poetic justice!?

ups, jeg legede med latex, kom til at trykke "indsæt svar" og ikke "Forhåndsvisning af svar-tekst".

Det her er hvad jeg har skrevet om det (godt nok i 1.g)
Håber bare lidt kan bruges

Poetic justice by Diana Appleyard

This short story is about middle-aged woman, who has a profile on a website called friends united. It contains both instant messaging and e-mail. Our narrator has a husband, two children, two dogs and a cat. She works from home and lives that everyday life. Then one day sitting in jeans and a too tight t-shirt, Jed Cunningham joins the website.

Jed Cunningham was her college lover. He was an outsider, a cool one. He stood apart from the crowd and yet every one wanted to be him or be with him. He had popular friends and unpopular. Just when you think you can figure him out, he’ll turn 180° degrees. He has very blue eyes, black hair now grey. Tall, skinny, pale skinned and had board shoulders. He was an Irish poet. An old head on young shoulder, his mind shaped from birth. He read books by Casmus, a play write, philosopher and member of the French residences. J.P Donleavy, a controversial Irish author, and Waugh who came from a middleclass family but chose to write in spite of his family. I can se a little bit of him in all these authors. Casmus, the rebel, fighting the system and wining despite a poor background. J.P Donleavy the Irish writher, standing outside the crowd. And Waugh doing what he wants in spite of his family. The love affair in college lasted two years and was partly kept secret. This made it all the more precious. With risk and excitement. Jed was a brilliant student, yet his teachers were unnerved by his wisdom, so out of character for a seventeen year old. She described their love affair as children loving like adults, they never made love, never boasted, yet completed each other in a way no other could have done. The end came when the exams were over. He wanted to go to Ireland and become an Irish poet for real, but she couldn’t let go. Her parents’ expectations were too big. She chooses the safe path and he disappeared out of her life leaving no trace behind. He refused the middle-class nirvana.

Then years later they talk again. The magic dust of youth gone. He has also gone middle-class, with a dog and a divorce. He drove his wife mad because she was not the narrator. He still thinks about her. Her head spins at this message. Back then they were too young for their love, now there to old, bound by responsibilities of life. It’s too late for them; she is tempted and nearly lets herself fall but then remembers her daughter standing in front her school, the last one to be collected, she was going to be late. She stops talking to him and goes on her way. She accepts herself as and a mother, wife and everyday persons. Not extraordinary, no longer a poet but at peace with herself and her life. It’s her children’s turn to live and discover the passion and excitement of not knowing what will happen. Only the poets still seek it, and she is no longer that.



The title poetic justice implies that Jed got what he deserved for leaving her. He was only a half hearted poet and now sits alone with a dog by the sea. Were as she has husband and children. They both live 9-5 but she has a family. She knew she could never live like a true poet, you never know what could have happen if they had stayed together. It could have been so right, but too much passion often burns out of control. Maybe she should have taken the chance but what’s done it done and she has come to terms with it and is now happy.

There are two central themes in this story, love conflicts and mid life crises. Our narrator is in doubt of whether she has made the right choice when Jed contacts her again. I am sure she loves her husband, but the passion probably isn’t that flaming anymore. The classic choice between two lovers. Jed also gives her a taste of her youth again, a simpler life. Just begun, sweet and innocent. The temptation to go back, before the children came, but its love for her children that lead her away again. Love in its many forms is quiet clearly a theme.

Diana Appleyard also works from home, as a writer of course. She has also two children, girls and a husband. Many writers write partially from there own experience and life. Maybe she has had a “crises” doubting if she has made the right choices in life or has missed out on something. I think this short story certainly has some autobiographical characteristics. It is something she has used with great success in some of her other books. This makes it very realistic and good.

Hvad har du fået i karakter for den??