hortenseg:

MFA Workshop Critique: Sideways Stories From Wayside School

“Some of the characters don’t feel fleshed out enough.  For example: how does a dead rat put on several layers of clothing?  And why would he want to sneak into a classroom?  I’m not sure you’ve earned Sammy’s journey and eventual dismissal just yet.”

“The Three Erics aren’t working for me.  Eric Ovens, I love, but I’m not sure why I should care about Eric Fry or Eric Bacon.”

“The missing nineteenth floor is such a beautiful metaphor for that awkward age, 19, between being a teenager and being an adult.  You’re technically legal, and yet you still have that -teen attached to your age.  It is really a lost year, isn’t it?  I just loved that idea of a floor that’s lost, or stuck in some strange limbo that only a select few can access. Gorgeous.”

“I’m not sure I get this.  The story, like the school itself, seems to have some structural problems.  Are all of these people supposed to be insane? They steal, fight, mock each other, are all pathological liars, and even the adults seem to revel in the mind games that are taking place on a regular basis.  The entire school just comes across as a sort of Hogwarts for sociopaths.”

“I imagine this is what would have happened if Dr. Seuss had taken LSD and tried to write Lord of the Flies.  Just incredible.  I loved it.  Thanks so much for this.”

“The scenes in which Miss Jewls brings in student-flavored ice cream to share with her class disturbed me more than anything I’ve read in any of Palahniuk’s last few books.  Really creepy stuff.  I’m not sure if that’s what you’re going for, but I had nightmares about Maurecia-flavored ice cream for days.  I had to switch to sorbet.”

“These children are all horrible and some of them need serious psychiatric help.  I really didn’t understand the point of this at all.  It left me pretty cold.  Sorry.  I just didn’t care about any of the characters, so it was hard to feel connected to the piece.”

“This may be the most honest portrayal of the social structures of elementary school, or adulthood, really, that I’ve ever seen.  Anyone who is truly horrified by this probably doesn’t remember the guts it takes to survive a basic day in 5th grade.  Kids are horrible sometimes, and so are adults, and that’s the way it has to be in order for people to figure out whether or not they want to continue being horrible for the rest of their lives or if they want to try to sidestep the horrible people and do the harder thing, which is to be nice. And even the “nice” people here have ulterior motives and miss the point sometimes.  And that’s just how life is.  Ultimately, these children embrace their weirdness and just accept that their world is completely insane, and that sometimes they’re not perfect, and that they have to do the best they can to make their way through it, which is something most of us figure out at some point or another.  Louis even tries to tell them a story about “normal” kids at the end and they all boo, because that world, where everything is “normal,” is more absurd and insulting than the idea of a dead rat wearing a raincoat and sneaking into their classroom.  It’s fucking perfect.  Don’t you dare change a thing.”

(Source: hg-, via nothingtothetable)