Hi to all in 9th-grade English at Fredericksburg Academy!
Thanks for all your comments here - I've had time to glance at the class blog, but I'm travelling right now and unlikely to be able to answer your comments fully before next week.
One thing I can quickly say is that 'Singing My Sister Down' takes place at no particular historical time, except that it must be a time where trucks and pistols are available. It also takes place in no particular country. Although the original tarpit that inspired me was in Africa, the story's not set in Africa, and it's definitely not set in Australia.
I promise to get back to you in a little while with more detailed answers. In the meantime, feel free to ask more questions if you need to, and enjoy your short-story reading!
One thing I can quickly say is that 'Singing My Sister Down' takes place at no particular historical time, except that it must be a time where trucks and pistols are available. It also takes place in no particular country. Although the original tarpit that inspired me was in Africa, the story's not set in Africa, and it's definitely not set in Australia.
I promise to get back to you in a little while with more detailed answers. In the meantime, feel free to ask more questions if you need to, and enjoy your short-story reading!
posted by Among Amid While at 3:57 pm
8 Comments:
Hello Ms. Lanagan,
Although I enjoyed reading Singing My Sister Down, there were a lot of questions that came up in my head. One major question was what the culture was like, meaning was it Native American like or another culture of the sort. I also wondered why the family did not mourn as much as most people would have in the situation. What I liked about this writing though was the way that you let the reader know what was going to happen in the end, but still kept them hook through the basic idea that they want to find out how everything ends up happening and how the family reacts.
Hi Ms. Lanagan,
I'm part of that of that ninth grade English class and we had an interesting discussion about where the story actually did take place. Personally I think that the story took place in the deep south of the United States in the 1950's. The environment seems right and the times would also fit. However, some of my class mates did think that the story happened in tribal Africa or Australia. I really enjoyed the story. I especially liked how much emotion was in the story; from sadness, to remorse, to guilt. The story was full of such great writing!
Hello Ms. Lanagan, I thought your story singing my sister down was awesome-but I don't understand the setting. Please leave a comment on my blog at fablogs.org/esfa14.
hello Ms. Lanagan,
as part of the 9th grade english class at fredericksburg academy i have recently read your short story called Singing My Sister Down. This story was both touching and suprising as I read through it. Touching because of the families love for their sister/daughter who was about to die, and suprise at how primitive this death penalty seemed. Dying by tar pit seems a harsh and old, but yet in the story she had a gun so it must of been after 1950's. I myself picture it as perhaps a future event. Your writing is excellent, I almost felt as if I was sitting with the family on the hot tar, singing their sister down. I enjoyed this story and hope to read another one of your stories in the near future.
Ms.Lanagan,
Thank you so much for getting back to the Fredericksburg Academy 9th grade English class. We all wanted to know if there was a time that we could skype call you and ask questions about Sining My Sister Down. If there is any chance we could scheduled a time for that please contact us at snobles@fredericksburgacademy.org
Thank you!(:
Ms. Lanagan,
Thanks for recognizing our school on this. I have to admit, even if after reading for maybe the third time and still not enjoying the fact that Ikky dies, the story is really good. Oh, and you're post left me with one question: does the story even take place on Earth or is it on some distant dimension or a alternate reality? Thanks again.
Ms. Lanagan
We just finished this story in class. Thank you for this post, because I was curious as to where this place was. When I read I pictured it was in Africa. I do have one question though, Why doesn't the feel seem more upset with the fact that Ikky is being killed before their eyes? Thanks again
Ms. Lanagan
Our class just finished discussing your story and we had questions for you. We were wondering why you chose to write the story in a way where we had to piece together all of the information to form a coherent plot. We were also wondering what the easiest part of the story to write was.
Thanks!
From Christian and Sam
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