by Billy Collins
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
Overview: In "The Zebra Storyteller," Spenser Holst states that the purpose of stories is to prepare us for the
unexpected. Though the storyteller thinks he is just spinning stories out of
his own imagination, in order to amuse, his stories prove to be practical.
Other storytellers make the function of fiction less
extraordinary. According to them, fiction enables readers to avoid projecting
false hopes and fears and shows them what they can actually
expect in their everyday lives, so that they can prepare themselves.
What else do you see in this symbolic piece of meta-fiction?
In "Happy Endings," Margaret Atwood (author of The Handmaid's Tale) addresses our need for closure as we read fiction. What makes for an appropriate ending to a work of fiction? What are we looking for? What should we be looking for? Atwood suggests how and why.
What does she mean by that?
Directions: Please read and study the following pieces of short fiction. Next, in this blog space, please discuss an idea from Holst and an idea from Atwood using one of the summer reading selections. Engage with each other. Use the text. Be genuine and authentic. Think about the value of words by being concise. Think about your audience. Also, revisit the blog. Read and respond to your fellow classmates. Get a dialogue going. Challenge each other. Be bold. Be brilliant.
"The Zebra Storyteller"
by Spencer Holst
Once upon a time there was a Siamese cat who pretended to be
a lion and spoke inappropriate Zebraic.
That language is whinnied by the race of striped horses in
Africa.
Here now: An innocent zebra is walking in a jungle and
approaching from another direction is the little cat; they meet.
"Hello there!" says the Siamese cat in perfectly
pronounced Zebraic. "It certainly is a pleasant day, isn't it? The sun is
shining, the birds are singing, isn't the world a lovely place to live
today!"
The zebra is so astonished at hearing a Siamese cat speaking
like a zebra, why-he's just fit to be tied.
So the little cat quickly ties him up, kills him, and drags
the better parts of the carcass back to his den.
The cat successfullyhunted zebras manymonths in this manner,
dining on filet mignon of zebra everynight, and from the better hides he made
bow neckties and wide belts after the fashion of the decadent princes of the
Old Siamese court.
He began boasting to his friends he was a lion, and he gave
them as proof the fact that he hunted zebras.
The delicate noses of the zebras told them there was really
no lion in the neighborhood. The zebra deaths caused many to avoid the region.
Superstitious, they decided the woods were haunted by the ghost of a lion.
One day the storyteller of the zebras was ambling, and
through his mind ran plots for stories to amuse the other zebras, when suddenly
his eyes brightened, and he said, "That's it! I'll tell a story about a
Siamese cat who learns to speak our language! What an idea! that'll make 'em
laugh!"
Just then the Siamese cat appeared before him, and said,
"Hello there! Pleasant day today, isn't it!"
The zebra storyteller wasn't fit to be tied at bearing a cat
speaking his language, because he'd been thinking about that veryt hing.
He took a good look at the cat, and he didn't know why, but
there was something about his looks be didn't like, so he kicked him with a
hoof and killed him.
That is the function of the storyteller.
"Happy Endings"
by Margaret Atwood
John and Mary meet. What happens next? If you want a happy
ending, try A.
A.
John and Mary fall in love and get married. They both have
worthwhile and remunerative jobs which they find stimulating and challenging.
They buy a charming house. Real estate values go up. Eventually, when they can
afford live-in help, they have two children, to whom they are devoted. The
children turn out well. John and Mary have a stimulating and challenging sex
life and worthwhile friends. They go on fun vacations together. They retire.
They both have hobbies which they find stimulating and challenging. Eventually
they die. This is the end of the story.
B.
Mary falls in love with John but
John doesn't fall in love with Mary. He merely uses her body for selfish
pleasure and ego gratification of a tepid kind. He comes to her apartment twice
a week and she cooks him dinner, you'll notice that he doesn't even consider
her worth the price of a dinner out, and after he's eaten dinner he fucks her
and after that he falls asleep, while she does the dishes so he won't think
she's untidy, having all those dirty dishes lying around, and puts on fresh
lipstick so she'll look good when he wakes up, but when he wakes up he doesn't
even notice, he puts on his socks and his shorts and his pants and his shirt
and his tie and his shoes, the reverse order from the one in which he took them
off. He doesn't take off Mary's clothes, she takes them off herself, she acts
as if she's dying for it every time, not because she likes sex exactly, she
doesn't, but she wants John to think she does because if they do it often
enough surely he'll get used to her, he'll come to depend on her and they will
get married, but John goes out the door with hardly so much as a good-night and
three days later he turns up at six o'clock and they do the whole thing over
again. Mary gets run-down. Crying is bad for your face, everyone knows that and
so does Mary but she can't stop. People at work notice. Her friends tell her
John is a rat, a pig, a dog, he isn't good enough for her, but she can't
believe it. Inside John, she thinks, is another John, who is much nicer. This
other John will emerge like a butterfly from a cocoon, a Jack from a box, a pit
from a prune, if the first John is only squeezed enough. One evening John
complains about the food. He has never complained about her food before. Mary
is hurt. Her friends tell her they've seen him in a restaurant with another
woman, whose name is Madge. It's not even Madge that finally gets to Mary: it's
the restaurant. John has never taken Mary to a restaurant. Mary collects all
the sleeping pills and aspirins she can find, and takes them and a half a
bottle of sherry. You can see what kind of a woman she is by the fact that it's
not even whiskey. She leaves a note for John. She hopes he'll
discover her and get her to the hospital in time and repent and then they can
get married, but this fails to happen and she dies. John marries Madge and
everything continues as in A.
C.
John, who is an older man, falls in love with
Mary, and Mary, who is only twenty-two, feels sorry for him because he's
worried about his hair falling out. She sleeps with him even though she's not
in love with him. She met him at work. She's in love with someone called James,
who is twenty-two also and not yet ready to settle down. John on the contrary
settled down long ago: this is what is bothering him. John has a steady,
respectable job and is getting ahead in his field, but Mary isn't impressed by
him, she's impressed by James, who has a motorcycle and a fabulous record
collection. But James is often away on his motorcycle, being free. Freedom
isn't the same for girls, so in the meantime Mary spends Thursday evenings with
John. Thursdays are the only days John can get away. John is married to a woman
called Madge and they have two children, a charming house which they bought
just before the real estate values went up, and hobbies which they find stimulating
and challenging, when they have the time. John tells Mary how important she is
to him, but of course he can't leave his wife because a commitment is a
commitment. He goes on about this more than is necessary and Mary finds it
boring, but older men can keep it up longer so on the whole she has a fairly
good time. One day James breezes in on his motorcycle with some top-grade
California hybrid and James and Mary get higher than you'd believe possible and
they climb into bed. Everything becomes very underwater, but along comes John,
who has a key to Mary's apartment. He finds them stoned and entwined. He's
hardly in any position to be jealous, considering Madge, but nevertheless he's
overcome with despair. Finally he's middle-aged, in two years he'll be as bald
as an egg and he can't stand it. He purchases a handgun, saying he needs it for
target practice-this is the thin part of the plot, but it can be dealt with
later--and shoots the two of them and himself. Madge, after a suitable period
of mourning, marries an understanding man called Fred and everything continues
as in A, but under different names.
