Response 4

by Alora Young

Pricksongs & Descants (Part Two):
Of Babysitter Horror Films and Non-Refundable Magic Shows

Of all the short stories in this week’s half of Robert Coover’s Pricksongs & Descants, it was the final two that I enjoyed the most – ‘The Babysitter’ and ‘The Hat Act’.

The first was more of Coover’s insanely confusing, extremely captivating metafiction like ‘The Elevator’ and ‘The Magic Poker’, in which we are presented with scene after scene of possibles, some terrifying, some funny, some utterly mundane, but none definite. As I read, it occurred to me what an incredible artsy horror film an adaption of this story would make. In places it reads like a film script in prose form – especially the last few pages, where the writing practically flies by, like a scenes done in very quick montages as we build up to the climax. After I read it the first time, I went back and reread it straight away, thinking the whole time how each snippet could be translated into film. All of my favourite writing inspires me to be creative myself, and so this short story quickly added itself to my ever-growing list of favourites.

‘The Babysitter’, like all of the pieces in this collection, and no doubt in the rest of Coover’s work, is full of literary elements that could be, and have been, picked apart and analysed again and again. The element that stood out to me most, though, was the motif of the television shows. The connotation of each show genre directly relate to what is happening in the story at the time, as do the actual plot snippets we are shown reflect what is happening in the story. We even end, after the party’s host reveals that Dolly’s husband, children, and babysitter are all dead, with the television, as Dolly states, “Let’s see what’s on the late late movie.” Coover did this, I think, to draw attention to narrative – as he has both subtly and blatantly throughout the whole of Pricksongs & Descants – and how our entire lives and everything we are presented with in life is narrative.

All the narratives we’ve been presented with in Coover’s work this week and last week could very well be compared to segments of a magic show, and that is probably why Coover chose this as his closing metaphor. He is certainly a magician, awing and disgusting us alternatingly, sometimes simultaneously. The lack of closure that ‘The Babysitter’, and the rest of Coover’s pieces in this collection provide, is somehow perfectly provided with ‘The Hat Act’s final words:

THIS ACT IS CONCLUDED
THE MANAGEMENT REGRETS THERE
WILL BE NO REFUND

This is Coover’s version of stating, ‘The End’, as the fairy tales, that he so often reinvents, are fond of doing. They literally spell the ending out rather than ensuring the plot and character elements give us closure, sometimes leaving us utterly unsatisfied. We are unable to get the time wasted on these stories, the narratives that society uses, as Jack did back in ‘The Door: A Prologue of Sorts’, to teach us about reality and inevitably limiting our knowledge of the world by ensuring naïveté. Coover plays on this, stating that our precious time won’t be refunded by him either, no matter how unsatisfied he may have left us – no matter how many “lovely assistant”s he accidently killed, or how much “Weeping, moaning, shouting” and “retching” we readers may have committed.

After the whirlwind that was Pricksongs & Descants, I find I don’t want a refund, however. This may be because I truly am satisfied with this ending, and I did genuinely learn so very much from reading Coover’s work, as I’d like to believe is the case. Perhaps, it is also because, deep down, I’m simply too exhausted to laugh, whistle, applause, boo, scream, shout, or vomit any longer. It was wonderful, and it was awful, and it was entirely worth every bit, and yet, I can’t help but be glad that it’s over.