{"id":8884,"date":"2014-11-04T23:47:04","date_gmt":"2014-11-04T23:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eoisabi.org\/?p=8884"},"modified":"2020-05-02T21:51:58","modified_gmt":"2020-05-02T21:51:58","slug":"raymond-carver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/?p=8884","title":{"rendered":"Raymond Carver"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6 style=\"text-align: right;\">[1938 &#8211; 1988]<\/h6>\n<h6 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>\u00a4 \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.giuliotortello.it\/ebook\/cathedral.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u00a0Cathedral<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\u2190[read] \u00a0 \u21d3 \u00a0 \u00a0Listen\u00a0<\/strong><br \/>\n<\/span><\/h6>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QjDZV92jX44\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong>\u2022 \u00a0Plot Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The narrator says that his wife\u2019s blind friend, whose wife has just died, is going to spend the night at their house. He is not\u00a0happy about this visitor and the man\u2019s blindness unsettles him. He explains that his wife met the blind man ten years ago when she worked for him as a reader to the blind in Seattle. He says that on the last day of her job there, the blind man touched her face and she wrote a poem about the experience. The narrator then describes his wife\u2019s past. She married her childhood sweetheart and became an officer\u2019s wife. Unhappy with her life, she tried to commit suicide one night by swallowing pills, but she survived. She and the blind man kept in touch by sending audiotapes back and forth to each other throughout her marriage, and she told everything to the blind man on tapes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The narrator\u2019s wife goes to pick up the blind man at the train station as the narrator waits at the house. The wife introduces the narrator to the blind man, whose name is Robert. They all sit in the living room.\u00a0He pours scotch for the lot, and they talk about Robert\u2019s trip.\u00a0Robert smokes several cigarettes. \u00a0They sit down for dinner and eat ravenously, not speaking, eating so much that they are dazed. After dinner, they go back to the living room to drink more. The wife and Robert talk about things that have happened to them in the past ten years, while the narrator occasionally tries to join in. When Robert asks him\u00a0questions, he makes only short responses. The narrator then turns on the television, irritating his wife, who\u00a0goes upstairs to change clothes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The narrator offers Robert some pot, and they have some smoke. His wife joins them when she comes back, but she immediately falls asleep. The narrator changes the channel and asks Robert if he wants to go to bed. Robert says he\u2019ll stay up with him so that they can do some talking.\u00a0There is a program about the Middle Ages on television; Robert says he likes learning things. When the TV speaker doesn\u2019t describe what\u2019s happening, the narrator tries to explain to Robert what\u2019s going on. The TV speaker begins talking about cathedrals, showing different ones in different countries. The narrator asks Robert whether he has any idea what a cathedral looks like. Robert says he doesn\u2019t and asks the narrator to describe one. The narrator tries, but he knows he doesn\u2019t do a very good job.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Then Robert asks the narrator to find a piece of paper and pen. They both sit around the coffee table, and Robert tells the narrator to draw a cathedral. He puts his hand over the narrator\u2019s hand, following the movement of the pen. The narrator draws and draws, getting wrapped up in what he\u2019s doing. When his wife wakes up and asks what\u2019s going on, \u00a0she just can&#8217;t\u00a0understand.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Robert tells the narrator to close his eyes and keep drawing, and the narrator does so. Soon Robert tells him to open his eyes and see what he\u2019s drawn, but the narrator doesn\u2019t: he knows he\u2019s in his own home, but he feels like he\u2019s nowhere. With his eyes still closed, he says the drawing is <em>\u201creally something.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center;\">\u03a6\u00a0 Six short stories \u00a0\u21d3 \u00a0[esl-bits.net]<\/h5>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"style33\"><strong>1) &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/esl-bits.net\/ESL.English.Listening.Short.Stories\/Raymond.Carver\/01\/default.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">I Could See the Smallest Things<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"style33\"><strong>2) &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/esl-bits.net\/ESL.English.Listening.Short.Stories\/Raymond.Carver\/02\/default.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mr. Coffee &amp; Mr. Fix-it<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"style33\"><strong>3) &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/esl-bits.net\/ESL.English.Listening.Short.Stories\/Raymond.Carver\/03\/default.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sacks<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"style33\"><strong>4) &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/esl-bits.net\/ESL.English.Listening.Short.Stories\/Raymond.Carver\/04\/default.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">So Much Water So Close To Home<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"style33\"><strong>5) &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/esl-bits.net\/ESL.English.Listening.Short.Stories\/Raymond.Carver\/05\/default.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">What We Talk About When We Talk About Love<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>6) &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/esl-bits.net\/ESL.English.Listening.Short.Stories\/Where.I'm.Calling.From\/01\/default.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Where I&#8217;m calling from<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<h5>\u2248\u00a0 where water comes together with other water &#8230; \u00a0[poem]<\/h5>\n<address><strong>I love creeks and the music they make.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> And rills, in glades and meadows, before\u00a0they have a chance to become creeks.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> I may even love them best of all\u00a0for their secrecy.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>I almost forgot\u00a0to say something about the source!<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Can anything be more wonderful than a spring?<\/strong><\/address>\n<address>\u00a0<\/address>\n<address><strong>But the big streams have my heart too.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> And the places streams flow into rivers.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> The open mouths of rivers where they join the sea.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> The places where water comes together\u00a0with other water.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Those places stand out\u00a0in my mind like holy places.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/address>\n<address>\u00a0<\/address>\n<address><strong>But these coastal rivers!<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> I love them the way some men love horses\u00a0or glamorous women.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>I have a thing\u00a0for this cold swift water.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Just looking at it makes my blood run\u00a0and my skin tingle.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>I could sit\u00a0and watch these rivers for hours.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Not one of them like any other.<\/strong><\/address>\n<address>\u00a0<\/address>\n<address><strong> I&#8217;m 45 years old today.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Would anyone believe it if I said\u00a0I was once 35?<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> My heart empty and sere at 35!<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Five more years had to pass\u00a0before it began to flow again.<\/strong><\/address>\n<address><strong> I&#8217;ll take all the time I please this afternoon<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> before leaving my place alongside this river.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> It pleases me, loving rivers.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Loving them all the way back\u00a0to their source.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Loving everything that increases me.<\/strong><\/address>\n<address>\u00a0<\/address>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[1938 &#8211; 1988] \u00a4 Cathedral \u2190[read] \u21d3 Listen <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">\u2022 Plot Overview<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The narrator says that his wife\u2019s blind friend, whose wife has just died, is going to spend the night at their house. He is not happy about this visitor and the man\u2019s blindness unsettles him. He explains that his [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":8885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[170],"tags":[175,266,313],"class_list":["post-8884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-story","tag-modern_writers","tag-america","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8884"}],"version-history":[{"count":69,"href":"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53105,"href":"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8884\/revisions\/53105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishroam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}