Hi! This is Charlie.

“Men Under Water” gives very detailed descriptions of both characters and settings. The top of page 321 is devoted to a lengthy description of Gunther’s appearance. Page 332 features descriptions of the two movie producers: “a thin young guy with a spiky haircut, blue-green iridescent jacket, Hawaiian shirt, black jeans, red shoes” and “a small man in his early sixties, salt-and-pepper hair brushed back, business suit.” The setting is made very clear too, like Acid Rain’s mansion, which have “great cut-glass chandeliers hanging in the downstairs rooms above the drums and amplifiers and dismantled motorcycles...decorated...with panty hose, pictures from motorcycle magazines, tennis balls, guitar strings” (327). Similarly, Gunther’s house receives a lot of attention: “The furnishings are trim and tasteful, vaguely Scandinavian” (333)  and “French doors open from the living room into the dining room, now the office of the production company, where the big, useless 16-mm Movieola is poised like an old burro grazing among the bundles of screenplay drafts stacked everywhere” (334). These descriptions do a few things in the story. First, they give a clear, almost movie-like image. Secondly, they are mostly given to the characters surrounding Gunther, not the rest of the narrator’s life. The narrator’s wife, Tina, and their home are barely described. This proves how much more real the narrator’s job is than the rest of his life. Also, the narrator can very easily pick up on most people’s characters--he quickly figures out the personalities and interests of the producers--and his observations further this trait. His difficulty understanding Gunther, therefore, stands out. Lastly, the narrator inserts a lot of humorous and meaningful commentary into his descriptions, like describing Gunther’s complexion as “the shrimplike color of new Play-Doh” which are both entertaining and give a clearer, more relatable image (how else do you describe that color?).