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 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 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 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 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 […]
Posted in Steven Millhauser on Oct 31st, 2017
“Eisenheim the Illusionist” by Steven Millhauser is told in the form of a biography. While fictional biographies have a first person point of view as a general rule, this short story’s narrator attempts, to the best of their ability, to tell this from a third person dramatic point of view, employing first person terms such as […]
Posted in Steven Millhauser on Oct 24th, 2017
“No doubt we shall never rest content until the great All is enclosed in a globe of transparent Astrilume.” (120) “The Dome,” like many of Millhauser’s works, uses exaggeration as an element of the fantastic. The domes share characteristics with a greenhouse or a snow globe, creating an artificial environment that’s better for whatever is […]
Posted in Steven Millhauser on Oct 17th, 2017
Was that the beginning? Was it the first sign of a disturbance that had been growing secretly? The fantastic in this story is surprisingly normal. Thinking about the meaning of words makes them become distorted. They end up meaning more when you think about them because their definitions take on the word itself. The fantastic […]
Posted in Steven Millhauser on Sep 19th, 2017
Often I wondered what would have happened if I had turned to look at her, the day the curtains parted. And I saw it clearly: the sun-filled air, the dust swirling in shafts of light, the bright empty room. No, far better to have turned away, to have understood that, for me, Isabel existed only […]
Posted in Steven Millhauser on Sep 19th, 2017
Nothing was there. In the thick darkness I felt myself dissolving, turning into black mist, speaking into the farthest reaches of the room. The feeling that Isabel may not be real is an interesting choice that Millhauser makes in this story. Even by the end of the story, we can’t be quite sure that David […]
Posted in Steven Millhauser on Sep 5th, 2017
For we are no longer innocent, we who do not see and do not remember, we incurious ones, we conspirators in disappearance. I too murdered Elaine Coleman. Let this account be entered in the record. Honestly, I just love this as an ending sentence. Throughout the whole story we see the narrator struggling to remember […]
Posted in Steven Millhauser on Aug 29th, 2017
The death of the mouse is desirable in every way, but will life without him really be pleasurable? Will the mouse’s absence satisfy him entirely? Is it conceivable that he may miss the mouse, from time to time? Is it possible that he needs the mouse, is some disturbing way? (18) The cat’s reluctance to […]
Posted in Steven Millhauser on Aug 29th, 2017
Within the story of “Cat ‘N’ Mouse” by Steven Millhauser, the cat tirelessly spends all of his time attempting to capture and kill the mouse, while on the other hand, the mouse tries to relax in his little home along with outsmarting the cat on his cheese outings. The author is detailed in the schemes […]
Posted in Steven Millhauser on Aug 29th, 2017
“Haven’t they much in common, after all? Both are bachelors, indoor sorts, who enjoy the comforts of a cozy domesticity; both are secretive; both take pleasure in plots and schemes.” This quote stuck out to me because it took the magic of the cartoon and brought it into a human plane. These characters are […]
Posted in Steven Millhauser on Jul 2nd, 2017
Steven Millhauser “…Art is connected in my mind—in my body—with a sense of enhancement, of radical pleasure, of affirmation, of revelry. Darkness is the element against which this deeper force asserts itself. It may even be that this force deliberately seeks out darkness, in order to assert itself more radically.” In Transatlantica (2003). “I’m fanatically reluctant to […]