I read the short story “How to talk to girls at parties” by Neil Gaiman
The story is about 2 teenage boys going to a party. This story is written from the perspective of the narrator looking back at the event that happened 30 years ago. The boy’s names and Vic and Enn. Enn being the perspective it is written from. Vic is a more outgoing character while Enn is the more quiet person. When they get to the party, Vic starts to get close to a girl called Stella. After that Enn tried to talk to a few girls. The first girl was called Wain’s Wain. Enn invites her to dance but she says that she is “not permitted”. After that, she went away while Enn was trying to get her some water. After that Enn tried to talk to another girl, but his conversation is shut down by Vic claiming that they are at the wrong party. Enn then goes to get a drink when a girl called Triolet talks to him. She claimed that she was a poem. They talked for a bit and kissed. Then Triolet whispers a poem into Enn’s ear before he passed out. The story ends with Vic waking Enn up and leaving the party. As they were leaving, Enn says that Stella was staring down at them looking like an “angry universe”.
I think that this short story doesn’t have a direct meaning. It’s pretty complex. The title “How to talk to girls at parties” insists that this story is about Enn looking back at his experience on the party and how it went. I think that each characters their own meaning, just like how each girl were completely different people. For example, the second girl talked to him about being a tourist. This could represent the adventure and the newness of trying to find a girl to talk to. On the other hand, Triolet who claimed that she was a poem, could represent the beauty of trying to find someone that you truly love but that it won’t last forever, just like how Enn couldn’t quite remember what the poem she whispered into his ear was.