Varieties of The Fantastic in Fiction

Steven Millhauser’s “The Dome” tells a story about a few wealthy Americans who begin to put up domes over their homes. This causes problems and challenges how things are solved and reviewed. The building of domes starts to spread across towns, neighborhoods, and eventually the whole country.

At first, the story does not seem to have a character, and if it does it’s unclear what the character’s place is. I really like that about the story, because it leaves room for interpretation. However, it seems that toward the end the character that isn’t there is really just humanity and society as a whole. I think that the way the story is written leaves lots of space for your mind to wander and come up with questions to fill in the blanks.

My biggest question after finishing the story is: If this were to happen in real life, how would society act? Would we just conform and be followers or would some people hold firm?

Also, Alec Baldwin did an audio reading on this story, and all I have to say is wow…

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.

Millhauser’s “History of a Disturbance” takes the form of a letter from a man to his wife, and is therefore written in the first and second person. The purpose of the letter is to explain to Elena, the narrator’s wife, why he has been acting differently. It tracks the events within the narrator’s psyche which led to his current state; he first began to feel a weight to words that he had never noticed before, an inability to understand what they really meant, and a contempt for the way they could ruin the things they were trying to describe. This feeling continued to grow and eventually became oppressive, until he could barely recognize a cup as a “cup.” He eventually came to a decision, a “vow,” that he would cast off words entirely and learn to experience the world as pure perception, which would allow him to access the truer, fuller world hiding beneath the world of words and become one with the universe.

I thought this story was an interesting alternate perspective on the loss of language. To me, the premise of a narrator gradually losing the ability to understand words lends itself more to psychological horror than something to be desired. However, the narrator puts forward an interesting and surprisingly convincing argument against the use of words. It is true that they can be reductive, and that may be an inherent feature to them. The struggle to describe complex emotional and sensory experiences using words is one that dates as far back as human history, and it will continue on, probably forever. Our ongoing failure is the reason for the existence of expressive art. 

Of course, throughout the entire story the reader is acutely aware of the irony that were it not for words, the story wouldn’t exist. The formatting of the story as a letter written in the first person, from a point in the narrator’s life when he has already decided to cast words off, is an interesting and deliberate choice. The narrator has been forced to return to the world of words in order to implore his wife to join him in wordless existence — the thing he hates most is the only vessel for his message to his wife. The very form that the story takes is itself a counterpoint to the narrator’s argument that words are nothing but detrimental to human beings. Words are proven necessary.

“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.

The short story “The Great Awake” follows the reality of sleep anxiety. The story talks about “Sleeps,” shadow-like figures that prevent characters from receiving the rest that they need. Characters who don’t need to sleep at first enjoy new things, but those who don’t have a change in their sleeping patterns become increasingly restless, clinging to the day-night cycle.

You can’t really tell if Armfield reflects a way of thinking or if it’s just the result of the deprivation that has been imposed on everyone.  Except for Leonie, the narrator’s friend is still sleeping, and it’s driving her insane. Only Leonie wants to sleep and no one wants to be an insomniac except for Leonie.

I think that the story raises a lot of internal questions for the reader. I feel it really makes you challenge and review your own thoughts. My question is: is it really all in your head?

At first I had trouble understanding the purpose of “Stop Your Women’s Ears with Wax,” by Julia Armfield. Although, eerie in its tone there was nothing at first that stood out to me representing the fantastic. It seemed like a story of a young woman who followed a band around their tour. There were times in which the story would take an eerie and irrational take on the thoughts and emotions on these women such as when the girls said, “Don’t do it, says another of the girls, you’ll kill us if you send us away (53).” This was the first instance in which I thought that although dramatic, it would not be out of the question for a young woman to be a little emotional or dramatic. However, it still struck as a little weird to be so attached to the band. As I kept reading I realized how the fantastical tied to the story such as the killing going on throughout the story and the irrational attachment that the women have with the band. They even described their attachment to the band as, “The drag, the ache, the yearn, the need, whatever you want to call it (58).” It sounds as something irresistible and inevitable for them to somehow end up following the band. Which then makes the reader think that maybe the band is not completely normal or maybe not even human. Which, later also seems to relate to the fans as they no longer seem to be completely normal or human. This is also somewhat emphasized with the descriptions used for the fan and Mona such as snakes, nervous dog-scent, tandem shedding, ragged birds. All these descriptions seem to point towards the idea that the fans are no longer human as they are described in an animalistic way. Additionally, the killings centered around the band seem to stem from the fans. The fans in their obsession and love for the band seem to be going to the extremes to defend this band that they have never possibly meet. This is also followed up by the bands response to their fans behavior in which they state that, “Setting an example’s all well and good but I personally wouldn’t want the kind of fans who’s follow it. We just want fans who follow us (61).” This is an interesting take nowadays, since it is a common idea that fans directly define and portray the artists that they follow. Hence, it somewhat shows another foreshadowing that the band and their fans are similar in the sense that they may not be human. Furthermore, blood is also emphasized quite a bit in the story as there are moments in which they are drinking blood, they are injuring people resulting in blood, and the smell of blood is also alluded to. Which could be indicatory to what the fans have become, something that is not quite human and is seeking for blood. However, it could also be a way in which the fans have become blood hungry in order to protect the band that they love and admire.

