Varieties of the Fantastic in Fiction

Perhaps the raw sexuality presented in “The Husband Stitch” might to any other gender  seem as if it were an example of the fantastic in its depiction of the narrator’s lust and determination, her unfathomable desire for pleasure.

Perhaps to a man, the story might seem exaggerated, false, fiction, and though the story describes it one way, it could assume the experience for many women.

“The Husband Stitch” is also a story about how a woman uses her body in her autonomy and how man uses the female body. After a moment of pleasure for herself, the narrator then reveals a moment in which a school teacher used her for his male pleasure.

There is also the exciting element of craft at play, with the narrator directing the reader how to read the piece aloud, how to speak for different voices, the way to read and breathe in certain scenes (which then adds to the scene). There is a parallel between the narrator stating, “It is not normal that a girl teaches a boy, but I am only showing him what I want,” (p.9) and the way she teaches us how to read aloud her story.

We also find multiple anecdotes of the correlation between a wedding dress and a painful death. It is immediately after this scene on her wedding day, that we get the line “He becomes hard, and I tell him that I want him to use my body as he sees fit,” (p.11) as if the concept of their consummation was the release of autonomy over her own body. Because then we have what is almost a rape scene where her husband dominantly pushes her even after she pleads for him to stop.

Once again to that of craft, the author repeatedly adds in small sub-stories about what she mentions about weddings, motherhood, giving birth, and so forth to give the narrator more depth.

Moreover, the story is never about the ribbon and the mystery it holds about the narrator, but her relationship with her husband, and with her son, and with men in general.