The Same River Twice by Chris Offutt

“On the other hand, I was thirty-three years old, the age when Jesus died, when Alexander had conquered the known world.”

                As Chris rambles on in his mind about his accomplishments in life, or rather the lack thereof of accomplishments, he tries to decide his life with a child. Should he stay with Rita, his wife, and have a child or leave her soon so that she a time to find a man to have a child with her? He compares himself to men of great status such as Jesus Christ, a man who converted many people and started the foundation of a religion. He also compares himself to Alexander the Great, the Greek king who conquered lands from Egypt all the way to India before his death. These comparisons make him think that not only is he unable to be independent but he cannot even raise a child.

“The completed road linked the world to the hills, but failed to connect us to the world.”

                As Chris Offutt heads to New York to become an actor and leave Appalachia behind, he realizes that even though he is not leaving the United States he is still going from two different spectrums. The roads that he takes to travel snake about like his unending thoughts. In his hometown, where he is known by everyone, he is unable to find himself. However, when he encounters the young black dancer, Jahi, his only friend in the strange city, he is finally able to realize what he wants. 

“Our public time was a constant duel designed to make me angry, jealous or embarrassed.”

                Referring to Jahi and Chris’s outings around New York, Chris explains the taunting he dealt with from Jahi on a regular basis. Jahi was a strong black woman who helped Chris mature and become an adult. She taught him a lot of firsts and the taunting was to make him a stronger person mentally. She shows him New York and probably unknowingly helped him come to the realization that cannot and will not be an actor. She opened his eyes to other possibilities, including the arts. She showed him many museums, helping him discover his love for paintings.

skid: a plank, bar, log, or the like, especially one of a pair, on which something heavy may be slid or rolled along. (The Same River Twice 11)

saboteur: a person who commits sabotage (The Same River Twice 14)

fecundity: the capacity of abundant production (The Same River Twice 14)

gibbous: convex at both edges as if the moon were half full (The Same River Twice 17)

derisively: characterized by mocking (The Same River Twice 18)

gestating: to carry in the womb from the period of conception to birth (The Same River Twice 18)

albumin: any of a class of simple, sulfur-containing, water-soluble proteins that coagulate when heated, occurring in egg white, milk, blood, and other animal and vegetable tissues and secretions (The Same River Twice 20)

assiduously: constant, unremitting (The Same River Twice 23)

cacophony:  harsh discordance of sound (The Same River Twice 24)

surreptitiously: obtained by stealth, secret, unauthorized (The Same River Twice 33)

jodhpurs: riding breeches cut very full over the hips and tapering at the knees to become tight fitting from the knees to the ankles.  (The Same River Twice 36)

cormorant: a greedy person (The Same River Twice 43)

Emergency by Denis Johnson

“He often stole pills from the cabinets.”

                The narrator explains that his good friend Georgie is always pocketing drugs from the hospital. The amount and combination of these drugs, such as LSD, could explain his hallucinations. While Georgie is cleaning up the blood in the OR, the narrator walks in asking why he is still cleaning, clearly he sees no blood on the floor. However, Georgie who is feeling the side effects of the drugs is imagining in his mind that there is still blood everywhere when in actuality the floor is clean. Nevertheless, even while being on the drugs, Georgie is able to carry out the duties of his job and prep Terrence Weber for surgery, but the drugs could explain why he was so bold to pull the knife out of the patient’s eye.

“We killed the mother and saved the children”

                I think there is a common misconception regarding drug users and their personality of not caring one bit. However, Georgie kills a rabbit but tries to save the unborn bunnies. Although, while being on the drugs his ability to think straight is inept and he does not rationally think of how he will be able to care for the unborn bunnies. He works in a hospital, a job that requires a decent educational background, because he is intelligent. This is another misconception of drug users being dumb due to the drugs destroying their brain. He is able to tend to the needs of those who are injured or sick.

“’The Lord,’ the intercom said, ‘is my shepherd.’ It did that each evening because this was a Catholic hospital.”

                It is interesting that this hospital is a Catholic hospital. First, Because Georgie steals pills from the institution therefore breaking the eighth commandment. Second, because the Nurse, someone who should be very caring, is rather the exact opposite. She is not concerned about the well-being of Georgie and enjoyed the idea of humiliating the physician on duty, knowing he would not be able to handle the injury at hand. Also, the Nurse becomes annoyed when the Our Father, an important prayer to the Catholic faith, is announced over the intercom.

clerk- a person employed, as in an office, to keep records, file, type, or perform other general office tasks (Emergency, 276)

orderly- a hospital attendant having general, nonmedical duties. (Emergency, 276)

LSD- Lysergic acid diethylamide is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an altered sense of time and spiritual experiences (Emergency, 279)

The Crying of Lot 49, Chapter 5 by Thomas Pynchon

 “Maybe I could find out what it is. Maybe I’d be less of a threat for him.”

