I found it interesting that Offutt starts this section of
his memoir by telling us what he isn’t: a soldier, an animal or “the consummate
hitchhiker.” What also struck me was that Offutt does not tell the reader what
he is. It’s poetic that Offutt also ends this section of the memoir by telling
us what he isn’t. But again, he leaves out what he is. Which is, perhaps what
he is trying to explore with this piece.
Offutt talks about the Parrot Lady a lot. He is intrigued by
her and hypnotized by her act. He describes the atmosphere in the room: “A
palpable sense of guilt congealed with lust in the tend, and the men refused to
look at one another.” Offutt himself feels this guilt/ashamedness when the
Parrot Lady finds him in the audience and holds eye contact. What does the
Parrot Lady represent to Offutt? Lust? His youthful sexual inadequacies?
Someone braver than he is, someone who isn’t afraid to outwardly show that
they’re a “freak”? During their conversation in her trailer, Offutt doesn’t
understand why the Parrot Lady wants to be a freak, he’s drunk and naïve and
obviously confused. And it can be confusing as to why anyone would want to
outwardly label themselves as a ‘freak’. There’s a sense of irony here, because
the woman who purposely tattooed herself in order to outwardly show her ‘freak’
status is the most popular act in the show.
When Offutt and the other animal trainers want to see Gabe
the ape’s genitals, they trick him into standing on his hind legs so they can
see them. It’s quiet a childish thing to do. In the end, this childish thing to
do requires each of the men to confess their deepest, darkest secrets to Gabe. We
find out that Offutt was a transvestite in New York. This doesn’t come into
play in this section of his memoir, but the way in which his secret comes out
is interesting. Offutt has not mentioned anything about his past, which he
seems almost ashamed of, and his “greatest secret” comes out to an ape.
Throughout the story, Offutt doesn’t change how the circus
people speak. He uses phrases like, “I sneaked you a snack,” and other idioms
that could have been corrected, but make the story more real for the reader
when left in.
I found the introduction different from what we have read so far. Offutt does not immediately come out with the time and place of his memoir. Instead, he sets up this scene of himself hitchhiking in the rain. We are given an obscure scene, still unsure of what is going on. Then, the last line of the first paragraph says: "In this fashion, I began a summer in Alabama" (297). I liked the slow reveal of what was going on, and the brief suspense I was kept in as a reader. It caught my attention and made me want to read more.
ReplyDeleteI also noted how Offutt allowed the reader to discover the meaning of the circus 'slang' along with his character, instead of defining it outright. For instance, he does not explain what a "donicker" is, but he allows the reader to be shocked at the discovery with his character (299). He does this with other terms and the general lifestyle of the circus workers, too. He truly proves the impact of show-don't-tell.
What interested me about The Same River Twice was that Offutt doesn't really give the reader a sense of who he is. He says what he is not at the end of the excerpt, but he doesn't tell the reader where he's from or any of his background, except that he was with a transvestite in New York. Instead, Offut jumps right into his experiences at the circus, describing the whole crew. However, it's interesting that on the bottom of page 304 when describing writing in his journal, he writes, "I never reread an entry. They represented the past, and my journal was proof that I existed in the present." Perhaps he feels his past isn't relevant to his current life. Maybe he doesn't want to be reminded of the past, even though the past is always there, and it sometimes shapes who we become later on. Perhaps there's more to his past and himself than this excerpt reveals.
ReplyDeleteI also found the character of the Parrot Lady to be interesting. She felt like a freak inside a "normal" person's body because she couldn't have children. Thus, she got all her tattoos to make herself a freak on the outside, too. The character really comes to life through her dialogue, the way her trailer is described, and the description of her performance.
I think, like Danielle and others have mentioned, that it is a really powerful choice to choose to begin and end this section of the memoir by defining what the narrator is not. In this way, the reader begins to wonder what he is, and is able to use the rest of the memoir to figure it out. Through the rest of the piece we see many people who are what they are. The animal trainers, the parrot lady, and the other circus workers are shows as embracing who they have defined themselves to be in the circus. I think this contrast is a way for Offutt to present his character as this wanderer in search of himself. In my opinion, this would be the 'question' for this portion of Offutt's memoir.
