"ROLLER BOOGIE"

Another narrative our class read was written by Rob Sheffield. The excerpt was titled "Roller Boogie" and was taken from Love is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time. The author reflects on his thirteen year old self and regrets who he was at that time. He refers to himself as a "douche bag" and tells us his story from an ironic point of view. At the time, the narrator would have thought he was cool and was very content with his life. Whereas now all he does is regret his actions and casts a shadow of embarrassment over his words. He pokes fun at himself and portrays himself as clueless. The author takes this memory and turns it into his own personal myth. However, like the memory of Patricia Hampl who wrote I Could Tell You Stories: Sojourns In The Land of Memory, he changes his memory [refer to "MEMORY AND IMAGINATION" ]. He knows he was actually uncool and weird at the age of thirteen even though at the time he was oblivious. If he had been telling the same story as a thirteen year old there would have been no irony in the story and the narration would be very different.