Ira Sher

Considering what we have read for this class, an author I would be interested in studying further is Ira Sher. I enjoyed both his short story “The Man in the Well” we read and his interview we saw in class for various reasons.
“The Man in the Well” was an intriguing story because of the many interesting questions it raises. Are children born as naturally good? Are the decisions they make wrong? Additionally, Sher utilizes an enticing opening to his story by letting the audience know that the children are not going to help the man in the well. Are they really not going to help? Is there hope for the man? This approach started me thinking about how I would unfold a story after giving away a key piece of information to the conclusion of the story. Furthermore, the story kept me continuously wanting to find out what happened next: Are they going to change their minds? Will the man die? The inner workings and politics of the group dynamic prove to be quite interesting, especially between the adult and the kids. Putting children in a position to make life or death decisions is very powerful. Children are thought not to have enough life experience and/or intelligence to be held completely responsible for their actions. So, how can we protect children while protecting others from children?
I saw Ira Sher as a likeable person in the video interview that we watched in class. First, I did not get the impression he thought his work was something everyone must read. It is somewhat important to me that a writer not attempt to preach to me and try to be too pushy in convincing me to adopt his/her views. He was more laid back and looked at life from obscure perspectives. The interview showed him discussing his writing process, which I thought to be quite interesting. He began by considering questions that were intriguing to him. Thinking what it would be like to be a person in or on the moon looking back at him on Earth. The question might have even been a little stranger, like if the moon was your dad looking at you. I would like to read more stories that focus around out of the ordinary questions about the perspectives of different and seemingly random things.
In class we talked about length of a work being a consideration for why we enjoyed a text. I liked Sher’s work because it was able to accomplish so much in a considerably short amount of text. I was able to closely read the entire work instead of being overwhelmed by a huge body of text. I would be more willing to start reading another one of his short stories than committing myself to a longer work.