reader feel.  His sjuzet may be far from the facts of the fabula, but it is still true, at least by the Tim O'Brien definition.

"It comes down to gut instinct.  A true war story, if truly told, makes the stomach believe."

O'Brien's stories have this gut instinct, this feeling stronger than evidence that what he tells us is true.  Surprisingly this feeling remains despite the evidence calling into question everything this book presents as fact. I could not imagine reading the stories in this book out of the context established by such stories as "How to Tell a True War Story" or "Good Form" and getting the same effect.  I think that is what makes O'Brien's writing so alluring, the uncertainty about the facts combined with the gut instinct that these stories are true.