ReplyDeleteI was also really intrigued with the mention of the journal. It only spans a quick paragraph on 304, but it struck me as significant. But for the life of me I cant figure out what its function to this section is, it seems a bit out of place. But the phrase "Through this, I learned to trust language" just seemed too important to just be something that Offutt threw in. Perhaps it needs the context of the rest of the memoir to reveal its purpose.
When I first started reading this piece, I couldn't quite get into it. Mainly because I didn't know exactly the direction Offutt is going to transition himself in. Like many others have mentioned, he speaks a great deal about the people surrounding himself. Through class, we've been told to reveal ourselves, and at first, I wasn't getting that. It wasn't until I started to really pay attention to his language, that I understood.
ReplyDeleteMany times, he mentions himself negatively; as if he is never good enough. For example, on page 300 he says, "while the more experienced men." Of course, this language can be just used for the piece, but it continues. Page 301-"graciously gave me the lowest job," is mentioned. Obviously, as a new worker on the block, they are given the jobs that no one wants. However, his boss basically hired him on the spot, so he must see at least a little potential in him. Once again, this continues on page 304, "...most useless worker," is used to signify his job. However, as cliche as it is, a job can't get done unless everyone, every quality worker, works to their potential.
In the text, I feel like this is has been manufactured by his job as being the walrus--the walrus that everyone wants to prove right/wrong. He is literally hiding behind a mask, concealing his identity. However, just before this scene, is the gorilla genitalia part, in which if we read through the lines, we get that everyone is similar to some degree--yet, as society, we always want to make ourselves seem that much better.
Offutt realizes this during the end, when he interacts with Parrot Lady outside of the stage that he's used too. He realizes that everyone has their own pain and that we all consider ourselves freaks--some bring it onto themselves, and others have to carry that connotation to the outside world to make themselves seem important. Perhaps, I'm looking too far into this. However, I believe that odd stories like this (hello, gorilla genitalia, Parrot Lady, Walrus man), hold an inner meaning.
Also, I do agree with Kelsey. The small section about his journal must hold major substance. I wish I knew the meaning behind including this, basically in the middle of the text.
Like Meredith noted in her own reading of this excerpt I found that it was difficult to get into this memoir at first. And at first I wasn't really sure why Offutt was telling us all about the people around him, but after I finished I began to think that perhaps he was expressing himself through the characters that he did present. For me, I thought that it was interesting that the most focused on scene were the ones between him and Gabe and him and the Parrot Lady.
ReplyDeleteI think that by expressing his experience as a transvestite and then giving the reader his conversation with the Parrot Lady Offutt was trying to show his own experiences with self-identity. He always talked about what he wasn't good at, but then gave us these two raw examples of true feeling. It was an interesting underlying thread that wove these stories together.
Also, I thought that his choice of keeping the carnival workers' language rough and imperfect he gave us a more realistic and identifiable portrayal of this life experience.
A small scene I really enjoyed, and I think its because Offutt does a great job of describing what is going on, is the scene on 298-299 with the fighting dwarfs. The back and forth banter that Offutt incorporates into his memoir, along with describing all of their actions such as when he tells us, "The top dwarf kicked the lower one in the head. "Dont kick me" The lower dwarf bit his partners ankle and they tumbled across the ground."(299). It was amusing to read this scene and picture it as if we were standing next to Offutt at the circus.
ReplyDeleteThe parrot lady was also an interesting character (well its a freak show so I guess they are all pretty interesting). She seems to be the only one who turned herself into a "freak". One of the most revealing things that she tells Offutt is on page 312 when she says, "Before the tattoos, I was a freak. You just couldn't tell...I hate my tattoos and I hate the men who pay to see them." I found this to be a powerful, coming out for the parrot lady and completely changed my perception of her.
