Sam Hodge’s Reviews > The Complete Stories > Status Update
Sam Hodge
is on page 26 of 555
The Barber:
A satire about the belief that the best arguments wins. The best argument, in fact, might miss the point altogether. If we miss the humanity in our opposition and neglect our relationships, we not only never make a point, but we never enjoy simple pleasures like a clean shave at the barber shop.
“It was time for Rayber to say something but nothing appropriate would come.”
3/5
— Feb 06, 2024 01:26PM
A satire about the belief that the best arguments wins. The best argument, in fact, might miss the point altogether. If we miss the humanity in our opposition and neglect our relationships, we not only never make a point, but we never enjoy simple pleasures like a clean shave at the barber shop.
“It was time for Rayber to say something but nothing appropriate would come.”
3/5
1 like · Like flag
Sam’s Previous Updates
Sam Hodge
is on page 53 of 555
The Turkey:
“God was interested in him because he was a very unusual child.”
God sends turkeys & beggars, and God takes them away. What was the point in the end, but for Ruller to realize that his unusualness was the very thing that made him interesting to God? Not turkeys, not giving to beggars, not his language, nor his parents. Something Awful truly does chase us home when we startle at this realization.
4.5/5
— Feb 12, 2024 11:41AM
“God was interested in him because he was a very unusual child.”
God sends turkeys & beggars, and God takes them away. What was the point in the end, but for Ruller to realize that his unusualness was the very thing that made him interesting to God? Not turkeys, not giving to beggars, not his language, nor his parents. Something Awful truly does chase us home when we startle at this realization.
4.5/5
Sam Hodge
is on page 42 of 555
The Crop:
Flannery O’Connor looks at the world and sees irony everywhere. Miss Willerton demands her stories be better than her own life, and little does she know that we readers are enthralled in the story of her actual life, more so than the stories she imagines. I wonder how she would feel reading this story.
3.5/5
— Feb 12, 2024 11:13AM
Flannery O’Connor looks at the world and sees irony everywhere. Miss Willerton demands her stories be better than her own life, and little does she know that we readers are enthralled in the story of her actual life, more so than the stories she imagines. I wonder how she would feel reading this story.
3.5/5
Sam Hodge
is on page 15 of 555
The Geranium:
Old Dudley, for whom I had a complex mixture of both disgust and sympathy with by the end of the story, shared in my complex mix of emotions while he watched the neighbor’s geranium. He is the geranium: plucked out of his natural environment, fallen from moral righteousness, roots out on display, disoriented, exposed, and withering.
“…he’d spend his life where he’d always spent it…”
4.5/5
— Feb 05, 2024 11:46AM
Old Dudley, for whom I had a complex mixture of both disgust and sympathy with by the end of the story, shared in my complex mix of emotions while he watched the neighbor’s geranium. He is the geranium: plucked out of his natural environment, fallen from moral righteousness, roots out on display, disoriented, exposed, and withering.
“…he’d spend his life where he’d always spent it…”
4.5/5
Re-Score: 3.5/5