Varieties of The Fantastic in Fiction

This week’s readings “History of Disturbance” and “In the reign of Harad IV” were stories that I think follow the slow downward spiral of the narrator’s sanity and their gradual self-inflicted isolation.
In “History of disturbance “ The narrator is writing or talking to his wife explaining how he stopped talking. In the beginning the narrator was irritated by how Elane would break their moments of peace by saying things like “What a wonderful day” and “Do you love me?” These kind of disturbances were seen as unnecessary to the narrator because the words either did not seem to mean anything or they meant more than what was said. This later makes the narrator paranoid that people are saying more with their words than what is actually being said; like a code we he can’t understand. Eventually the confusion of words becomes too much and the Narrator takes a vow of silence and leaves his old life behind.

In “In the Reign of Harad IV” we follow the Master of Miniatures. He is known for doing absolutely beautiful work with the  smallest of details.As the story continues The Master tries to make smaller and more detailed work until it almost invisible. Even under the glass these works can not be seen. So when the two apprentices come to visit him and look at his work, he knows they are lying when they say it is beautiful work. He also knows they will not come back to see him or his works but is okay with that because he no longer cares about the world outside of his invisible kingdom.

These two stories show how some people are content with creating their own worlds that contain just themselves. These stories seems to make this kind of isolation look normal or as a transcendent experience because the narrators voices’ show that this what they think is best for themselves.The go further into the spiral of isolation because they believe that their “sacrifices” will be significant not just for themselves but for others too. But it never actually works out that way.