Friday, April 20, 2012

Eli- Week 6: Welcome to the Machine.

Hey y'all. So I'll be posting Week 7 in the next day or so. I got behind after injuring my back at work but now I have your posts in paper form and can get you feed back for a lot of your past posts.

Eli Week 6:
http://explodingrabbits.blogspot.com/2012/04/welcome-to-machine-by-eli-wilkinson.html

3 comments:

  1. Nice portrayal of the tedious superficiality of post-modern life. I can relate to being trapped in a dull, sterile place and trying to distract myself from my ennui with inane, trivial things. People need to be reminded that their imprisonment is often self-imposed and that they have the choice of breaking out of their box and into the world. Good work.

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  2. While I agree with Eric that many people need to be reminded of this, I yet find myself at odds with the main character and the thesis of the piece throughout the entire thing. Of course, it is okay to have a reader disagree with the theme of the piece; just thought I'd let you know.

    Let me explain: These are my favorite two lines, for starters:

    "WOMAN
    You can’t blame the devices for all that.

    MAN
    You’re right. You’re absolutely right."

    It's just the people, not the devices. And, if we're speaking of man pushing the boundaries, I think technology is one of the ways we help ourselves evolve. One of the ways we push those boundaries. One of the reasons we, as a species, are so powerful- one of our advantages, one of our skills, is our adaptability and ability to use our environment, to use tools and effect change in the universe and in ourselves that way. To me, yes, urbanity is just another jungle we, as evolved apes, are using- that is "nature" too! There is nothing unnatural in it, we simply rearranged nature to help ourselves, and I like the benefits we've thusly given ourselves. So, at the end, I wouldn't have left with this guy, is what I'm saying. I see the ending as a sort of abandonment of something that we as a species should work with instead- plus practical stuff I'll touch on later.

    If people have problems, it's because they're people with problems, not because of the devices, yes, and they should probably seek out therapy. If they want to do a spirit journey and that's their version of therapy, ok. I guess that's valid. Now here's the practical part: I still wouldn't go without a woodsman or some other survival specialist to accompany me. Are they? And as for these problems, one of the problems this couple has is that this girl "cheats" on him and neither of them really care that much. Well, they should have just been mature enough to be honest in the first place and just discuss an open relationship, rather than rag on their own aversion to monogamy, imo... it wouldn't have been a big deal for me or my lover to say to the other that we'd done just those very same things with someone we'd met online ;) Because we're both okay with that lifestyle. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. And if someone's not mature enough to be okay with that, well, then, that's their problem, not the tool's itself. It seems like attacking a symptom, and not the cause, although I do not think symptom is a very proper word for our environs.

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  3. Wow. Brynn really covered everything there. I guess I'll just add how I liked the briskness of the lines, which still have enough in them to convey character.

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