Molly Rutter Extra Credit

I read Aimee Bender’s “The Case of the Salt and Pepper Shakers.” The story involves the investigation of a mysterious murder of a married couple. The investigator becomes fascinated with the couple’s strange obsession with salt and pepper. I feel that the overall message behind this story is that opposites are a lot more similar than they appear, or, that opposites, although completely unalike, may essentially cancel one another out.

Glimpses of this idea come up throughout the story. The wife and husband thought of salt and pepper as a connotation of their relationship, with she as the one who “intensified the existing flavor,” and he as the one who “added a new kick” (178). Each component, although entirely different, actually complete one another. Plus, every thing as an opposite, and without that opposite the other thing could not exist. This is revealed with the irony of their death and the circumstances surrounding it. Although the wife loved salt, it eventually took a toll on her body just as the pepper did on the husband’s. Oddly enough, the couple ultimately switched places. She was forced to use the pepper that she hated, while the husband would have to use the salt he so ever detested. This may reveal that hatred and love are one in the same, or, that these supposedly opposite emotions are interchangeable.

Perhaps what is most significant though is the chef’s comments about salt and pepper. She states how “a good chef must let go of the salt/ pepper ratios” (180), for an excessive amount of either is not necessary. What is interesting though is that while the chef is saying she mustn’t worry about this too much, her phrase is written as that she “simply Can Not” (181). The expression was most likely written in this way to emphasize the juxtaposition of the word “cannot.” Although the words have opposite meanings while separate, when put together they form a single meaning. This idea also goes back to the couple, because they were initially seen as opposites who completed their relationship, then as opposites who hated one another, yet finally ended up in the same place.

Absolutely loved this story! Aimee never disappoints:)

Jaime Wallace- Extra Credit

For my extra credit assignment I decided to read "Death Watch" by Aimee Bender. I really enjoy reading her stories becasue they are extrememly interesting. In this particular short story there are 10 men that are told that they only have 2 weeks to live. Some of the people get mad, some of the people cry and the rest really don't have an opinion on the situation. Some of the men don't even have to worry because the doctors mixed up their results and they were really healthy. Also when a person would die before their time, the doctor would always say something like you can't account for events like that. It was also very intersting how everyone ended up dieing at the end too!

Jaime Wallace- Extra credit

Bender Extra Credit

Jinx

The short story I chose to write about was Jinx. Within the story there are two best friends. These best friends started out walking together going to stores. Once they went to the record store with the cute guy that was there they had more jinxing moments, their laughing, and flirting techniques almost as if their jinx's were them just mimicking each other. By the end, the one girl went off and made out with the cute boy from the store, and the other friend was left out walking by herself. Although not together, they both thought of the cute bubble skirt at the same time. Completing their cycle of jinxes. After the one girl who ditched her friend to go make out with a dude, and the other walked away by herself their relationship steadily declined till it came a point to graduate where they pretend to be keep in touch.
To me, the tale showed change in life, the change of the past within the seconds. The stability of things can easily just leave. Almost like the double meaning of Jinx. You can jinx yourself or someone else, by purposely making mentioning it, as if you were taking away the luck of the situation. Or you could jinx your best friend as if to say you owe me a soda since you said the same thing at the same time.
Bender writes with magical realism, and in this story it was a institutional story. Not like there was floating bears throughout the story, but a basic high school drama friendship. Its pathetic that that's the simplest thing and then adding the term Jinx in the story can make the meaning of it dramatically change from pathetic high school petty drama to a double sided tale.
Her story was more than just a jinx of two freinds, it was a jinx of a friendship, a friendship that started strong, based on petty conversations ( i.e. about boobs and butts) to an ending friendship of not being able to remember the others phone number.

Nadia Abdallah

Maggie DeMarco extra credit

For extra credit I chose to read Aimee Bender's, "Job's Job's." This story consisted of a man who was forced to go from job to job because of threats from God. Anytime the man was doing something he enjoyed, his life was threatened if he did not discontinue with the job. He tried out many occupations, but every time he was threatened. He kept losing job after job until God finally puts the man in a box where he is unable to do anything. He cannot speak or see, and there are no windows or doors for him to escape. This is where the story ends.

At first after reading this story I was rather confused. I wasn't sure of the message that Bender was trying to portray. Could it be that we never really know what we want in life until it is gone? Maybe God was testing the man to see if he would be able to find something he really did not like. At the end, the man is forced to sit and do nothing. This could be an opportunity for him to see that maybe God was not punishing him, that infact God was trying to show him more to life. It could be that God wanted him not to settle for something that was less than he, and he wanted him to live to his fullest and try out many things.

Leah Villari Extra Credit

I decided to read Aimee Bender's Death Watch. This was about ten men who go to the doctor to find out that they do not have much longer to live. Five cry, three get very mad, one smiles and one is silent. They go around doing things they would not have done if they were not given their “death sentences”. One man goes to Greece to find a lover to be at his deathbed, two actually die and the others cry in the arms of their family members. They all "live like they were dying" until they find out that the doctors made a mistake- only two of the five men are dying. One of the men who gets a call moves his family to the country where they raise goats; the other two go back to their normal lives. The man who goes to Greece meets a lover and has a good time with her until they realize that he isn’t going to die any time soon.  Shortly after, he calls his doctor back and finds out that he’s not actually sick and that his doctor has died. He died in a skiing accident.

