Well, I have my first actual writing assignment for English. This is going to be boring shit, so if by the very slim chance there IS someone reading this, you may want to just skip this post. I'm going to be doing my brainstorming about this story I'm supposed to write an essay on here. I know, that really doesn't make sense, but the warning has already been put out...

The story is called "Stones of a Village"... I think. No, it's Stones of THE Village. Get it right dammit!!! Anyway, I have ABBY FineReader scanning the .pdf file so I can put it into a proper text file for editing. I won't be editing, but I want to put it on my Clie, and also print it out and not waste more paper than I have to.

Basically the story is about a boy from the country, growing up he has nothing but his grandmother taking care of him, and they have no kind of property to speak of. Just a place to live. See, I had to read through all 6 stories to choose from, and pick one to write about. Well, I got through most of them, but just light reading, not the deep 'close' reading you are sposed to do when you are going to make a point about a story in an essay... which is what we are sposed to do. I have to have the first draft in a week. Anyway, the boy goes into town to live when he's old enough to work, and gets a job with a book seller. He spends a few years working for this old guy, and reading when there is nothing to do. The old guy dies and relatives sell off the store and it's contents. The guy leaves money in a trust for the boy though, and a lawyer sees to it that he gets an education, and pays for it with the interest from this trust.

Sound familiar? Yep, sounds just like Pip. I think that was his name anyway, if I recall my Dickens correctly. I read that book twice, once for school, and once just a while ago, I think it's been a little over a year. Great Expectations, took me a while to come up with the title. See how close I pay attention to the shit when I read? Hell, the only thing I remembered about the book from reading it in high school was the old lady and the fugitive.

Anyway, from the first scan of the story, Stones, it seems the kid is a half breed. After getting his education he becomes a lawyer and everybody assumes he's white. He marries a white chick that has a 'well rounded' history, meaning she comes from a 'respectable' family.... It's done reading the file, Fine Reader is, that is. Time to go get all my conversions out of the way and transfer the results to PDA and printer....

Ok, all that's done. Now for some 'close' reading. Basically, I'm supposed to make a point about the story, and use shit from the story to back up my idea about the story. That will be my thesis, my idea. See, I'm putting it all down here because I've never done this shit before. I guess I was sposed to do it in high school, but that was close to 25 years ago, and if I did it I can't remember. Hell, I can't remember what I had for breakfast!! Which reminds me, the kids need to eat... and so do I, for that matter. I think we have leftovers. It's a good thing, cause I don't have much time to 'rustle' anything up.

I decided to print with big margins, so I can make notes in there if something comes to mind while I read. That will be a first, something on my mind!! Ok, something important and pertinent coming to mind. That rarely happens...

He lives in a 'tumble down cottage'. He flings himself on the 'battered step'. Images that are sposed to tell me they are living in near squalor. But then again, it may be high class compared to where everyone else is living. I think him and 'Grandmere' live alone in the 'cottage'. He had just been harassed by some boys his own age from the 'Village'. He 'waves a hand angrily down the street towards the lighted village center'. So, they can see the center of the village from where they live, and they live in a one family dwelling not too far from the village center. He has black curls, but still gives no indication of his race. I'm pretty sure he looks white, from my first reading, but that he's got some 'inferior' blood in his past. His grandmother has little or no education... "fo' what you go by dem, eh? w'ye not keep to yo' self? Dey don' want you, dey don' care fo' you. H'ain' you got no sense?" She doesn't have a very good way of talkin. Neither does he, "I wan' fo' to play."

Ok, 'two room house, bare and poor and miserable'. Guess that's where I got the squalor from. And the supper was frugal almost to the starvation point. So, they don't have shit! He sleeps on a cot in the corner of the kitchen. The printer is done, time to read it off the paper so I can start makin notes. Of course, I'm doing all this in case I can use it to come up with 'ideas' for my thesis, which I haven't a clue about as of yet....