Stephen

I picked Stephen's work, because it grossed me out, but in a good way, like reading the parts about Ignatius J. Reilly and his dog in Confederacy of Dunces. His remix of Brian's narrative takes the opposite of everything Brian wrote and changes sweet, bookish Charlie into a pig of a man. He took my narrative about a drunken old lecher who becomes Elvis when he's onstage, and turned him into a drunken old lecher who becomes Elvis when he's on the (porcelain) throne. Finally, he takes Meagan's sweet dialogue between herself and God and turns it into two parallel monologues performed by obnoxious slightly hateful characters, but does it in this superliterate, supersnotty way that is all Stephen. (Again, totally meant in the best way possible. No one else could write like Stephen, and anyone who tried would sound like a poser.)

As for his final narrative, I liked it because it was dystopic and reeked of untreated mental illness and, yes, it grossed me right out. It was also compelling. Every few sentences or so I was treated to a funny image or a great twist of phrase - the sort of thing that keeps propelling eyes forward.

20 out of 20

Crystal

Whoa, I loved her remix of Brian's and Stephen's narratives. I didn't see it coming until the bit about the eggs, which jumped out at me because my mind kept snagged on that damned detail like it was a nail sticking out of a wall. Anyways, I thought it was clever. I especially liked seeing the various Charlies spawned by Brian's Charlie. We had Stephen's corpulent middle-aged meanie, my dumb good-looking jock, and now your evil scientist-in-training.

She did the same thing with Trey's narrative, which she remixed with this whole wildlife-ecology-bunny-rabbit thing she picked up from Cory, and then all tossed up with a light dressing of academic jargonese. I especially liked 'habitat protocols', because I am a dork and laugh at any unorthodox use of the word 'protocols'.

Her narrative consisted of a collection of vignettes. Reading them made me sad. I wonder if she intended to invoke that sort of reaction with her stories? Or did I just impose my own personal experiences on each person? Either way I thought they were solid character sketches.

20 out of 20