Once again, need some help with some english... id apprechiate ANY replies!!

[WarDemon666]

Read it today for school, Just wanted to know what everyone thought of this story...

To me the guy was drunk the whole way through, but im not sure any more. I think hes just pushing everything back from reality the whole way though,,

cliff notes of story:
guy swims through about 8 pools and calls it a river. lol


Messed up story if you ask me..

Anyone want to tell me their views of it?

Thanks a bunch!

found a mini summary:
"The story starts in a very real (though strange) manner: Ned feels he should swim the 8.5 miles to his house from his friend's house via all of the swimming pools between the two points. As the story progresses, Ned goes from optimistic to a man of despair, summer goes to fall, day to night, clear to stormy, Ned becomes weaker and less athletic, older... Each pool he goes to, the friends he comes across act stranger and stranger, until at one particular pool party, the host comments that he had lost all of his money very quickly, his wife, children, house, everything dear to him. Ned, though, simply continues on, tossing off the comments as meer facts that slipped his mind. When he comes home, though, the house is locked and abandoned and has been for some time."

 

[WarDemon666]

anyone?

Please?
Id apprechiate ANY comments

 

[WarDemon666]

^^ again plz

 

[causearuckus]

I am a swimmer. give me a summary.

 

[WarDemon666]

Originally posted by: causearuckus
I am a swimmer. give me a summary.

the guy loses his job etc, rich neighborhood, swims through 8 pools, ends up at his house, no ones home, he doesnt remember, or doesnt want to remember that he sold his house. its the middle of summer (august maybe?) its cold and hes swimming.

weird story... writing about it tomorrow, would apprechiate any other replies!

Thanks!!

 

[wkabel23]

Originally posted by: WarDemon666

Originally posted by: causearuckus
I am a swimmer. give me a summary.

the guy loses his job etc, rich neighborhood, swims through 8 pools, ends up at his house, no ones home, he doesnt remember, or doesnt want to remember that he sold his house. its the middle of summer (august maybe?) its cold and hes swimming.

weird story... writing about it tomorrow, would apprechiate any other replies!

Thanks!!

Never heard of it, how long is it?

 

[Kibbo]

Never read it, nor any Carver.

Was there any inner monologue while he was swimming? Musing about events in his life? Were there a lot of repeating themes? Especially themes of futility or absurdity? Was it written in the 50s?

Sounds to me like it might have been about the fundamental meaninglessness of life, about how we all arbitrarily pick "meanings" in our lives in a Sisyphysian struggle to find authenticity without acknowledging that there is no meaning in our actions, in what we make of our lives. Maybe this is triple underlined for the attainment of the American dream, with the house, car and swimming pool.

Of course, my interpretation is biased by the fact that you found no meaning in the book

 

[WarDemon666]

Originally posted by: wkabel23

Originally posted by: WarDemon666

Originally posted by: causearuckus
I am a swimmer. give me a summary.

the guy loses his job etc, rich neighborhood, swims through 8 pools, ends up at his house, no ones home, he doesnt remember, or doesnt want to remember that he sold his house. its the middle of summer (august maybe?) its cold and hes swimming.

weird story... writing about it tomorrow, would apprechiate any other replies!

Thanks!!

Never heard of it, how long is it?

ummm, 10 pages?

short story

 

[WarDemon666]

"The story starts in a very real (though strange) manner: Ned feels he should swim the 8.5 miles to his house from his friend's house via all of the swimming pools between the two points. As the story progresses, Ned goes from optimistic to a man of despair, summer goes to fall, day to night, clear to stormy, Ned becomes weaker and less athletic, older... Each pool he goes to, the friends he comes across act stranger and stranger, until at one particular pool party, the host comments that he had lost all of his money very quickly, his wife, children, house, everything dear to him. Ned, though, simply continues on, tossing off the comments as meer facts that slipped his mind. When he comes home, though, the house is locked and abandoned and has been for some time."

 

[Kibbo]

Yeah, just looked Cheever up. I was close to right. He wrote "about the spiritual and emotional poverty of affluent America." Don't use that, you'll get busted for it.

Basically he was writing about how stupid it is to work your whole life just to get a house and a car and a wife. Especially if you're miserable.

Edit: or you end up miserable.

The swim was a metaphor for the rat race. The empty house is a metaphor for the emptiness of the whole idea, and the emptiness you'll have inside if you take that path. Any allusions or hallucinations about the pools being a river symbolise the illusions we have about that llife-path and that life-style. The juxtaposition between the images of the pool and the river show the juxtaposition between the petty lives we lead and the lives we "should" be leading.

Oh yeah, and the whole timeline of the story, (changing seasons, etc) is a metaphor for Ned's lifetime, how he's spent his youth doing nothing more worthwhile than swimming through backyard swimming pools.

 

[WarDemon666]

Originally posted by: Kibbo
Yeah, just looked Cheever up. I was close to right. He wrote "about the spiritual and emotional poverty of affluent America." Don't use that, you'll get busted for it.

Basically he was writing about how stupid it is to work your whole life just to get a house and a car and a wife. Especially if you're miserable.

Edit: or you end up miserable.

The swim was a metaphor for the rat race. The empty house is a metaphor for the emptiness of the whole idea, and the emptiness you'll have inside if you take that path. Any allusions or hallucinations about the pools being a river symbolise the illusions we have about that llife-path and that life-style. The juxtaposition between the images of the pool and the river show the juxtaposition between the petty lives we lead and the lives we "should" be leading.

wow.

you are a genius

I would have never thought of it that way..

I was just gonna write about how alchohol tends to bring someone down to reality, basically

 

[WarDemon666]

morning thoughts?