As listeners, i guess comparing and judging is bound to happen. On thursday when we were told to listen to two speakers talk about their writing, by the reaction of the students it became obvious who the more favorited was; Etgar Keret. My reaction to keret was a bit ironic personally because i remember dreading into the conference center trying to wake my self up mentally to prepare for another speech; meanwhile earlier that day during Toibin’s speech i was up and ready and maybe even a bit excited to see the author who’s book we read over the summer. Even with my exhausted state Etgar Keret took it away and didnt fail to grab my attention.

Both speakers had completely different ways of speaking and tones in their voice. Toibin even with my utmost attention towards couldn’t get much of a reaction out of me. Though his story was deep and thorough and his words made sense and were meaningful he lacked some qualities of a entertaining and inspiring speaker. Some qualities which Etgar definitely expressed. He managed to successfully maintain the attention of the crowd by getting his words out there and also crack jokes to get the audience laughing. Almost everything Etgar would say has a certain tone to it. Either it was through his sarcastic remarks about his wife and kids and the german tv show person or when he was reading his different texts out loud or when he randomly asked someone for a tissue because his nose was running OR was it just his thick accent that i got a kick out of. I overall enjoyed just being there in his presence as he continued speaking. And even was a little disappointed when he had to leave early for his flight. Meanwhile in the earlier Toibin speech i felt totally indifferent, if not maybe even a bit relieved when it was over. Not intending that Toibin was a bad speaker or anything. Just when compared to Keret, Keret definitely has my vote.