Fiction literature forces readers to suspend their disbelief and absorb that all of what the author depicts is true. Take for instance the idea that with hard work and kindness and looks of course a princess is able to find her true love, or the boy who cried wolf deserved to be ripped apart because lying is bad. Coover’s fiction in Pricksong's and Descants however, does the complete opposite.
Throughout his work Coover reminds readers that his writing, is in fact made up and to not to be taken literally. “A love letter! Wait a minute, this is getting out of hand!…Enough that the skin of the world is littered with our contentious artifice, lepered with the stigmata of human aggression and despair, without suffering our songs to be flatted by savagery. Back to the poker.” (30) This technique of constantly pulling the reader out of their suspended beliefs promotes the idea that humans should not base their lives around tales but instead take the context and turn it into their own interpretations.
A Pedestrian Accident beautifully demonstrates the ease for humans to become influenced in mind. Paul is hit by a six wheeled truck, his neck is cracked, his body limp like a rotten puppet, and the pedestrians around him laugh at the absurd extravagant stories of Mrs.Grundy “‘You know who you know, I know who I know,’ the woman said, and let fly with a low throaty snigger. The crowd responded with a belly laugh.” (187) This quote demonstrates the power of Mrs.Gundy to control situations, her throaty snigger lead the crowd to laugh a long with her. Her persona symbolizes the bold tall tales that float throughout cultures because she distracts people from the reality of situations and highly influences their actions. Coover even pokes fun at the typical literature gurus who debase individual thoughts by giving Mrs.Grundy an “…old fat and bosomy” body with breath that “reaked of cheap gin.” (188)
All together I found this book to be very interesting. Though it wasn’t the easiest to glide through and at moments I found myself scratching my head and thinking wait, what the hell just happened? and having to re read everything, I really enjoyed it. I feel like this story will be one I return upon in a year and read for pleasure instead of assignment and gain a few more lessons along the way.
Good, Vanessa. I particularly like the section where you say Mrs Gundy "symbolizes the bold tall tales that float throughout cultures because she distracts people from the reality of situations and highly influences their actions." Coover uses a lot of these characters--fast-talking snake oil salesmen who charm you with their voice while they pilfer your wallet. What do you think draws Coover to these types of narrators and characters?
ReplyDeleteI do get a bit confused in this response at times, though. For example: "This technique of constantly pulling the reader out of their suspended beliefs promotes the idea that humans should not base their lives around tales but instead take the context and turn it into their own interpretations." I'm not totally sure what you mean here. Partly, I think you mean "disbelief", but what do you mean by "take the context and turn it into their own interpretations"? I think you're on to something here, but it would help to clarify.
Most importantly, the previous example is representative of something you (and other students) are doing throughout this response. This sentence feels out of voice from the rest of your response, as if you're trying to inflate the language and vocabulary to sound more . . . academic? intelligent? I don't think you have to do this, and it often ends up sounding vague. Even in the quote above that I liked, you're doing this a little bit. Try to explain some of these difficult concepts in your own voice in the simplest way you know how. There's nothing wrong with simplicity.
Good work=8
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