Please post your blog response to the story here. You can feel free to respond in any substantive way you choose (that means going beyond superficiality: likes, dislikes, summary, et cetera), but some starting points to consider are the structure of the story, the way in which it uses vignettes, connective threads between vignettes, the effect and themes of the story, the language and craft, et cetera.
Anything less than 250 words will not receive credit.
Posts are to be done before midnight, tonight, so that you have time to respond to one of your peers' posts, which should be done by classtime tomorrow. Responses to peers' posts should at least be a few sentences and engage in some sort of dialogue--do more than just agree, or disagree!
Hailey Safra:
ReplyDeleteWhile I read the first few pages of Denis Johnsons, The Largesse of the Sea Maiden, I found myself lost. Confused on what the author was trying to convey, the story seemed all over the place and couldn’t grab my attention. The author jumped from one story to another within the same story without any real transition. The authors writing style reminded me of our thoughts. People think the way the author portrayed his short story. One memories triggers another and so on and so forth until one’s mind is on an entirely different topic. Having never read other pieces of writing with this style, the concept was confusing yet interesting. Finally understanding the authors writing, I started to follow the storyline a little more and even got a little intrigued. It was captivating to read the brief detailed descriptions of Bill Wiltman’s encounters and to finally start piecing together his life. I really enjoyed the small encounters with each person and how that lead to the next encounter. However interesting the authors stories, I was frustrated with the monotone sound to the authors writing. The writing felt emotionless and cold. Almost as if the main character hated his life and was just living one encounter to the next because he had to. As the vignettes come to an end the main character seems excited about his life as he finally puts the past behind him. While reading I struggled to find the connection between the text and the title but towards the end I noticed the subtle connection. The author uses the main characters fascination with mythical creatures and magic, as well as how one encounter lead to the next to link the vignettes.
Word count: 285
Anthony Cusenza:
DeleteI completely agree with your opinion on the story. I was almost lost the entire time with no strong foundation to hold onto. It almost felt like the author had no emotion at all in the beginning of the story and he just wanted to be depressed all the time until the very end. It was a very disliking story in which I would never read again or recommend to anyone.
I agree that the story was hard to follow at first but as I kept reading I started to realize all the vignettes tied together in one way or another. I was also frustrated with the monotone narrator. I found it difficult to tell how Whitman was feeling during the different situations and stories.
DeleteJonathan Gallon
Matthew Cook
DeleteI was never frustrated with the monotone narrative it just made the story extremely boring. I think that it was written that way to convey the theme, however if I didn't have to read this I would have stopped reading because of this style. A couple of the stories were interesting but none made me want to keep reading.
I agree strongly with what you said. The author did make the story very confusing and I felt it was very hard to follow along. I have never read anything else in this style either, so it was difficult. The writing was very negative and depressing. Even after finishing the story, I had trouble connecting it to the title. Your response really helped me to understand the connection and how everything pieces together.
DeleteI agree with your response. it was tricky to understand everything at first. It was also hard to believe some things because of his initial vague memory. The short story was a very sad and dreary one.
DeleteMariana Lopez
DeleteI completely agree with what you said about the story. When I first started reading the story, I was lost and didn't understand what was going on. It was all over the place and nothing grabbed my attention. I also did not understand the connection between the title and the story.
Reese Albert
ReplyDeleteThis short story by Denis Johnson introduces experiences of the troubled and regretful life of Bill Whitman. The audience finally learns Whit’s name in the very last vignette. By doing this it provides the audience of the thought about who this narrator really is throughout the whole short story. In almost all of the vignettes Johnson writes about his character, Whit, with an expressed feeling of pain or disturbance. The source of pain varies as well; it was derived from many different instances ranging from actual physical pain to pain being caused by reoccurring acts of depression. I felt like as he aged his care for everything slowly depleted. For example, in the “Farewell” vignette, Whit discovers that his first wife, Ginny, is dying; or so he thinks. He then realizes that she never said her name at the beginning of the conversation and now discovers that he doesn’t know if it is his first wife or his second wife. Besides that, they talk and apologize and then the conversation ends but Whit doesn’t care to find out which of his ex-wives it was. All in all, every vignette introduced threads together. Also, I thought that it was interesting how the characters in each vignette flowed into each other; once I realized that it made the short story a lot easier to comprehend. They display characters that end up causing some kind of stress, depression, or feeling of sadness in Whit’s life. However, towards the end of the story it felt like he was finally trying to turn the page and leave the past behind. This put a nice ending to a cold and depressing feeling short story.