D.
Fred and Madge have no problems. They
get along exceptionally well and are good at working out any little
difficulties that may arise. But their charming house is by the seashore and
one day a giant tidal wave approaches. Real estate values go down. The rest of
the story is about what caused the tidal wave and how they escape from it. They
do, though thousands drown, but Fred and Madge are virtuous and grateful, and
continue as in A.
E.
Yes, but Fred has a bad heart. The rest of the story is
about how kind and understanding they both are until Fred dies. Then Madge
devotes herself to charity work until the end of A. If you like, it can be
"Madge," "cancer," "guilty and confused," and
"bird watching."
F.
If you think this is all too bourgeois, make John
a revolutionary and Mary a counterespionage agent and see how far that gets
you. Remember, this is Canada. You'll still end up with A, though in between
you may get a lustful brawling saga of passionate involvement, a chronicle of
our times, sort of.
You'll have to face it, the endings are the same however
you slice it. Don't be deluded by any other endings, they're all fake, either
deliberately fake, with malicious intent to deceive, or just motivated by
excessive optimism if not by downright sentimentality. The only authentic
ending is the one provided here:
John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and
Mary die.
So much for endings. Beginnings are always more fun. True
connoisseurs, however, are known to favor the stretch in between, since it's
the hardest to do anything with. That's about all that can be said for plots,
which anyway are just one thing after another, a what and a what and a what.
Now try How and Why.
Hello! Welcome.
ReplyDeleteHolst describes the world as something that kills fiction; much like the poem by Billy Collins today. We, the zebras, see this fiction and think nothing of it, that it’s simply there to make us laugh. Yet, when we see the same with our own eyes, we gloss over it. In Atwood’s piece, everything is fictitious (like the Siamese cat to the zebra). Any can change whatever they want to be able to pander to their audience. In fiction, everything is fake, of course, “either deliberately fake, with malicious intent to deceive, or just motivated by excessive optimism”. But it’s rather the effect of this fake information that is more important. The effect is what people remember. When I finished In the Lake of the Woods and learned that Wade had the capacity to kill his wife, I was shocked. It’s that shock that made the book such a good read. In Unaccustomed Earth, what struck me was the way each character grew up in a place I know, and that’s the feeling that’s going to stick with me. Instead of the context, the reaction is what I’m going to remember. John and Mary are going to die, but it’s the journeys they go through together and how I feel reading it is what I’m going to remember.
ReplyDeleteKatie Benjamin
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI agree with your statement about how we remember the journeys of the characters as oppose to the actual ending of the story or novel. Do you think this is why some authors, such as Tim O'Brien in "In the Lake of the Woods" leave an open ending? I believe this writing technique supports your statement, because it emphasizes the journey, instead of the resolution and allows the reader to apply any lesson included in their own life.
DeleteAtwood states, “So much for endings. Beginnings are always more fun. True connoisseurs, however, are known to favor the stretch in between, since it's the hardest to do anything with.” This can be true about many of the stories. O’brien leaves the ending story of Katy and John open ended while writing In The Lake of the Woods. As frustrating as it can be to the readers, authors have a purpose of doing so. The stories we hear from the novel are only a small aspect of the characters' lives. Whether a fictional character or not, the author makes the decision to only reveal that small sliver of their story. Authors decide the stories they wish to tell through experiences of the characters, like the story of Pranab and Boudi. Much of their lives before Deborah was in their lives became unmentioned and it truly focused on the lives of Deborah and Pranab, and nobody else, similar to Mary and John. Once their stories ended, there was nothing left to be said. Sometimes a character serves their purpose within a story and get its message across, leaving them with no purpose anymore. When this happens, the author may treat him like the Siamese cat in Holst’s story and “kick him” out of the story.
ReplyDeleteChloe Newell
DeleteThe reason that many characters are presented in stories is to just see them either kicked out, or they have a lasting effect on the main character. That's exactly what Pranab was for in "Hell-Heaven". He was there to deceive, to charm, and to maneuver his way into their family. When he had finished, he left. What didn't really matter was that he left, it was more so the turmoil he brought in place of him once he left.
DeleteI believe authors always do have a purpose, like you said. The way they formulate the middle parts of a story, whether they choose to have a resolution or not, whether they talk about only one event in a character's life or multiple, authors want to appeal and illuminate their readers' lives and will receive a specific audience based on the material they put out.
DeleteIn "The Zebra Storyteller," the Siamese cat is able to take advantage of zebras that are not acquainted with the scenario of a cat speaking zebraic. But the zebra storyteller is the exception because he can conjure up such a creative scenario within his mind and can kill the predator cat that had been taking advantage of so many zebras. A crucial idea that Holst brings up is the practicality of reading stories. I saw this idea being portrayed in "The Hours". Laura Brown can grasp the notions and desires of why one could commit suicide through Virginia's book and once she is confronted with this scenario, she mulls over it but never lets the thought dominate her mind. In "Happy Endings," Atwood makes it clear that the journey of getting to the story's end is what makes the story worthwhile, not the ending itself. Tim O'Brien seems to portray the same idea "In the Lake of the Woods". He leaves out the resolution that stories usually have because it does not matter. The two hundred-something pages that led up to it do.
ReplyDeleteSaadwi Balaji
DeleteIt's like a situation where the journey is better than the destination. It's the fact that Mrs. Brown even contemplated suicide that makes her life more tragic, and how her son led himself to suicide becomes even more clear. Storytelling, of course, about the story, but it's more about the moment you're reading it and how the story achieves that than how the story ends.
DeleteBoth Atwood and Holst provide ‘unsatisfying’ endings to their short stories. In the ending of "The Zebra Storyteller", Holst ends it very bluntly with, “there was something about his looks he didn't like, so he kicked him with a hoof and killed him” which is a very quick and short conclusion. Holst gives us a long story about the Siamese cat and his trickery all for it to end in an instant with the kick of a hoof. In Atwood’s short story she sort of mocks the idea of a happy and perfect ending by giving multiple different scenarios on how things can play out. In the end she says that it all happens in the same boring way. She emphasizes at the end that “So much for endings. Beginnings are always more fun”.This statement is also true for the summer reading novel In The Lake of the Woods which displays a similar type of style with alternate and is considered unsatisfying to some readers. The story of the John and Kathy’s complicated relationship and personalities with one another are far more intriguing and important than the final question of how and why Kathy disappeared.
ReplyDeleteDiana Kreismanis
DeleteI think the reason "The Zebra Storyteller" ended so abruptly is to show how often times in life things such as tension, love, hate, etc., build and build until one day they reach a point in which it explodes, regardless of whether the actions are good or bad. In this story, the Siamese cat's cruel character is built and all the terrible actions they did pile on to each other and suddenly something snaps in the Zebra storyteller causing the cat to be killed within in instant. The build up to something is often times longer than the actual event itself. In "In the Lake of the Woods" John snapped one day pouring boiling hot water on the plants which seemed to occur to the reader out of no where when in fact there was a long build up.
