Augusten and the Finch girls think it would be a good idea to play with the doctor's electroshock machine that they used to use for crazy people. They are pretending to set up when their baby nephew, Poo Bear, walks in, they ask him if he wants to play with them. Once they start going, and Natalie pretends to convulse and Poo Bear starts to cry hysterically. They were trying to console him when he pooped on the carpet. Augusten then leaves the room to go in the kitchen to talk to his mom. He asks her if they can leave soon and he is very shocked and upset by her answer. Diedre then makes the doctor tell him that his father wants to kill them so his mother will be staying in a hotel and he will be living at the Finch's house.
Augusten says how he has always seen his father as being cold and not affecionate or loving. He sees Dr. Finch more like his father. Augusten is worried because he doesn't know how long he will be staying here or when the next time he sees his mom will be. He pretends to care about what he's going to do about school but he doesn't even go to school under normal conditions, so she assures him it's not a big deal.
When the kids were talking about playing with the electroshock machine I thought they were really using it. I think Poo Bear is a disgusting little baby. He poops everywhere and they let it stay there until someone actually picks it up. I felt so bad for Augusten when his mother told him he would be staying there for a while. I would never ever ever want to stay in that house.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
The Masturbatorium
It's a year after the divorce and Augusten and his mother are at Dr. Finch's office, like they are for hours every single day. His mother wants him to get to know the doctor because he refuses to go to school and doesn't have any friends. The doctor has a room in his building he calls "The Masturbatorium", which is pretty self-explainitory. The doctor tells Augusten that he wants to show the room to him, but when they walk in they find Hope taking a nap on the couch.
The next chapter starts as Augusten and his mother are driving to Dr. Finch's house. They are passing all these beautiful Victorian houses and Augusten is really getting excited. He is dressed in slacks and a blazer, and of course his jewlry. They finally pull up to the house; it was pink and didn't fit in with any of the beautiful houses surrounding it. They ring the doorbell and are greeted by Dr. Finch's wife, Agnes. Augusten thinks the house smells like wet dog and eggs and is extremely dirty. His mother forces him to hang out with Dr. Finch's daughters, Vickie and Natalie, who he wasn't very fond of.
When I read about the Masturbatorium I thought it was some kind of sick joke. But Dr. Finch really does go in there before, between or after patients leave. While reading the part when they were driving to Dr. Finch's house, I knew Augusten was going to be extremely disappointed. How they describe the house is absolutely disgusting. It's an absolute mess and no one seems to care, except Augusten.
The next chapter starts as Augusten and his mother are driving to Dr. Finch's house. They are passing all these beautiful Victorian houses and Augusten is really getting excited. He is dressed in slacks and a blazer, and of course his jewlry. They finally pull up to the house; it was pink and didn't fit in with any of the beautiful houses surrounding it. They ring the doorbell and are greeted by Dr. Finch's wife, Agnes. Augusten thinks the house smells like wet dog and eggs and is extremely dirty. His mother forces him to hang out with Dr. Finch's daughters, Vickie and Natalie, who he wasn't very fond of.
When I read about the Masturbatorium I thought it was some kind of sick joke. But Dr. Finch really does go in there before, between or after patients leave. While reading the part when they were driving to Dr. Finch's house, I knew Augusten was going to be extremely disappointed. How they describe the house is absolutely disgusting. It's an absolute mess and no one seems to care, except Augusten.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Family Life
Augusten blames himself for the way his parents hate each other and the life they all had. They were getting in huge fights all the time and not even giving a second thought to their son just sitting in the other room, listening to them scream at each other. But the real problem came in when the fighting got physical and his father had his hands wrapped around the neck of his mother, and he could kill her in a second. After watching this episode, he got a sense of calm by going to his room, picking out an outfit for school the next day and shining some jewlry from his shelf.