“Granite” by Julia Armfield is full of possible metaphors, all of them presenting themselves in different characters and events. The main character tells her story of loving a man who gradually becomes ill before turning into brittle stone, and mentions her friends, neighbor, and mother on the side. 

The man she loves curiously remains unnamed, perhaps to allow the reader not to see him as one contained character but as representative of many men who have been loved. She seems to love him despite herself, but it is not a perfect love. She struggles with the loss of her solitude that she is so accustomed to, but believes he is worth it. “In the fifteen minutes after he leaves,” she confesses, “the relief of space falls flush against the greater relief of missing him.” However, there are times when she wishes him dead, and she creates multiple detailed stories in her head about his demise. She scares herself with her stories, but they are too in-depth to be brushed off as fleeting lapses of the rational mind. Knowing that the main character has been pressured to find a man to love, the way she sometimes thinks about him could be revealing that she does not truly love him the way she thinks she does. 

She met him after meeting someone her friends tried and failed to set her up with, and he was great in comparison to the other man. She compares the two using “‘Round Midnight” by Thelonious Monk and “Werewolves of London” by Warren Zevon, and comments on the obvious difference between the two. Like the men, one is very slow and feels like an acquired taste, while the other is generally a song everyone likes. The narrator’s friends all like and approve of the man she falls in love with. Is it possible that he only seems so great because the narrator is comparing him to others, instead of looking at him just for who he is?

I felt that her lover’s transformation into stone left a few different possibilities for what would happen should the story continue. Although the obvious conclusion is that the lover is dead, something made me think there was another option. The narrator tells of the snow that covers the ground and the cold that takes over her man. In the end, before his stony status is revealed, there are a couple of lines that suggest better days are coming. They read, “The morning is still dark beyond the curtains, snow-dark, a crust of rime about its edges. Freeze-bite before a thaw.” I like to think that this is indicative of a “thaw” of her man from his cold stone. She has not been thinking of him the way she should be, and now she’s lost the chance to fix her thoughts. His transformation is the freeze-bite and there is hope yet.

One last interesting detail that stood out to me was that Armfield drops meat-related descriptions of the main character’s home decor throughout the story. Strangely, she calls the wallpaper “veal-colored” and the room “meat colored.” This was perhaps meant to be in contrast to her lover’s lack of flesh in the end of the story. Although I could not make much sense of it or what it meant, it added yet another layer to “Granite” as a whole.

Julia Armfield’s Granite on the surface seems like a cut case of a woman’s boyfriend slowly turning to stone of their relationship. And the way she writes it makes it almost sound so ordinary instead of the fantastical element that it is. Upon re-reading it, the subtle hints of what I perceived as an emotionally tumultuous relationship at the hands of an indecisive woman via visage of Medusa.

It opens with “There is no way to love a man. Not well, or rather, not correctly.” (105). Maggie’s boyfriend goes nameless for the whole story and we see several instances where she either outright treats him in not the best manner or admits to it. When he tells her he’s covered in garlic, her response is “I wasn’t going to touch you. Why would I touch you? I don’t know where you’ve been.” (107). While this could be played off as just cheek between partners, it is on page 117 when Maggie goes on about how easy it is for her to just forget any affection she has for him and withhold affection purposefully and fantasy about him dying that paints this in a different light. When her boyfriend slowly begins turning to stone she at first feels a mildly perverse enthrallment to his unknown ailment with seemingly very little concern.

There even comes a point where her less than stellar friends begin calling her out on her behavior and her excuses, but this leaves Maggie “feeling self-righteous and unfairly chastised.” (118). We learn that she’s been single for a very long time but her behavior still isn’t excused. One friend even points out “It’s like you don’t want a man at all, you want an object. Something you can put away.” (122). And they have a point, Maggie doesn’t seem to actually know how relationships are supposed to work or what she wants from one. This extreme indecisiveness seems to poison her treatment of her partner which in turn seems to be what causes the end of it all.

