After having read Steven Millhauser’s “In The Reign of Harad IV” multiple times, I’ve come to the conclusion that even renowned authors skilled within the concepts of fantastical fiction, will ultimately write what they know, or at least, a version of what they know. And what do writers know best? Writing. Yet, to write about a tortured writer feels like it falls flat of expectations, of the necessary fantastic characteristics needed within most of fiction’s best-selling works. There needs to be more substance, more magic, more pizazz. So to steer clear of treading too close to memoir, Milhauser disguises his self-insert as a creator of miniatures.
Thus, the setting is in a far-off world, full of castles and courts, kings and apprentices, nothing like the typical societal order of current day life. The elements of fiction are present.
Millhauser hides writing about writing; conceals this simple idea within a more complex construct. It isn’t an obvious notion, in fact, I might even be grasping at straws, but there’s always a coy, to the point obstruction about what he’s really talking about in his stories; a deeper meaning to the surface level.
And with that said, the most fantastical concept of this story is a magic trick; a creative disguise for writing about writing.
I had not thought about that, but it makes a lot of sense. The story really does reflect the idea of creating something magnificent, and later going back to look at it thinking that you could have done something better. Writing is like that; a first draft may feel like a masterpiece until you go back and read it at a later time.