"Resistance" by Stephan Enter Honestly, this story about chess was not appealing to me storyline wise; however, I did like the impersonations of the new teacher that the chess students made. Chess is not something that interests me, so it would make sense that this was not a very appealing story for me. I enjoyed the chess players being so fascinated with noting every one of the new teacher's peculiarities and imitating them as a way of forming a bond outside of chess lessons. The reader's voice was somewhat dark and low, yet soft, which I think fit the tone of the story. I liked that there was not much voice change while reading the story, except when the reader was mimicking the new teacher's voice with a slight accent. On a scale from 1 (bad) to 10 (fantastic), I would rate the telling of the story a 5. With the low and soft voice of the reader, I felt like I was pushed to pay attention to the story so that I wouldn't doze off. Although the side jokers added here and there by the author helped create a bit of humor, the reader could have done a better job delivering the story.
"Gorilla, My Love" by Toni Cade This story itself was not appealing to me as much as Hattie Winston's voice reading it. Due to me being so distracted by the voice of the reader, the story was hard to follow; however, towards the end, I really enjoyed the idea children have to stick together because grown ups seem to be always changing themselves and "not saying sorry." The writing of this story was very entertaining due to the 24/7 sassy remarks and the confident nature of the character, Hazel. The reading of this story was amazing. Hattie Winston's high pitch voice, and confident telling of the story kept me captivated in the story. Throughout the story, the reader held an upbeat and confident tone which flowed naturally with the bold and lively spirit of the text itself. The voice of the reader made me picture the main character, Hazel, as a little girl with a lively, sassy, and bold attitude, who wasn't afraid to speak her mind.On a scale from 1(bad) to 10(fantastic), I would rate the telling of the story around a 8. Although I enjoyed the voice of the reader, it took away from the events happening in the story.
"Resistance" by Stephan Enter (read by Michael Cerveris): This retelling of a childhood story about a chess club was extremely relatable to say the least. It presents the reader with a set of interesting characters who, for the most part, are developed by the end of the story. It is easily understandable, and the imagery is fantastic. Each event, sequence and place is described in great detail. The short had an interesting series of events that I found to be very lighthearted and humorous. I was able to relate each event and person with something that had happened in my life. The story had a clear beginning, middle, and end and each part played a significant role in character development except for the ending. I was left extremely dissatisfied with the ending only because the author failed to show the outcome of character development and all that had happened in the story. Sure, the kids may have learned the lesson, but it seems as though they have all but forgotten it by the end of the story. To me, this was rather frustrating. Nevertheless, it was a great story about a childhood lesson on broadening one’s horizons all together. The narrator had a smooth and relaxing voice. His tone was not too serious and not too lighthearted. Michael Cerveris was able to put emphasis on important situations in the story that were crucial to character emotion that successfully brought out emotion and made the story more believable. I would definitely recommend
"Gorilla, My Love" by Toni Cade Bambara (read by Hattie Winston) I found this collection of memories told through the eyes of a child to be very humorous and relatable. Each memory was told lightheartedly and were very funny thanks to the wryly protagonist. The emotions that kids feel when they are told something by adults that they don’t understand were the main focus of this story. I found each retelling of a memory with her family to be funny and somewhat relatable, as all children have disputes with authoritative figures at some point. The beginning and end were tied together brilliantly as the protagonist drove her point across to her colleague, insisting that people stick to their words, and to not hide the truth because of age. The quirky and hilarious Hattie Winston read the story perfectly. It was hard to follow sometimes because of how fast she would talk ( at times it seemed like rambling), but it was hard not to be interested in the story she was telling.
This particular episode got a hold of my attention originally because of it’s title: Growing Up. In all honesty, this group of stories was not my first choice–I had tried to listen to City People but found that it couldn’t grasp my interest. I had somewhat higher hopes for this episode and was not disappointed. I think these stories appealed to me mostly because they were related to childhood: something that I had experienced before and could relate to.
“Resistance” read by Michael Cerveris was definitely my favorite out of the two stories. It was interesting to see how society amongst kids/teens how changed (or possibly hasn’t changed) concerning acceptance over the years. The variations in tone and tempo that Cerveris utilizes in his reading help me to visualize the events in the story. I especially felt that the pauses in reading were effective at certain times. I also enjoyed the distinctions between characters’ voices. Normally I don’t care for extreme voice changes so the slight ones done by Cerveris were perfect. Overall, I don’t really have any complaints about this story and its reading and would recommend it.
“Gorilla, My Love” read by Hattie Winston was actually kind of exciting to listen to. Winston’s somewhat loud voice and varying tempo certainly held my attention. Her pauses for emphasis (and for the audience to laugh) were effective at emphasizing a point. My only complaint though, is that sometimes the volume of her voice was kind of overpowering and distracted me from the actual words in the story. However, I would recommend this story to anyone who is interested in stories concerning childhood.
