A duende or a dwarf is an abnormally small person, often having limbs and features atypically proportioned or formed. It is also a small creature resembling a human, often ugly, appearing in legends and fairy tales.
With that being said, I expected this reading entitled, “The Duende in your Hard Drive” by Ramil Digal Gulle which is a very catchy title by the way, is a duende playing the role of a computer virus in the hard drive. I had no idea about the story that was why with the word duende in the title made me push through the reading.
The story is about Mr. John Bolen, the head of “firm of electrical engineers” and Alfred Knipe who is an exceptional but sloppy electrical engineer who is also a frustrated writer. Alfred Knipe being an electrical engineer and a frustrated writer proposed an “electronic calculating machine” – having an adjustable coordinator between the ‘plot-memory’ section and the ‘word-memory’ section being able to produce any type of story a person desires by simply pressing the required button. Mr. Bolen on the other hand was a bit skeptical about Knipe’s proposal. The reason was because he worries about the commercial viability of the proposed project. But Knipe didn’t give up, he pursued with the proposal and tried to win his boss’ approval by affirming him that he got it all worked out and this project will make them around forty big stories being bought each week – forty thousand dollars. When Knipe realizes that Mr. Bolen was about to be convinced, he added that his machine could produce a short story in only thirty seconds.
The conflict in the story is when Knipe was worried that readers might react negatively when they knew that the machine authored those stories. He then said to Mr. Bolen that there are two ways to solve that problem, (1) they will put their own names as authors and then invent names as the authors of the stories, (2) later on, they will ask real popular writers to sign a contract with the company approving not to write another word, but to lend their names as authors of the stories produced by the Great Automatic Grammatizator. And more and more writers are enticed to sign the contract with Mr. Bolen’s company.
The story made me a bit disappointed because I was at first very curious and excited about reading it because of its appealing title but when I got to finish it, I realized that it was just another story that I probably have already heard or a kind of in a way similar movie that I have already watched. The story is like this impossible-to-be-liked-person who is striving to be what he wants to be by doing everything that would win his boss’ attention and trust. And there is this “boss” who is doubtful about this person because as I already stated, he is impossible to be liked so as his actions and ideas. Plus, I couldn’t connect the title to the story. Am I really that disturbed or is it just because the story isn’t really good as based from the commentary that I have read at the latter part of the second page? Is the duende the money/benefits that the big company will get from Knipe’s doubtful proposal or invention? Because it seems like the company is at the peak of success and with Knipe’s proposal, its ratings and profit will pull them down to the ground. Also, I am a little bit perplexed about the last sentence of the ending of Dahl’s story that says, “this very moment, as I sit here listening to the howling of my nine starving children in the other room, I can feel my own hand creeping closer and closer to that golden contract that lies over on the other side of the desk. Give us strength, O Lord, to let our children starve.” Isn’t starve means have nothing to eat? Why would he ask his children to starve when the first sentence goes like he’s going to sign this golden contract because he doesn’t want his children to ever howl again? That last sentence confuses me.
With that being said, I expected this reading entitled, “The Duende in your Hard Drive” by Ramil Digal Gulle which is a very catchy title by the way, is a duende playing the role of a computer virus in the hard drive. I had no idea about the story that was why with the word duende in the title made me push through the reading.
The story is about Mr. John Bolen, the head of “firm of electrical engineers” and Alfred Knipe who is an exceptional but sloppy electrical engineer who is also a frustrated writer. Alfred Knipe being an electrical engineer and a frustrated writer proposed an “electronic calculating machine” – having an adjustable coordinator between the ‘plot-memory’ section and the ‘word-memory’ section being able to produce any type of story a person desires by simply pressing the required button. Mr. Bolen on the other hand was a bit skeptical about Knipe’s proposal. The reason was because he worries about the commercial viability of the proposed project. But Knipe didn’t give up, he pursued with the proposal and tried to win his boss’ approval by affirming him that he got it all worked out and this project will make them around forty big stories being bought each week – forty thousand dollars. When Knipe realizes that Mr. Bolen was about to be convinced, he added that his machine could produce a short story in only thirty seconds.
The conflict in the story is when Knipe was worried that readers might react negatively when they knew that the machine authored those stories. He then said to Mr. Bolen that there are two ways to solve that problem, (1) they will put their own names as authors and then invent names as the authors of the stories, (2) later on, they will ask real popular writers to sign a contract with the company approving not to write another word, but to lend their names as authors of the stories produced by the Great Automatic Grammatizator. And more and more writers are enticed to sign the contract with Mr. Bolen’s company.
The story made me a bit disappointed because I was at first very curious and excited about reading it because of its appealing title but when I got to finish it, I realized that it was just another story that I probably have already heard or a kind of in a way similar movie that I have already watched. The story is like this impossible-to-be-liked-person who is striving to be what he wants to be by doing everything that would win his boss’ attention and trust. And there is this “boss” who is doubtful about this person because as I already stated, he is impossible to be liked so as his actions and ideas. Plus, I couldn’t connect the title to the story. Am I really that disturbed or is it just because the story isn’t really good as based from the commentary that I have read at the latter part of the second page? Is the duende the money/benefits that the big company will get from Knipe’s doubtful proposal or invention? Because it seems like the company is at the peak of success and with Knipe’s proposal, its ratings and profit will pull them down to the ground. Also, I am a little bit perplexed about the last sentence of the ending of Dahl’s story that says, “this very moment, as I sit here listening to the howling of my nine starving children in the other room, I can feel my own hand creeping closer and closer to that golden contract that lies over on the other side of the desk. Give us strength, O Lord, to let our children starve.” Isn’t starve means have nothing to eat? Why would he ask his children to starve when the first sentence goes like he’s going to sign this golden contract because he doesn’t want his children to ever howl again? That last sentence confuses me.
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