The first thing that I got from this is the fact that it takes most people to get a “death sentence” to realize what they want from life. The man who went to Greece to find a lover waited until this point to try and find love. I acquired the feeling that the Greek women and man were together solely because they had the knowledge that he wouldn’t be living to deal with the consequences of their actions.  I also thought that when the doctor told the men that they weren’t going to die, that this was very simply put and blown off by the doctors. “Oops” and “we made a goof” don’t sound very sincere and made me feel like they didn’t really care either way. The fact that the doctor died in a ski accident, is ironic because he carelessly told people who weren’t going to die that they would and then he himself died. Also a ski accident seems like a strange but ordinary way to die compared to for instance a life threatening disease (what the men probably had.) It almost seemed like karma to me. Because the doctor misdiagnosed and then went on to lightly advise them that they were not going to die, he then died. From the story as a whole, I recognized that everyone is going to die eventually, it doesn’t matter if you get diagnosed with something that will kill you, or you die of old age. Regardless of what kills you, it shouldn’t take a death sentence to get you to start living life.

Bobby Stroud Extra Credit

I decided to read the story "Jinx" by Aimee Bender. The story feautured two girls, Cathy and Tina. Bender describes Tina as the more matured of the two friends saying that she had a heart shaped butt and breasts whereas Cathy did not yet have breasts. The two girls walk to a poster store to see a boy who worked there. Tina ends up going out back and kissing the boy, leaving Cathy walking home by herself.

Although this was one of the more confusing stories I've ever read by Bender, I think she wrote it to show how it doesn't take much for people to grow apart. These girls seemed to be really good friends but this one occurrence caused them to never talk again. I think this is something a lot of people can relate to as I'm sure we all lose close friends suddenly. The story seemed pointless after reading it once, but afterwards I started to understand why it was written.

Sean Gregoire

As far as Persepolis I enjoyed reading the book and watching the movie in class. The book changed a lot of views that I had on life in Iran and in foreign countries in general. The fact that it was like a comic book was a nice change from what we are used to and made it a bit easier to read. It made for a more enjoyable reading expirience and made the assigned reading go by much faster.
The movie was a good way to review the book and catch things that I may have missed while reading. I find it much easier to stay focused and pay attention rather than reader where I tend to catch myself day dreaming or zoning out. Over all I enjoyed Marjane's story a lot.

Adam Swift Extra Credit

I chose to read the short story Job’s Jobs by Aimee Bender. The writer in the story is ordered by God that he could never write another word again he will be shot. So he listened to him and decided that the next best thing was to be a painter. But again God threatened his life. He went on to acting and again God would not let him. He tried to be an actor and a cook and God threatened to kill him. The man became very depressed. God showed up this time and told him that he was not allowed to do anything. God ordered him to shut his eyes and not to say a word. The man was tied up and confined to a box. The only thing he could do was let him imagination go where it wanted to.

No matter what or how many times someone takes something away from you, you are always going to find something that you are good at. There will always be options for you because at the end of the story the man still had the ability to dream even though had God taken away everything else, his thoughts were the one thing that couldn't be taken away. Sometimes we need to sacrifice the thing we love doing and I think that this is the main idea that Bender is trying to convey.

Zack Schwartz Extra Credit

Willful Creatures- Job's Jobs

This story by Aime Bender was very interesting to me. A writer who loves his profession is visited by God and demanded to never write again or else he would be killed. He does this and takes up art and falls in love with that, God once again visits him and threatens him to give up the job. This cycle repeats itself many times, and each time the man finds a new passion and has it taken away from him. At the closing of the story, the man is not able to converse with anyone, and is secluded in a small room with only his thoughts to accompany him. At this point, the man cannot find anything else to make him happy because everything he could possibly enjoy had been taken away from him.

I believe there is a very important lesson in this story. Although it seems as though God is punishing this man, in reality he is helping him (until the very end of the story). Had God not prohibited this man to do these things, he would have never discovered any of his other passions. Had he not prohibited him to be a writer, he would have never picked up acting and fell in love with it. The lesson in this story is to expand your horizons and to try new things, because you may discover things about yourself that you never knew. By going out of your comfort zone, you learn about yourself as a person.

Zack Schwartz Post 12

Watching the movie version of Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis" was very beneficial to me. Although it was very similar to reading the comic book itself, I found it easier to follow the story and understand what was going on better in this medium as opposed to reading. Physically seeing the characters move and hearing sounds that correlate to the story line allowed my brain to process the information much more effectively. I felt it the main benefit to the movie version for the reader was to see Marjane's specific emotions throughout her story. Although her emotions were somewhat demonstrated in the text, one could fully grasp just how awful or angry or happy she was at any given time. The scene where she is on the hospital bed after breaking up with her boyfriend is a great example of this.

I feel as thought I could have gotten even more from the story if it was narrated in English instead of in French. It is a completely different experience, in my opinion, when you are listening to words than when you are reading them. My brain functions much better when I hear things then when I read them. Had the movie been an English version of the film, I would have undoubtedly understood more and had been able to relate more to the story and the characters in it. Nevertheless, this was a great story that exposes the reader to a different world, and teaches a lesson no matter what form of it he or she encounters.