Sleepy by ANton Chekhov

When doing a little research for writing my paper on Sleepy by Anton Checkov, I found that there are many translations of the story since it was written in Russian. There are only slight differences like the description of the girl, Varka, as a "nanny" in one and a "nursemaid" in another. This has a profound influence on the reader I think even though it may not be completely obvious. Without using any sort of background information about the author I would have assumed that this story was set in the American south during the time of slavery and indentured servitude by the use of the word nanny and other setting descriptions but if I had read the version stating "nursemaid" as a description of the girl I would have been guided to the European context right away since the description is in the first line of the story.

Just a little observation. I decided to write my paper on Guests of the Nation instead.

War Stories

Today when we were talking about the love letters in class I chose not to share this but I think it is very important in understanding the mental state of men at war and how they cope with it. To explain this I will use an example from my family. I have two cousins, A and J, (brothers) that went to Iraq. A went and left his wife behind. When J went he did not leave anyone behind and he just had one or two friends and family to write to. This is important because A had someone to write to, a reason to get through the war and something to live for. J, started writing to family members he rarely ever talked to in the past and he had a "girlfriend." J, like the LT. in The Things They Carried, created a reason to survive.

War zones can really mess with a person's mind and cause them emotional turmoil. Without a reason to make it through, to go on every day, a person exposed to the toils of war may find themselves in an unhealthy state of mind. Self preservation allows that person to create a reason to go on and to make it through. I believe this is what was happening with our LT in O'Brien's story.

Sleepy and computer sabotage

I read the short story "Sleepy" for class today and of the four stories we read, I remember that one the best because I identify with the character. The exhaustion of the main character is conveyed to the reader in the slow, dull, pace of the story not just in the words themselves which I thought was interesting. That is not the only way I identified with the character though. I would not be as bold as to say that military service and servanthood are are equals but in many ways they are and there were many days I had to continue working on little or no sleep. One time in-particular stands out when I had only about three hours of sleep in a 72 hour period but had to keep working at my computer station until it was time to go out and hold the line for 2-3 hours of refueling and stores on-load. After that it was back to 40-50 degree air conditioning and my computer screen and more work until my shift was over but I was needed after my shift and there was work to be done other places after that. I had World Religions class for an hour and a half every day and two independent study courses. After about 65 hours of being up my LT. felt so bad he brought me Cappuccino from the officers' wardroom in a nice porcelain cup and saucer which was very nice compared to the styrofoam cup and machine powder mix coffee the enlisted people usually get! Near the end I had on at least one occasion considered sabotaging my system so that I could go to sleep while it got fixed!

Oops

I keep forgetting to write on here so I made a sticky not reminder on my desk...hopefully that works. During the class when we read Singapore I expressed it in class but I think it is extremely important that when we read poetry about cultures other than the authors, especially poetry that seems to be an observation, it is important to remember that it is not always an accurate depiction of a culture or a person but merely the writers perception. A lot of times I tend to take writings as truths, especially when it is a revered author and I would venture to guess I am not the only student or person that does so. It takes a conscious effort to remind ourselves that it is a work from the author's cultural perspective. Unless the author is educated in anthropology or makes a concerted effort to gain knowledge of the culture he is writing about I think people should be weary of taking writings, no matter how famed the writer, as accurate cultural depictions.