Both of these men appear to be characters in their own right, but together they form an unusual and fascinating combination.
Even though the first piece, “Professor Sea Gull”, is in long form and written more like a magazine article or even an essay, it contains the essential elements of the project we are working on in our class. It is essentially a profile piece of this New York bohemian master.
There are many interesting things that Mitchell included that help to bring Gould to life in these pages, something I’m sure Gould would have loved – being immortalized in print as the master non-conformist. He does indeed do “more living in one year…than ordinary humans do in ten” and thanks to the masterful writing and reporting of Mitchell we can see that clearly. Every last detail is important in creating Gould’s identity for those of us who never knew him. Of course, that seems to be in a way what Gould wanted: “…I’m puzzled about myself, and have been since childhood.”
The second piece, taken in direct relation to the first, offers a noteworthy contrast to what could be boiled down as the same story. They both have a similar feel and similar content, however they are still vastly different. The second piece offers a much more varied and in-depth account of him and people who knew him – but it could still be considered a profile type piece.
Indeed there is much possible to write about Gould, and Mitchell has handled it well on two separate occasions. It’s useful to look at each story in terms of the similar content and pick out how Mitchell has written it with two different tones and two different voices.