Word Count: 278
I understand your point of view in regards to the final few vignettes as attempts to turn towards the future and forget the past, as that is something I was confused about how to interpret previously. I also agree on your thought about how this is a "cold and depressing" story.
DeleteI had the same view point as you. I felt lost on who was narrating the story till the end. I also felt that the story started off focused on his sad past but in the end, he puts the past behind him and focuses on the future.
DeleteAnthony Cusenza:
ReplyDeleteThe Largesse of the Sea Maiden is a short life story by Bill Whitman in which he describes his life experiences. Bill tells the story from vignette to the next with which some have no transition at all. In the beginning, I was completely lost and the fact that it jumped from one subject to the next with no transition did not help my interpretation of the story at all. Although, halfway through the story he started connecting the vignettes which started to help in my final moments of wanting to give up on the story. The one fact that almost stayed through the whole story is how his back gets a pain whenever he is anxious. Besides that I found almost no connection between the vignettes at all. The authors writing style reminded me of humanity and how everyone has their own experiences and how they interpret them is up to them. But, his writing style did feel cold, depressed, and almost felt like an empty shell in which there was no strong core that kept his story alive. In my personal opinion I found myself disliking the story from beginning to end in which I had no strong foundation to hold onto that made the story make sense. I will admit that it sometimes had a few funny remarks but nothing that would make me want to read this story again or recommend it to anyone. I also had no idea how he had come up with the title for the story as it had nothing to do with a sea maiden until the end in which it mentioned it as a little remark. All in all, I felt like this was a very depressing story about a mans life in which it only becomes satisfying until the end.
Word Count: 301
Diego Mendoza
DeleteThere were some moment were I was also lost trying to read this piece, but there were moments that did have some connections. An example would in the second vignette and how it's first sentence starts with," Another silence comes to mind,"(Jonhson, 123). I personally think that this can be a linkage between these two vignettes and the rest because due to one thought, it leads to another and so on..
Jonathan Gallon
ReplyDeleteIn “The Largesse of the Sea Maiden” by Denis Johnson, a man narrates many stories from his lifetime that have either stuck with him or shaped him to be the person that he is today. One example is the vignette about his friend who was a journalist. Johnson interviewed an inmate on death row; that inmate had a wife who he married while he was incarcerated. The inmate’s wife was a waitress who was studying to be a real-estate agent. At the end of the vignette, the journalist went to meet the inmate’s wife after he had been executed. Shockingly, the inmate’s wife was actually a sex worker who had lied to her husband about her profession. The narrator then states that those lies helped the inmate die as a “proud and happy husband” (Johnson,130). Through the narrator’s language the reader could tell that this experience affected or stuck with him for a life time.
Johnson uses many different types of vignettes ranging from the narrator’s work life, friends, and past relationships. All the vignettes shared a common likeness in which they are stories from the narrator’s life that had affected or moved him in particular. The author combines all the vignettes as a way to complete the last story. Consequently, the last vignette becomes a summary of the narrator’s whole life. The vignette includes the way his wife behaves, the fact that he has two girls who are average everyday citizens, and the progressing age of him and his wife. The narrator then says that he has lived through more years than he will live through in the future(Johnson,142). The story has many flashbacks that all came together in the end as life experiences that the narrator will carry with him for the rest of his life.
Word Count:298
I agree with you, he uses a variety of vignettes that are about his life in different ways. Each vignette is an experience that will shape his life.
