Letter to the Editor

Bruce Robertson

Cline

Eng 102

27 March 2011

Letter to the Editor

            Once again, English is the most dreaded class that I’m taking. It is the only course that I’ve ever had to halfway apply myself in order to attain an A average. The most challenging thing for me this semester has been the literary analysis. So far, the whole semester has been literary analysis. I’ve never felt any great desire or need to dissect writing in order to ascertain the author’s deeper meanings. The good thing about this class is that it’s forced me to do something that I’m uncomfortable with and don’t particularly like doing. Anyone that’s lived a little knows that’s what life is all about. I really appreciate the fact that this class is a challenge for me. Where I once rejected criticism, I’ve learned to embrace it. I’m glad that you always try to push me a little harder and try to get me to analyze a little deeper. Over the second half of this class, I’d like to improve upon the depth of my analysis. I’d also like to continue to analyze and criticize while keeping my proper tone. I’ve always been strongly opinionated, and keeping my proper tone is kind of challenging for me sometimes. Hopefully, I’ll be able to maintain my A average, and then take the skills I’ve learned in this class and apply them to papers I’ll have to write in other classes along the way.

The Sandstorm

Playwright Sean Huze

www.seanhuze.com

The Sandstorm

            At the risk of sounding callous and insensitive, reading Sean Huze’s play, The Sandstorm evoked no real emotion out of me. The closest thing that comes to my mind, to compare this play with, would be a modern horror movie. Most of the suspense, intrigue, and emotion have been replaced with simple violence and gore. Instead of artistically writing and scaring the viewer, the viewer’s fear is replaced with shock. After reading the story, it seemed to me that most of the story just focused on the bloodiness of war and how horrific it is. I kind of felt like maybe I was supposed to have been shocked, but never developed that emotion though. Maybe I’ve become desensitized by the constant bombardment of “shock” TV, movies, books, plays, art, etc. that has permeated our society? Maybe the fact that you can practically rip a characters head off and shove it up his ass in most “kids” video games, has numbed me to a good war story? Maybe I’m just a cruel jerk for not getting misty eyed reading about American troops putting their life on the line for my freedom? Or, maybe, this play needs to be seen as… a play? It wouldn’t be doing this work any justice if I just sat here and was critical of it for not packing an emotional punch, without actually seeing it the way it was intended to be put across. I couldn’t try to use a gun as a boomerang, and then say that the gun is a useless weapon. If used right, a gun is dangerous. So, I’m going to give this play the benefit of the doubt, and assume that if I was to see it performed, that it would have more of an impact upon me, and would be much easier to follow. After all, I like to view myself as a nice guy, and not some calloused jerk.