You all seemed to like discussing these pieces so much I added an extra Severance post.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6363905
Listen to the October 2006 interview with Robert Olen Butler about his novel, Severance. What insider information did you glean from the interview? How does listening to the author’s reading of the piece help you imagine the final moments of the Dragon slain by St. George? There are also five more readings on the same web page, including the author’s own imagined “severance”. Post your thoughts on the contemplation of the incomprehensible – death.
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3 comments:
Mr. Butler's reading helps you understand how quickly this 240 words goes by and how intense the thought is. This thought about life makes you think of the opposite; life. Many say that your life flashes right in front of your eyes. Many think of religion, of the afterlife. To some death is a new begining and to others an end. In this intense thought you find out what you really stand for and what is important in life.
Butler's reading reminds me that nobody really knows when they are going to die. Their last 240 words are their thoughts about how they spent their life and what was important to them. I don't want to spend my last 240 words talking about regret and things that I should have done in life or people that I maybe should have treated better. So this story and interview really touches me in a way that if I don't start living my life the way I want to that I might never have that chance. You can't change a whole lot in a minute and a half.
Mr. Butler interview helps me to obtain a better understand of his ways of writting and reason for writting what he wrote. It helps me put my beliefs in true perspective....makes me feel secure that I believe in God, and I don't have to dwel on the fact that I may die tomorrow or in 80 years for I believe that I will go to a fare better place after I die. But at the same time makes me think about my life and if I have been doing what I am supposed to be doing before I die. Which is why I really like the first piece he reads in the interview the religiouse reverences he uses are inspiring. I think hearing the person read it in his own voice helps me to better understand it because I feel like i am living in the moment its happening.
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