How can you name a story, "The Story of" (or "The Story of of")? "Of" is a preposition which means that it's a connecting word. You can have "The Captain of the Team" but you can't have "The Captain of" b/c it makes no sense. Is that the point, that the story makes no sense? But that's not entirely right b/c the story does make some kind of sense or, if not the sense that we expect a story to have then at least it has an internal logic, doesn't it? It's got rules. Some questions:
- What are the reasons for having "Dirty Norma" stories opening and closing this collection?
- What happens again and again? What seems to develop over the different stories?
- What's the reoccurring story about Kanakas and Drake and copyright infringement telling us?
Calling the last short story, "The Story of of" gives a continuous approach to the first short story in Hunt's collection. However, it also plays onto Kanakas and Drake copyrighting single words and taking all these business's to court for trademark violations. As the stories progress, Dirty Norma and Norma seem to become much closer after every instance. But these stories aren't actually happening right? Are they all figments of what they're reading in the stenograph? All I know for sure is I do not like Linda.
ReplyDeleteI had to read this story two times to understand it. Hunt added more scenes to the second one. the scene about coffee shop in Dead Elm street is repeated and it changes. The second one "The Story Of Of", seems like epilogue of the first one, or it just seems to me and it have some weird patterns. Also Why did she choose "The Story of" as a ending and beginning? It mean something, but I am confuse.
ReplyDeleteThe reason for the story to start with Norma and end with Norma is because the book is based on Norma. She is the main character in the collection.
ReplyDeleteAll of her stories is based on being pregnant. She mentioned about the thirteen pregnant girls, then she mentioned about the waitress getting pregnant and she is not, then she mentioned about Dirty Norma getting pregnant and wanted to get rid of the pregnancies my understanding about the stories is that she wanted to get pregnant and couldn't.
The reoccurring story between Kanakas and Drake is that both of them are being penalized for using words of others as their own.
Something I notice was that the "The Story of" and the "The story of of" Norma is in a coffee shop and Norma asked the waitress if she has some walnuts. Both stories have the same starting points. Norma is still trying to get pregnant by eating walnuts. The difference is that in :The story of of" Norma is with her sister-in-law eating at the same coffee shop. Damica thinks is weird that Norma is asking for walnuts but Norma doesn't care.
ReplyDeleteDuring the Samantha Hunt read she mentioned herself loving doubles. This makes sense to why she had Norma and Dirty Norma appear in her stories. Some of the events from the first story repeat. I believe shes going more in detail from the first story to the second such as how Norma met Dirty Norma and how they're much closer. Its confusing to me as to what Samantha Hunt is trying to do with bringing back the same story. Maybe its a detail or two that we're missing that could be very important.
ReplyDeleteNorma starts off at a table at a diner talking with her husband's brother's wife, Damica in the beginning of every story. The topic of the conversation is always Norma's pregnancy issue and she ends up excusing herself to the bathroom each time. From there, events start changing each time the story is told and it leads into a different ending each time until the story starts again. In "The Story of," Norma meets a woman that she refers to as Dirty Norman due to her appearance and her having the same name as her. They meet at Norma's house where she learns that Dirty Norma is her husband's sister that wants money for an abortion. In "The Story of of." everything is the same until the meeting. Instead of being there for money, Dirty Norma starts discussing the history of the house they're in and about how Norma is wrong for believing she's better than her and that's when the cycle of the story starts. As I read, I felt like Dirty Norma was no longer an actual person like she was in "The Story Of" but a figure of Norma's imagination. Dirty Norma in Norma's mind is her but the complete opposite of her. It's like Norma developed a second personality that end sup taking control of her sometimes and is becoming too hard to control. I found it interesting that it was brought up that Norma's house used to be a mental institution and patients would sit behind all the closed doors with their therapists and tell them the story over and over again until one day it changes and they realize how screwed up they are. The story of Norma's day changing each time it's told makes me believe Norma is in a mental hospital after going insane because she can't get pregnant.
ReplyDeleteDuring the first read the story was really confusing. It took me a couple of times to understand, and even still I have some sort of trouble with it. It felt like the stories within themselves were all over the place, but that's really what made them so interesting. The second story was more descriptive but I still feel like I had to interpret it myself. I also noticed a form of repetition including the scenes. She writes about the Coffee shop in both but the second feels more emotional which makes me question why she didn't use the second part of her being in the coffee shop in the beginning. The first story of, makes you feel almost robotic compared to the second. It reminded me of a flash back. It almost leaves the reader wanting more or trying to fit their own piece of her story.
ReplyDeleteThere's something about ownership re the Kanakas and Drake stories. I think it's significant that Linda K, a lawyer, is also a long-time bully who had someone's family deported so that she could steal her boyfriend. People who take others to court to take their livelihoods are kind of like bullies, aren't they? In fact, many have referred to our current president this way and many people celebrate him as someone they admire and want to be like. Do we live in a society that valorizes bullies?
ReplyDeleteI found it really interesting how the book starts and finishes with "The Story Of", the second story was extended and much longer than the first. I think the reason Hunt decided to do this was because she really liked the story and wanted to add more. You get to see more of Norma and her surroundings and interests like her favorite column in the news paper.