DeleteI agree. Your point that the actual relationship between Kathy and John, and the subsequent fallout that leads to her disappearance is far more essential to the novel than the actual mystery. In a way, the plot device of Kathy going missing may have been implemented as a way for John to look back at their relationship and examine it with agonizing detail, which was the majority of the content in the book.
DeleteIn The Zebra Storyteller, Holst emphasizes his point that the purpose of stories is to prepare us for the unexpected. But, fiction should prepare us not only for the unexpected, but also the expected. This way the reader can better understand how to react themselves for both types of situations. I believe the short story Nobody’s Business from Unaccustomed Earth highlights this point. Within this story there are examples of expected situations, like Sang finding out about Paul’s conversation with Deidre and examples of the unexpected, when at the end Diedre gets back together with Farouk. It is the elements of the expected and unexpected that make Nobody’s Business a memorable piece of fiction. But also when done reading a piece of fiction, the reader has to learn a message. This message is likely to be found at the end of a text. It is through this message that the reader achieves closure. When reading the first story in Unaccustomed Earth, I did not find closure because I did not know if Ruma and her father got into an argument when Ruma “took out the roll of stamps and affixed one to the card, for the mailman” and if there were any implications. I felt that this would have contributed to the overall message of the story and would have given me a greater sense of appreciation for the piece.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you are saying about Unaccustomed Earth and how Sang finds out about certain things that are and aren't expected which I believe is what fiction really is
DeleteTo me “The Zebra Storyteller” is about how a group responds to an outsider. It discusses both how the outsider can benefit because they can catch the group unprepared, but it also shows how the group can reject the outsider because they can sense something is wrong. When the storyteller thinks “there was something about his looks he didn't like” that is the moment in which the cat has ‘lost’. When the cat catches the zebra earlier in the story, the zebra is caught off guard, displaying how the outsider can take advantage of the group. In “Heaven-Hell”, a short story by Jhumpa Lahiri, Pranab is the outsider that takes advantage of the Usha’s mother. While they are both Bengali, Pranab enters her life, disarms her with his charm, and becomes a love interest of hers. Just as quickly as the cat disarmed the zebra, Pranab was able to catch Usha’s mother off guard. However, just as the storyteller kills the cat in a split decision, Usha’s mother’s love turns to hate when Pranab leaves her. Usha’s mother sees Pranab for what he was to her: an imposter, and attempts to kick him out of her life. The whole collection of “Unaccustomed Earth” reminds me of “Happy Endings”. While Lahiri uses many different characters with different backgrounds, they all have similar stories: they are all adjusting to something in the world around them and they are all Bengali or from Calcutta. “Happy Endings” is similar in that regard. While all the characters may lead different lives, they all share common traits between them. The process of “Madge, after a suitable period of mourning, marries an understanding man called Fred and everything continues as in A, but under different names” is eerily similar to how “Heaven-Hell” reads. It feels as if the reader has the perspective of the first woman that Pranab moved on from, and it shows how he can lead the same life with different people. This is a depressing thought, but it can also be uplifting. It goes to show that even after a major screw up, life will go on. I always like to think “everything will work itself out” and it often does. Screw ups and bright spots are just bumps and holes in the path of life.
ReplyDeleteethan iannicelli
DeleteImmediately after reading “The Zebra Storyteller” by Spencer Holst, I saw a parallel between the Siamese cat and Mrs. Laura Brown from "The Hours" by Michael Cunningham. Both the cat and Mrs. Brown learn to live a life that is not meant to be their own and in doing so, they deceive those around them and themselves. Mrs. Brown lives a “perfect” life with her loving husband, Dan and her son, Richie in a nice house. She lacks nothing according to society’s standards, but inside, she feels as if she is faking her identity. Just as the cat says, “isn’t the world a lovely place to live today!” in Zebraic, Mrs. Brown convinces herself that speaking the language of a housewife really is suited for her. In the short story, the cat claiming he is a lion gives his friends “as proof the fact that he hunt[s] zebras” because he is subconsciously aware that he is not, in fact, a lion. Similarly, Mrs. Brown hides herself behind three-year-old Richie and her unborn child, who are proof of her happy life with Dan. The zebra storyteller ultimately kills the cat, while interestingly, Cunningham chooses to expose Mrs. Brown by killing her husband and children, with whom she is nothing without.
ReplyDeleteThe end of Mrs. Brown’s story is the authentic ending that Margaret Atwood writes about in “Happy Endings.” “John and Mary die.” Although Mrs. Brown does not die in "The Hours," Dan and her two children do. Laura and Dan’s death truly does seem to be the most “authentic ending” to the story because whether they fight every day or they love each other wholeheartedly, the ending is still the same. As much as readers may like the idea of a happy ending, I think a book gains more value if it has an appropriate, thought-provoking ending. The ending to Mrs. Brown’s story is just that. If had she continued to live her “perfect” life, she would have never realized that perhaps she was happy with the life she did not want.
Annette Kim
DeleteI think that really is next level thinking to be able to tie the "Zebraic" into Mrs. Brown's "Housewife Language". I like how you include what you personally think about the ideas that Atwood lays out. I agree with you, and I think a book's ending should be appropriate and thought provoking at the end, something that I feel is becoming more common in today's literature, but still has bounds to go.
DeleteI find it very interesting how you connected the “The Zebra Storyteller” and Mrs. Laura Brown from “The Hours”. I initially did not see the connection between the short story and the novel until reading your comment. It became evident very quickly how the life of Laura Brown and that of the Siamese cat can be very similar. Looking back into “The Hours” by Michael Cunningham, Laura Brown is similar to the Siamese cat because they both pretend to be someone they aren’t. Laura feels as though she woke up in someone else’s life and throughout the novel she feels suffocated by her role as a housewife. She continues to hide behind the picture perfect image of the lovable and happy housewife so that others will not view her as weak or in some sense worthless. The Siamese cat in “The Zebra Storyteller” hides behind the identity of a lion because he feels as though referring to himself as a cat in front of others will diminish the power he upholds. Both Laura and the Siamese cat hide behind a picture of a perfect life in order to move forward with their way of living.
DeleteIn “The Zebra Storyteller”, Spenser Holst creates a fictional, almost child-like world that explores the purpose of stories using talking, intelligent animals. Based on what I have studied from the reading I believe one of these animals, the cunning Siamese cat, is a metaphor for deception. By speaking their native language, the cat is able to mesmerize and kill the free roaming zebras with ease despite his small size. The storyteller zebra, however, was unsurprised by the cat’s knowledge of Zebraic, and kills him. Holst states, “That is the function of a storyteller.” I assume when he says this he means it is a storyteller’s job to enlighten the reader as opposed to deceiving them, therefore killing the cat would mean eliminating an obstacle for himself. Fictional stories don’t tell the truth, but rather teach readers a real world lesson using fantasy settings. Obviously a cat can’t talk zebra and zebra’s can’t tell stories, but immediately after reading this fable I began relating it to the world around me. Holst does not deceive the reader, he makes them more aware.
