Response to Aimee Bender's "Off"

After reading the first page of Aimee Bender’s “Off,” I began to understand and appreciate the writing style she uses. The entire story is written as if the narrator has an awful case of ADD, constantly switching from idea to idea, often without commas and in the same sentence instead of starting a new one or paragraph. 

The basic premise of the story follows this indecisive women who has a mission to taste “all three flavors,” at this party before the night is over. She finds a red head, a blonde and cannot follow through with the black-haired man. She also paints horrid paintings.

I began to think Bender’s writing style was a way of telling the audience how women think and there thought process, as well as short attention span. The simpleness of her word choice and constant flow is a great way to keep attention, and the constant switching of subjects is another way of keeping the plot interesting. I’m not sure if I would follow her writing style in one of my pieces, but it might be interesting to see a similar story written like this from a man’s perspective.

She also omitted most of the usual descriptions we see in short stories, but when she did use description, such as describing the main room table filled with food and wine, it was terrific and effective. I’ve always found it tough, at least at first try, to describe something perfectly in a story to where it fits and needs no corrections. Bender did a great job at using her characters spastic personality to show descriptions the way she looks at them. 

The part of the story involving the painting was very insightful, it showed something the character honestly cared about, but was often not recognized as being good at it, which created great conflict. I’m not sure if I have done this before, but it is definitely I will use in the future in my pieces. 

Overall, “Off” was easy to follow, in part by its simplistic word choice, and it also used the goals of a women to see how obscene, yet true, the atmosphere is like at a party such as the setting of the story. I also had to laugh at the coats, they did seem to be keeping her warm.