                When Oedipa enters the house of Dr. Hillarius, she is greeted by the doctor’s frantic assistant who informs her that he has gone completely crazy. He believes that terrorists are after him and has therefore locked himself in his office with a Gewehr 43, a souvenir he kept from the war. In the beginning of Chapter One, it is clear that Oedipa does not want the doctor’s help and does not think the doctor can help her. She also becomes annoyed with him and his late night phone calls. Her willingness to help him and try to save him, makes her a confused and fickled crazy person. 

“I came,” she said, “hoping you could talk me out of a fantasy.” “Cherish it!” cried Hilarius, fiercely.

                Oedipa wishes that her doctor would help relieve her mind of the fantasy in her mind. However, she continues to act on this fantasy and the concept of Repunzel. She has an affair with a man she barely knew, and is now playing detective learning about her ex-boyfriend when all she really needs to do is execute his will. Fantasies help our minds escape from the real world, however when we act upon those fantasies they no longer become trapped in our imagination but rather escape into reality. Dr. Hilarius tells Oedipa to cherish her fantasy to protect them from the Freudians and pharmacists.

“She didn’t know him.”

                When Oedipa and Mucho reunite, Mucho carried himself differently, talked differently. Oedipa did not know who he was. This is in a way ironic, seeing that all this time that she has been spending with Metzger he did not know who she was turning into or what she was doing. She is now concerned since they have been apart for so long, but his changes are all for the better. He appears happier and lighter since she has been away. The time apart has done Mucho some good, while Oedipa seems to only become crazier.

numina- divine power or spirit; a deity, especially one presiding locally or believed to inhabit a particular object. (The Crying of Lot 49, 83)

eschatology- any system of doctrines concerning last, or final, matters, as death, the Judgment, the future state, etc; the branch of theology dealing with such matters. (The Crying of Lot 49, 91)

fetid- having an offensive odor, striking (The Crying of Lot 49, 105)

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

“Hanging in the air over her bed she now beheld the well-known portrait of Uncle that appears in front of all our post offices”

                While talking with Dr. Hilarius at three in the morning, Oedipa has a hallucination of Uncle Sam drifting above her. The idea of war is appearing a lot in her mind since the letter announcing her executor of her ex-boyfriend’s will arrived. She suggests, in her mind, that it may have been for the best for her husband Mucho to have been active during the war, maybe he would be tougher, maybe he would not sweat the small things and be less “thin-skinned” and more thick-skinned. War could represent the strength to overtake something, like overtaking an execution of a will.

“Roseman tried to plat footsie with her under the table.”

                Roseman, the attorney, is married as is Oedipa. The attorney expressing affection towards a client is odd, but the fact that Oedipa does not ask him to stop nor pull away is curious as well. Roseman’s profession could indicate that he is a better man than Mucho. An attorney is said to be forceful and strong-willed and must not be overwhelmed by the small things in life. Oedipa may also want his help with the execution of her ex-boyfriend’s will, seeing that she has no experience and therefore has no clue what to do.

“[C]onned herself into the curious, Repunzel-like role of a pensive girl somehow, magically prisoner among the pines”

                Pierce Invariarty looks great on paper especially since he is a rich California real estate mogul. He could very well have been Oedipa’s prince charming. When Oedipa refers to herself as Repunzel, the fairy tell of a princess rescued by a prince charming, it is clear that she feels trapped, not necessarily up in a tower but maybe trapped by her hallucinations or the drugs her Dr. Hilarius prescribes her. Pierce’s money is what helps her escape her entrapment not the man himself. He was incapable of completing her like Mucho does.

kirsch: a fragrant, colorless, unaged brandy distilled from a fermented mash of cherries, produced especially in Germany, Switzerland, and Alsace, France. (The Crying of Lot 49, 1)

codicil: a supplement to a will, containing an addition, explanation, modification, etc., of something in the will. (The Crying of Lot 49, 2)

marjoram: any of several aromatic herbs belonging to the genus Origanum,  of the mint family, especially O. majorana (sweet marjoram),  having leaves used as seasoning in cooking.  (The Crying of Lot 49, 2)

pallid: pale; faint or deficient in color (The Crying of Lot 49, 6)