ReplyDeleteMargaret Atwood’s short story (or stories rather) also makes readers more aware, but using much more relatable tales involving death, love, and betrayal. I believe the main point she was trying to make by writing “Happy Endings” was that the closure/satisfaction you get after reading stories comes from the “how and why” questions answered by the author. This is why people get so infuriated with Tim O’Brien for novels like “A Lake in the Woods”, in which he states that the entire book essentially is “all hypothesis. Beginning to end.” (303) “A Lake in the Woods” and “Happy Endings” both explore the idea of “how and why” because from the outside the two couples in each story seem perfectly normal. When you start to read about their backstories, however, and uncover the dark truths behind some of their actions you get a lot of closure since it all seems justified. Tim O’Brien actually contradicts this idea though by making it clear that he doesn’t have all the answers to the reader’s questions, stating “In any case, Kathy Wade is forever missing, and if you require solutions, you will have to look beyond these pages. Or read a different book.” (30)
I like how you tied in the stark similarities between In the Lake of the Woods and the Happy Endings short story. The two pieces actually tie quite nicely into each other, in the fact that they don't view the endings and resolutions of stories as necessarily important or big points. I think Tim O'Brien is a great player in the category of the journey rather than destination, so great thinking using that example. Do you agree with the authors' ideas of the journey being more important than the destination, or are you more of an ending (whether it be good or bad) kind of person?
DeleteI agree with the idea that storytellers can help enlighten others of the truth without directly mentioning it. From "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien, we find out that there is more than just one type of truth and what we usually perceive to be the "mainstream truth" is just one of many other kinds. I also agree with your portrayal of Atwood's message in her short story. A book or story is to be read for its beginnings and experiences, not always for a resolution at the end.
DeleteI like how you analyzed the meaning behind the use of the Siamese cat by relating it to what you know and have read before and from that concluded on what you believe it meant. I agree with the thought of the author choosing the Siamese cat to represent perception, as he is described to be a lion throughout the story and speaks the language of the zebras. I like the big idea you mentioned about truth and how you said the author gets the truth across, without even mentioning it broadly.
DeleteI like how you said that the cat is a "metaphor for deception," but the fact that the storyteller kills the cat shows that he is "enlighten[ing] the reader as opposed to deceiving them." It is an interesting idea that Holst uses deception in his story to tell readers the truth and to make them "more aware." I agree with your statement that fiction teaches "readers a real world lesson using fantasy settings." Like we talked about in class yesterday, I think that sometimes a very real lesson can be taught more effectively through a made-up situation because the author has limitless opportunities to express their ideas.
DeleteI think in both cases, “Happy Endings” and “The Zebra Storyteller” as well as most works of fiction, the function of a storyteller is said to be one which prepares their audience. It seems to me that this purpose is echoed in In the Lake of the Woods. I think this works especially well with “Happy Endings”, for the ending of In the Lake of the Woods is anything but happy. As the true fate of Kathy Woods is left ambiguous, the novel offers little opportunity for closure. “Happy Endings” tells us that however bleak the ending may be, it serves a practical purpose in that Tim O’Brien is giving us a taste of an unsatisfying ending. Similarly, in The Hours, a sour taste is left in the reader's mouth seeing that Richard, the only hope for happiness in the lives of Clarissa and Laura is dead and thus the hope for happiness in either of their lives has died as well. This sour sentiment is foretold by “Happy Endings”; Atwood tells us that there is only one “authentic ending”, the ending in which death is inevitable. This prophetic death plays out both literally as well as figuratively in The Hours.
ReplyDeleteI like how well you connect the passages to the books we read
DeleteA common thread that seems to be woven throughout the various texts we have studied this year is the notion of the question. By questioning and redefining what we perceive as “predictable”, or “conclusive”, we gain a deeper insight as to how not just fiction is constructed, but how the human psyche functions as well. In both In The Lake of The Woods, and “Happy Endings”, the idea of expected literary endings are heavily dissected and reversed, while in “The Zebra Storyteller”, the lines between “fiction” and “realism” a briefly questioned and stomped out. In the novel In The Lake of The Woods, the truth of Kathy’s mysterious disappearance, the central mystery of the piece, is never discovered whatsoever! Instead, the book focuses on hypotheses and unproven possibilities based on various conflicting evidence. At the very beginning of the novel, when the possibility of a closure-filled ending is still fresh in the reader’s mind, O'brien bluntly states that, "In any case, Kathy Wade is forever missing, and if you require solutions, you will have to look beyond these pages. Or read a different book. (Pg. 30)” This complete disregard for closure is striking, but it opens the reader’s mind to the idea of alternate, possibly more realistic endings, for search parties in the real world are not always successful. In the case of “Happy Endings”, the author chooses to explore this exact same topic through the lens of love. Along with a box-standard conclusion, various alternate and depressingly realistic situations are presented. At the very end of the piece, she concludes it with, “The only authentic ending is the one provided here: John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die.” Through utterly bleak pessimism, Atwood shows that real life relationships do not always end with a “happily ever after”. Within the short story “The Zebra Storyteller” Holst questions not only endings, but the entire idea of storytelling itself. The feline trickster/storyteller uses his gift to fool his audience time and time again, similar to how the novel In The Lake of The Woods constantly plays with the reader’s emotions and predictions. In the end, when a zebra finally realized how realistic this magical storytelling is, he “took a good look at the cat, and he didn't know why, but there was something about his looks he didn't like, so he kicked him with a hoof and killed him. That is the function of the storyteller.” While brutal, with one swift kick, conventional endings and definitions for how real a piece of fiction can truly be are squashed into ignorant bliss.
ReplyDeleteAlex Vassilopoulos
DeleteThe idea that the conventional ending is unnecessary feels very modern. For most of history there has been nothing but conventional ending. Why are unsatisfying endings more acceptable to us? Perhaps we feel the need to ground ourselves in reality now that we know too much, now that we know there are no true miracles, that some things are undoubtedly impossible.
DeleteThe story Happy Endings by Margaret Atwood had several similarities to The Hours by Michael Cunningham through each of its several versions of the love between John and Mary. Version A represents and ideal story in which John and Mary are wrapped up in this ideal love story with everything they could imagine, a “charming house” with two kids and “live-in help” to create the picture perfect fairytale anyone would want. This ideal world is created surrounding the ideal love of Mary and John but as the story goes on and more details are shed, the fantasy of the love between John and Mary becomes more realistic. As more details are added, the reader learns that John does not appreciate Mary to the extent that she deserves. He does not care for the fact that Mary does the dishes while she sleeps to maintain her perfect image in his eyes just as Laura Brown maintains the image of being the perfect mother by “maintaining a body of rules” that have been set by all other mothers. John does not appreciate the fact that Mary continues to have sex with him although she does not enjoy it. She even goes as far as to put on more and more makeup so he’ll think she’s beautiful yet “he doesn’t notice”. John is too wrapped up in his own needs to recognize the impact he has made on Mary and all the lengths she has gone through to please him. In a similar way, Richard is too wrapped up in his own personal life to acknowledge all the things Clarissa has done for him, choosing to ignore the party she planned to celebrate his greatest accomplishments.
