Thoughts on Spiderhead

I was really intrigued by "Escape from Spiderhead." It was such a strange and disturbing story that I couldn't help but be enraptured by it. But maybe enraptured is the wrong word. More correctly, I would say that I was completed engrossed in the story. The inhumane treatment of the prisoners at Spiderhead was so revolting and odd but it was also so interesting and fun to read. We talked in class about authors being able to create a whole new world in their writings, and George Saunders definitely did that. I was completely at a loss of understanding in the beginning of the story because everything was so different. When we discussed authors creating new worlds in their writings I could not think of the alien worlds that would be created in the books we read. I kept getting caught up in worlds that authors have already written and new authors had used again and again (utopian, dystopian, etc.), and Spiderhead was very different than most things that I have read.
I also found it interesting that even though it was made clear that all of the people in the story were there because they had done horrible things, the main character, Jeff, was really portrayed as a good guy, and in turn I started to feel for the other characters. George Saunders did an incredible job writing this story, and my reactions (shock, disgust, surprise) made me realize this because the writing was making me feel things that bad writing would not have.