Delete-Sydney Denkert
Diego Mendoza
ReplyDeleteMost of the writing, in The Largesse of the Sea Maiden, is very monotone and emotionless. Bill Whitman, is the main character in these vignettes, he shows himself as cold, self-centered, and distant. In, “Farewell,” his true character shows when one of his ex-wives called to tell him she was dying and trying was to forgive him. He does not recognize which of his ex-wives she was but continued to talk. He then apologized for his infidelities and lies which he had committed to both his ex-wives and gave the reader a look at this attitude. Each vignette is filled with imagery and descriptions that give the reader a Point-of-View from the eyes of Bill Whitman. Although it is a different type of writing that I am not particularly accustomed to, there were parts which I understood and gave the me urge to keep on reading. All the vignettes have a title, which makes the reader assume what the vignette will be about. Most of the vignettes have no real type of connection between them, but on the first vignette titled, “Silences,” the same idea is transitioned through the first sentence of the second vignette. The second vignette was an afterthought from the first vignette which dealt with silences that he had experienced. All the vignettes lead to the final one, which is where he reveals himself more in depth. In the final vignette, Bill has “More to remember than I have to look forward to” (Johnson,143). He ends the final vignette with descriptions of folktales and mystical objects, which lead me to believe Bill wanted to escape reality.
Word Counter : 270
Sydney Denkert
ReplyDeleteThe Largesse of the Sea Maiden is a short story filled with many vignettes. As I was reading, the main character had plenty of stories to switch to. At first, I was a little confused on what was happening when the main character, Bill Whiteman, was going from one event to a totally different one. But as I continued to read through the story it became more interesting to me to see what was going to happen next. I really enjoyed the way he talked about the different friends he had and the stories they told. For example, when his friend Thomas Ellis interviewed an inmate who was about to be killed on the death for murder was interesting to read. The fact that he was about to die and his wife still made him feel happy even though she lied to make him feel better was interesting. I feel like the authors writing style was him thinking his thought and then just putting them into the story without seeing how it fits into transition. As I kept reading the vignettes had a variety of different personal events that happened to him and how much of an impact they were in his life. As I reached the last vignette, “Whit”, I realized who he is and how he didn’t really envy his life as much as he should. He was more on the negative side on life and this story wasn’t as thrilling and excited as I wanted it to be. He should have found an easier way to transition the vignettes because the story line wasn’t really understandable until the end.
word count: 274
I agree with what you're saying about how the story gets less confusing as he tells more stories. The stories built on each other, showing a common theme.
Delete- Kendall Pope
Matthew Cook
ReplyDeleteThe Largesse of a Sea Maiden was about the life of Bill Whitman. Most of the stories had some theme of death in them. From his ex-wife dying to the interview with the death row inmate and his widowed wife. I think this was purposely written in a grave style because of the many stories about death and sadness he tells. It is made obvious that Bill struggles with some form of depression through small hints about why he got divorced to how the days just drone on. I found the story about the orphan the most interesting as it left me to wonder if the recently widowed wife was the one who killed her husband that she was about to divorce. I also never figured out why that story was titled the orphan. Since the stories had no transitions and many did not seem related at all I took breaks between read each one. I found the easiest way to understand it was to treat each vignette as a separate story. The many vignettes made the overall story seem endless and boring. I think switching between so many characters so quickly made it so hard for me to follow since by the time I figured out the names that story was over. This style also forced me to think more since each story unravels so quickly before moving to the next. The recurring event of his pinched nerve seemed to add nothing to the plot except another reason for Bills misery. In the last story, you learn that Bills marriage with Elaine was without love. They are more like roommates that just go on each day next to each other. The passage concludes telling about how Bill just sits there bored next to his wife as each day slowly passes.
Word count: 301
Denis Johnson’s Largesse of the Sea Maiden is the first of its type that I have read. When I began reading this vignette, I immediately felt it was similar to a poem in the way that you have to view the reading from a broad point of view to fully understand it. While it is initially easy to see that the narrator has had an eventful, yet troubling life, it takes us into the tenth and final vignette to even find out his name: Bill Whitman.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the stories go, I thought they were very intriguing. I particularly enjoyed the Widow vignette, and its transition into Orphan and eventually Memorial. All three vignettes were tragic, and I like how the narrator, Bill Whitman, is not afraid to be honest in how he is feeling when he hears the news of a lonely painter’s suicide, or when he is simply astonished by the fact that Tony Fido, the man who committed suicide, considered Bill his best friend.
I also enjoyed the Accomplices vignette, and I can not stop wondering about how the owner of the painting will feel in the morning after he fully realizes what he had done. Maybe he will remain unfazed, or maybe he will very much regret his mistake.
I believe The Largesse and the Sea Maiden fell off when it got to Casanova. The stories were more bland than the first few, and I believe the narrator was simply telling absurd stories, but not necessarily interesting to me. I also do not understand the ending and how it relates to the story’s title, but overall it was an enjoyable read.
