Extra Credit Blog

I decided to read "Debbie Land" by Amy Bender. In this story, a school bully picks on Debbie maliciously. The group of bullies humiliate her and beat her for their own sick amusement. After the bullying, they return home to watch or take part in violent activities, like being a witness to domestic violence or watching Wrestling. Debbie wants to fit in with the kids at school, but winds up wearing "in" clothes from two months ago. This triggers the torment from her peers.

In college, the bully that picked on Debbie gets to know what it feels like to be a muse. The bully enters a relationship, one lasting about a year. This girl was unafraid to show affection in public, was confident, and also normal. This girl did not like having her lover pull strings to control her. While speaking in front of an audience, her lover realizes that they can embarrass her by making her cry. She had a nightmare and cried, therefore making her vulnerable. Her lover seems to take advantage of this, but gets left, my guess is because of the need for control.

The lover and former bully of Debbie then realizes what it feels like to be stringed along and dumped. The bullies elected one of them to make Debbie feel special in school, then torn her down once they knew she was buying into their act. Now the bully was being torn down by their exgirlfriend. While running into Debbie, she questioned her former bully about why they did that to her and she got a phony apology.

This story, to me, represents vulnerability and how some people take advantage of us when we are down. The bully notes that they go looking for people are crying in this world full of possibilities because comforting them means you "own" them. I think this is completely crazy, but true in a way. Some people think that being comforted by someone means you owe them something. But really, if they are comforting you, they should be doing it out of the goodness in their heart and not because they expect anything in return. Unfortunately, the bully (bullies) fail to grow up and are stuck with an immature mentality, while Debbie, or Anne, has moved past the bullies and made something out of herself.

Pam Kawalerski
Extra Credit Blog

Extra Credit: Willful Creatures, Jinx

The short story Jinx by Aimee Bender is about two girls, Cathy and Tina. They are both in high school and good friends. They are walking down the street to a store and talking about their bodies. One point i believe that this story is making is that teen girls are too judgmental some times. They think that they are ugly and are envious of other girls. I think it has to do with all the hormones teen girls have flying around inside of them. I feel that this is less of a problem with guys or at least i haven't noticed much of it in my life. Then at the store they see a cute guy that they know. Tina goes out back with him on his break and leaves Cathy alone. Cathy cannot find her and ends up leaving the store while Tina is kissing the boy. I dont think that Tina wanted to leavy Cathy, but she just forgot about her. Tina ends up calling Cathy and they have an akward conversation and just hang up. This is the end of their good freindship and things will never be the same between the two of them. They both graduated highschool and moved on. I think that this is making a point of the drama and little fights that goes on between teenage girls. I also attribute this to all the hormones they have during their years of puberty. I think this is showing how little stupid things can sometimes ruin friendships, and that you shouldnt let that happen. If they would have just talked it out and been understanding then they could have been friends for many years in the future.

Extra Credit: Aimee Bender, I Will Pick Out Your Ribs

In this short story, Bender writes about a man and his girlfriend, Jane, who constantly is going to the hospital for overdosing on pills. Like all of her other shorts in this book, Bender always has a way with twisting the story between reality and mystery. In every piece of writing, we have found an outcast, and i this case, I would say that the outcast is 1. obviously the girlfriend, but 2. the boyfriend as well. Jane, the girlfriend, really needs help. However, fro my perspective, so does the main character. Normally, if someone was in a situation of repetition and a horrible relationship that went nowhere, one of the people would just up and leave eventually. However, from reading this, it seems as if he is scared to leave, because he loves her, and because he would feel guilty. Like many people, I feel that he is blaming himself, because in all reality he could throw the pills away. I think that mainly, he is afraid of losing her and that he really loves her and just accepts her problems.

As usual, the story ends "weirdly" as he talks about the items in the trunk. I believe that he is reminiscing on the past and how good their relationship used to be. Ultimately, I believe that it wraps up with "I have always been a good student" in reference to being a true gentlemen and standing by his love, no matter what.

