In reading “A Change in Fashion” I struggled to find the fantastic thanks to Lady Gaga. Could it be that women have gotten tired of being looked at as sexual objects that are judged by their looks and body? I doubt it since some women have always had a dislike of that issue. Possibly the fact that some people felt as those a woman being hidden behind (or inside) their clothes was still erotic? No, I don’t find that fantastic Maybe it is the actual dresses that are being “built”- then again there is Lady Gaga. The extremeness- to build a dress that you can live in, have sex in- that is certainly fantastic.
I saw more humor in this story than fantastic. I loved it when “The four men rush over to the other dresses, yanking them off…but the women had disappeared. Later that day, they were discovered in the kitchen of a neighbor’s house, dressed in old bathrobes…” (pg. 177)
Honestly, I hadn’t thought of Lady Gaga and I love her! I found a lot more humor in the story than fantastic, but I loved the story’s fantastical elements. I mainly saw The Handmaid’s Tale i the description of the clothing and the way it was to not bring attention to oneself (even though the dresses were outrageous!)Have you read a handmaid’s tale? I thought the description of the clothing at the beginning fit right in with the tale.
I have the Handmaid’s Tale here to read but I have only gotten 2 chapters finished. Not much time for pleasure reading as you know. I am sure I will read it differently now than I would have before this class.
I read “The Handmaid’s Tale” two years ago for class, but never got into it. However, I found the connections to it from the beginning and I have started the series on Hulu in an attempt to get into the story. I think it would be beneficial to try and reread the story after this class to see how one can read it differently.
Wendy: Write about the craft of this story. How does Millhauser use voice and point of view to shape how we read the story? What typical elements of a story are not present? How might we compare this story to the other Millhauser stories we’ve read? What use is Millhauser making of the fantastic to pursue his thematic concerns? What are those concerns? The point of these posts is to engage analytically with the works you read — and please proofread carefully.
I also agree that this story comes across as somewhat humorous, but I wonder if, as time goes on, future readers won’t see it that way; is it possible that we may reach a point in our history where the fashion trends of this story actually become a reality, thus making the story an example of realistic fiction and not humorous fantastic fiction?
I found this story more of a reminisce than humorous. Possibly, I think, it could be a documentation or Steven Millhauser’s interpretation on women’s fashion and its ever-changing trends. I think the fantastic element of this story is the obvious, about the lengths at which the women would take to follow the trend (having a dress three stories tall?) I also thought about the other elements, the underlying message of the obsession to stay in trend. I really enjoyed this story too. Just last week, my mother and I were going through her old yearbook and the hair trends and fashion was completely different from what I am used to! It is strange to see the evolution from when my mother was in high school to when I was in high school.
I read it as a combination of the two. I saw the humor in the story and the reminiscence. In a way, a good story can do both at the same time. “After the Age of Revelation came the Age of Concealment.” this statement is stated as a fact, yet it can be read as reminiscent. I loved this story because it is doing so many things at once. It is reminiscent, humorous, serious, fantastic. There are so many things this story is doing at once and it doesn’t seem to have a “correct” way to read it.