Word Count: 277
I agree to, I was confused by the ending and the title. I thought the vignettes were well done, but the beginning could have used a bit more context. Specifically with the characters and who's who.
Delete-Alexander Kostandarithes
Alexander Kostandarithes:
ReplyDeleteYou’ll find yourself thrown into an unfamiliar world very quickly. The characters get no context, but you’ll soon learn who’s who. All of the stories are told by the perspective of Bill Whitman, but it feels more like a movie rather than reading from his perspective. The different scenes share only that they follow a linear path. They seem completely unrelated. It some ways it feels as if someone took random pages from different books and put them together to create a jumbled work. However, each one has something interesting in its own right. Accomplices makes one lament the waste of a wonderful painting while Widow makes one wonder what is going on. Perhaps the most interesting vignettes includes Memorial, where Bill learns that he was important to Tony (Interesting as Bill decries how he seems unimportant to the world).
While the transition from stories seems jolting, it does give the short story some interest. It gives a good look into the life of Bill Whitman. While each was interesting, some had more emotion and theme. Each mini story lacked attraction or great interest, it seemed simply written as a description rather than a story. Depending upon the reader’s reading preferences, this could either good or bad. However, that does not mean they lacked themes or ideas. The overarching theme of each vignette could be described as the unfairness of life. Be it Bill’s failure to advance or Tony’s death, life never seems to work in one’s favor. Other themes include loss, regret, and surprise. One gets the impression that Bill’s life will continue on the same way. No climatic ending, no cliff-hanger, things will go unchanged.
Word Count: 279
Allie Bettinger
ReplyDeleteThis story started off very confusing to me. The characters were not given much context or explanation. Through the vignettes, I started to understand more about the characters and how everything came together. Each vignette began to tell different stories and experiences about the characters through the point of view of Bill Whitman. Up until the last vignette it didn’t even occur to me who was telling the stories. However, I knew that he had seemed like a very cold and emotionless person. After reading about the way Bill spoke about himself and his life, everything became more clear to me. He had a very negative outlook on everything and seemed to look at the glass half empty. Most of the vignettes were connected by some sort of death or unfortunate event that led to sadness in his life. Each vignette seemed more like a separate story. There was no sort of transition between each one which made it a difficult read for me. We continue to see how all of these stories affected Bill and how they helped shape him and the way he views things. We see how the characters all created some sort of stress in Bill’s life. I like that the author left Bill’s identity a secret until the last vignette. However, this did make it much more difficult to comprehend but it left some suspense and I feel as if it tied the whole story together in the end. It seems as if Bill was ready to move on and have some happiness in his life towards the end. “Memory fades, not much of the past stays, and I wouldn’t mind forgetting a lot more of it” (Johnson, 143). He is ready to forget about all of the sad events from his past and look forward to the future.
Gabriel Padin
DeleteI completely agree on the fact that this read was very confusing. I had a difficult time following the connection between each thought and what the deeper meaning of the story was. But towards the end, it was a little bit clearer for me as to how these experiences shaped Bill into the person he is.
In my opinion, “The Largesse of the Sea Maiden” was a bit vague when looking at the big picture. Although each individual story was clear and made sense, I did not find that there was a certain point or meaning to the short story. This was nothing like I’ve read before. As I read through the story it seemed like the author, Denis Johnson, was organizing his thoughts right there in the reading and was writing down exactly what came to his head in the order that it occurred in his thoughts, which is easy to relate to when you’re thinking of something and backtrack on your thoughts to figure out how you got there. It was interesting to see how one story led to another. I was able to tell how each vignette was connected to the next and how each thought made him think of what was coming next. For example, in the first story he transitioned from talking with his friends about the loudest noise they’ve heard to the most silent noise they’ve heard, which lead to the discussion of how Chris Case lost his leg. As I came across unclear characters and some pointless detail, I found a few of the stories to be a little uninteresting and hard to follow but as I continued reading they became more entertaining. The tone of the passage is sort of sad because he talks about death in almost every story. It’s really just an old man telling stories about his friend’s leg getting blown off, his other friend killing himself, his ex-wife dying, etc. Plus, he’s not completely content with the way his life is in the present.
