from Brennan

 I was worried at the beginning of Julia Sanches' presentation; she seemed very eager to talk about the metaphors, and I worried it was going to take up more of her time. At least among the MFA students, I think we dealt with that very thoroughly last semester. As she moved on, however, I was very impressed with the thought she puts into locality; whether location is highly specific or deliberately abstracted. She "spent a huge amount of time on Google StreetView" and put a lot of consideration and research into her descriptions of flora and fauna.

I have to disagree with the idea that our position "in the era of Google" means that a certain amount of detail can be left out. I don't really want to have my phone open next to me while reading a book. How distracting would that be? I would rather an author leave things totally unknown than be given homework. 

I was also surprised to hear that the author of Slash and Burn was "not one for literary flourishes". I took the deliberate omission of names, and certain words such as "rapist" to be a very obvious flourish.

As to Der Vogel ist ein Rabe, I read the German first in order to get my own feel for the author's voice. I found it very well rendered into English by Peter Constantine. He definitely understands his subjects and knows how to carry over all the sordid little details of their lives.