"Off" by Aimee Bender

Aimee Bender's "Off" is about a young rich woman with a goal. The goal is simple - kiss a red head, a blond, and a brunet - but the reader never finds out why she had this particular goal. This is actually a big part of the narrator's character; we never find out the why for a lot of things. Why is she rich? Why did she paint morbid images into her art? What does she want from the hostess, from the party, if she feels too good to be there? There are some interesting observations she makes, such as the fact that women will say "oops, sorry" when they've done nothing wrong (due to society, upbringing, meekness?) and that these people who would like to consider themselves sophisticated can't eat their cheese the right way.

As far as form goes, I actually found this piece interesting to read. When I read "Off," I was coming off of a fever. The long, rambling sentences reminded me of my own stream of conscientiousness. The minimalist description of setting was also an interesting touch with the first person point of view - when thinking to myself, as the narrator was, I don't look around and take note of everything. The odd things she does notice, however, she gives a reason for - the brie is eaten the wrong way, the nervous woman says "Oops, sorry" for no reason, Adam is speaking animatedly with a woman to make the narrator jealous. These little details make the story work well, even without a lot of description.

I think I used to write in a style that was similar to this, but I doubt I succeeded. In my own attempts, my minimal description of setting and character was not countered by increased detail elsewhere. Other than this, however, I didn't find much appealing about this writing style. It confused me (again, I was coming off of a very high fever) and was circular. The subject matter was interesting enough, but I've never found long, block text pieces to be interesting, especially with rambling, run on sentences.