ReplyDeleteWhile i completely agree the the connections of the stories can be vague I've found one connection between them. I feel that the sadness and silence in almost every story allows them to be connected towards one theme. That being silence can be more powerful than speech.
DeleteI agree with the way you were receiving the story. I was very confused when it first began and actually had to read it a couple times to understand the purpose and meaning behind it.
DeleteShane Drohan
Luke Royak:
ReplyDeleteThe first thought that came to my head after reading this was that the name of the first vignette, Silence, basically summarizes the entire story. In many different ways, these sad stories describe the bleak life of Bill Whitman as being silent. The vignettes contain everything from attending a funeral to watching an expensive painting burn in a fireplace. The only way that I see a connection between them is the fact that they all point out how silence can be so powerful. Bill always does his most in depth thinking while being alone and looking back on things from years ago. Also, the most powerful moments in almost all of these stories happen in complete silence. I feel like the author intentionally put a lot of emphasis on this point as a lot of people don’t stop to reflect on things until they are alone and things are silent. I believe he is trying to show us that not only is silence important, but that it can be very powerful. This is why many people read The Largess of the Sea Maiden, yet don’t understand how the vignettes tie together. The connection can be very vague, but upon further inspection there is a link between them. Personally, I feel like the author did an excellent job of using something unconventional to convey the main theme in the short story. Although this may not have been the most exciting read, it was definitely an interesting one to examine, as I have never read anything like it.
Word count: 256
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ReplyDeleteMatt Middlebrooks:
ReplyDeleteTo start, I think Denis Johnson is an amazing author and his structure kept me hooked to the story. The Largesse of a Sea Maiden is a short story of 10 vignettes revolving around Bill Whitman’s life. It is sad to read at times, for a majority of the stories had to do with tragic happenings such as death. For example, his ex-wife died in one vignette. Another story talked about a discussion with a criminal on death row along with his wife. The structure of this story is pieced story to story. It is like a big book of tales, but they are actually about someone in their life. There are different stories and they are titles so you know which you are reading. The connective thread between vignettes shows story to story because it highlights all the way through Bill Whitman’s life. In one of the final vignettes, you learn that Bill Whitman’s once before marriage was not filled with love much. The passage concludes telling about how Bill just sits there bored next to his wife as each day slowly passes. Both of them just acted more as accomplices. I personally think that they did love each other. I think with all of the depression and mental issues Bill is encountering, that he totally has forgotten about the good memories and fun-loving times with Elaine. He is too worried about the crime and sadness he is holding in. I think the theme of this story is sadness because Bill Whitman always seemed to have a sense of sadness deep down in his heart. This all began to flourish when the array of deaths hovered his life.
word count: 279
This really was an eye opening interpretation of the short story The Largesse of a Sea Maiden. I really enjoyed the way you explained why Bill Whitman was always sad. I fully agree with you that the reason he is sad is because of his depression and mental issues that in the end made him forget about the good times with his ex-wife Elaine. -William Hughes
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteIn the short story The Largesse of the Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson, where Denis goes in depth about Bill Whitman's life. As I first started reading, I noticed that he tells the story using vignettes which was difficult to fully understand his story because some of the vignettes would go from one topic to another with absolutely no transition. During the middle of the story he began to connect the vignettes which began to unite this story as one, instead of bits and pieces. The only similarities between each vignette was that Bill would suffer back pain whenever he would become anxious. Due to the fact that the vignettes had very few similarities I thought of each vignette has its own story even though as you continue to read everything comes together. Many tragic deaths happen in the vignettes which shapes how his stories make you feel. Every vignette had its own story but each from the eyes of Bill Whitman. The overall theme of this story is loss due to the excessive deaths of many people associated to him. Due to his losses you could tell that Bill is very negative about his life, which put a damper on what could be a better read. In my opinion I was not a fan of his writing because it had no clear subject and had me lost throughout the story. Whitman's storys were very anticlimactic with nothing that would give a spark to the story and give it the pop it needs to be enjoyable to read. This is not a story for me as I enjoy reading something exciting and not an elderly man writing a story about the tragic deaths in his life like his friend and his ex-wife. - William Hughes
ReplyDeleteWord Count: 292
I disagree with you will! I thought this was a great read! Although it it a sad story, it hits the heart in a way that keeps you reading. I agree that a theme for this story is loss. Loss of loved ones (yes I think that Bill did and always will love his wife).
