Late night Review #2: MFA Reading
So…yeah, looks like it’s Late Night Review #2. This time, I’m reviewing a MFA reading that took place Friday, April 8 at the Paul R. Jones art gallery. I was only around for half of it, for reasons we’ll discuss later.
First off… why an art gallery? Why? It just…doesn’t fit. True, it does give the place a “classy” feel, but really, when you see the plain white table under the red tablecloth, it seems like the feel’s forced. And an auditorium would’ve given the same effect without the art which was distracting.
But yeah…classy feel… felt forced. While a good half the people were dressed up fancy or somewhat fancy, including the speakers, the rest of us were in much more casual attire. Speaking of, there were so many people there, it was standing room only.
Anyways, onto the readings. I got to hear 2…the first one being an introductory piece for the second. In it, the reader — a fellow-student of the one being introduced — basically lauded her. It was definitely a creative writing piece, and made skillful use of exaggerations. It was quite humorous, causing the crowd to laugh a few times. However, it contained quite a few serious elements also. It reminded me of when I was discussed at my Eagle Court of Honor, just with less embarrassing stories and more embellishment.
The main reading came afterwards. The student, who’d defended her thesis earlier that day, read a chapter from her novel. IT was a late chapter, and she even had a prop sign she’d hold up when a spoiler would normally be given. The story was on a sorority that apparently murdered as part of its initiation… and it was well-written. Unfortunately, some of the content was…well…apparently I can get easily set off by certain things, and let’s say I spent a fair amount of time with ears covered. True, it took a GOOD story to do that, but… well, I didn’t wanna chance the second reading being like this one.
Anyways, the event was nice even if I didn’t stick around for the whole shebang. The readings did take up a good bit of time anyways, but if you’ve got time to spare and don’t mind social manipulation by sorority girls, go right ahead and attend. Me, I think I’ll wait for something else.