"Resistance" read by Michael Cerveris was very interesting and made me think about our society today. At first I thought I would either be bored or distracted while listening to this short story, but after getting into it I felt engaged in the values and messages hidden within. Various ideas came to mind when listening to the short story, such as the problems with stereotypes, peer pressure by friends, but appreciation for certain people and how much they do in order to make a person succeed. The idea of stereotypes first came in when talking about the chess teacher and how they assumed he was gay because of they way he acted, when he would cross his legs and also because of his personal features such as his lips. A quote at the end of the play enlightened my thoughts about the boys when Norburt said "Once we realized that we owed our progress to Mr. Visefeld, we stopped impersonating him. but we still kept him at a distance." He saw the amount of confidence and courage Mr. V had in the boys, and realized that although they had their ideas and jokes about him, Mr. V had truly made a difference in their lives by giving them a hobby that they loved while teaching them the greatness of the game. This is shown to the audience when Norburt says "Any negative thoughts I had previously had had about him had been replaced by a feeling of gratitude." The idea of peer pressure was portrayed at the end when Norburt wanted to tell Mr. V how much he appreciated his hard work and effort, but was brutally stopped because of the thoughts of him being made fun of for being the "fag friend." This disappointed me because a comment like that said to Mr. V possibly could've changed his life for the better and given him more confidence to pursue his teaching, but instead was hidden by the fact of how the other boys would react to it. My favorite part of the short story was the vivid details and descriptions of everything, including the polished table that almost could've been seen as a mirror. I liked the slowness and tone of the reader, and as Mackenzie said I could also visualize the scenes and what was going on. I enjoyed this short story much more than I had imagined at the beginning.
"Gorilla, My Love" read by Hattie Winston was not a short story I had much interest in, but it had some positives to it. I liked her emotion and passionate voice throughout the short story as she was telling memories one by one. I agree with Tim that it was a little confusing to follow and at times it felt like rambling. I also enjoyed the different voices she used for the characters and the tone she used for each. The things that turned me off from the short story were the loudness of her voice, and more importantly the laughing in the background. It reminded me of the laughing tracks in some tv shows. Although I liked the first short story better, I feel like this one showed a sense of confidence that she had and her personality through sharing her story.
"Resistance" by Stephan Enter
ReplyDeleteHonestly, this story about chess was not appealing to me storyline wise; however, I did like the impersonations of the new teacher that the chess students made. Chess is not something that interests me, so it would make sense that this was not a very appealing story for me. I enjoyed the chess players being so fascinated with noting every one of the new teacher's peculiarities and imitating them as a way of forming a bond outside of chess lessons. The reader's voice was somewhat dark and low, yet soft, which I think fit the tone of the story. I liked that there was not much voice change while reading the story, except when the reader was mimicking the new teacher's voice with a slight accent. On a scale from 1 (bad) to 10 (fantastic), I would rate the telling of the story a 5. With the low and soft voice of the reader, I felt like I was pushed to pay attention to the story so that I wouldn't doze off. Although the side jokers added here and there by the author helped create a bit of humor, the reader could have done a better job delivering the story.
"Gorilla, My Love" by Toni Cade
This story itself was not appealing to me as much as Hattie Winston's voice reading it. Due to me being so distracted by the voice of the reader, the story was hard to follow; however, towards the end, I really enjoyed the idea children have to stick together because grown ups seem to be always changing themselves and "not saying sorry." The writing of this story was very entertaining due to the 24/7 sassy remarks and the confident nature of the character, Hazel. The reading of this story was amazing. Hattie Winston's high pitch voice, and confident telling of the story kept me captivated in the story. Throughout the story, the reader held an upbeat and confident tone which flowed naturally with the bold and lively spirit of the text itself. The voice of the reader made me picture the main character, Hazel, as a little girl with a lively, sassy, and bold attitude, who wasn't afraid to speak her mind.On a scale from 1(bad) to 10(fantastic), I would rate the telling of the story around a 8. Although I enjoyed the voice of the reader, it took away from the events happening in the story.
"Resistance" by Stephan Enter (read by Michael Cerveris):
ReplyDeleteThis retelling of a childhood story about a chess club was extremely relatable to say the least. It presents the reader with a set of interesting characters who, for the most part, are developed by the end of the story. It is easily understandable, and the imagery is fantastic. Each event, sequence and place is described in great detail. The short had an interesting series of events that I found to be very lighthearted and humorous. I was able to relate each event and person with something that had happened in my life. The story had a clear beginning, middle, and end and each part played a significant role in character development except for the ending. I was left extremely dissatisfied with the ending only because the author failed to show the outcome of character development and all that had happened in the story. Sure, the kids may have learned the lesson, but it seems as though they have all but forgotten it by the end of the story. To me, this was rather frustrating. Nevertheless, it was a great story about a childhood lesson on broadening one’s horizons all together.
