Response to Place and Ranch Girl

The main idea I got from Place is that storytelling can exist without place (however bland) but place can't exist without story telling. When a writer puts a reader into a scene, and the minutia are described, one can't help but ascribe meaning to it, which leads to a sense that the place is telling the story, and this is what we see with Ranch Girl. The protagonist is relatively inactive, but this place, this uncommon place to us, drives the story with it's characters and its inevitability. Even thought he place is uncommon to many of us, it is made real through the lens of this girl, and the reality of it. We are even placed economically, so our minds eye knows how to fill in the gaps. We see everything she sees through her lens. The personal details are what makes it real. The animals around, the work, the girl up the road who has it better, the virginity. Place mentions sexuality as important, and I feel like this story shows that pretty well. I feel Place may have been a little too sexual though... the writer actually admits to getting sexual gratification from knowing peoples secrets, which lends a whole new creepiness to sneaking into dorm rooms to "figure people out".