AIDS and Magic Johnson

                        The paragraph that was the most interesting to me was the eighth, since it felt all so familiar. The eighth paragraph is the perfect example of what makes the story so excellent. To make the character of Colin believable Susan Orlean had to capture the spirit of an American ten year old boy and spin a tale that would fit those character traits. As an American male that was once ten years old I can say without a doubt that Orlean accurately portrays the way that a ten year old thinks and speaks. The second sentence especially stands out because it tells how speculative and wrong many children are. The speculative nature of the sentence alone is not what makes it accurate, it’s the fact that the boys were talking about Magic Johnson allegedly having AIDS that makes it so real. Even if you were not interested at all in sports, as a young American male you were forced to talk about it. Speculating about whether a basketball player had a particular disease was the perfect way to make it seem like you cared about a certain sport that you knew nothing about. Asking a ton of pointless to scary questions is another trait that every ten year old has which Orleans also captures when she writes about the two questions that Colin asks. The first question is a harmless would-you-rather question, whereas the second is about aborting a baby depending on the gender. The way that Orlean captures the mind and spirit of a ten year old American boy in the eighth paragraph is what makes it so interesting overall.