Analysis of some Stories in “The Best of Lady Churchill Rosebud’s Wristlet”
- What familiar restaurant forms the basis for the setting of this story? What details make this clear to you?
Egghead’s restaurant forms the basis for the setting of this story. This is so because the restaurant bears the décor of the Wizard of Oz which features prominently in the story ‘Heartland” by Karen Joy Fowler.
- What popular film is referenced by the final images of the story? How do these allusions function to establish the story as something other than realism?
The popular film referenced Wizard of Oz. The allusions in the Wizard of Oz are not based on real events and so are the events explained in the story by Fowler.
- How do you characterize the male customer with whom Willina becomes infatuated? Exactly who or what is he?
The character with whom Willina becomes infatuated is a charming man who kind-hearted man who seemingly means well but is in actual sense a wizard out to enslave Willina.
- What elements of this story, if any, establish it as slipstream?
The events that make this story a slipstream are the mention of ghostly figures, fantasy figures such as the Wizard of Oz. The fact that a film (mainstream literary fiction) “Wizard of Oz” has been created out of a character mentioned in the short story affirms the story as slipstream.
"Music Lessons" [2004] by Douglas Lain page [218-245]
- What is the function of the Q & A sections of this story? Are the questioner and answerer the same is each of these sections?
The function of questions and answers in this story seek to respond to the questions that the wife has in regard to bees, about Jesus being a zombie among many others. The questioner and the answerer are different in this story.
- On pages 225-26, the musician protagonist explains "phase shifting" in his musical compositions. Does phase shifting in electronic music compositions somehow also explain the narrative structure of this story? Is the narrative form of the story what makes it an example of slipstream?
The phase shifting in electronic music compositions helps explain the narrative structure in the story. This is because the composer explains his odd life through music phase shifting. The narrative form of the short story is not what makes this story a slipstream but rather the strange events in the story.
- Musical compositions are often structured by musical themes or motifs--recurring sound images. What motifs appear in this story? How many recurring images can you list?
There are diatonic and chromatic motifs in this story. The images that recur in the story are rhythmic units: quaver-semiquaver-semiquaver-quaver.
The protagonist is a music composer, John with an odd daily life and strange influences. He has been responding to queries from his wife about Jesus being a zombie, strange fixation with bees, encounter with a man in a gorilla suit among other influences.
"Light and the Sufferer" by Jonathan Lethem, initially published in the March/April 1995 issue of Century #1 page [53-86]
- Like most of the stories in our two anthologies, Lethem's alludes to a number of other popular texts or popular culture situations. How many can you identify as at work in this story?
The popular texts quoted in the story are Motherless Brooklyn (1999) and Fortress of Solitude (2003) in a fictionalized auto-biography. The story borrows the aspect of being a slipstream because it is ambiguous. It is also comparable to Chiang’s God where the sufferers are inexplicable. Borrowed from the story about Fortress of Solitude, this particular story is weakened by fantastical elements.
- Although there are aliens in "Light and the Sufferer," I doubt that most readers would call this a pure SF story. How does the presence of aliens impact the story's conflict and our response to the story? Do you see any similarities between these aliens and the angels in Ted Chiang's "Hell is the Absence of God"?
The introduction of aliens in the story aims to bring about eeriness and strange perceptions of the happenings in the story. The aliens conflict the story of two brothers and weakens it through introduction of fantastical elements. There are some similarities between this story and the angels and aliens in Ted Chiang’s “hell is the Absence of God”. The sufferers in Lethem’s story are treated like crack or guns and they are inexplicable. There is a difference in that in Chiang’s story inexplicability was the whole point while in case of the two brothers it was just a distraction.
- How would you characterize the aliens called sufferers?
The aliens called sufferers are treated as strangely and alienated by those with whom they interact. The aliens are treated as illegal products such as crack or guns.
- What social or cultural issues does Lethem investigate? Is he engaging in some kind of cultural critique? If so, what is his point?
Lethem presents social or cultural evils especially drugs. The brothers were dealing in drugs and it is this activity that Lethem investigates and condemns as a social evil. The culture of the people is eroded and young people are involving themselves in drug use of which they should not.
"Bay" [2003] by David Erik Nelson. Page [133-145]
- Nelson sets his story in a bar where the protagonist/narrator is relaxing with a drink. This typically non-threatening environment is, of course, not the usual setting for a ghost story. What does Nelson do to transform this into an eerie, disturbing setting and to create a sense of estrangement?
Nelson creates this story into an eerie one by making the man on the receiving end of the ghost encounter a widower. Nelson also states that the widower’s daughter, Janey is dead. The young man telling Dan (the widower) about a gory tale is a stranger and possibly a friend of Janey. There is also a haunted dog in the story. This helps to create a disturbing setting and create a sense of estrangement.
- What assumptions does Dan, the narrator, make about the stranger who has begun to tell him the haunted dog story?
Dan, the narrator makes the assumption that stranger is a friend of Janey her deceased daughter.
The stranger telling the story about the Haunted dog is assumed to be a friend of Janey. The haunted dog represents the widower and the tribulations that he is going through in his life. He is a widower and is alone in the world after the death of his daughter, Janey.
"The Specialist's Hat," initially published in the November 1998 issue of Horizon Online. Page [39-52]
- This story's setting, unlike that of "Bay," is typical of ghost or horror stories, to some extent setting it apart from Nelson's story. Despite this distinct difference, can you identify any similarities between the two stories in their addresses to narration and characterization?
In both “Bay” and “The Specialist’s hat” the main characters are widowers. There are strangers in both cases who reveal some things to the main characters that are unknown to them. In the story, “Bay” a stranger talks to Dan, the widower while in “The Specialist’s Hat”, a babysitter reveals to the twins about their house and the ghosts that haunt their house.
In narration, the stories revolve around unexplainable ghost stories that haunt characters. In Nelson’s story, there is a haunted dog while in “the Specialist’s hat” there is a haunted house.
- What traditional elements of a gothic horror story can you identify in this tale?
In this story there is the mention of a ghost which is quite synonymous with gothic horror stories. There is also the mention of a key being hidden in a chimney. Traditional gothic horror stories tell tales of things being hidden in some dark alley or place and the mention of chimneys is quite common. There is also the mention of the twin girls and the babysitter vanishing through the chimney. These events entailing ghostly figures are typical of gothic horror stories.
- Who or what is the woman in the woods that the twins' father meets?
The woman mentioned the twins’ father meets in the woods is a ghost figure of their mother.
She is nice and friendly to the twins, Claire and Samantha. She tells them about their haunted house, about how she managed to escape from the specialist who got her father. She also helps the twins escape from the specialist by ascending up a chimney.
- Finally, is this simply a gothic horror story, or do some attributes make it slipstream fiction?
This story is not simply a gothic horror story and it has some aspects that make it a slipstream fiction. The mention of the twins and the babysitter escaping through a chimney is strange and ambiguous and readers are left unsure of what happened to them when they escaped. The mention of people escaping through a chimney like smoke makes the story a slipstream fiction.
Works Cited
Link, Kelly, and Gavin J. Grant. The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet. New York: Del Rey/Ballantine Books, 2007. Print.
