First Fiction Packet 5-30-12

          The fist story i want to talk about is "Survivors" by Kim Addonizio. The story is about a gay couple who are both dying of AIDS. being a biochemistry major, the first thing that caught my eye was the line "He and his lover were down to their last few T-cells" call me crazy, but i love it when authors use science in their writing, even when it is something as small as saying "down to their last few T-cells" instead of "dying of AIDS". the story goes on about how the one lover wants to die first, mainly because he does not want to deal with the other lover's homophobic family. in a way, i understand where the guy is coming from: when a gay couple is diagnosed with AIDS, people just assume that being gay killed their son/brother or whatever. when this is in fact not true at all.it seems as if in this story, the man is almost ashamed of himself and the way he lives, afraid of the judgement and assumptions that the other people will make. Usually when it comes down to a couple dying, if one wanted to die first, it would be because they didn't want to have to live without the other, not because they fear being judged.
          The next story i found interesting was "The Talking Cat" by Sharon Krinsky. the story is very short and reads: " i go to a performance . a man is talking about a woman and her cat. after the show, i meet the cat and he extends one of his front paws to shake my hand. he tells me he is happy to meet me and we have an instant rapport. the woman seems jealous" at first i had decided that the author was simply on drugs, then, upon a second reading i noticed that this may be referring to the fact that women tend to be jealous of everything, regardless of whether or not they are actually being threatened by it. example: a man getting along with her cat. is he gonna sleep with the cat? no. (if he was, she would have much bigger problems than being jealous) is he attracted to the cat? no. (unless you include the adorable fluffyness that most cats tend to possess).
          The last story i would like to discuss is "Resident" by T.J. Beitleman. because i plan on going to medical school, and the natural thing that follows med school is residency, i was intrigued by this story about a man who is doing his residency and feels overworked, empty, and all together burnt out, but still he keeps his dreams alive and pushes through. his apartment is a mess, which is to be expected when you are working constantly and come home only to eat and sleep, sometimes. it is often said that the residency is the hardest part of becoming a doctor. but still he pushes through. you gotta do what you gotta do. whenever you are faced with something that you don't want to do, if you don't have to do it, don't. but if you do, suck it up and get it over with, everyone has to do things they don't want to do. just keep your mind open and your dreams free.