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Date Posted: 17:35:23 11/12/02 Tue
Author: Erin
Subject: Adam: Re: I Dreamt I Lost My 3rd Leg . . .

Okay Adam, you didn't want holding back, so I won't. I'll just do it in writing instead. I couldn't stand your I dreamt I lost my 3rd leg . . . (I should use abbreviations here) story. Quite frankly, it drove me absolutely nuts. Although the class did raise some interesting and valid points about following the character's thought process throughout the story (which was an interesting viewpoint in its own way) I found the overwhelming details frustrating. The lack of direction (well, more really random direction) throughout the middle section (the huge chunk) of the story became difficult for my brain to figure out just where exactly this character was going. Plus I think overall I was thrown off by the sense of the logical opening scene (With T.S) and then a jump after so many pages back onto the same track at the ending (making the story contained in some way [geez, this must sound abstract]) Half the time I couldn't figure out where the character was (though I acknowledge that may have been your intention with the parallels to London England) Reading it became very tedious for me, and I felt like I had to force my way through it (I got fed up with the Russian and the clock pretty fast LOL). I'm sorry to say it, but it became a textbook reading for me.
At first I wondered if the reason why I didn't like the work was because of your writing style. You seem to have a way of almost blending moments and time as if the reader is looking through someone else's memory and just going with the flow (there, that's the best description of your style I can manage; although I'll note that Victor Victoria was quite different and refreshing from this). Or I guess another way to describe it is like the reader flows along the river of events/situation/thought process, without really questioning the constructed 'writing' reality around him/her. So for example, in ILM3LIAIFD, I was forced to go through the character's mind process, without being able to really question or clearly figure out where I was most of the time. However, I did realise through a lot of thought (over a lot of time) it wasn't your style that bugged me, because your submission piece you read on the second (? First maybe?) class I found quite effective and it followed a simular pattern to ILM3LIAIFD.
So what suggestions do I have? Not a lot, considering I think your emphasis on this story was to follow the character's thought process. However, all my sanity can come up with is to somehow chop the middle down, so a sense of more movement is conveyed (rather than this sluggish obsessive detail following). This story definitely overloaded my brain with images, however there is a valid opening and closing structure. Maybe I just had difficulting relating the middle section to it.
Alright, I'll stop there before I end up repeating points. Got that off of my shoulder's now LOL Hope that was constructive enough, and I hope I had some sense of clarity within my critique (I try).
Erin!

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