Mrs. Kelly's Monster

Hey guys, this is Yao. Since Scott hasn't posted up a second thread yet and I'm scared I'll forget to write on the noteboard tomorrow, I thought I would just start one about Mrs. Kelly's Monster. I think the "pop, pop, pop" did not necessarily annoy me, but it did make me tense because it was a constant rhythm used throughout the article that just made the operation drag on when what I was really interested in was the results of the surgery. I am sure Franklin used this method to also relate to the readers the type of pressure and intensity Dr. Ducker was feeling during his battle against time and the monster. What also caused my anxiety was the way Dr. Ducker's tweezer instrument could only move a millimeter at a time for fear that he will cause larger damage to Mrs. Kelly's health if he was not cautious or steady. The slow movement of the tweezer as it traveled deeper into the brain, contrasted with the press against time and the quickening of Mrs. Kelly's heartbeat as shown by the heart monitor. The ending disappointed me because the monster won though I know that Dr. Ducker tried his best but I felt empty inside while the article seemed pointless to me because Mrs. Kelly most likely was going to die anyway, as the article had stated in the beginning.

Comments

[Albert Pfaffman]

Well, it was clear from the start that we weren't going to be assured a happy ending. Mrs. Kelly says she's not afraid of death - just of continuing living with the monster inside her. If that ain't foreshadowing, I don't know what is. I guess the disappointment you speak of wasn't an critical issue for me. In fact, I think I'd feel a bit cheated ("rescued" by the popular sensibiity for happy endings is probably a better way of putting it) if Drucker did win out.

This story tells us that sometimes, the monster wins and there's nothing anyone can do. We need to hear stories like this.

Going back to what we spoke about in class, about the transformation of the growth in Mrs. Kelly's head into something evil - I mentioned that there's a chase, a struggle. That is carried, in part, by the monster metaphor. Your comment about the tweezers got me thinking about the Drucker's careful and tense search through the coils of Mrs. Kelly's head. He's on his toes, not wanting to confront the monster until he's righted some of the carnage it's left in its wake. It was like searching for something terrifying in the dark, not knowing if it was a mile away or just around the corner. The surgery itself is the second half of the monster metaphor, because it is Drucker's searching that gives that deadly growth a life of its own.

[Amber Cleave]

Although I assumed she would die, I was still cheering on Mrs. Kelly's fight in hopes that there was a chance of her survival. The "Pop Pops" did not annoy me either, I found them to push the story and to be very successful in creating the sound of worry and fear and helping my eyes to run down the page in a hurry, like a race against time. I also found the other salient structure, the time, to be very effective. The time kept bringing me back to reality and reminding me that the operation is a race against the clock of life. When she lost the fight in the end, I was disapointed because I felt like I had been through the same ordeal as the patient and doctor. The article really made me feel as though I was in that room.

[Scott Eric Kaufman]

Hey! I did write a post after class. It seems not to have posted. [insert obligatory joke about how I even confuse myself sometimes] I'll put it up there, since it also has a link to the Orlean article for Tuesday.

[Ali Taylor Lange]

I would like to respond to Albert's post. In his last sentence he states that it is Drucker's searching that gives the monster its final ounce of personification. I would have to agree. Prior to Drucker's confrontation with the monster, it is an abnormality that the reader doesn't necessarily understand, but assumes that an expert like Drucker would. When Drucker finally finds the monster and it evades his expertise, the reader sees that this growth is not only unique, but it is more advanced than even the experts know how to handle. The author, Franklin, presents this confrontation in a very specific way. Dr. Drucker moves from hopefully questioning the location of the monster, to defeat almost as rapidly as Mrs. Kelly slips into the afterlife. His resignation is the final straw in the personification of this growth, as well as the final push to make the reader understand how scary the monster really is. Not only does it defeat a wife, stretch a reader's medical comprehension, but, it defeats the dexterous hands and knowledge of a chief medical surgeon, whose life revolves around his work. It becomes a monster to everyone it comes in contact with.
I also had a general question for anyone who feels like answering...I was wondering the effect of always referring to Mrs. Kelly as “Mrs. Kelly”, rather than her first name. Her husband actually plays a very minor role in the dialogue, and yet he is probably one of the people most affected by Mrs. Kelly's death. By stressing the marital title Mrs. I think that Franklin is able to illustrate this man's grief without talking about tear jerking conversations he has with his wife. Does anyone have other comments on this?

[Marites Yao]

I also had a general question for anyone who feels like answering...I was wondering the effect of always referring to Mrs. Kelly as “Mrs. Kelly”, rather than her first name. Her husband actually plays a very minor role in the dialogue, and yet he is probably one of the people most affected by Mrs. Kelly's death. By stressing the marital title Mrs. I think that Franklin is able to illustrate this man's grief without talking about tear jerking conversations he has with his wife. Does anyone have other comments on this?

I also agree with certain aspects of eveyone's opinions of how the "pop(s)" throughout Mrs. Kelley's Monster are fitting for this narrative. The repetition of both the "pop(s)" as well as telling of time guide the readers as they reflect the action taking place in this scenario. The "pop(s)" seem to outweight the stating of time when considering that it reflects life - but that also time can continue but the "pop(s)" will not.