DeleteI actually have to agree with Will, after a while of reading these vignettes I just felt burdened with an uncomfortable feeling of sadness and awkwardness. Although some vignettes in my mind were very well written, the emotions they carried were not of my liking. - Elizabeth Zyryanova
DeleteElizabeth Zyryanova
ReplyDeleteI think it is quite easy for me to say that when reading Denis Johnson’s Largesse of the Sea Maiden I was overthrown with an uncomfortable feeling. Being exposed to situations in Bill Whitman’s life that were not only personal but in a way distressing gave me a feeling of that awkward person standing in the room not knowing how to respond to the situation. And even though the feeling that it brought out was an unpleasant one, it felt so real that the vignette titled Silences was definitely my favorite one. I could clearly imagine myself in the room as Chris Case takes what seems like a lighthearted conversation into one of awkward silence when he mentions that "the most silent thing he'd ever heard was the land mine taking off his right leg out side Kabul, Afghanistan" (Johnson, 121). But with, to my surprise, a smooth transition into the second vignette titled Accomplices, my mood was shaped into being just plain unsympathetic towards Miller Thomas and his attitude towards the painting. At this moment I realized how writing about something as simple as silence in a room full of people could bring out such different emotions from the reading audience. There was another vignette that once again made me feel uncomfortable - Farewell. In this vignette I feel like the reader can begin to actually piece together what kind of a person Bill Whitman is. Even though he seems to show regret in his actions that caused his dying wife pain, he then proceeds to wonder which wife he is even talking to, and "which set of crimes [he] was regretting" (Johnson, 127). Although this was what seems like a set of stories from Bill's life that helped shape him, the ending makes it seem as if he is just flowing with the current of life, bored and missing something.
Word Count: 314
You're right, we are being exposed to these intimate things like its his diary. Every vignettes tells a different mood. Yet I have a question, which is more powerful, the loudest noise or silence?
DeleteKendall Pope
ReplyDeleteThe Largesse of the Sea Maiden, written by Denis Johnson, was a little confusing for me. The way it was written was very interesting, but I didn’t fully understand the point of the story. It started out with the narrator at dinner with his friends discussing silences. As the story progresses, he brings up more and more silences that occur later in his life. In all the stories Denis Johnson writes, there is a moment of silence, either from the character, the situation itself, or even the setting the story takes place in. For example, in the section called Memorial, the artist Tony Fido jumped off a bridge and killed himself. At the memorial, one lady told the narrator how Tony thought of him as his best friend. In that moment, the narrator felt completely silent. Silence in this story relates to confusion. In the story Farewell, the narrator’s wife stays in town at a hotel for work, so the narrator has the house to himself. In the silence of his home, he has many dreams, but is suddenly awaken by people walking around, disrupting his silence. I enjoy the way this is written because it keeps the reader intrigued. Instead of building up to the main part of a story, there are multiple intriguing stories. Although this writing is entertaining in the sense that you don’t get bored easily, it is a little annoying because you barely get any details from the story itself. All in all I enjoy the type of writing and I believe it was a good way of telling on mans story.
word count: 267
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ReplyDeleteGabriel Padin
ReplyDeleteThe Largesse and the Sea Maiden, by Denis Johnson, is a short story that follows the thoughts of Bill Whitman. These thoughts have had a deep impact on Bill and have stuck with him as the years have passed. At first, the story was a little bit confusing to follow but as it progressed I found a better understanding of Bill’s thoughts. It was also very cold and vague. Bill never really put any emotion into his thoughts. The story is told in a vignette format, but at times it was difficult to find any relation at all between some of the memories. For example, when Bill transitions from Adman to Farewell I did not understand how his experience in the office related to the passing of his ex-wife. This confusion stayed with me through most of the novel, but there were some in which the relation was clear. I was also unable to truly understand the meaning of the story. Even after attempting to reread it, I was still lost. It seemed to me as if it was just a continuation of thoughts that really were going nowhere. My mood while reading the vignette was a mix between uncomfortable and sad. Bill was willing to open up about deep thoughts that typically people keep to themselves in order to not bring back the pain they felt. Such as the section Farewell where he talked about the day he found out his ex-wife has passed away. Overall, reading this short story helped me gain a better understanding of vignettes and how to write one.
