Varieties of the Fantastic in Fiction

Early on in “The room in the attic” Millhauser gives us the parameters by which to measure David Dave’s slow descent into madness. Before he meets Isabelle, Wolf tells him about his view on life. Wolf tells us that what separates humans and animals is that animals only dream when they’re sleeping. I think this was purposely added so we understand Wolf completely, he is different than other people, he is a part of the sleeping group that never stopped learning how to dream. Wolf has his head stuck in books and is unable to function in normal society. When we first meet Dave he is definitely apart of the awake group; just going through the motions of life without a real appreciation for anything. Isabelle’s room is a dream state, it’s completely dark like the night and feels like a hallucination. This helps us see Dave’s transformation to a dreamer. Throughout the story he becomes more comfortable in the dark and even finds himself disliking the light and mornings because it makes him feel distant from Isabelle.

At the beginning Wolf also talks about how artists are just people who are still mad. The comment doesn’t make a lot of sense at the time and is basically ignored by Dave, but it becomes relevant as Dave starts to consider himself an artist. He takes inventory of the world around him and is now acutely aware of the beauty of his surroundings. He notices everything so that it can be later reported to Isabelle, and calls himself an artist.  At this moment it became clear to me that Dave was losing it. He slowly shifts from sane to artist; awake to dreaming.

In the end he chooses to stay in the dark; to remain a dreamer. He chooses the unknown and his imaginative girl over the one in real life. I also draw the parallel between Dave and the Man in the elevator. Dave chooses to remain in the dark like the man chose to live in the elevator. Both are inexplicably drawn back again and again.