Martin-TS#10

I met with Boram Kang again on Saturday. She had read a story by FSU's Robert Owen Butler called "Jealous Husband Returns in the Form of Talking Parrot." It is a favorite of mine. In the story, a husband is unable to communicate to his ex-wife because he is a parrot. He can only express himself through parrot/bird-talk phrases like "pretty bird" and "hello." It may seem silly, but it is a truly deep and layered story with so much more than meets the eye. We talked about the story, masculine vs feminine styles of writing (mainly differences between authors like Hemmingway and Kafka compared to Jane Austin and recently read authors). We discussed animal symbolism, and analyzed Kafka's "Metamorphosis" and this story. It brought up a discussion about communication styles across our culture, and once we got back to media being a main channel for cultural communication, we wound up talking about how the media might be abusing its power when it comes to self esteem and positive body image. We covered a lot of information!