JGB's FALL 2017 CRWR 383
Posted in Steven Millhauser on Nov 28th, 2017
“Women, who had gradually been disappearing into the hidden spaces of the new style, had at last become invisible” In Millhauser’s “A Change in Fashion”, the popular fashion for women shifts away from the current style of fashion where skin and body shape were displayed to a fashion where the entire body, even the face, is hidden […]
Posted in Steven Millhauser on Nov 28th, 2017
Another dress, designed for the wife of a software CEO, rose three stories high and was attached to the back of the house by a covered walkway. “A Change in Fashion,” in true Millhauser style, is written as an historical account of a future time, which, we find out at the end of the story, has […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Nov 28th, 2017
“Fashion is an expression of boredom, of restlessness. The successful designer understands the ferocity of that boredom and provides it with new places in which to calmits rage for a while.” In “A Change in Fashion,” vanishing, exaggeration, and boredom is a continuous theme that brings out the human experience of infatuation with what […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Nov 28th, 2017
Posted in Steven Millhauser on Nov 14th, 2017
Was it possible that the great Tower didn’t actually exist? After all, no one had ever seen the entire structure, which kept vanishing from sight no matter where you stood. Except for a handful of visible bricks, the whole thing was little more than a collection of rumors, longings, dreams, and travelers’ tales. It […]
Posted in Steven Millhauser on Nov 14th, 2017
“People began to turn elsewhere for the pleasures of the unknown and the unseen.” (157) Millhauser’s story “The Tower” while using the fantastic element of exaggeration with the size of the tower, also makes use of the idea of duality in a never ending ‘grass is always greener on the other side’ metaphor.Multiple instances of this […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Nov 9th, 2017
Every day here is like deer season. We are allowed to flourish in this space free of men our age, only seeing them when we choose, allowed to be more genuine relaxed versions of ourselves. Do we appreciate it enough? For us, it’s more than just one day a year, so the novelty wears off. […]
Posted in Steven Millhauser on Nov 7th, 2017
“It was said that no matter how close you examine one of the Master’s little pieces, you always discovered some further wonder.” (123) In Millhauser’s short story “In the Reign of Harad IV” the point of view shifts from third person objective to third person limited omniscient seemingly for a main purpose of exposition and […]
Posted in Steven Millhauser on Nov 7th, 2017
…he understood that he had traveled a long way from the early days, that he still had far to go, and that, from now on, his life would be difficult and without forgiveness. “In the Reign of Harad IV” has an excellent example of an unreliable narrator. The protagonist, a master miniaturist in the service of […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Nov 7th, 2017
The other town, when we enter, suddenly casts over our town a therness, an otherness, which we find pleasing, if a little confusing. It’s almost as if we can’t feel our town, cannot know about it, until we’re there, in the other town, imagining our town on the other side of the woods. So perhaps […]
Posted in Steven Millhauser on Nov 7th, 2017
The maker of miniatures, knowing that they would never visi him again, returned with some impatience to his work; and as he sank below the crust of the visible world, into his dazzling kingdom, he understood that he had traveled a long way from the early days, that he still had far to go, and […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Nov 2nd, 2017
“I felt like a damn fool whenever I actually said anything about this kind of feeling and she looked at me like she could start hating me real easy and so I was working on saying nothing, even if it meant locking myself up.” Butler chooses to have us read this story from first person point […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Nov 2nd, 2017
“But now she appears from the hallway and I look at her and she is still slim and she is beautiful, I think—at least I clearly remember that as her husband I found her beautiful in this state. Now, though, she seems too naked. Plucked. I find that a sad thing. I am sorry for […]
Posted in Steven Millhauser on Nov 2nd, 2017
Eisenheim deliberately crossed boundaries and therefore disturbed the essence of things.” p. 235 Millhauser’s “Eisenheim The Illusionist” is a fantastic story of an illusionist who crosses boundaries between reality and magic. Further into the short story, we discover how some of his tricks seem to have a fantastic presence instead of being mere tricks that have […]