Varieties of the Fantastic in Fiction

Steven Millhauser’s “The Other Town” has created a town that is like a museum to the neighboring town.   He even has the guards like a museum would have. This is the first sign of it being a museum like, as in a real town, they wouldn’t be referred to as “town guards” they would be referred to as police. Another clue is that the “town guards” are handing out flashlights to look at the houses, which wouldn’t happen in a real town.    

If we’re in the mood, we can stop wherever we like, walk up to any house, open the front door. We can step inside and explore every room. (133)

Then there are the town guards, in their dark green shirts with yellow armbands, who are visible everywhere- in every house, and store, in the two parks, in the high school, in the picnic grounds by the stream before the woods.(134)

By making the houses exactly resemble the houses to the neighboring town, it is like he wants to show visitors how the people live in that town.  With also having the inside of the houses look exactly the same, Millhauser is also using this as a tool to show what these residents do inside their homes and how they live.   

      Although we’re drawn to the other town because of its startling resemblance to ours-the morning papers lying at the same angles on the same porches, the doors and drawers opened to the identical distances, the same dishes in the dish racks, and the same clothes in the laundry baskets–it’s also true that we’re stuck by certain differences. (134) 

Steven Millhauser also leaves the reader’s mind a little confused as you are left wondering how they were able to get the inside of the houses and the yards looking exactly like the houses they are creating in the museum town.  Also, he leaves you wondering how they were able to have found the exact same things that they had. He also makes you wonder what they changed slightly and why they changed it.