Varieties of the Fantastic in Fiction

Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, there are many different aspects of religion and cultures being introduced throughout the story.  It is starting with the older generation, in which they hope that the younger generations will continue the religion and culture in their own lives.  The religion and culture was seen in all […]

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“Salt Slow” is a heart wrenching account from the woman narrator who recounts the love she has for her partner, which she depicts as an intense love that fades between them as time goes on. Fall in love with someone who makes you ache, her mother had always told her. Which as the reader can […]

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In contrast with most stories that have been read within the context of the class, the outstanding fantastic element is not only explicit in the first paragraph but within the title “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The troublesome thing about this story is the emotions, resonance, and empathy towards […]

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While reading “Salt Slow,” I instantly noticed many similarities between the story and Julia Armfield’s other work, “Smack.” It seems as though this collection of her stories have a recurring theme of ocean life or the ocean in general; however, there were more noticeable similarities between “Salt Slow” and “Smack.” At the start of the […]

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In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” he is writing it in a very similar style as Franz Kafka’s  “The Metamorphosis.” As they both have normal people turning into something different and it becomes a struggle for them to get up and do what they usually do in their everyday life.   […]

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In “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” Gabriel Garcia Marquez shows how humans are always looking for the next interesting thing. When the old man is found, many automatically assume he is an angel. Some people turn to him for miracles, hoping he will heal them, but more interestingly, many people do not seem […]

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“The Resident” is a short story with many twists and turns. The main character is struggling with multiple difficulties during her time at the residency: sickness, temptation, loneliness, social conflict, and flashbacks from the troubles she faced in her youth. Throughout her time at the residency, the main character began to create a sharp eye […]

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Carmen Maria Machado’s  Difficult at Parties is making the reading constantly having questions about what is going to happen.  Machado is doing this on purpose, as she is enticing you to continue reading to see if the questions you are forming are answered later in her writing.  She is wanting you to question what is […]

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Carmen Maria Machado’s “The Resident” exists in the realm of psychological horror. In an interview with The Atlantic, Machado states, “In my work, I think non-realism can be a way to insist on something different. It’s a way to tap into aspects of being a woman that can be surreal or somehow liminal — certain […]

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In Steven Millhauser’s “The Tower,” the audience is introduced to a tower that represents that of the Biblical tower of Babel. While we are all aware that the people of Babylon failed to build a tower reaching up to heaven, Millhauser uses the horizontal and vertical world as a tool to present different problems that […]

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While reading “The Tower” my brain latched onto several possible metaphors or possible themes. The first thing I thought it could be trying to instill is “the grass is always greener.” The people inside the tower either want to get higher or return to the ground or even further, tunnel into the ground. No one […]

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Upon first glance in “The Other Town,” the narrator seems to be describing the daily life of a town that has an exact replica. However, the story shifts from describing the “other town,” comparing it to the town where everyone resides, to the political conflicts that arise from having the unused, additional town. The two […]

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  The characters in The Other Town were struck with a tendency to pry into other people’s business. I was interested in this because the similarity of the towns became a point at which the people were able to see into the lives of others. Scandals, personal matters, and other parts of everyday life were […]

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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 […]

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In “The Dome,” narrated in the first person, Steven Millhauser uses satire to tell a man versus nature story in which domes are being placed over estates to produce perfect conditions. The weather is controlled, at least in the summer, for they have not yet discovered how to heat a dome effectively. In the beginning, […]

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The most horrific part of The Memory Police isn’t the vague totalitarian regime, or objects being disappeared: It’s living with the fact that there are gaps in your knowledge you’ll never be able to fill again. I stood at the window, where I once stood with my father looking out through binoculars, and even now the […]

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In The Memory Police, things began to disappear from the unnamed island, along with the communities’ memories associated with the item. However, they do not seem to miss the items, let alone dwell upon their loss. In the beginning, the narrator describes a scene of her and her mother, when she was alive. Her mother […]

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After reading The Memory Police, I have no doubt that this is one of the most interesting novels I have read. However, there was something that confused me at first. The author chose to include pieces of the main character’s stories that she writes. For a while, I didn’t understand why the author would choose […]

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The Memory Police is a fine example of the difference between American and foreign writing. Yoko Ogawa does several things that starkly contrast with the intentions of American writing. Firstly, there is no character development in the protagonist. The narrator does not undergo any emotional or mental change throughout the story. She maintains her persona […]

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There is something of a terrible twist to reality in Ogawa’s The Memory Police. It isn’t just that things disappear, but that almost every person disappears entirely. And in a way, that is true to life. Although, disappearance in real life is typically not so sudden. But it made me think of the movie Amadeus and the character […]

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In Julia Armfield’s “Stop Your Women’s Ears With Wax” challenges the fantastic genre with elements of obsession and horror. In this piece, we follow the character, Mona as she works on the crew of a popular girl band. Throughout the story, she recognizes a pattern of destructiveness, towards men specifically, in their fan base. A […]

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Something I noticed after I read “Stop Your Women’s Ears With Wax” was the intense factor of leaving a lot of information to the reader’s imagination. The story follows a band’s video producer, Mona, who works to capture videos for the band, but witnesses the extreme fan-girls that frequently affront the band during their tour. […]

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The conflicted feelings of love is an emotion I believe most experience, as written about it in “Granite.” Maggie, who is the main character, is described as being particular about men, and so it is revealed that she is alone for a long time until she finds “the one.” Except, instead of being head over […]

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In “Granite” the very obvious fantastic element is the slow transformation of the main character’s boyfriend into stone. However I think the grander fantastic element is the fact that  loving a man can physically harm him. Maggie talks about her friends not really having any feelings for the men they are with and everyone advising […]

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While reading ”Stop Your Women’s Ears with Wax,” I got a specific song stuck in my head but couldn’t quite make it out. It turned out to be “Maps” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The title is an allusion to The Odyssey, in which Odysseus plugs his ears with beeswax to listen to the sirens’ songs. In […]

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