Each of the pieces in this unit was more relatable off the bat. These pieces embodied and combined many aspects of all the previous writings we have read. These readings are the stretchiest our content has gotten. It was still purposeful and required to dissect the pieces, but it was not as much of a task to do so. When picked apart, they were all concepts I could relate to. I really appreciated these writings for being distorted and using the concept of distortion effectively. This unit was not like imagism, where the goal was to condense the words to the least amount possible and be as minimalist and literal as possible.
“The Swimmer” is the winning example of this because first read there is just a lot going on and then I was able to connect dots. It is a concept that I deeply relate to after I took the time to understand it. I constantly feel like I am not living in reality and that reality is actually passing by me as I stay in my own world that I have created for myself.
He wastes all of his time and his life worrying about things that aren’t important and before he knows it all the things that were important vanished. This is what I fear for myself. I don’t worry about such vain things as he does but I definitely think that I myself am sometimes living in some kind of distorted reality that I have built. This was almost therapeutic as a reader to hear this be talked about and be acknowledged.
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