Comments on: Penguin and Wren

By: Christie Skipper Ritchotte

Christie Skipper Ritchotte — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:07:04 +0000

I want to thank you all so much for the kind, thoughtful, and very interesting comments. I do hope Sonia’s final trick is not ultimately viewed by readers as an escape from an unwanted disability, as that was not my intention. Quality of life is deeply personal and varies from person to person, and to me it has little to do with whether a person has a disability or not. Happiness is such an individual thing.

I love the quote that says (paraphrasing here) that people’s obsessions are what makes them most interesting. For me, this story was an exploration of obsession and its effects upon Dale and Sonia as individuals as well as their relationship with each other. Also, the idea of magic and the psychology of magicians became somewhat of an obsession for me just before writing the story.

Thanks again for the feedback!

By: Merc

Merc — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 23:05:05 +0000

Lovely story, I really enjoyed the read.

By: Tania

Tania — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:39:22 +0000

I loved the story – for me it just flowed.
I didn’t get that the author was making a reference that to be handicapped was to be discontented.
That Sonia was in a wheelchair and had limited intereaction with others drove the idea that she become obsessed with the world of magic. How many of us, wheel chair bound or not are discont with the confines of our lives?
But, we get distracted. For me, Sonia’s being confined kept her focused on her obsession with magic, so much so that she learned to manipulate natural law.
And then she got her wings.

Is it necessarily ‘better’ to be a bird? Not in my book, but birds and flight are symbols of absolute freedom.

I found myself ‘knowing’ the two main characters in such a short space of time.

Well done to the author.

By: FBP Trahan

FBP Trahan — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:29:39 +0000

I am not sure about the “Mormon Hippie” comment, but I find the feed back from the lady with a son with cerebral palsy (Darren) facinating. It seems that the personal reaction to what we might consider a handicap may be counter-intituve. In short, for all we know a thing normally viewed as a handicap may be an blessing rather than a curse.

By: Sara Genge

Sara Genge — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 21:29:31 +0000

Absolutely awesome story. I love the simplicity of it, and the writing.

I considered the implications of “escaping the wheelchair” like Darren did, but my take on it was slightly different for several reasons.
1) Everyone has wanted to be a bird at some time or another, especially during adolescence and this girl’s teen hood sort of supersedes her handicap in this story.
2) I think the reason she turns into a bird isn’t ultimately a need for escape (she doesn’t go out, after all, something which she could do in a wheelchair). It seems more like a call for attention, a way to get her brother to notice her, like a deliberately sucky suicide attempt which tries to achieve emotional reaction instead of actual death. I’m not so sure she really wants to be a bird as much as she wants to one-up her brother and make him notice her.

By: Darren

Darren — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:42:12 +0000

I’m wondering if i’m misunderstanding the ending as it seems to be suggesting that the only way to happiness for Sonia is to escape her wheelchair. It worries me that the ending ties in with the general ignorance in regards to disability i see in everday life.
Ignorance i see in respect of my son who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. People and society in general automatically see him as having a poor quality of life because of this. The problem with this assumption is that my son is the happiest person i’ve ever known and if happiness is not the main indicator for quality of life then what is?
I hope i am misunderstanding the authors intentions here as up until the end i was finding the story very refreshing, in particular, Sonia’s character.

By: bookmole

bookmole — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:53:42 +0000

I could see Sonia, at the end, with her curiously moving head and bright, dark eyes. Lovely story. Thanks.

By: catrambo

catrambo — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:24:41 +0000

Things that I particularly like about this story: the eerie darkness at the end that is unexpected without being jarring, the movement between signed and spoken language, the phrase “a chime of wrens”, the quotes from The Magician’s Oath, the way we understand at some basic level why the sister is drawn to magic and its promise of escape.

We’ve have stories lately which resonate with this one, I think: “The Lodger at Wintertide” with its similar theme of spoken and signed language, and “The Small Door” with its own invalid and the promise of escape – thwarted in that story where it is not in this one.