Adrian Nicole LeBlanc—"Trina and Trina"
I respect Adrian Nicole LeBlanc’s
reporting after reading “Trina and Trina”. I don’t think I could do it—take on
this topic and with such depth and breadth. The narrative was compelling and it
ebbed and flowed at such a consistent pace that I didn’t get bored. I was
overwhelmed at times by the intensity of the events in the story. LeBlanc
really drew me in but I was concerned about her role as both reporter and friend,
and I also struggled with her brief comparison of Trina and herself. I also
wanted to know what it had been written for, what’s the upshot; the ending
doesn’t really resolve things for me.
Susan Orlean—"The American Man at Age Ten"
The Hook is different an interesting, it does a good job of setting up the
characterization. The little American man sounds too perfect for me though. And
I don’t appreciate Orlean’s interjections like, “They talked for a minute about
one of the girls in their class, a tall blonde with cheerleader genetic
material”. This is her impression and I don’t believe the boys would use this
dialogue at this age—in fact, I don’t believe a lot of the dialogue. Maybe I
haven’t spent enough time with ten year old boys, but I have spent some. There
a few really good moments in this piece that I thought were foreshadowing but
then they weren’t—they were just aspects of this boy’s life, like the brief
mention of race.
It's interesting that you pointed out Orlean's interjections. While I think she did a pretty good job of depicting a snapshot of this boy's life, she had some really offputting comments. The one that struck me most was at the start: "...in other words, it is a far cry from South-Central Lost Angeles and from Bedford-Stuyvesant and other, grimmer parts of the country where a very different ten-year-old American man is growing up today."
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, is she referring to a specific kid from there? Because it almost sounds like she is, but I don't think she means to. Secondly, why is this a necessary contrast to set up? It would be completely sufficient to say he lives in an affluent 'burb without condemning low-income urban areas in the process. This made me really hesitant to enjoy the piece, although I ultimately did.