ENCW 202 Spring 2020
Posted in Animals, Desire, Transformations on Apr 12th, 2020
It seems important to understand whether or not it is worth it to sacrifice yourself for someone else. Samantha Hunt’s “Beast” follows the fantasies and guilt the narrator experiences as a result of partaking in an animalistic, one-night affair with a man she met at a bar. It is after this affair happened that the […]
Posted in Animals, One Hundred Years of Solitude on Mar 26th, 2020
With this novel dealing with multiple elements relating to the fantastic, one component that stood out to me was death, or the use of “death” and the ritual surrounding it. Melquíades’ death, as it was described, was anticipated, but “ the process of aging had taken place in him that was so rapid and critical.” […]
Posted in Animals, Desire, Desperation, Transformations on Mar 5th, 2020
The fantastic in “Salt Slow” is not the many sea creatures that appear dead on the surface of the water; it is the size of the sea creatures. There is not one specific element of the fantastic in this story; a few others are the “baby” born, the webbed fingers that grow as the creatures […]
Posted in Animals, Desire, Mystery, Obsession on Feb 6th, 2020
To have a fan base is fun in all; we can recall the time we went to our favorite concert and screamed “I LOVE YOU!” into a sea of people in hope that the band would hear you. While reading Julia Armfield’s “Plug Your Women’s Ears with Wax” in Salt Slow, I got the sense of the Fantastic […]
Posted in Animals on Jan 21st, 2020
“Cat ‘N’ Mouse” is a fun story that portrays the intense relationship between a cat and a mouse. This story reminds me of Tom and Jerry, a popular cartoon usually played early mornings when I was a child. The scenes in this story are clearly unrealistic. “The mouse, dressed in a bathrobe and slippers, is sitting […]
Posted in Animals on Jan 21st, 2020
By: Olympia LeHota In this playful reading, the reader finds herself alone in a room, looking into a reality where a cat and mouse have it out for each other. You fell that the reading has become repetitive and someone the story changes every new paragraph. It took a while but the pattern revealed itself […]
Posted in Animals on Jan 21st, 2020
In “Cat ‘N’ Mouse,” the reader witnesses the true side of hunt and prey. The hunter, the cat, and the prey, the mouse, are constantly going after one another. It is obvious that they are running in the house as wild animals would in their natural habitat. Millhauser writes: The cat is chasing the mouse through […]
Posted in Animals on Jan 20th, 2020
In “Cat’N’Mouse” by Steven Millhauser, there lies a certain familiar feel to the work. The work follows the antagonist, the cat, trying to capture (or, rather kill) the mouse that lives in the same vicinity as him. However, the mouse outsmarts the cat’s attempts to kill him. The cat and mouse duo can be seen […]
Posted in Animals, Disappearance on Jan 20th, 2020
Though one short story deals more directly with disappearance, both stories involve the idea. “The Disappearance of Elaine Coleman” deals with disappearance throughout the entire story, while “Cat ‘N’ Mouse” only brings it up at the end. In “Cat ‘N’ Mouse,” we get to see both the cat and the mouse vanish from not wanting […]
Posted in Animals on Jan 17th, 2020
Steven Millhauser’s “Cat ‘N’ Mouse” is not a work of the fantastic so much for the unbelievable behavior of the animals but rather for the sense of uncanniness throughout the story. The term “uncanny” often refers to something that is strangely familiar or both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. This can most definitely […]
Posted in Animals, Transformations on Jan 16th, 2020
The surprise in the stories “Fatso,” “Beast,” and “Mantis” is that no one notices or appears to be shocked in the stories about the changes that take place. In “Mantis,” it appears that the girl is going through puberty along with her other classmates. They compare their ugliness and flaws with each other. When faced with […]
Posted in Animals, Transformations on Jan 16th, 2020
The stories “The Metamorphosis,” “Fatso,” “Beast,” and “Mantis” all have the shared element of transformation. In each story the main character experiences or witnesses a drastic physical change. Now, of course, this isn’t possible in real life, which makes it incredibly easy to brush off a story as something that doesn’t feel real or carry […]
Posted in Animals, Transformations on Jan 16th, 2020
Samantha Hunt’s piece “Beast” is written on the ‘fantastic’ of a transformation of the physical metamorphosis from human to animal during the night. The result of the emotional and mental conflict that the character deals with after cheating on her partner. Hunt’s work showcases the parallelism of leading a double life, from the sexual cravings […]
Posted in Animals, Transformations on Jan 15th, 2020
While the horror aspect of the short stories “Mantis,” “Beast,” and “The Metamorphosis” entice the audience to continue reading, it is merely a distraction from the human experience and reactions of the characters. In Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis,” Gregor is transformed into a giant beetle, a monster in the eyes of his family. But it is […]
Posted in Animals, Transformations on Jan 15th, 2020
“Mantis,” a short story in Julia Armfield’s collection Salt Slow, was definitely a suspenseful read. The entire time you’re curious as to what the fate of our narrator will be. You’re aren’t expecting her to actually transform, which is one of the elements of the fantastic in fiction, and certainly not into a mantis. It never flat […]
Posted in Animals, Transformations on Jan 14th, 2020
While a woman may turn into a deer in Samantha Hunt’s short story “Beast,” that is not what the story is about. Rather, it is about a woman and her internal struggles with her domestic life. In the early pages of the story, we learn that the narrator and her husband were high school sweethearts. […]