ReplyDeleteNicole Major
DeleteThe purpose of fiction is to evoke real and deep human emotions that aren’t easily accessed in everyday life. Although the words on the page may not have occurred, emotions and lessons raised from the story have meaning and purpose in real life. In “The Zebra Storyteller,” Holst uses fable-like story telling to access emotions from his audience and to support the purpose that instinct can be telling us something that our brains may not understand yet. Much like the storyteller at the end of Holst’s piece, the reader is trusted to use their instinct on the characters in the story, but also connect it to real life. Tim O’Brien leaves “In the Lake of the Woods” with an open ending so that the reader can use their instinct on what happened to Kathy, and use this as motivation to use instinct in their own life over right and wrong to make decisions. Margaret Atwood teaches another important lesson that life is unpredictable in her work, “Happy Endings.” She exaggerates human’s need for closure in fiction to emphasize the point that in life there may not be closure. Atwood accesses deep, real emotions from her work of fiction about the reality of “happy endings” and unpredictability of life. The novel, “Unaccustomed Earth” includes many plot twists in the endings of some of the stories to emphasize the idea of the unpredictability in life. All these works of fiction use purpose to access human emotion and teach lessons that can be applied to the reader’s own life.
ReplyDeleteMolly Graw
DeleteI love these ideas on how life is unpredictable, I could not agree more. I think that you're totally correct in your thoughts about fiction too, about how it accesses recesses of our brains that make us feel emotions (good or bad). Do you agree with her ideas about closure?
DeleteI like your first two sentences the most. Not everybody will have life shattering or even changing experiences. Many people live completely normal and ordinary lives. There is nothing wrong with that, but in reaction, fiction allows us to experience what we never have, or perhaps never will. Fiction gives us the opportunity to feel emotions we never would have without stories.
DeleteI have to agree with you about the natural response we have when reading fables. We, as kids who grew up reading animal books and fairy tales, subconsciously associate certain figures in Holst's writing with certain adjectives that deepen their character. The cat we see as deceptive, witty, and intelligent right off the bat, and the storyteller zebra automatically seems much wiser than the plain ones. This helps us grasp the ideas and themes associated with them much easier.
Delete“The Zebra Storyteller” tells us that fiction can prepare us for the unexpected, but while reading I couldn't help but remember back to a conversation I had with a teacher while I was preparing for a rhetorical analysis test. Annoyed from looking for symbolism to analyze, I whined to my teacher. There would be many times I would wonder if the implicit meanings I found in stories were intentionally placed by the author, or if I were just “beating it with a hose” in an attempt to find meaning in every word the writer drafted. I settled on the fact that often times while the author may not intentionally implant the symbolism and motifs we attribute to deep and meaningful writing, it is there from the author’s mind in the same unconscious way we change the way we speak around different people. The zebra storyteller simply intends to “amuse the other zebras” with his story, but he finds in surprise the practicality of his convenient tale to same way we surprise ourselves as authors with the depth we implicitly draft into our writing.
ReplyDelete“Happy Endings” asserts that in our search for closure, we often overlook the fact that the ending is unimportant in contrast to the beginning or the “stretch in between” of a story. While I do not agree with her devaluing of a story’s ending, I do interpret her suggestion to “try How and Why”, which I interpret as putting giving an ending more purpose than simple closure in a more positive light.
“The Lake in the Woods” does just this. Tim O’Brien intentionally chose the ending of the novel… to have no ending. Ironically, this decision perfectly matches the tone of the entire story in reflecting his emphasis on the blurry line between story truth and real truth. It also mirrors the realistic nature of history in the sense that often times we must accept some mysteries will always remain unsolved. As Atwood stated, “The Lake of the Woods’” lack of an ending highlights the importance and value of the body of the story. The conspiracy theories the book provides as “Hypotheses” can be seen as representative of our search for closure, (I feel like I’m beating the book with a hose now.) In the same sense, these theories can also be representative of how we tend to constantly look for meaning where there may be none at all.
In his piece The Zebra Storyteller, Spencer Holst gives us a good example of creating a conclusion to a story just to have closure. Closure can actually kill a story if it does not naturally flow with the plotline. For instance, the beginning of The Zebra Storyteller follows the character of the Siamese cat, who boasts that he is really a lion who has the ability to kill zebras. Because of the large amount of zebras that have gone missing, the zebras steer clear of the woods, which is the Siamese cat’s home. Despite this detail given about the Siamese cat, the focus is pulled to the storyteller of the zebras at the very end of the story. The storyteller zebra is frustrated by the idea of not knowing what happened to missing members of his heard in the woods, because without some sort of solution to give his people, what kind of storyteller would he be?? So, he makes up a story about a Siamese cat, identical to the first half of the story. When the zebra and Siamese cat finally meet face to face, the zebra is so unfazed by the cat that he kills him. The zebra literally kills the story though the making of his conclusion.
ReplyDeleteIn Margaret Atwood’s Happy Endings, we see that endings are inauthentic. Atwood says that all endings are the same “however you slice it,” and that the beginning and middle sections of a novel are the only parts of a book that allow originality and authenticity. I remember learning in 6th grade that most all stories follow the same arch: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. What I have come to realize over time and through reading experience is that not all novels need a conclusion to be complete. For example, In The Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien is a novel that must end without a resolution in order to keep the conversation between reader and writer alive, and to spark the conversation about our need for closure.
I found your idea of "killing the story" to be very interesting, for it fits in perfectly with "The Zebra Storyteller". You bringing in the classic plot triangle was especially pertinent because it showed how the standard literary expectations we've been taught to recognize and expect are not always essential or beneficial to a story.
DeleteA novel without an end not only keeps the conversation going about the story once it is over, but it also forces a reader to look deeper at the exposition, rising actions, and climax to understand why and how. -Avery Zaimes
DeleteIsn't the jarring ending of Holst's fable the whole point of the story? I think that the purpose of Holst's ending is to be abrupt, like the intuitive sense of the storyteller. Endings, though they tend to end up at the same place, still bring meaning to a story, and even the absence of a clear finishing point for the characters, like in "In the Lake of the Woods," as you have mentioned, still end in their own way.
DeleteNot that Livia is criticizing the ending, but I agree with Eddie on ending to "The Zebra Storyteller." On the same page as Atwood, the story itself conveyed the message it wanted to send. For this story in particular a "traditional" ending would have served no related purpose.
DeleteIt has been said that every time a story is told, it is changed, modified in such a way that it becomes something different, morphing into endless possibility. It is a possibility in which Margaret Atwood speaks to what occurs between the introduction and conclusion of a story. Like the hero’s quest, stories are undeniably formulaic, and even the path taken in the middle is “one thing after another, a what and a what and a what” (Atwood). Everything comes to the same point, like the lasting finality of death in the human experience. John and Mary could be anything, but “John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die” (Atwood). What is the purpose of a story if they all eventually lead to the same place, and the events negligible? However, they do. The storyteller plays an important role in society, where they go with their intuition to craft something to give. People across this Earth have certain tendencies, and the storyteller can identify them, and when “there [is] something about his looks he didn't like… he kicked him with a hoof and killed him” (Holst). The zebra knows that the Siamese cat means no good. Even the wildest stories are based in reality, and teach about life. Tim O’Brien’s In the Lake of the Woods discusses truth. The mental journey of John Wade over the course of the novel speaks to reality, and Wade’s various perceptions of the murder show how a storyteller is important in bringing forth the importance of the middle, of what occurs between the covers. The evolution of Wade’s tale breaks free from the formulaic structure described by Atwood, and the middle is necessary to the understanding of what Wade is and has gone through.
