Last night I dreamt I was at DJ Amanda Rose's barbecue and the government came in to raid us. But instead of fleeing, we all stood and fought. That has nothing to do with Ann Beattie or "The Four-Night Fight" but I think it was magical enough to share. Now, here's a story (and an author) that I think will help you make if over this hump.
I chose "The Four-Night Fight" because of Beattie's use of it to discuss the profundity of relationships by exploring the depths of a married couple's heated argument. One thing your spouse does can be so annoying all you can think to do is hurl a heavy object, but that same thing can become less than a memory moments later. This is the essence of human relationships that I try to explore through literature and just hanging out in general.
In Beattie's story we are placed in between "Angelina" and "Henry": a quarreling couple. Angelina is our protagonist but Beattie does an excellent job of blurring lines so that we can feel what Angelina is going through rather than be told. For instance, we don't learn her name until Henry speaks it and a lot of our description of Henry comes from Angelina's view of him, though, the story is told in third-person narrative.
"The Four-Night Fight" sails through the familiar symptoms of an argument: yelling, name-calling, accusing, then finally a resolution of love.
The question Ann Beattie's work left me asking is if we know we only feel right when cuddled up in the nook of that part funky/part fresh armpit of a particular person, why do we always focus on the negative when love comes up against a little pressure? My goal this week is to be less judgmental and more loving. Like Beattie's Angelina character, I want to remember my place underneath Henry's arm, not the infected tattoo oozing on the other side of it.
Learn more about Ann Beattie and her work here. Thank you, Literature, for another life lesson. Next week I will be doing something a little different and starting the dissection of an entire novel: Tar Baby by Toni Morrison...stay tuned.
blip blam bloggo
~sondria!
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