Maps To Anywhere Blog Response #2

Maps To Anywhere Blog Response #2

Brandon Lazovic

Continuing on from the week previous to this one is the second half of Maps To Anywhere. In the second half of the book is a lot of shorter story essays, but what I’ll be writing about is the largest essay story in the latter half of the novel. The story starts off with the sub chapter “House of the Future.” It begins with the narrator and his parents travelling to the House of the Future attraction and the narrator marvels at the world of possibilities and the imagination of the whole attraction. Throughout the next ten or so pages he cuts to his brother, who is slowly dying away from what appears to be Cancer. He keeps cutting back to the perfection of the future that the House of the Future opened up in his mind’s eye. This might be because he’s just a young child with an imagination common for those of that age, but I feel as though it’s really to escape the inevitability of his brother’s death due to the Cancer. He keeps trying to envision this perfect future to block out the pain that his brother is suffering at that moment. His brother, Gary, has this same idea, although his version of events is most likely different to his brothers. He looks into the future, using that as a lens to see all of the things that he’ll never be able to in the upcoming years. He knows he’s going to die, so he tries to envision what his life would’ve been like had he lived. Just my own speculation, however.

                The next chapter of the essay was “Dream House.” It goes into the condition of the house. Bernard’s mother and father are in denial regarding Gary’s illness, even as he’s slowly dying. They try to show him pictures of people who have gotten better from their sicknesses, but it doesn’t mean too much it seems. Bernard sees that his brother is slowly easing his body into death, just like easing yourself into the cool water of a swimming pool. “Dog House” Follows after this. It describes a couple who is friends with the family as the husband attempts to teach them ventriloquism. Bernard’s parents thrive off of them and I believe they’re used to lighten the mood and distract them from Gary’s illness. His brother also becomes attracted to his brother. Not in a sexual sense, but in a sense in which he knows that Gary is slowly slipping away. To me it’s an act of brotherly love as Bernard tries to evoke that love in more than just an emotional sense.

                After this the next few chapters basically go into Gary’s degeneration and his brother’s memories with him. Bernard was delusional, thinking that with the help of Martin, the nurse, his brother would instantly get back to regular health once again. It never happens, and it’s made obvious that it won’t happen when they leave to go to a show that Bernard is performing in. As the weeks up to his death continue everything gets worse: his skin is scaly, he’s constantly dehydrated, his symptoms are becoming more prominent. He eventually passes away.

                What I found interesting was the fact that every chapter had the word ‘House’ in it. The idea of architecture was also used several times, so I feel as though this was done to further the story along. Each chapter helped piece together a part of one large picture, adding a room to a house with each one in a sense. It describes memories that Bernard had and inspects various angles and emotions felt throughout the time period in which his brother was dying. In a sense that House that has been built seemingly falls apart with his brother’s death. It’s all one great analogy for how the story unfolded at the end. 

Maps To Anywhere Blog Post 1

Maps To Anywhere Blog Post 1

Brandon Lazovic

                For Creative Writing this week we had to read the first half of Maps To Anywhere by Bernard Cooper, which is a compilation of essays. The first essay is “Beacon’s Burning Down.” This essay details the perspective of a person that I feel is looking through a scrap book regarding their life. It details the name Bernard being uncommon as the narrator recants tales of his childhood looking at the complexity of names, trying to find underlying meaning in them and possibly his through extension. It moves on as he looks into his fathers scrapbook regarding various court cases that he had as a lawyer. It keeps some characterization to his father, detailing his sexual exploits while married to his mother. The essay goes into some religious context regarding Lazarus the chicken as well as religion being fake in his eyes in the sense of a TV show he used to watch as a kid, the host being a charlatan. The end of the essay focuses on his attempts to write a story. The line “Your eyes are like beacons burning down!” Might be regarding the guilt he feels about pushing off the story.

                Another essay, Capiche, is short, but interesting. It describes a setting in Italy and draws the reader in, believing every word written on the page. It turns out, however, that it was all a modulated lie and the narrator never actually went to Italy. I found it interesting that they would tell us this and makes the reader think/have some skepticism beyond that point. It destroyed the immersion of the story purposely and for that I find that direction that was taken to be interesting. On the Air is interesting as the past should be left behind and a pure, unadulterated future without limitations should be embraced.

                How to Draw follows a narrator and his path in art. I consider it interesting as he goes into detail regarding simplistic art as opposed to its complex counterpart. The essay, despite having a focus on simplicity, paints a picture in the mind of the reader regarding the setting and the drawings that the narrator creates or has seen. Maps to Anywhere is interesting as well (the essay, that is) as it follows Mr. Stone and Mrs. Mazel as they meet (Mr. Stone buying a globe from her). Regarding Mrs. Mazel she’s lost in her own world, with her own geography set in her mind while Mr. Stone watches on as she doesn’t notice him. Her view seems expanded and broad, while Mr. Stone describes the world shrinking around him when he loses his keys. They take two opposite approaches, Mrs. Mazel taken solace and excitement in the world being so large, while Mr. Stone feels alone because of the depth and size of the world, or that’s how I portray it.

