Reading Journal Dec 10

In reading the feature pieces for this week I was particularly intrigued by how authors were able to use language that made seemingly mundane stories particularly intriguing. I also found myself paying very close attention to the way feature pieces end because they seem to be one of the more important aspects of the piece. Making a story interesting is one thing but to really make it sink in and stick with a person you have to have a good outro.

The first story by Larissa MacFarQuhar was particularly interesting because it is structured in a way that makes it hard to know when you are finished with the story. It has a strange feel because of the many different stories, which are not intertwined but move from one to the next systematically.

The first in the story in the series, which documents the relationship between Wagner and Tomas, is most important because it truly introduces the subject of kidney transplants. Though before reading this I could not imagine being interested in the subject there are several things that made this story accessible. At first, I was shocked by how slowly you are lead into the story. The first several graphs are mostly interested in Wagner himself. I think that one of the great things about the slow lead in was that just as I was starting to feel like I didn’t care to read anymore about Wagner, MacFarquhar gives an interesting twist—she explains how he slowly gets interested in donating his kidney. Though I would never have guessed that this would be a good way to grab readers I was very impressed by the time I was finished with the first couple pages by how interested I was.

Although this was a great intro to the story I found Bob Hohler’s intro even more grabbing. The first words alone have a tremendous effect. “They feel like the forgotten ones” His was more in the style that I expected in the sense that it was very immediate and jumped right in. Still MacFarquhar’s piece did show that when writing longer pieces a slow intro could work.

I was also very intrigued by the way Hohler’s piece was split into distinct sections each with their own sub-heading. Though I found this resemble the more academic journals that I have read it made the story more manageable and helped make transitions smooth in the sense that the delineation was no jarring but orderly.