Reading/Writing Reflection #2

Reading Response:

Metro 2033 is progressing pretty well. Artyom’s out of the metro system now and up on the surface, which creates countless opportunities for world building. We get a completely virgin perspective on the outside world, and despite the damage and destruction, Artyom is still able to see the beauty of a natural world. This is also the most polarized section of the book; monster attacks take the place of sanity loss, anticipation takes the place of fear, and wonder takes the place of despair. It really is a whole new world for Artyom, and he’s got a whole lot to learn. Glukhovsky does an incredible job describing the horrors of the above-world through his famously detailed set-ups. There are entire paragraphs set aside to detailing the mutated spiders that populate the barren remnants of trees and bushes, pages spent on the burnt out architecture. It’s a lot to take in, but it detail really builds the scene.

My favourite quote of this section occurs when Artyom is asking about the lack of rats on the surface, where is guide, Hunter, responds “Where are you going to find rats up here? They ate them all a long time ago.” This line really put the fear of god into me. Glukhovsky had just spent two pages describing the tiny, harmless creatures that inhabit the library in an incredibly gruesome way, what could possibly be worse than them? Man. The build-up really pays off by the end of the chapter when the ‘Librarians’ are finally introduced.

Writing Response:

I’m really enjoying the six-word memoirs. They’re short enough that I don’t feel committed to anything I write, so I’m not afraid to scrap the bad ones or edit the good ones. The whole format opens itself up to legitimately funny, creative ideas summed up in bite-sized chunks. Six-word memoirs remind me a lot of twitter, but taken to an intense and personal degree. You can be as serious or funny as you want with them, it doesn’t matter, whatever describes you in 6 words. It’s almost a new form of poetry, I feel.

Here’s a good one: “Blog’s all done, good job, Colton!”