ReplyDeleteFrom one point of view you can extend the outlook you mention, of all roads leading to death, all they way to the pointlessness of everything we do, since eventually, the universe will end and civilization itself will be forgotten. At that point, the story teller doesn't even need to have a roles since they are nothing more than a cosmic blip. But I agree with you that the story teller is important.
DeleteWhile I would agree that In the Lake of the Woods certainly defies storytelling convention I would argue that the way it ends similarly defies convention. The vague nature of the ending lends itself to the reader's imagination. While the ending O’Brien describes might not be as bleak as “John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die” (Atwood) it is certainly realistic; Any reader can relate to something being left unknown, a mystery. I think it is overwhelmingly that In the Lake of the Woods is a story that breaks the “formula” as you say not just in the middle but in the ending as well.
DeleteYou brought up some super fascinating points, especially how storytellers are more aware of people's tendencies in everyday life. Thanks to their experience as writers, who naturally are very observant, storytellers can pick up on things more easily, which is expressed in Holst's writing.
DeleteI agree with your statement,"Even the wildest stories are based in reality, and teach about life." It definitely explains at least one purpose that fiction continues to exist and will continue to thrive in the literature community. The reason we enjoy reading stories that seem to have the same ending is because these art forms mimic life. A human life always has the same ending, so we invest our time and focus on the middle, the "living" part of it. We can find pleasure in novels that tell different stories in the middle because that is what is essential to our lives, and not the way we die.
DeleteI thought it was very interesting how you wrote about the storyteller's purpose and how it is important for them to guide us on the journey on what happens 'between the covers'. I liked how you described the very structured format of the hero's quest and the point of it all if it's just going to be the same beginning, middle and end structure every time you read a story. I learned from your response that it is the author's purpose to use this structure to make a story come to life and make it interesting and how Holst, Atwood and O'Brien emphasize the importance of the middle portion of a story. I would have liked to learn a bit more about your thoughts on Atwood's quotes that you included into your paragraph because you did not elaborate on them a lot. Yet I thought that the quotes that you did choose were very strong and were good evidence to the point that you were trying to back up. I also liked the statement that you started your response with and I thought it was a great segway into your topic of discussion. The only thing I would have liked to known about that is where that belief comes from; who said it? I feel like it was a nice bold statement but was that your own belief and if not where did you learn this statement from?
DeleteOne idea that I took from Holst is that what happens to others can end up happening to you too. We see that the trickery used by the cat, while successful for a time, is eventually turned against him by a zebra. This idea is evident in Tim O’Brien’s “In the Lake of the Woods” as well. For most of the book, the plot focuses on John’s reaction disappearance of Kathy. But in the end, John goes missing too.
ReplyDeleteIn “The Zebra Storyteller”, an evident message is that a rocky relationship can lead to an abundance of problems down the road. We saw the different scenarios and how the cheating caused all sorts of issues and ultimately led to death. Along the same lines, in “ITLOTW”, it was revealed that Kathy had an affair while John was away. This led to their relationship becoming strained and very likely played a big role in the disappearance of one, if not both of the characters.
Will Shahbazian
DeleteAnd the second paragraph should be about "Happy endings"
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DeleteI agree with what you are saying. And the Zebra story can also connect to some of the stories in Unaccustomed Earth with back stabbing and trust issues
DeleteIn my response I also connected "The Zebra Storyteller" back to expected and unexpected endings. I talked about how expected and unexpected endings are both needed in fiction, so the reader can prepare themselves for the real world.
Delete
DeleteI agree that Kathys's affair with another man affected her relationship with John but I feel like it wasn't the main reason as to why their marriage fell apart as their relationship had already began with rocky start. I think that John's obsessive and disturbed mental state was one of the bigger issues that led to their downfall.
My first reaction after reading “The Zebra Storyteller,” and the sentence where the story teller “kicked him with a hoof and killed him,”was that story tellers kill any semblance of reality by calling something a story, or that in some way or another the method through which information is conveyed determines how believable it is. Going from there, the story reminds me of the concept of suspension of disbelief, that we can accept clearly impossible things as long as they are told consistently. Even though a real talking cat exists in the story, it is unbelievable as a reality, but acceptable once told as fiction. It reminded me of the statement “Truth is stranger than fiction.” I recently watched the movie Apollo 13, in which a catastrophic series of events ends with the survival of 3 astronauts for a week in space. The events, which include the astronauts calculating their reentry angle within 2 degrees of error in real time by staring out of a window, are about as believable as those that occur in The Martian. I mean, the audio cutting out for a minute more than expected during reentry felt like something forcefully added to increase tension. I accept them as truth only because there exists irrefutable evidence in the form of nasa audio logs. There are some proven myths too, although most of them involve the CIA
ReplyDeleteAs for “Happy Endings,” her comments on endings are something I agree with, that the process through which you reach it is more important to me than what it is. I had read many unsatisfying endings, but for me what I dislike the most is when the ending does not follow a reasonable progression from the rest of the story. Not all stories make it to “Eventually they die. This is the end of the story,” but you always know it’s going to happen to any character that you read about. In one sense, a person’s story is not over till they die, even if it’s less interesting. She creates several branching paths in which the tone of the story changes drastically, despite all of them leading to A, the happy ending. You can get there eventually, even if you “make John a revolutionary and Mary a counterespionage agent,” but that happy ending ends up matterring little. By the end of reading through the paths we forget about the happy ending.
James Chen
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DeleteFor me, I feel that a bad ending results when I read a piece and am not able to discern what the message is. I do not care about the progression that much because the message of the piece is what gives me closure.
DeleteI agree with your statement that a lot of movies/media in today's world incorporate details used to increase dramatic effect. However, I don't entirely agree that the process in which you reach an ending is more important than the ending itself, especially if you apply this to real life. I think that while the steps toward a goal are undoubtedly important, in the end, the goal itself is what you are striving so hard to achieve.
DeleteI found your idea that everyone's story continues until they die to be fascinating. What happens after the story, once all of the dust has settled and life becomes "uninteresting"? These far more realistic stories are hidden behind the guise of fantastical "Perfect endings", when in reality what happens after can be far more relatable and possibly fulfilling, for not all "endings" have to be bad or good.
