Compare Connie in "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" and Mariana in "Love in L.A."

Both Connie in Joyce Carol Oates's short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" and Mariana in Dagoberto Gilb's short story "Love in L.A." are the powerless objects of seduction for ne'er-do-well men. In "Love in L.A.," Jake, who is without a job and is obsessed with living the good life in a way that resembles a "tequila ad," hits Mariana's car on the freeway. He proceeds to tell her a series of lies, which she reacts to with some suspicion. She also turns down his offer of breakfast, which would likely lead to more seduction from Jake. In the end, however, Mariana gives Jake her number and asks him to call her, showing that she has fallen for his deception. Jake is a superficial, self-centered guy who lies to get what he wants, but Mariana is still eager to have him call her.

Like Mariana, Connie is unfortunately deceived by a man, but he is far worse than Jake. When she is out with a boy, she sees another man who she doesn't know yet, and flirts with him at a distance: "Connie slit her eyes at him and turned away, but she couldn't help glancing back and there he was, still watching her." She is experimenting with her own sense of power over men, but she is about to encounter Arnold Friend, a man who makes her feel powerless.

Arnold Friend later shows up at her house when Connie is alone, and her first thought when she sees the car isn't to lock her door but to think, "'Christ. Christ,' wondering how bad she looked." She wants some innocent attention from Arnold before she realizes too late that he is bent on evil. In the end, she, like Mariana, feels that she cannot do anything but what Arnold asks her after he threatens her. As the story ends, "She watched herself push the door slowly open as if she were back safe somewhere in the other doorway, watching this body and this head of long hair moving out into the sunlight where Arnold Friend waited." She is doing what he asks while feeling disembodied and not in control of her actions. Like Mariana in her reactions to Jake, Connie knows in some ways that she shouldn't obey Arnold, but she feels powerless to do otherwise.

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...

nouns - what do you call the person who passes the trophies to the prize giver/presenter?

The person who gives out the trophies to the winners are called award presenters. So what do u call the person who passes the trophies to the presenter? Thanks!

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.

Notes

Search This Blog