Response to Short Story Packets:

The first packet that I read was the Evenson one from Contagion. The thing I enjoyed most about this story is how sane, and normal the narrator seems. He seems to go about his task for Dr. Rauch with a curious interest, despite the fact that he acknowledges how unusual, and morally questionable, what he is doing may be.
The first assignment he receives from Dr. Rauch, and the Dr.'s general attitude make you suspicious of him. He seems overly eager to apply his concepts of personality to everyone, which are seemingly so numerous that no real conclusions could be drawn from them anyway. Despite all this and the fact that no other interns have to do anything remotely similar, he carries out the Dr.'s absurd task. After this the story jumps to the narrator's new mentor, Kagen, who is a Dr. with a crazy brother as well. I remeber Rauch's initials were B.K., and I am not sure if Kagen is actually Rauch, but it would seem unlikely that two doctors would have a crazy brother, and have their intern spy on him. As the story progresses the narrators mental stability apparently deteriorates, and it appears that he is being observed, leaving doubts to his sanity.
After thoroughly enjoying the Evenson short story I then turned to the Field story, expecting a story on par with Evenson; unfortunately I was very disappointed. The only thing that really interested me in this story was the narrator's vow of silence while with the psychiatrist. The narrator took their silence as a victory over the psychiatrist, even though still paying for their "services". Judging from this stance, and what was implied through the other nonsensical stories, the narrator is seeing the psychiatrist due to a court order. The self imposed silence during these sessions either implies an unwillingness to change from the narrator, or the sentiment that they don't belong in counseling.

Response to City Eclogue

1. My first point of interest is how the tone of these poems seems to be bipolar. A lot of them he starts out describing a tree, with a sense of beauty and awe, then changes to intense disgust about how the tree is planted. The city trucks are a frequent target of his vehement disgust.
2. Another topic that seems to crop up in his writing frequently is the difference in how colored people, and white people, are treated. The way it is addressed makes me think this is about modern racism, probably in a large city, perhaps in a primarily segregated part.
3. The author seems to have a seething anger directed towards the cities trucks, or any type of modern equipment. Maybe Ed Roberson is a Primitive Anarchist.