DeleteThe Zebra Storyteller touches upon the idea of manipulative storytelling. Specifically how Spencer Holst makes the readers question their predictions. Many were probably assuming that the Siamese cat was going to kill the storyteller, but he was killed instead, which goes against the pattern of the Siamese cat killing the zebras that Holst set earlier in the story. If that was not a good enough of a surprise, Holst ends the story with, “that is the function of the storyteller.” At first, this sentence seems a bit confusing, but once the realization hits that the reason why the death of the Siamese cat was out of the ordinary was that he encountered the “storyteller”, and the storyteller can do whatever they please with the cat because they are the ones writing the story. Holst manipulated readers into making wrong predictions that when they realize it, there will be a bigger impact. Because he had them fooled. This is similar to the writing style of Tim O’Brien. O’Brien is constantly challenging readers’ predictions and making them question themselves. In In the Lake of the Woods, O’Brien had readers question whether or not John Wade killed his wife or not. In the evidence testimonies of the people involved in that case, A lady was saying, “they [John & Kath] started having this argument. It went on for a while. She was mad.” One of the deputies said, “the guy [John] offed her.” At one point in O’Brien mentioned, “the secrets would remain secret-things he’d [John] seen, the things he’s done.” There was evidence that he had killed her. That is what O’Brien wanted readers to believe at first, manipulating readers to think one way, but in reality, it is not true. But later in the book, O’Brien talks about Kathy as if she is still alive but just lost. At the end of those chapters, he reveals the chapter story as a prediction of Kathy’s death. These chapters contradict the idea that she is alive. O’Brien, similar to Holst, makes the story quite unpredictable for readers. Though it makes the book more frustrating to read, it also makes it entertaining.
ReplyDeleteAll these different endings to John and Mary’s story in Happy Endings are entertaining. Some people will like one ending over the other, but all the endings have one thing in common. “John and Mary die.” So unless you choose to not think about the ending and only focus on the in-between, it does not matter which storyline is better, in the end, they both die. Usually, the in-between stuff is the most important because of its significance. The middle is the best part and the part with the most heartfelt lessons. If you only read the beginning and the ending, you are not going to learn anything valuable. Now to switch this to the summer readings, the ending to the story of Hema and Kaushik in Unaccustomed Earth is not the most favorable. I, personally, wanted them together but it did not happen. However, looking at it now, if Hema was to go with Kaushik to Hong Kong and not marry Navin, or they got together when Kaushik was living at her house, or if Kaushik did not move to Calcutta for all those years and they got married sooner, death would still be in their future. Hema even mentioned, “if it were possible to turn back the clock, to never have met Navin and wait to bump into Kaushik in Rome, it would not have made a difference.” Though at the end of the story only Kaushik died, Hema was going to die anyway, she is not immortal. But to only focus on their early encounters and the end of their short relationship is a waste of time. Rather the focus should be on their journey together and the message behind it. Kaushik, “the man who’d embarked on an affair knowing she could never be his; at the last moment he was asking for more. Hema has imagined that moment for a long time but the realization that sometimes their desires are not enough to keep them together, it is heartbreaking, but it is a reality for some people. If I was to only focus on the fact that they did not end up together, I would have never realized the importance of their split; the important part of the story.
Han Duong
DeleteI love the ideas expressed in your paragraph. Before reading this I hadn't thought about the author being the true manipulator in "The Zebra Storyteller". By killing the cat he is demonstrating his limitless and unpredictable powers as a writer. It's super cool you picked up on that and shared it with us. :)
DeleteDo you think death of the main characters means that it is the end of the story? I think that, unless all of the characters in the novel die, the story will never completely end. In real life, people continue to have an impact on how we live and how our own stories play out, even after their passing. I think that this is the same for characters in novels - the rest of the "world" the author has created will still move on in our minds, even after a character has died.
DeleteWow thicc blog post alert
DeleteA lot to unpack, but I think your heavy tying in of the story of Hema and Kaushik + John and Kathy really helps enhance your point. Do you think the two selections by Atwood and Holst are synonymous, or carry different meanings all together; perhaps they could only be halfway related. What do you think personally?
Livia, no not really. There are always a story behind the other characters, and like real life, lives continue even when a person dies, but they still continue to impact the lives of their peers. Also, stories can switch perspective. Now the previous main character becomes a side character and the new main character will tell their story, and continue to tell their side of the story even after someone dies. It's also the same in real life. Everyone is a main character in the story of their life, but their a side character in someone else's story but they all impact each other. I hope that makes sense.
DeleteA: The first fable is the hardest to decipher. The ending, which quickly finishes with “This is the function of a storyteller,” is slightly esoteric with some room for interpretation. I think that the point of the fable is that all authors create characters to die, and that their fates are sealed the moment their name’s fall from ink to paper. Whether the author wants to or not, the characters will always die, whether it be by chance or by nature’s changing course. I think this could be tied to a story like Hema and Kaushik, and how Kaushik’s ultimate doom was met as soon as he was written about. To tag along with this theme of characters dying, Margaret Atwood creates a wonderfully brutal and nihilistic montage of manically horny and unsatisfied people. I love the honesty and pure frustration that can be taken from Atwood’s writing, this being a master class of her emotional talents. All the stories end the same, with the characters dying, sometimes very tragic and gruesome deaths. Obviously, as stated at the end of her proverb, the point is that all characters die in literature. This simple fact is to be a reminder that it does not matter at all what an author does with the end of the book, because the most important part of stories is what happens in between, and the most fun is had at the beginning. Do I wholeheartedly agree with Atwood? Absolutely not. I think that there are happy endings and that she looks out too pessimistically. Happy endings could be like the one that Amit and Megan had in unaccustomed earth. Sure, Atwood would probably just slap that off as a “horny youthful filth fest”, but it is clearly a rebound of happiness that carries a significant amount of growth when compared to where this novel started, with Amit as a sad sexless man.
ReplyDeleteThe point of a fable is to teach a lesson, and not just for all the characters to die. "The Zebra Storyteller" seeks to define what the purpose of a storyteller is, and the impending death that exists for every zebra alive does not come into play. This fable is only a snippet from the life of a storyteller/Siamese cat, and because of its brevity, death doesn't matter in the sense of the fragility of mortality.
DeleteI like how you mentioned that although all characters die, the only thing that matters is how they got to that point and the lives they lived before that. Often times, if someone spoils a book or movie for me initially I am bummed yet I still continue to read or watch. Many people are perplexed by this but when someone tells you "so and so dies" or "and then they get married" etc. etc. they do not tell you the entire story. They simply take what they see as to be the most important parts and only give you those. Although I might know the ending, I still am eager to understand how or why these endings occurred and the journey the characters took that lead them to this place. I wish to know how this character got themself into a situation in which they die, or how they have come to love the person they once despised. These details and these journeys are almost more important than the endings themselves.
DeleteI don't think their fates are completely sealed once the author starts writing, yes they all die in that aspect of their "fate" but sometimes not in the way you think. At first, it seemed like Virginia Wolf was set on the idea that Clarissa was going to commit suicide; it was her fate. But in the end, she didn't but Richie or Richard did instead. So their fate can change if the author wanted to change it.
DeleteEddie, although I see your point about the ultimate goal of what a traditional fable is and how it is present in the fable, I am a believer in multiple meanings in a passage. I think that you can draw whatever meanings that seem rational in a story, and I sought to tie similarities to the two pieces presented to us rather than dissect them separately. I would also further argue that there is nothing shallow about deaths in this story, as it takes up a large portion of a fairly small selection; proportionally, it is the key part of the story (such as how the American Dream is proportionally the key detail of The Great Gatsby).
