ENCW 202 Spring 2020
Posted in Desperation, Fragility, Motherhood on Mar 5th, 2020
God, “Salt Slow” was a gut-wrenching read. There was something about it that felt like a confession, as if it were a piece that I should be looking away from. A part of “Salt Slow” that resonated so massively was this love between the man and woman that seemed to be eroding, which as the […]
Posted in Desperation, Motherhood, Transformations on Feb 24th, 2020
Carmen Maria Machado’s “Eight Bites” is a lyrical story told by a woman who has become dissatisfied with her body, and she decides to follow her sisters by having bariatric surgery. She wants to be “normal” like her mother had been, although her mother was not normal, as we see by her taking only eight bites […]
Posted in Desire, Motherhood, Obsession, Transformations on Feb 21st, 2020
For the most part, “Eight Bites” is not a very fantastical story. Until we learn the consequences of the narrator’s life-changing surgery, it feels as if this story could be set in our own world; plenty of people undergo surgeries to reduce their weight or suppress their appetite, and it’s not completely implausible that a person could only survive […]
Posted in Motherhood on Jan 30th, 2020
In the beginning of “Mothers,” a baby is given to the protagonist by (what we find out to be her abusive ex-girlfriend) Bad. At first, the author toys with the idea of the protagonist being a male. The protagonist is given the baby and told it is hers. “What do you mean she is mine?” […]