The narrator had a smooth and relaxing voice. His tone was not too serious and not too lighthearted. Michael Cerveris was able to put emphasis on important situations in the story that were crucial to character emotion that successfully brought out emotion and made the story more believable. I would definitely recommend
"Gorilla, My Love" by Toni Cade Bambara (read by Hattie Winston)
I found this collection of memories told through the eyes of a child to be very humorous and relatable. Each memory was told lightheartedly and were very funny thanks to the wryly protagonist. The emotions that kids feel when they are told something by adults that they don’t understand were the main focus of this story. I found each retelling of a memory with her family to be funny and somewhat relatable, as all children have disputes with authoritative figures at some point. The beginning and end were tied together brilliantly as the protagonist drove her point across to her colleague, insisting that people stick to their words, and to not hide the truth because of age.
The quirky and hilarious Hattie Winston read the story perfectly. It was hard to follow sometimes because of how fast she would talk ( at times it seemed like rambling), but it was hard not to be interested in the story she was telling.
ReplyDeleteThis particular episode got a hold of my attention originally because of it’s title: Growing Up. In all honesty, this group of stories was not my first choice–I had tried to listen to City People but found that it couldn’t grasp my interest. I had somewhat higher hopes for this episode and was not disappointed. I think these stories appealed to me mostly because they were related to childhood: something that I had experienced before and could relate to.
“Resistance” read by Michael Cerveris was definitely my favorite out of the two stories. It was interesting to see how society amongst kids/teens how changed (or possibly hasn’t changed) concerning acceptance over the years. The variations in tone and tempo that Cerveris utilizes in his reading help me to visualize the events in the story. I especially felt that the pauses in reading were effective at certain times. I also enjoyed the distinctions between characters’ voices. Normally I don’t care for extreme voice changes so the slight ones done by Cerveris were perfect. Overall, I don’t really have any complaints about this story and its reading and would recommend it.
“Gorilla, My Love” read by Hattie Winston was actually kind of exciting to listen to. Winston’s somewhat loud voice and varying tempo certainly held my attention. Her pauses for emphasis (and for the audience to laugh) were effective at emphasizing a point. My only complaint though, is that sometimes the volume of her voice was kind of overpowering and distracted me from the actual words in the story. However, I would recommend this story to anyone who is interested in stories concerning childhood.
"Resistance" read by Michael Cerveris was very interesting and made me think about our society today. At first I thought I would either be bored or distracted while listening to this short story, but after getting into it I felt engaged in the values and messages hidden within. Various ideas came to mind when listening to the short story, such as the problems with stereotypes, peer pressure by friends, but appreciation for certain people and how much they do in order to make a person succeed. The idea of stereotypes first came in when talking about the chess teacher and how they assumed he was gay because of they way he acted, when he would cross his legs and also because of his personal features such as his lips. A quote at the end of the play enlightened my thoughts about the boys when Norburt said "Once we realized that we owed our progress to Mr. Visefeld, we stopped impersonating him. but we still kept him at a distance." He saw the amount of confidence and courage Mr. V had in the boys, and realized that although they had their ideas and jokes about him, Mr. V had truly made a difference in their lives by giving them a hobby that they loved while teaching them the greatness of the game. This is shown to the audience when Norburt says "Any negative thoughts I had previously had had about him had been replaced by a feeling of gratitude." The idea of peer pressure was portrayed at the end when Norburt wanted to tell Mr. V how much he appreciated his hard work and effort, but was brutally stopped because of the thoughts of him being made fun of for being the "fag friend." This disappointed me because a comment like that said to Mr. V possibly could've changed his life for the better and given him more confidence to pursue his teaching, but instead was hidden by the fact of how the other boys would react to it. My favorite part of the short story was the vivid details and descriptions of everything, including the polished table that almost could've been seen as a mirror. I liked the slowness and tone of the reader, and as Mackenzie said I could also visualize the scenes and what was going on. I enjoyed this short story much more than I had imagined at the beginning.
ReplyDelete"Gorilla, My Love" read by Hattie Winston was not a short story I had much interest in, but it had some positives to it. I liked her emotion and passionate voice throughout the short story as she was telling memories one by one. I agree with Tim that it was a little confusing to follow and at times it felt like rambling. I also enjoyed the different voices she used for the characters and the tone she used for each. The things that turned me off from the short story were the loudness of her voice, and more importantly the laughing in the background. It reminded me of the laughing tracks in some tv shows. Although I liked the first short story better, I feel like this one showed a sense of confidence that she had and her personality through sharing her story.