DeleteNicole, I think that it is very open minded of you to continue or start a story, regardless if you know the ending. That's a virtue I wish I could have!
DeleteHan, I see your point about how the fate is unpredictable in the aspect of how they die rather than how they just die. I would like to defend my point using Atwood's examples, in the fact that everyone in her story died in brutal, grotesque and different ways, but they are all dead nonetheless (Atwood's main point at the end of the story).
DeleteIn Holst’s Zebra Story is much like Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth. In particular one of the later stories where the story takes place in London and the brother of the wife is an alcoholic. At the end of the story the wife trusts him to take care of their baby and he passes out drunk leaving the baby in the bathtub alone where he could have drowned. Like in the Zebra story where the webra killed the lion I would have never guessed that the brother would have messed up and it was quite unexpected. In Atwood's short stories the B ending is similar to another unaccustomed earth story about the three roommates. Where the Indian roommate meets a boy and the boy has two lovers simultaneously and just uses them for his pleasure barely caring about both of them. It is like what happens to Mary where John doesn’t love him. At the end of Atwood's short story it is much like Tim O'brien's In the lake of the woods where it will always be a predictable ending and how there is only one ending whether you change it to how you want to be. All of the information you get is factual whether you believe it or not and is important to the story.
ReplyDeleteMatt Ros
DeleteGoing off what you mentioned at the end of your response, I too see the similarity between the end of "In the Lake of the woods" and "Happy endings". I think both give you all the facts or possibilities that could have happened, and it is up to the reader to decide what happens. The process of deducing anything from a set of facts can lead to dissent between peers. This disagreement is good, and it fuel discussion.
DeleteEthan Iannicelli
DeleteI agree that “The Zebra Storyteller” bears many similarities with Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Only Goodness” however, I would argue that the brother’s mistake was entirely expected. Form the beginning the brother was portrayed as a character who squanders opportunities thus it would make sense that when faith was put in him to be responsible this opportunity would too be squandered. The loss of faith and subsequent destruction of the siblings’ relationship is completely inline with the prophetic words of Margret Atwood: “John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die” rather than a literal death, in this case, Atwood’s sentiment can apply to the figurative death of the relationships between the brother and sister as well as the husband and wife.
DeleteThe ending of the plot often is what the audience tends to focus most on throughout a story. In Margaret Atwood’s short story, “Happy Endings,” she argues that the ending is less significant than the events that occured to reach it. Describing the ideal life the audience is expecting, Atwood is able to display a satisfying ending that the audience craves while contrasting it with different stories that incorporate conflict. She makes it clear that an ending intended to satisfy doesn’t force the audience to analyze or absorb new information. Atwood reminds readers that they should not, “be deluded by any other endings, they're all fake,” (Atwood) because the only honest ending is the inevitable death we all face. Therefore a reader must anticipate understanding, “how and why” (Atwood) events occur rather than what happened. It is less work to watch a story unfold that you know will occur, however when left deserted in the unknown, a reader is forced to look deeper into the author’s choices. In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’brien the mystery is never solved. While Atwood argues death is the only certain ending, O’brien explains that, “One way or another, it seems, we all perform vanishing tricks, effacing history, locking up our lives and slipping day by day into the graying shadows. Our whereabouts are uncertain. All secrets lead to the dark, and beyond the dark there is only maybe.” (O’brien) This ending forces the audience to analyze the possibilities and the author is able to make a deeper impact on the audience. O’brien’s mystery left readers questioning the characters interactions with each other throughout the novel, which creates questions about their own lives. A purposeful author has the ability to address an issue and apply it to people’s lives in order to create change. In the “The Zebra Storyteller,” a short story by Spencer Holst, Holst describes, “the function of a storyteller,” reach an audience and make an impact. The Zebra storyteller uses fiction to prepare himself for an attack from the Siamese cat and he saved his population, because he, “wasn't fit to be tied at bearing a cat speaking his language, because he'd been thinking about that very thing.” (Holst) Story tellers use fiction to prepare society for issues they might not know about, so that they can react in a positive way when conflict does occur.
ReplyDeleteAvery Zaimes
DeleteI think it's also important to add that the function of a storyteller is to tell the story in whatever way they want, sometimes it can be out of the ordinary or unexpected.
DeleteAs one reads “The Zebra Storyteller” by Spencer Holst, it is hard to not see the similarities between the short story and “Hell-Heaven”, a short story in “Unaccustomed Earth” by Jhumpa Lahiri. In “The Zebra Storyteller” by Spencer Holst, a Siamese cat was able to capture many zebras due to the trust the zebras installed into him once they realized the cat spoke Zebraic. Once the Zebra gained faith in the Siamese cat, the cat then quickly harmed the zebra. This reminds me of “Hell-Heaven” due to the fact that the main character, Pranab Chakraborty, is taken in by Usha’s family because he moves to Boston for graduate school and finds himself alone. Usha’s mother falls in love with Pranab, but he breaks her heart as he meets and falls in love with an American woman named Deborah. Because Usha’s mother blindly fell in love with Pranab just as the Zebras easily trusted the Semanian cat, Usha and the Zebras found themselves with similar fates; one full of hurt and betrayal.
ReplyDeleteUpon reading “Happy Endings,” I am quickly reminded of John Wade in “In the Lake of the Woods”. This is due to the fact that, like in “Happy Endings,” John Wade imagines different outcomes and reasons for the disappearance of Kathy Wade, his wife. In “Happy Endings,” the narrator, Margaret Atwood provides a selection of outcomes caused by the meeting of Mary and John.
In "In the Lake of the Woods," it is the search for truth that prevails, and pulling away the veils of lies and falsehoods with evidence and verbatim from court cases. I think that "Happy Endings" does search for the reality of an ending, but whereas the ending for John and Mary is the same, the stories of John Wade are ever-changing, though the various versions tend to converge upon the same reality. The death of Kathy was important to the novel, and yet it wasn't, as the story still continues, as the cat in the box is neither dead or alive.
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ReplyDeleteIn the Lake of the Woods the author does not reveal the true murderer of Kate Wade but takes the reader on a journey of John and Kate’s unusual relationship. O’Brien specifically does this to allow the reader to develop their own hypotheses as to what could’ve happened to Kate on the night of her disappearance. This can be compared to Happy Endings by Margaret Atwood as she gives us different versions of the same story where ultimately, John and Mary die. Through these different versions, Atwood is able to convey that not all “happily ever after” endings end with a perfect marriage as told in fairytales but instead your story may take you on a rollercoaster where the unexpected may completely change your life for the better or worse. The Zebra Storyteller by Spencer Holst conveys an important message that reflects how we as people can easily believe false advertisements. The cat can be seen as a symbol for many figures in the real world, such as politicians and large brand companies, who can easily manipulate their followers. Holst expresses that “the function of the storyteller” is to essentially enlighten and expose such lies to society which can be seen as the role of many authors through their fictional and non-fictional works.
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