Stolpestad

Stagnation is a not an uncommon feeling to most people. It is the sense of being stuck in a routine, a place, a family, a life. It is the realization that the majority of our time is spent doing the same thing: Getting up in the morning, going to work and hating it, returning home, going to bed simply to rinse and repeat the whole process until the day you die. The worst part of stagnation is that it is almost impossible to break free from. The familiar way to work, that you’ve trotted so many times before, has become quicksand and it will not let you go. William Lychack’s short story, “Stolpestad”, is about this exact feeling and is named after the main character, a policeman, who is called in to put down an injured dog for a boy and his mother. In the evening, the father to the boy shows up at Stolpestad’s doorstep to tell him that the dog survived his attempt at killing it, and that the family had to call in a vet to finish the job. This might seem like a very specific and odd story but, in fact, its themes and moral can be applied to any urbanite whose life is nothing but a rerun. [Læs mere…]

Sorry For Disturbing You

Being able to regret past mistakes and hopefully learn from them is one of the most powerful and important traits of the human race. The short story “Sorry for disturbing you” by Richard Knight is a perfect example of this. It’s the account of a man who, with the help of a mysterious stranger, realizes the mistakes he might have made and that he is willing to mend them.

This man is called Ian Harder and he is the story’s protagonist. Because it is a short story the gallery of characters isn’t very complex so the only other persons mentioned are Karen, Corinne and Michael. [Læs mere…]

Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama: Back to School Event

President Barack Obama held a speech at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia in 2009 in which he stressed the importance of education. It was broadcasted nationally to students of all ages in order to get the message out: Do not give up because “you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country”[1] which is sure to set every patriotic heart on fire in sheer pride. To think that the entire future of the country is depending on me! That is the reaction that President Obama is hoping for in all the students who were listening because that feeling of importance will most likely motivate them to work hard for a brighter tomorrow and ultimately pave the way to greatness. [Læs mere…]

Mule Killers

Time is ever changing and the clash of generations is nothing new, although it has only become increasingly relevant in the most recent decades. The exponential growth of technology outruns every generation to the point where their children scowl at the lack of understanding of current mainstream culture that their parents possess. This is most recently the case for the complexity of the Internet, iPhones and similar technological advantages in contemporary society but also for the decline in use of mules in agriculture back in the old days, which the story ‘Mule Killers’ by Lydia Peelle uses as a metaphor to describe the generation gap. [Læs mere…]