tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1857834966842567237.post6238553667316415496..comments2023-10-26T09:36:36.638-04:00Comments on Three Dogs and a Couch: I'm sure that's mineHeather Pedenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00437608758801235095noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1857834966842567237.post-28424033202193487322010-10-28T09:28:23.021-04:002010-10-28T09:28:23.021-04:00I've said this before, I know: beautifully wri...I've said this before, I know: beautifully written, Heather. I particularly liked your use of contrast to bring out the character of these dogs: characterization through juxtaposition, interplay of light and dark, yin against yang. One of my favourite novels is "Wuthering Heights" and Murdoch, for me, becomes a black and bushy Bronte hero or, perhaps more accurately, an anti-hero. He is disordered energy, the wild and windy heaths; Bear, in contrast, becomes warmth, order, quiet green vales. Murdoch listen to loud heavy-metal music; Bear to classical Brahms. Bronte's vision seeks for these two opposing forces to be eventually harmonized. The state achieved is one of ordered energy where nothing is lost - the yin and yang are circle bound in harmony. This entry, as well as the track of all the Murdoch blogs, moves in that direction: wolfish Murdoch is becoming civilized but not entirely "lost". Murdoch a mere "bratty little brother" has now "learned to interact with Bear without slamming into her". Now Murdoch just seems the selfish but somewhat careful juvenile and not the dangerous thug. All accomplished through contrast.<br />As for your beautiful writing here, I enjoyed your sly undercutting of that "half-chewed stick " at the conclusion, thereby forcing us to reconsider, to confront its symbolic significance. We move back to the first paragraph where you, in clear detail, introduce the stick symbol to us and as the entry unfolds the 'weathered" stick richly becomes the symbol of these two interesting and opposing figures. A stick which you, finally, claim as your own.<br />I'm smiling, Heather.Ian MacLeodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933134070879959931noreply@blogger.com