Having never read anything else with this style before I was confused as well. However, vignette's aren't supposed to follow a storyline. My understanding is that they are able to be written like thoughts, jumping around from one to the next with a small connection. While Adman did not coincide with Farewell it did help explain Whit.
DeleteMariana Lopez
ReplyDeleteIn Denis Johnson's "Largess of the Sea Maiden", he creates a short story using many different vignettes that have occurred throughout Bill's life. From the beginning, I could tell that the tone of the story was dark. It is obvious that Bill Whitman’s life was filled with more depressing moments than happy moments, which led him to become very sad and not happy with his life. It also seemed as if the characters he talked about in the story were toxic to his life, and he would have been better off without knowing them. As I continued reading, I became very confused. I couldn't figure out who the narrator was and what threw me off the most was that the story didn't flow very well. It jumped from one scenario to another which caused me to lose interest in reading very fast. I became frustrated with the story, but later realized that the even though the story had no transitions or connections, the vignettes were riveting. The vignette about the interview of the inmate on death row was the most interesting to me. I didn't see a connection between the title of the story and the content until I finished reading. I chose to read the short story twice, and I treated each vignette as a different story which made it somewhat easier to understand the second time. I like how at the end Whitman tries to see the light at the end of the tunnel and forget the past. In all, I would not recommend this short story to anyone. It wasn’t an attention grabber like other stories I’ve read.
I didn't really catch how dark the tone was in the beginning but looking back now, it's very clear. It's interesting that you mention that the characters in the story were toxic in his life because I haven't thought about it like that. I felt the same way about the story being confusing and jumping from one scenario to the next but I didn't lose interest in Bill's vignettes.
DeleteThe Largesse of the Sea Maiden is a story full of darkness and sorrow. Throughout the vignettes it is a constant occurrence of the theme of regret. The narrator creates a very dark tone with his diction. He establishes this tone by naming the first vignette "silences". The narrator talks about each struggle and painful experience, each vignette being a different struggle in a different time in his life. All the ten vignettes tie together to convey the overall feeling of darkness. He is a very troubled man because of all these events in his life. The structure of using vignettes in the beginning confused me at first, because i had never read anything using vignettes, but as I continued to read the vignettes began to make it easy for me to tie everything together and understand what the narrator was trying to convey to the audience. I thought the darkest vignette was "Memorial", in this vignette the narrator is at memorial service for a man who killed himself. The audience finds out it was his best friend, who jumped off a bridge to his death. This part is a very dark place to me, especially at the end of it he says he barely knew him. Showing how lost he was, he claimed he barely even knew his best friend. This narrator reveals his name in the last vignette, giving the audience a name to address him with. Overall we are shown a man who had a tough life full of disappoint and confusion.
ReplyDeleteShane Drohan
Shane, I agree with your viewpoints on the subject. I also picked up the tone of depression and sadness. However, it was not Whit's best friend. His so called "best friend" thought that Whit was his best friend and Whit did not really even talk to him that much. But, I do agree with everything else you had to say.
DeleteMatthew Wedderburn
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the first the first vignette Silences, The Largesse of the Sea Maiden immediately struck me as underwhelming yet refreshingly “regular”. Underwhelming in the sense that as an admittedly infrequent reader, being merely exposed to school-assigned books or passages I’ve come accustom to more explicitly entertaining works engaged in adventure or novel-based readings. These vignettes aren’t necessarily structured chronologically, but sort of in a stream of conscious or diary type structure. The writer doesn’t try to inflate the memories he’s depicting, while at times expressing vivid imagery in simple objects, situations, or in dialogue. It’s refreshing in that his structure of writing felt very personal and “regular” as opposed to most pieces I’ve read in the past that seem as though they’re trying to push an agenda of being overly poetic (intentionally or not) or like I said before explicitly entertaining. The writer walked a line that felt genuine and human. The diary-like format gave room to a less edited personality explaining things from his perspective for better or for worse quite subjective at times but human nonetheless. The writer doesn’t sensationalize overarching themes like death, truth, or reality, rather expresses them throughout many of the vignettes shedding light on his true thoughts even as he may be speaking from someone else’s perspective. What stood out to me was him reiterating his back-nerve pain. It was funny and interesting to me because he’s experienced many crazy or unusual life events that would typically be the focus of a story but this reoccurring pain skews his view of the world at times and is ultimately what takes him on these side events that become major storylines. There also seems to be his demons or seemingly symptoms of mental illness that haunt him throughout his life with unexplained voices or occurrences that go unexplained maybe because the narrator himself simply and acceptingly experiences them in the moment as we do, yet is very nonchalant about them. Overall an interesting and thought provoking read but ultimately underwhelming.
