One thing I really liked about Craphound was how subtle it was that Craphound wasn't human. Obviously they mentioned a few things abut him that were super non-human, like his height and teeth, but it wasn't overwhelming. I didn't find myself constantly confused about what he looked like or distracted trying to picture him, but instead I was able to focus on the actual story and what was happening with craphound emotionally. It wasn't until we started talking in class that I really started to wonder what he would look like--prior to that I had just been picturing him as a slightly odd human, not like this:
I also loved the ending and how surprising it was. For me it was really cool how the author had you getting all riled up with Craphound because he wasn't being a good friend and was taking over the craphounding (Is that what it would even be called...maybe hunting?) and then he had us super mad at craphound for getting the glasses, but then suddenly switched it and made Craphound a really good person (or I guess alien) and made us love him as a character. I really enjoy when authors add a twist at the end and I do have to admit that I definitely did not see this one coming at all.
Mostly what I have to say is: agreed, on all counts! But here, let me try for something more substantial:
ReplyDelete-I also really liked this story, made everyone read it, and sold it to them as, "just the nicest thing."
-I like the subtle touches that make Craphound foreign, though--the way his accent is so much better, and he can sound gallant with these stock lines, the way he used to run all his sentences together. Stuff like that.
-It made me think of immigrant communities today--the way it's possible to get upset and think immigration is the end of the world (as we do in most alien invasion stories), and the way it's possible to just live with your neighbors like normal people, whoever they are.
-And on that note, an editor of mine once commented that a story was about:"All the different ways of forming an identity and being a human being, despite the fact that nobody in this story is human." I think you're getting at that, too.
Although I agree that the narrator was trying to make it sound as if Craphound was the one at fault for the strife, he was actually the one who broke the rules first by bidding on something that Craphound had found. Another thing that I think is interesting is that the trades that the aliens were making mirrored the sentimental trades that the narrator made and yet only at the very end of the story can he understand them.
ReplyDeleteIs Craphound a hunk? IDK, but he wasn't what I pictured at all. Catch him in the latest fanfiction Lovehound.
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