A wonderful and quite interesting contrast between “Home Front”, by Linda Burgess and Rasool Yunan’s “Flamingo #13 of the Caspian Sea”. The similarities between the two along with the overwhelming contrast in terms of story writing, expression and plot is almost rhythmic with the mindwaves of the brain.
New Zealand takes a stand with a comical aspect towards today’s total indentification of generations. The approach is absolutely well done with the story-writing skills much appreciated in terms of how much the concepts are so relatable to us taking a fresh account of the generation through different eyes. Concepts such as the Gen-Z and Baby Boomers almost sound absurd when reading this. The plot and expression is closely linked with the present problems and automatically this makes it stand out as there aren’t many stories we read right now talking about recent events in a different perspective. However, what really is the downfall of this story would be the lack of culture once again. After repeating this reason many times, in general I do conclude that whilst reading, a traditional sense and originality often comes up as no-one wants to read about the same white male or female reaching self-identity and realizing something about themselves or perhaps rekindling a broken friendship. This story is somewhat like that in many ways and unlike in many ways. The absence of intercultural relationships really prove this story to have the same boring storyline. With nothing to look for when in search of something to cling on to. What I mean by this is that apart from the recent events there isn’t too much to talk about. If there was some context regarding the Maori people or even something different about New Zealand to hold on to so it becomes more relatable in terms of one’s own thoughts, it would greatly improve the story. Unfortunately, this does not result in a goal.
Flamingo #13 of the Caspian Sea is off to a great start with a hook gently pushing the reader into the story and something out of this world to look forward to. The description of Solomon himself is really great. I mean the way the writer is able to create a brief description with allusions of stereotypes, the culture is really showing here. Often the Middle-Eastern region is associated with having a long history of growing a beard/facial hair to look more masculine and a more stronger look for the men. This is mentioned in accordance with the time of the story. Showing how the culture is still strong after all these years. Some lines of this story are almost extraordinary, often making me smile and creating multiple thought processes occurring in my neocortex. Lines such as “It was as if catching that bird encompassed the entirety of his ambition” really makes the reader believe that he is going to compleete that action. But the way the story proceeds in its entirety ,differentiates ordinary predictable outcomes to something which the author has mastered with no sleight of hand. Predictability starts to become a theme where the reader looks forward to expecting a certain something but is quickly taken away after a few sentences, often returning to the original prediction. Although, this seems to be nothing more than a simple mythical tale it is also true to its origin unlike other examples such as greek myths. Which would moreover involve war or gods for example. Symbolism mixes with action to produce something which is in graceful and so much present. In which case sentences such as “… but when he pulled the trigger, no bullet fired. He suddenly realized he’d fired so many rounds he was out of ammunition” almost cannot help but make you hear the bullet firing out. The symbolism helps the reader almost start to feel emotions for the concept behind the author’s reader. I say this because I believe this was the author’s intention. The reason he chose descriptive language with so much relation to concepts in real life. To illustrate, one example we can deduce is the concept of chasing something possibly materialistic and forgetting about everything else. I would say in my example this would be like being in pursuit of money or something which enables you to look like you have complete ordinance over your goals. This would be more than enough to give Iran a goal. Ending in its victory against New Zealand. 1–0
