Author: Soha Naseer

The Enormous Radio can be considered Gothic because of the radio that Jim brought hime for his wife Irene. There was Gothic actions such as dwelling in the negativity. The radio wasn’t just a regular radio that played random music, instead it was invading every neighbor’s personal life, their privacy. Irene, always turned on the radio and started hearing either a man or a lady talking. She was always listening to it whenever she got a chance that everything she heard about her neighbors started affecting her mind, it started to get her a bit traumatized. On the radio she heard that one of her neighbor’s couldn’t pay the medical bill due to financial problems. Another one, that Mr. Osborn had been abusing his wife. It all left her depressed, thinking about her own life with Jim that she started asking questions to Jim for reassurance that they aren’t living that sad life. But, towards the end of the story, you see the actual life they’re both living, seems similar to their neighbors. Jim starts exposing Irene’s sins over money issues. You see that Irene is now addicted to listening to other people’s personal life, invading privacy.

The Enormous Radio can also be considered not Gothic because of the setting.  In Gothic literature, the setting is more of a dark space, castle, church, graves, etc. But, the setting to this story was at home. It was a regular day at home. Also, there was no death scene that happened in the story, no terror either. Nothing really happened to Jim nor his wife Irene.

5 most important ideas:

1. The hallmarks of the Gothic include a pushing toward extremes and excess that implies an investigation of limits. In exploring extremes, whether of cruelty, rapacity and fear, or passion and sexual degradation, the Gothic tends to reinforce, if only in a novel’s final pages, culturally prescribed doctrines of morality and propriety. (Pg 5)
2. Gothic interest in extreme states and actions can also be seen to correlate with widespread social anxieties and fears. (Pg 6)
3. Landscapes in the Gothic similarly dwelt on the exposed, inhuman and pitiless nature of mountains, crags, and wastelands. (Pg 7)
4. In Gothic the terror of what might happen, or might be happening, is largely foregrounded over the visceral horror of the event. (Pg 8)
5. One of the great strengths of the Gothic is its ability to articulate the voice of the “others” within its fancy-dress disguise of stylized conversations. (Pg 8)

In my perspective, “A Story Told to Me by a Friend” by Lydia Davis really stood out to me. I found that story more touching than any other story I have read so far in this class. There are various reasons, one because that story can relate to real life. The story is built on so many emotions, happiness and sadness. There was a lot of expressing of feelings between the two people. People have long distance relationships or friendships, despite it being hard it’s built on heavy trust and you have to be emotionally strong for it to work out in the long run because anything can happen. In the story, you can just visual the whole scene that’s written in your mind. For example, when the friend goes to the airport and his internet friend isn’t there, you can almost feel what he’s going through and how he’s feeling when he calls the number that was given to him numerous times and then going to the address. It’s like he was having anxiety and panic attacks because he was just trying so hard to figure out why his internet friend didn’t make it to the airport when everything was planned.  This story comes with heartbreak towards the end. The author basically wrote this for the reader to realize anything can happen at any moment, there’s no age to death. So, take it as a lesson. If you like something or someone, take the risk and go with the flow because you only live once. It’s better to take chances and making more memories than to regret in the end when you lose it.  I really enjoyed this reading and hoping to read more of these types of novels in this class. It brings out the visualization. -Soha Naseer