So far it is clear that Augusten values clothes and jewlry, but he also loved medical doctors and celebrities. When he grew up he wanted to play a doctor on a TV show, so he could have the best of both worlds. He would use his imagination and things around him to practice and pretend he had the life he hopes to have when he grows up. Augusten would trick his mother into bringing him to the doctor's office just so he could see there white jackets. One doctor he didn't always love to see was Dr. Finch, his mother's psychiatrist. The first time Augusten meets him is when the doctor has to come to their house at night because his father is drunk and Diedre is scared that he will kill her for real this time.
When he was forced to go to Dr. Finch's office on Saturdays, he would sit in the waiting room and talk to the receptionist, who happens to be Dr. Finch's daughter, Hope. She tells him about all her siblings and how their house is always busy with people. When she tells him he should stop by sometimes, he is thrilled with the idea of going to a real doctor's house. And soon it wasn't the once a week sessions with Dr. Finch, now it was an everyday thing. Augusten looked at the divorce as a way to start fresh.
Augusten is facinated with the more valuble things in life. He doesn't have anyone who really cares about him yet, so he is more interested in material objects. I think it is kind of a good thing Augusten doesn't have any friends because he has never seen a relationship actually work in his life, so how is he expected to make them work himself.
So far it is clear that Augusten values clothes and jewlry, but he also loved medical doctors and celebrities. When he grew up he wanted to play a doctor on a TV show, so he could have the best of both worlds. He would use his imagination and things around him to practice and pretend he had the life he hopes to have when he grows up. Augusten would trick his mother into bringing him to the doctor's office just so he could see there white jackets. One doctor he didn't always love to see was Dr. Finch, his mother's psychiatrist. The first time Augusten meets him is when the doctor has to come to their house at night because his father is drunk and Diedre is scared that he will kill her for real this time.
When he was forced to go to Dr. Finch's office on Saturdays, he would sit in the waiting room and talk to the receptionist, who happens to be Dr. Finch's daughter, Hope. She tells him about all her siblings and how their house is always busy with people. When she tells him he should stop by sometimes, he is thrilled with the idea of going to a real doctor's house. And soon it wasn't the once a week sessions with Dr. Finch, now it was an everyday thing. Augusten looked at the divorce as a way to start fresh.
Augusten is facinated with the more valuble things in life. He doesn't have anyone who really cares about him yet, so he is more interested in material objects. I think it is kind of a good thing Augusten doesn't have any friends because he has never seen a relationship actually work in his life, so how is he expected to make them work himself.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Something Isn't Right
Running With Scissors is a memoir by Augusten Burroughs. It starts as Augusten watches his mother get ready to go out to a poetry reading, leaving him home alone. Augusten is a 12 year old boy who really doesn't have anyone there for him. His parents are divorced and he lives with his mom who is not mentally stable, and therefore needs to see a doctor quite frequently. He loves shiny things. He has a shelf of things he just likes to sit and polish so they can get really shiny. Augusten was the kind of boy that loved to dress nice and wouldn't go to school if his hair wasn't exactly perfect.
Augusten describes his dad as having "the loving, affectionate and outgoing personality as petrified wood." He would always ask his dad to play games with him or just try to have a conversation but his dad would always respond by saying he has too much to do, when really he only can't because he is an alcoholic. Finally his father agrees to take Augusten to the dump, where Augusten spots this chrome coffee table that he wants to take home so bad, but his dad won't let him have it. Augusten's description of life at home depicts his very hard family life.
It makes me feel really bad for him when he describes the way his parents act in front of him. That is something that can really screw up someone for the rest of their life. We will see that it does affect Augusten for a long time.
Augusten describes his dad as having "the loving, affectionate and outgoing personality as petrified wood." He would always ask his dad to play games with him or just try to have a conversation but his dad would always respond by saying he has too much to do, when really he only can't because he is an alcoholic. Finally his father agrees to take Augusten to the dump, where Augusten spots this chrome coffee table that he wants to take home so bad, but his dad won't let him have it. Augusten's description of life at home depicts his very hard family life.
It makes me feel really bad for him when he describes the way his parents act in front of him. That is something that can really screw up someone for the rest of their life. We will see that it does affect Augusten for a long time.
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