“Stop Your Women’s Ears With Wax” had an interesting format. Each stop in the tour for the band seemed to be numbered, reminding me of the list in “Inventory.” The point of view was in third person instead of first person, which seemed to offer more specific details for the story. The fact that the story is in third person makes it feel less biased by the narrator, who doesn’t seem to be bothered too much by the events that take place within the story.
The story itself was hard to figure out at first. Death played a very important role, and seemed to occur in some way at every stop in the tour. The fact that the band seemed to have an influence on the people that were killed, or the people that were supposedly doing the killing, was interesting as well. All of the characters in the story had an odd obsession with the band and their music. It is described as “The drag, the ache, the yearn, the need, whatever you want to call it” (50). It is very similar to the description of the Sirens from Greek mythology. Sirens use their voices to lure others to their deaths, which fits very well with the reoccurrence of deaths throughout the story. It is also interesting that one of the band members is described as having feathers, and that feathers had been found in the tour bus on multiple occasions; Sirens are described as having wings and feathers like birds.
The band members also seem to have little to no issues with the influence that their music seems to have on their target audience, which is teenage girls. Multiple times during interviews they say that they would rather have fans that follow them. Even Mona does not want to talk to her mother, who is upset when Mona accidentally answers her phone. Mona does not want to talk to her mother; she is only concerned with her job and the band that it encompasses. We don’t find out until later that this influence seems to become physical at some points, almost completely transforming Mona the first time she listens to the band’s music.