for Richard's Father4/4/2008 c1 
18Peevxwm Vaj
The pathetic fallacy in the beginning seems a little cliche' (heavens weep, that kind of stuff), although I realize that when things like this happens, we tend to attribute emotion and mood to everything around us.
Be careful not to pass judgment, especially in phrases like "doing something so selfish as taking his own life." Remember, this isn't a piece on the morality of suicide, but on the narrator's helplessness at watching his friend in mourning. It's a sensitive subject, so it's probably best to treat it with sensitivity.
18Peevxwm VajThe pathetic fallacy in the beginning seems a little cliche' (heavens weep, that kind of stuff), although I realize that when things like this happens, we tend to attribute emotion and mood to everything around us.
Be careful not to pass judgment, especially in phrases like "doing something so selfish as taking his own life." Remember, this isn't a piece on the morality of suicide, but on the narrator's helplessness at watching his friend in mourning. It's a sensitive subject, so it's probably best to treat it with sensitivity.
5/4/2007 c1 6MrFlames
The depressing part of this story is how the author/narrator seems to forsake the importance of his own emotions in the wake of the loss he perceives in his friend. The rhetoric of "Everybody has to experience these things while we are alive" is incredibly depressing and simply not true. There is nothing inevitable about personal trauma. And this stuff of "yet we still move forward as a race" is despicable.
There is no good or easy solution to the trauma friends face in their daily lives. The "let's celebrate the lives of the deceased" method works occasionally but can backfire without sincerity. I think the most important and most poignant part of this essay is the line, "Looking back on it now, I can clearly see that I was screwed from the start." The news of the loss of a friend's father results in one feeling "screwed from the start"? That's incredible. Just incredible. Maybe the response to this isn't to confront one's own sense of insignificance, and instead to try extend the love one holds from ones own family to the friend in need. It distresses me how the friend is obliterated from the narrative at the news of the father's death. Instead, a bunch of "oh no, not aids in africa!" nonsense is thrown out. That's terrible.
6MrFlamesThe depressing part of this story is how the author/narrator seems to forsake the importance of his own emotions in the wake of the loss he perceives in his friend. The rhetoric of "Everybody has to experience these things while we are alive" is incredibly depressing and simply not true. There is nothing inevitable about personal trauma. And this stuff of "yet we still move forward as a race" is despicable.
There is no good or easy solution to the trauma friends face in their daily lives. The "let's celebrate the lives of the deceased" method works occasionally but can backfire without sincerity. I think the most important and most poignant part of this essay is the line, "Looking back on it now, I can clearly see that I was screwed from the start." The news of the loss of a friend's father results in one feeling "screwed from the start"? That's incredible. Just incredible. Maybe the response to this isn't to confront one's own sense of insignificance, and instead to try extend the love one holds from ones own family to the friend in need. It distresses me how the friend is obliterated from the narrative at the news of the father's death. Instead, a bunch of "oh no, not aids in africa!" nonsense is thrown out. That's terrible.