I also agree that it is interesting with what Ali wrote about how throughout the story the patient as well as surgeon are referred to their formal titles as Mrs. Kelley and Dr. Ducker. They are however refered personally with their full names only once as this narrative begins. I think that the husband of Mrs. Kelley and wife of Dr. Ducker have no other titles than husband and wife is because Harrington intends to not delve too deep into such relationships - but rather that of the mosnter, patien, and surgeon. I think that the reason for the usage of their formal names is to create to a certain extent a sense of professionalism between doctor and patient, as well as create a distance to a certain extent between reader and patient and surgeon.

[Jessica Beard]

Hi all...I really, really enjoyed reading Walt Harrington's "True
Detective."  I love reading mystery, murder-solving stories and even
though there isn't much mystery to this story, it has the whole gritty
crime-detective theme.  I agree with the class discussion that we had
about how Harrington made us as readers feel guilty about wanting the
"bubble" to finally burst, which would bring desirable action to the
restless detectives.  The whole time while reading, I kept thinking to
myself when is somebody going to die.  Horrible, lol.  What I really
found interesting was the connection that Harrington made between a
detective's work and the work of a literary journalist.  On page 254,
Harrington states that,
                 "The detials seems trivial, but a homicide
detective's life is a sea of details,
                  a collage of unconnected dots gathered and
collated.  In the end, most will
                  turn out to be insignificant.  But at the time, a
detective cannot know the
                  relevatory from the inconsequential..."
Harrington's description of V.I.'s work as a detective is so familiar
to what Harrington actually does for a living and what we've discussed
in class about what we all are expected to do when we research and
write our own pieces.  We're supposed to take in the most trivial of
details much like a detective does when solving a homocide or any
other crime.  Until reading this story, I never thought there were
significant similarities between a journalist and a detective.  I
really liked how Harrington made that connection.  Another thing that
I found interesting was how it took the death of a "pure" innocent to
revitalize V.I.  I say "pure" because the woman who died at the end
didn't have a criminal record like many of the victims that V.I. had
dealt with.  She was the type of person that you wouldn't want to die,
but at the same time her death is the kind that give motivation and
inspiration to detectives like V.I. who put their heart and soul into
their work.  I wish I could go hear Harrington speak on campus on
Monday, but unfortunately I have work.

[Nicole Wurzell]

just to continue the discussion on the Pop, pop....pop-pop-pop's of the Franklin article, I did not find this pacing annoying whatsoever. in fact, i think it worked effectively on many levels because it allowed the story to build anticipation. i think without the pops i would have felt somewhat less of a connection to the operation because i would seem more monotonous and not really relay what was truly at stake...which brings me to my second point. i found it exceedingly interesting that mrs. kelly as a person is downplayed so much: we know that she is not afraid to die and we learn all the torture "the monster" has caused (paralysis, a bleak future, etc) in just one short paragraph on the first page. there is less of an emphasis as developing her as a person, and more on "the monster" that she is haunted by. thus, i think that the 'popping' also works as a reminder that there is a living human being at stake here, this is the poppin/pulsing of her heart.
also, i think this works wonders in displaying the surgeon. the essay begins with him at home and his wife sending him off with a sack lunch, and then within a few pages he performs a surgery that is nothing short of intense (like the rocket scientist comparison), and then in the end he is back to eating that pb&j his wife made him. this would seem to introduce a natural, 'all in a days work' notion; but, instead, i think we get a much more personal feel for him. through the essay we see taht he really wants to help this woman, and although experts advised him not to do it he emphaiszes that he "thought about the patient." i just think that franklin did a magnificent job at capturing the mood of Dr. Ducker (especially at the end of the surgery when he notes that the surgeons words "carry defeat, exhaustion and anger) and allowing the reader a vulnerable insight into the intensity that really does make up his daily life.

[Tatiana Gordon]

When reading the article I felt a sense of closeness and distance to Mrs. Kelly’s character. I felt close perhaps to the idea of her rather than her actual character in the article. I think that by referring to her as Mrs. Kelly and mentioning her full name once in the article, Franklin creates the possibility for the reader to believe that Mrs. Kelly could be any of us, with a monster lurking, whether it is a manifestation of our imaginations or a very real, physical entity.

However, I could counter the sentence I just wrote and say that perhaps this isn’t true because Mrs. Kelly is a unique case: she has lived with her monster for 57 years, had lived though various physically challenging events and survived. There is also a sense of distance because we don’t really understand who Mrs. Kelly is. Rather, I felt that Mrs. Kelly herself played a smaller role and the monster was the actual protagonist. The article seems to revolve around the monster and Mrs. Kelly and Dr. Ducker seem to be minor characters that are manipulated by the monster.

[vivian_Z]

I'm really touched by this feature, even though I know little about medicine or surgeon. It doesn't matter. The monster won but Dr. Ducker tried so hard to defeat it ever. The pop sounds like a time-line reminding readers of the life-cycle. It strikes everyone.