Response 2 - Fantasy Vs. Realism

Chelsa Lauderdale
Introduction to Writing and Literature
9/29/10

Excluding biographies, nearly every story, no matter how real it may seem, has an element of fantasy. Even some stories that are based on complete truths are also based on lies and what are lies but an element of the unreal, fantastical mistruths. The stories that were read this week had both realistic elements as well as things that seemed truly outrageous.
A great example of this is The Father’s Blessing by Mary Caponegro, which is the story of a priest and a family that is in his charge. At first the priest seems to be going about his duties as any normal priest might, but as the story progresses, events seem to get increasingly outlandish. After a period of restlessness and feeling unhelpful, the priest decides to lend a hand in an extremely odd situation. This might be to show the extent to which a priest might care for his flock, or a way to further his experience to better connect with them. This story starts off normal but gets increasingly strange and then just downright weird, so even though the story is seems very real, it's still got that backing element of fantasy.
Two Brothers by Brian Evenson is a story that could be disgustingly real but seemingly improbable. Dying due to an easily fixed broken appendage, or starvation by choice is seemingly insane, but not exactly unheard of, especially where extreme religious worship is involve. This story could possibly be trying to show what happens when man worships a Deity too extensively that it takes over the lives of everyone involved. Also, the effect that something like that has on the impressionable minds of children. The confusing thing about this story is trying to discern whether or not it is fantasy or not. It seems as though it's real, but still the reader hopes that it's not.