(no subject)
Brigitte Pfaeffle
Period 1
Personal Response to Chris Crutcher
Going into Chris Crutcher’s presentation, I knew very little about him and had only read one of his short stories. However, the story that I had read was one that I found to be very interesting and different from many of the stories that I have been asked to read in school. The story was about a boy named Angus, who is overweight and has 2 lesbian mothers and 2 gay fathers. I found the story to be very interesting and unorthodox, but not over the top. I wanted to find out more about the author of such a story.
I found Chris Crutcher to be neither boring nor incredibly exciting. He told the audience about his childhood growing up in a small town in the Midwest and how he was never a good student. He shared with us how he used to get by in school by taking all of the work that his older brother had done in the previous years. He also told us about the incident during high school that he pinpoints as the moment that he knew he could be a writer. I believe Chris Crutcher is one of those guys who could be very geeky but has had so much life experience with young people that it shows in his personality.
I liked that all of his stories are inspired by the unconventional young men and women he has worked with. My favorite story that Chris shared with us was that of a student that everyone called “Telephone Man” due to the fact that this boy knew everything there was to know about telephones. The boy wore a telephone repairman’s belt around his waist, and would run rampant with anger if anyone ever touched his telephone things or if they made fun of him. Chris Crutcher then read to us the short story he wrote based upon his experiences with Telephone Man, and I found it to be entertaining and funny.
Period 1
Personal Response to Chris Crutcher
Going into Chris Crutcher’s presentation, I knew very little about him and had only read one of his short stories. However, the story that I had read was one that I found to be very interesting and different from many of the stories that I have been asked to read in school. The story was about a boy named Angus, who is overweight and has 2 lesbian mothers and 2 gay fathers. I found the story to be very interesting and unorthodox, but not over the top. I wanted to find out more about the author of such a story.
I found Chris Crutcher to be neither boring nor incredibly exciting. He told the audience about his childhood growing up in a small town in the Midwest and how he was never a good student. He shared with us how he used to get by in school by taking all of the work that his older brother had done in the previous years. He also told us about the incident during high school that he pinpoints as the moment that he knew he could be a writer. I believe Chris Crutcher is one of those guys who could be very geeky but has had so much life experience with young people that it shows in his personality.
I liked that all of his stories are inspired by the unconventional young men and women he has worked with. My favorite story that Chris shared with us was that of a student that everyone called “Telephone Man” due to the fact that this boy knew everything there was to know about telephones. The boy wore a telephone repairman’s belt around his waist, and would run rampant with anger if anyone ever touched his telephone things or if they made fun of him. Chris Crutcher then read to us the short story he wrote based upon his experiences with Telephone Man, and I found it to be entertaining and funny.