Courtney Bisher

Persepolis Movie

In comparison to the book, the movie Persepolis in my opinion had both positive and negative attributes. As we discussed in class, there are several things that can come off as reasons to prefer one over the other. Personally, I am caught in between of liking both the same. As first, i originally preferred the book more because it covered way more detail. However, after the class discussion, there are also several positives that only a movie could show like sound effects, adding voices to characters, visual detail in motion, whereas in the book it was only in square format.

Ultimately, Satrapi's story is intelligently told and shown in both the movie and book. The movie, although missing a few elements and sections, covered her life in great detail allowing the audience to connect, just as they can in reading the book. it was interesting that the movie was also in cartoon format as well as black and white. I believe that these factors added to the "scene" and emotion of the movie.

Overall, Persepolis was a great movie to watch and book to read. In all the works that we have read, we've related them to outcast-hood. One can clearly spot, right from the beginning that Satrapi was an outcast, but she made the best of it, which was inspiring.

Courtney B.

Extra Credit: The Meeting by Aimee Bender

The short story The Meeting by Aimee Bender is about a man who meets a woman that he did not plan on meeting. Bender implies that this man has his entire life planned out. He knows how he is supposed to meet a woman and what characteristics she must fit into in order for him to be attracted to her. Then, his brain will tell him if the woman is right or not for him. However, this particular woman has nothing special about her. She does not fit into any of the characteristics that his brain really wants/specifies. Her hair color, sense of humor, and even the animals that she likes are all wrong. What even turns him off the most is that fact that at the very beginning they did not meet the way he had planned to meet a woman. His brain refuses to change what it wants. He starts to like this woman in some ways but then his brain rejects it. He thinks too highly of himself and disrespects the woman by shooing her away, not listening to her, and laughing at her. He is a very stubborn man but changes this when he slowly starts to let himself like her more and more. The battle between the man and his brain can be compared to someone with a disease and is therefore an outcast. A person with a certain disease will want to do one thing but the mind will tell it to do another. This diseased person becomes an outcast because this is not seen as "normal" in society. In the same way, the man feels some sort of attraction to her. He really wants to like her and get to know her. However, his brain will not let him, therefore he rejects the woman, and refuses to change his ways. The brain wants to be in control but we cannot let one part of our body control the rest. As human beings, we need balance to survive. We also cannot control the future. So why not just go with the flow? Don't try to control every aspect of your life, because it can change in an instant.

Extra Credit: Amiee Bender's The Meeting

After reading Amiee Bender's short story The Meeting I was able to make a clear parallel between its message and one of the messages from The Gilda Stories. To me the point of The Meeting was to show the reader how much your life and the expectations you have for it can change. The man in Bender's story thought he had his future wife all planned out, yet when he met the woman, she didn't fit any of his preconcived notions. She totally changed the way he viewed how he thought he "controlled the world."
This reminded me of the drastic lifestyle changes that Gilda faced numerous times throughout the book. Before she became a vampire she envisoned a completely different life, but in the end she adapted to those changes, just as the man in Bender's story adapted in a way. This story taught me a valuable lesson, we dont control our lives as much as we think we do.

Persepolis Film

I think that the film did a very good job in telling her story. It was very similar to the book but different in a few ways. I liked how they did it in cartoon form. While i was reading the book i was imagining her as she went by and saw her dead friends bracelet and when she heard those girls talking about her in the one restaurant. The imagery i got from the book was a lot like the movie and i liked that. The movie did not go in exact the exact order that the book went in but i liked how it shows her waiting in the airport and flashes back to when she was little. I feel that i was able to follow along with it easy because i had already read the book.

One thing that i did not like was that it was in french and had subtitles. I also thing that Marjane should have used her own voice. With her own voice i think that she would be able to get her actual emotions across to the viewer better. It was very funny when she sang "eye of the tiger". One thing that i found odd was that her grandma papered her breasts so much. She said she puts them in cold water or something to keep them firm and puts flowers in them. I wonder why she took so good care of them when she had to hide her whole body while in public.