Varieties of The Fantastic in Fiction

The short story of “The Room in the Attic” by Steven Millhauser was extremely interesting and engaging. The story revolves around a young kid, named David, that seems to become obsessed with his friends sister, who he meets but does not see. As he gets to know more about Isabel he starts to imagine what she would be like and his, “brain was so filled with false Isabel’s that I pressed my hands against the sides of my head, as if to crush them to death (9).” Most of the times he though of Isabel he would simply imagine and have fantasies of what she would look like, as he always meet her in the dark. He also would, ” [try] to imagine her in the world of light (9),” which could indicate that at this point he did not see Isabel as a person, but a figment of his imagination and maybe even desires. To David, Isabel could be a beautiful young girl, or as he also describe she could end u being deformed and hiding. Also, this separates Isabel from much of David’s everyday ‘world’, and puts a barrier between Isabel and David. As, David seems to put Isabel in a specific area in which he does not have any desire to remove her from. Then, when David has the opportunity to see Isabel for the first time he runs away, which seems to imply that he was afraid that his dream, fantasies, or desires would end. It could also imply that Isabel was only interesting to David in the midst of the mystery, and that as soon as he uncovered the mystery he would no longer be interested which could of been something which he feared. Lastly, when David went back to see Isabel after running away she had already left. This to me seems to tie to the idea that as long as Isabel stayed in the dark David’s ideals of her would remain pure and untouched in his mind.

Then, there was the short story of “Dangerous Laughter”. I also this was interesting and compelling in the way it allowed for the readers to feel a sense of alienation from the craze of the laughing parties like the narrator themselves were experiencing. The way the story is told really allows for the reader to feel as if they are looking outside in. Something that caught my attention as I read was how Clara was described as somewhat of an outcast, and that as she was in the laughing parties she seemed, “as if she were being punished in some humiliating way (10).” This made me think of how people go out of their comfort zone in order to fit in and do stupid and out of character things in order to be able to be a part of a group. Clara who seemed like the type of character to not be interested in these types of activities seemed to indulge in them in order to make herself a part of the crowd. When Clara died I thought of it being a warning of how this could have happened to the narrator if she had tried hard to fit in as Clara had done.