                Lastly, The Wind Did It follows a father and son. It gives a good amount of character description, giving the characters essence and some connection. The narrator’s father seems as though he’s trying to escape his past, possibly as a stage of life (not wanting to look back on his mistakes or memories that burden him) but as the narrator and him are driving he keeps recanting tales and memories of the past. He might possibly be coming to terms with his age or that you can’t escape from your past. The story might actually be a continuation of “Beacon’s Burning Down” considering the narrator is Bernard, his father is divorced, is eighty years old, their relationship was tepid, and the father is rich (possibly from an attorney position, he was put in the newspaper as well). He’s also overweight and the doctor is ordering him to lose weight, which might have connection to the heart issues of the father in Beacon’s Burning Down. I enjoyed the story though as it portrays a growing connection between father and son. It also hints at familial problems between father and mother as they both wanted to move away and the father would go away on ‘business’ several times. Something must have happened in the past to separate father and son and it wasn’t until Bernard turned 35 that he got the chance to rekindle their relationship (as he states several times that he doesn’t want to do anything to put a dent in their newfound relationship). I also just realized that the author’s name is Bernard Cooper, so the Bernard in the essay might actually be him recanting events that he had witnessed/lived through.

Essay Blog Response

Brandon Lazovic

11/13/13

                For class this week we had to read a series of essays in a packet. There are a few essays in the packet, so I’ll discuss most of them. Two of the essays were “Sunday” and “Mint Snowball.” Both use colorful language to describe things, particularly food. “Sunday” is about a black family and how the cook and that’s where the imagery lies; in the food. “Snowball,” on the other hand, is about a family who worked at a soda fountain, particularly a great grandfather who’s secret recipe was mint vanilla ice cream. He sold the recipe, however, and no one could replicate the recipe after that. The essay takes a turn at the end as the narrator describes a disconnectedness with his or her personality, linking it to the mint recipe. Not sure the correlation, although the dessert was described as being like winter, so there might be a possible analogy or reference that I’m missing.

                The next essay, “Essay on the Sublimation of Dying” is really interesting. It bounces between two passages and it seems as though it’s drawing parallels and differences between the two. At first I thought that it was only talking about certain things with no correlation between each ‘Synthesis’ (the strings of passages) but as I continued to read it seemed as though each passage was either just a stream of consciousness for the writer or the writer wrote about the things that she saw in her day to day life. The first passage out of the Synthesis may not necessarily correlate, but I feel as though the second passages do (Synthesis 1, 3, and 5 correlate while Synthesis 2, 4, and 6 correlate). For 2, 4, and 6, they are titled ‘Distraction’ and the narrator breaks off into deep thought about the previous passage. Lastly there are excerpts or possibly poems at the bottom of each passage, which might give more context to each passage.

                The final essay, “Total Eclipse” is about a man named Gary and his wife going on a trip to see a Total Eclipse. The essay is pretty straight forward, being very descriptive about the scenery and the imagery is very noticeable. The narrator comments about how the whole things seems wrong because of the abnormality of the sun being missing during the eclipse and how everything is profoundly affected as a result. After the event the narrator seems frightened by the experience and even becomes a little nihilistic. “The sun was too small, and too cold, and too far away, to keep the world alive. The white ring is not enough. It was feeble and worthless.” She says she had been dead and gone and grieving. A boy described the sight as akin to a Life Saver, which snapped her out of her mind sight and ‘woke her up.’ At the end of it life continued to go on and everyone returned to their cars after the incidentto go about their daily lives again. 

Faith Short Story

Faith

Brandon Lazovic

                Bong. Bong. Bong. Bong. Bong. The church bell rocked back and forth in the church tower, uttering an almost melancholy sound as it marked the time. He looked down, glancing at his watch. 5 o’clock. He looked around and noticed that the streets were vacant, which was abnormal. Usually they were bustling with crowds of people, but not today. It was almost perturbing as he could hear his footsteps echo off the buildings before being whisked away by the slight groan of the wind. He continued on casually, with his hands in the black overcoat which he wore. Thunder rumbled in the distance, the sky filled with dark clouds ready to discharge the water that was held. Some trickled out, creating small splotches in the street. The air was humid, warm, with a scent that only rain water can deliver.

                He finally made it to the doors of the church. His hand hesitated at the door handle before clasping it and pushing the door inward. Just like the street he could hear his steps rebound off the walls and pillars, but it wasn’t as discomforting. In fact, it was almost peaceful. His fingertips caressed the tops of the pews as he walked past them, his mind in a distant place as this brought back memories of the past. A past untainted. Ambitious. Hopeful, optimistic, and, lest of all, ignorant. That was until the cataclysm changed the world. Whispering snapped his attention back to the front of the church, but nothing appeared before his sight. It gradually grew louder and in larger number, raising the hairs on the nape of his neck. A shudder escaped from his spine, but his outward demeanor portrayed a calm, collected man. The candles slowly blew out, one by one, until the chandelier was his only source of protection. He stood underneath it as the shadows charged forward, being repealed by its opposite.

                The voices combined in a cacophony of noise, surging ever forward until… they stopped just as quickly as they had risen. The quiet whispering took its place, the darkness seemingly muffling the sound. While there was still time he reached into the pocket of his overcoat, withdrawing a bottle of holy water, a bag of pinch salt and a golden cross. The cross glistened from the light overhead and the bottle reflected the ember hue of flame. He began to recite psalms, all the while drawing a circle with the salt and splashing it with the holy water. The cross moved up, down, left, and right several times before finally being moved down to his side. All he had to do now was wait.

                He sat down, crossed-legged in the center of the circle, eyes closed and cross folded between both hands. The voices cried in anguish and fury; the chandelier rocked in place, swinging wildly. After several moments it stopped moving, returning to its normal position. He continued on praying in his trance. Finally the voices returned to whispers again and with their combined effort blew out the candle light, enveloping the room with darkness. They screamed into the abyss.