I read through Chris Offutt's section twice, and I'm still not sure what to make of his writing style. As far as setting the scene is concerned, I can envision the characters and their actions. However, I felt disconnected from the context, at least in the beginning. (Granted this is most likely due to the fact that it's just a excerpt.) I can only guess that Offutt is using his interaction with the parrot lady to explain his sense of feeling like a freak, even if he doesn't appear to be one physically. Not long after he has his conversation with the ostracized parrot lady he removes himself from the freakshow and returns to his loner ways. As others have remarked, he tells us numerous times what he isn't, but never tells us what he is. I'm guessing that's what he was searching for as well. I wish the excerpt had more reflection.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Danielle on a lot of the points she made. This whole section of Offutt's memoir captivated me, and left me wanting more. He starts by telling us what he isn't, and ends the same way, while describing the scene in simple yet descriptive terms: "The sun hung low on the horizon when the leader of a convoy came traveling my way" (297). He uses the same technique in the last paragraph to describe the scene and then tell us, through the use of the ethical theory of "The Golden Mean," what he isn't (uses examples from both extreme ends of the spectrum). And this use of ethical theory leads one to believe that his central question(s) is/are: "What am I?/How can I fit into this world?" Offutt organizes his memoir differently than a lot of the other authors we've read so far. It's a lot of summary with a small, but meaningful, amount of reflection and scene setting attached to the summary. But the reader really gets a sense of what's going on in the circus; one feels as if they are right in the scene, getting drunk with the other characters and making fun of the gorilla's testicles; he does a great job with "painting a picture"/imagery aspects.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the excerpt from Offutt's memoir, I was amazed at his ability to draw a picture in a few short lines. I also struggled to get into his writing but tend to be very visual and he drew pictures for me which brought me into the memoir. There are many examples throughout this piece where he does this. Both sections that Brian discussed are good examples of this. In the two brief paragraphs about the dwarfs, Offutt paints a vivid picture that is vary easily imagined in the readers head. "One performed a handspring, then clambered onto the shoulders of his buddy. They advanced on me, my size now, flicking their tongues like snakes." These two sentences specifically stood out to me because he was able to say so much with so little effort, something I as a writer struggle with sometimes. I think everyone can easily picture this scene in their head as they read it.
ReplyDeleteAnother example that really stood out to me was the brief paragraph that describes part of the Parrot Lady. In only 5 sentences, 62 words, he paints the image. "A swirling flock of bright plumage fluttered up her back and across her shoulders. Parakeets perched among toucans and birds of paradise." Another aspect of this clip is his use of fluttered, giving the motionless tattoo's the appearance of movement.
While much of what we've learned so far in this class has been based in relatable experiences (Wolff's childhood, Bechdel's relationship with her father), Offut's essay is truly unrelatable. While more of a question of topic and the author's life, I think that he also uses this as a literary technique. While Wolff or Bechdel must use much more description to make his situation particularly unique and interesting, we are immediately shocked by the content of Offutt's story. He opens on a passage about hitchhiking, already something very far from my own life and the lives of the average reader. When he describes the two "dwarfs" walking one on top of the other, he knows the image will shock us, and so he uses this to pull us into the story.
ReplyDeleteFrom the beginning of this story, Offut is our eyes into the world of the circus. We see everything through him, right down to the nitty gritty. Yet as many have pointed out we don't really know anything about Offut himself except his inadequacies. We don't know where he came from or why he was hitch hiking in the first place. What I did gather, is that I think we are with a Offut on a stop in his journey of self discovery. I found this story to be relatable because it seemed to me that the author was trying to find his place in the world, wanting to fit in with this circus group. I think the reason the reason Offut writes so much about the people around him is because he may not yet have an idea of who he is yet. We hear one piece of his past-the confession that he was once a transvestite which comes flying at the reader out of nowhere. The story then moves on as though nothing happened leaving the reader a little dumbfounded.
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