Word Count: 335
The vignettes in this story are almost comical in its black humor. The main character, Bill Whitmen seems as passive as a jelly fish, observing what occurs around him. He often doesn't think before he speak or does something, and when he does, he overthinks. Aside from that, these vignettes focus around choices. Usually the disturbing or complex ones. From the beginning, a female friend is pressured to kiss the end of an amputated leg because everyone else wanted to see the remains. To second that, the Whitman family moves twice before settling in San Diego, because it’s not too cold, not too hot but just right. He informs the audience this location lacks monetary benefits, but to leave would take away something else, a choice that affects his family. Bill also reflects on the choices his friends, coworkers and family makes. He is amused by these choices and dissects how they affect the ones who made them. These conversations are also usually sad, about divorce, infidelity, sickness, and death. These are plagues of everyday life but seem to be the focus of the vignettes exclusively. His life is surrounded by these interesting tales of these plagues affecting anyone he is familiar with, even himself, but with a veil over his soul that is patient and compliant he listens. He doesn't express a lot of emotion to what he hears or discover, even though it can be a little interesting, or even weird. Bill listens to whatever anyone has to say then asks questions without skipping a beat, or gives a relaxed version of his mistakes. The effect of these vignettes gives the reader a sense of maturity and thinking, “I wouldn’t do what he/she just did now,“ even though they include characters of all kinds, which can mean that anyone can make choices that lead to unfortunate consequences. This challenges the readers to look inside themselves and realize what they would choose to do.
ReplyDeleteWord Count: 327
Charlene Forti
ReplyDeletePrior to this short story, I was quite unfamiliar with vignettes in writing. As I began reading Denis Johnson’s “The Largesse of the Sea Maiden”, I found myself immediately intrigued and I could clearly picture each vignette as if I were there. For example, I was hooked on the Silences vignette and I was disappointed when it wrapped up so abruptly when Ralph Jones broke everyone’s silent trance. After reading Accomplices I felt bad that Miller’s painted was destroyed and his friends did nothing to halt his actions. Johnson describes each vignette in such detail and I felt emotions attached to each one. I believe that each vignette had a great introduction, plot, and conclusion. Widow may have been my favorite due to the widow being a completely different person than she described herself to be to her deceased husband. Bill seems to have a multitude of wild experiences as every new memory was a radically different yet enjoyable to read on its own. It was interesting that Bill’s identity was revealed at the end of the short story because most characters are introduced in the beginning of a story so as to build a background and foundation. As much as I enjoyed these vignettes, I found that the transitions were a bit abrupt and I had to focus to remember that the next paragraph is a completely different memory of Bill’s. Overall, “The Largesse of the Sea Maiden” was definitely something fresh for me to read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Just like you I was quite unfamiliar with vignettes. However, this story really showed me good examples of them, and to connect them throughout a large story.
DeleteThe story initially starts off with several vignettes right off the bat, when the dinner party is describing the loudest noises they’ve ever heard in their life. The people in the party talk about things that range from getting a divorce to the smell of penises. The dinner party then transitions into talking about silences, and it becomes ironic because the dinner party itself becomes silent. Each major event is separated by a large header alluding to what is going to happen in the following vignette. As the story progresses it gets more more gloomy. The author goes from talking about good times and laughing, to talking about bad times and widows. The whole story is essentially a bunch of vignettes. Towards the end of the story the narrator talks about his career and how he has made all of his money. The main character of the story seems to be fairly wealthy and successful. In my eyes I feel like the reason why he has so many stories to tell is because of his wealth. Towards the end of the short story the theme becomes money. He talks about how, “money tames the beast”, and “money is peace”. My interpretation of the story is the main character is looking back at his glamorous past because he realizes that he is coming down the home stretch of his life, and he is no longer in his prime. He uses the vignettes to help describe his past, and explain how he has come to this point in his life.
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