tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6004423696675838467.post7899964300094351285..comments2024-03-14T02:24:22.876-07:00Comments on Essay Daily: Talk About the Essay: Melanie Bishop on "It Will Look Like a Sunset"Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6004423696675838467.post-68018053712413270012014-08-13T16:37:59.739-07:002014-08-13T16:37:59.739-07:00Thanks for reading both essays, and for posting he...Thanks for reading both essays, and for posting here. Sundberg's essay has so many layers. I loved it on first read, but six reads later, I'm really getting to know it.Melaniehttp://melaniebishopwriter.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6004423696675838467.post-5542068290294112322014-08-13T16:34:47.871-07:002014-08-13T16:34:47.871-07:00Laura, thank you so much for this smart, lovely, g...Laura, thank you so much for this smart, lovely, generous and thorough response. It's an essay on an essay on an essay! Nice find also on the twin Calebs! I hadn't even realized what you point out about the subtle part that my husband Ted plays in the review. Thanks for seeing something in my writing that I didn't even see. That's always fun. Also, you are the one who suggested I send this review to Ander Monson at Essay Daily, so another BIG THANK YOU for that.Melaniehttp://melaniebishopwriter.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6004423696675838467.post-60740881436683649972014-08-13T15:40:47.786-07:002014-08-13T15:40:47.786-07:00Lovely, spot-on analysis, Melanie. It opened up to...Lovely, spot-on analysis, Melanie. It opened up to me more aspects of Sundberg's essay than I had considered on the first, heartbreaking, read. Thank you!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6004423696675838467.post-3660683306825923252014-08-13T14:05:31.990-07:002014-08-13T14:05:31.990-07:00This is such a great piece. I hadn't read the ...This is such a great piece. I hadn't read the Sundberg essay before so I went and read that. Like you with the movie, I had my hands over my nose and mouth as I read, esp during that section you mention, with the whack on the spine. And when she tells her friend Rebecca, finally, all the things that had happened, that he'd done (pulling her out from under the bed by her ankles, etc). In that one short paragraph, as you point out, we get just a glimpse of how much she is not only keeping from Rebecca but from us, her readers. We don't need any more than that. I also RELATED, thankfully not to the physical abuse, but to her empathy, her ability to accept the unacceptable, how seductive the good parts can become even in the face of utter horror and violence. On their good days they were a couple that people loved to be around. That counts for a lot, doesn't it? <br /><br />Then I read this review and went even deeper with the essay. Love the revelation of the theme of twins, pairs, opposites, likenesses. The beauty and the ugliness. The love and the violence. The cunt and the sunset. I then started seeing them everywhere in the Sundberg piece: Caleb's one self on the couch pointing to his abusive self in the empty chair across the room. Her own swing between the two poles--should she stay or go?; he is lovable and he is horrible; he is sorry that he has such a problem and he is sure that she is the one who brings it out in him, and how that swing, the opposites, the yes and no, have so little to do with what's true and important--her life.<br /><br />I felt so satisfied reading your piece's conclusion, how she is able to show us the man she fell in love with, to present their marriage, him, what's happened between them--and most importantly *to* her--in all its emotional complexity. <br /><br />My absolute favorite part of this review, though, and the aspect that brings it to another level, is the thread of the 12 Years a Slave (I still haven't seen it, for all the reasons you mention), and the way you explore your own relationship to witnessing violence and cruelty. And the moment in the movie theater when you finally go see it, you sitting next to your own husband, who is kind enough, and knows you enough, to tell you when the bad part is over so you can look again is subtle but poignant. <br /><br />I think this thread of exploration with the movie, how you can't help but react to the plausibility of the character's violent actions under the circumstance, how you think he would put up more of a fight before succumbing to the task, makes us consider and weigh our own relationship to violence and how much, if any, do we have in us. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02314811422709460454noreply@blogger.com