What is reality? Isn't it really what each person makes it? Isn't everything a perception of one's mind? What one person may label as "real" can be labeled as "fantastical" by another. If I were to compare this weeks readings to last, I would nudge this weeks to the "more real" side.

For some reason I was really drawn to the awkward stories involving religion. "The Father's Blessing" started off on a normal track and apparently lost everyone when they went for a stroll in the daughter's womb. However, it lost me long before that. Once the bride gave birth to her child and the priest found the picture of the dead baby I assumed it was the couple's dead baby. I read through the rest of the story waiting for him to announce the death but then the bride started preparing to nurse... I had to retrace my thoughts. I re-read but was still somewhat confused. I wasn't so shocked when he began to suck milk from the bride's breast. I was expecting it once the mother said, "I wish I had two mouths." It was basically the priest's cue to start sucking.

"Two Brothers" did shock me quite a bit. I had no idea what the story would be about when I read the first few pages. Once I read about the father trying to cut off his leg I was interested. I wasn't sure how the mother died, a lot was going on at that part in the story. This story required me to go back and re-read previous text often. I felt like there was a lot going on within such a small frame in the story to the point that I couldn't fully grasp what was going on because something else was thrown my way.

Both stories had a tendency to lose me because of the immense amount of information shoved in. Yet, they both continued to broaden my idea of literature by crossing boundaries.
-Ariana Allison