ReplyDeletewhen i first began to story of i was a bit confused. Her writing was something different for me, you see when i would read it'd feel like i was missing the whole point like i was missing the reading in between the lines. but this wasn't for all the stories because after the second time i around i was starting to understand. i feel like some of the reasons for having the dirty Norma stories is to give the readers some understanding of her writing, points, and style. I'm still a little unclear of what was going on between Kanaka and Drake, i feel like if i was to reread it out loud maybe to visualize it better i would have a better understanding of the message because i'm not to good at reading in between the lines, or decoding messages with in writing and i feel that one of the things that i lack in my writing i want to be able to be a great write like Samantha Hunt, the way she describes things in her book, the voice that she has in "A Love Story" is something that inspires me to be a better writer. i think in order to be able to write poetically, you should be able to fully comprehend poetry.
ReplyDeletehunt had dirty Norma stories in the opening and closing because I felt she was one of her most strongest characters and also how she arranged having opening with "the story of" and closing with "the story of of" throughout the Norma/ dirty Norma stories there relationship builds up little by little in comparison to how it all began with the connection relating to Norma and dirty Norma in "the story of" kanakas was a property stealer basically as she also stole Norma's husband so that was a huge point where it showed how mean Linda was and what her intentions were through out the story. UI did wonder if dirty Norma and Norma were the same person and dirty Norma was the bad alter ego although it seemed like they were two separate people.
ReplyDeleteThe reason for having both the beginning and ending stories about Norma is due to them having issues with being pregnancy. Dirty Norma is pregnant and wants to abort the child while Norma wants one of her own. In a way, both Norma's are polar opposites and every story is always talking about someone who is pregnant.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the point of the tittle of the story is to confuse the reader, to have the reader pick up the short story and feel curious about what does this story hold and does the body of it explain what the tittle means. I don't believe the title is explained through out the story but this is the idea I have behind it. I believe this story logically does not make any sense , because its as if at every turn when I think i'm about to catch onto what is going on it makes a whole 180 turn and i'm back where I started. I think the reasoning behind having dirty Norma start and end the collection is to show the process in between trying to finish "the story of", as if the stories in between are her polished works while she was still trying to figure out where she could go with "The Story of" and "The Story Of Of". In "The Story Of Of" the story keeps starting over at the coffee shop with Norma having lunch with Damica. Each time the story starts over there are more details to the other aspects of it.
ReplyDeletehonestly, I think that the story did have some sense but i feel that for Samantha there were things that did not made sense entirely. First of all, the first story ended leaving a suspense at the end because it ended leaving a question of what happened next. Bringing the story back again at the end, for me feel like this story was of those stories that she stopped writing for a while and then came back to it, but this time somewhat different." Dirty Norma" in both stories for me represent in a more detailed way her reality in her. "Norma" was the normal, in a sense limited character that expressed what she was going thorough in a rational, acceptable way in a real world scenario. " Dirty Norma" represented her real thoughts that were going inside of her that might be considered bad in a real world scenario.
ReplyDeleteIn this story, it was a difficult story to understand. The point that this story makes no sense is because it is not saying what the title is, and it is making it harder to understand what the story is supposed to be about. Being that this was a difficult story to understand it made it even more difficult to know what the title is supposed to be about. The reason for having Dirty Norma stories opening, and closing this collection is because she is the main character in the story. Norma, and Dirty Norma I feel like are two different people in this story that are, with each other a lot. So after reading it, it also seems like they are trying to make decisions but always seem to argue about it, when they are together.
ReplyDeletehonestly, I think that the story did have some sense but i feel that for Samantha there were things that did not made sense entirely. First of all, the first story ended leaving a suspense at the end because it ended leaving a question of what happened next. Bringing the story back again at the end, for me feel like this story was of those stories that she stopped writing for a while and then came back to it, but this time somewhat different." Dirty Norma" in both stories for me represent in a more detailed way her reality in her. "Norma" was the normal, in a sense limited character that expressed what she was going thorough in a rational, acceptable way in a real world scenario. " Dirty Norma" represented her real thoughts that were going inside of her that might be considered bad in a real world scenario.
ReplyDeleteWhat I found very interesting was how the author came to develop some sort of cycle around the whole story line, based on the struggle that Norma was going through as she was stressed that she wasn't able to conceive a baby, while also adding another layer of depth to her story, bringing another perception into play of how her story was first looked at when it first started. By comparing the alter reality with dirty Norma, giving you the option of looking at dirty Norma within Norma herself as she takes place in the non physical reality of Norma thoughts or by viewing Norma with a sense of realism and accept that Ted is Dirty Norma brother. This correlates with all the different stories that kept happening again and again, which happens to relate with her obsession or desire of her being able to get pregnant. By comparing herself to all these different people who are going through different circumstances in life but yet end up being able to conceive a baby. Concluding that "The story of of" is trying to portray Closure to the endless loop of Normas thoughts and emotions based on her desire of getting pregnant.
ReplyDeleteI found the story to be rather confusing which has me reading some parts a few times. To me dirty Norma is just another side of the regular Norma, she's the reality Norma doesn't want to face. I think thats a big reason dirty Norma is a an important aspect of the story because everyone has their own reality they don't want to confront.
ReplyDeleteAfter talking about it in class I changed my mind on a few things. I still feel that the second story was more emotional than the first but, I view Norma differently. I felt it was funny how ironic is its that there is a Norma and a Dirty Norma. The picture above helped me view this by thinking about the different layers of personalities. Which in this case it seems like Norma has a split personality and Dirty Norma is in essence the evil one.
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