As a reader:

Julia Armfield’s “The Great Awake” follows a narrator who lives through a mass phenomenon of Sleep leaving people’s bodies and taking the form of shadowy, humanoid specters. When one’s Sleep leaves their body, they are no longer able to Sleep and are left in a resulting state of perpetual weariness. The phenomenon is almost entirely confined to cities, but not every city dweller’s Sleep leaves them. 

All Sleeps look the same, but have their own individual personalities, and do not always get along with each other. The narrator’s Sleep seems preoccupied with collecting small items, correcting picture frames, and rummaging through things, whereas her brother’s is more mischievous, actively trying to sabotage his acting career. The Sleeps have scents, too. The narrator’s Sleep was first described as smelling like orange peel and photo paper. These smells are “talismanic” — associated with her mother. Later, the narrator’s Sleep begins smelling like hard city water and her rusty shower drain. Interestingly, this change takes place shortly after the narrator notes that her new friend Leonie, who she has started developing feelings for, smells like hard city water. Soon after, the narrator’s Sleep takes her phone from her and hangs it up while she is talking to mother, just before she is about to mention Leonie. This series of events seemed connected and led me to wonder whether the personalities of the Sleeps were correlated to some internal part of their owners’ personalities, and by extension, whether the very presence or absence of a person’s Sleep was determined by some unidentifiable internal trait, such as anxiety or insecurity or what have you. It could be the case that the narrator was subconsciously nervous about telling her mother about Leonie, and her Sleep acted on that. However, this doesn’t account for why Sleeps are primarily a city problem, unless the story is a commentary on the pitfalls of city life.

At the end, the narrator’s Sleep peacefully disappears and she finally sleeps again. The narrator does not seem particularly surprised by this development, despite it being unheard of. My interpretation was that the way to get rid of a Sleep was to reach some kind of enlightenment or resolution to the internal struggle which brought the Sleep on in the first place. The narrator and Leonie seemed to be at a good place in their relationship when the narrator’s Sleep disappeared, just having kissed for the first time. The narrator describes her Sleep’s disappearance with the following sentence: “Leonie had gone, leaving behind the magazine but taking with her my Sleep.” To me, this strengthened the connection between the narrator’s Sleep and her relationship with Leonie. Of course, this interpretation begs the question of what the woman who murdered her Sleep had going on. 

As a writer:

Armfield chose to write this story from the first-person perspective of an ordinary person with no particular insight into the phenomenon, who reaches no realization or epiphany, but simply experiences the events in the same way as everybody else. By limiting the perspective in this way, Armfield places the reader in the position of the narrator. She also endeavored to create a realistic “what-if?” scenario by comprehensively and rather honestly depicting the variety of reactions people had (I thought early on that if this actually happened, some people would be trying to have sex with their Sleeps, and this was eventually confirmed). These choices lend a touch of realism to a fantastical story and leave the reader with more questions and speculation than concrete answers, as is often the case in life.

Carmen Maria Machado’s “Inventory” was the least fantastical story we read this week but it is maybe one of the more powerful ones to me. In the story, the protagonist is making a list of all the people she has slept with. The people she has slept with is not the main story though. As we read we see that pandemic has slowly been making its way through the United States. Through these encounters we slowly see how her society fades due to the virus and little details from her past. From when she mentioned her encounter with the two boys and one girl, his mother had found her found her underwear and washed it. When they were returned to her she said “It’s weird to me how much I miss that floral, chemical smell of clean clothes.”. Later, after one guy angrily leaves her house we see that the MC has always been fond of making lists like how many animals she has had in her life and what spices you need to make pho. This seems to be coping mechanism for her to be able to look through her life and list all of the things that had happened and what she had. At the end, we find the MC is alone on an island after the virus had reached her area and this why she was making the list of the people she had slept with.

Reading “The Husband Stitch” brought lots of insight to mind for me. The short story sheds light on a still ongoing issue that many women face, most men not respecting boundaries. This was most definitely graphic and kind of pornographic…but I feel like that was needed to provide a connection.

“Mothers” is written from a first person point of view, and is set in the present. The narrator shifts from present to past (as well as the possible future, or the one she dreams about) multiple times throughout the story, seeming to reflect the back-and-forth feelings that the narrator experiences throughout the story. The name chosen for the narrator’s ex, Bad, was good foreshadowing for her actions in the story.

As for the future that the narrator dreams about, it is not hard to tell that it never existed, even though she wished it did. The child only actually appears after Bad leaves, and the narrator has to learn how to deal with it. It is very possible that the child symbolizes the relationship that the narrator had with Bad, encompassing both the positive and negative aspects of what they had. The narrator becomes so focused on this that she throws herself into a future that never was, almost completely breaking down towards the end of the story.