Lily, her stories.

Abstract

I consider myself a child of the nineteenth century, from which came the books of my childhood. As an adult, my reading preferences have advanced in time only fifty years. This anchors my aesthetics in the Realism of the first half of the twentieth century with occasional forays into Naturalism and Surrealism. I prefer a gritty reality, from Dickens to my beloved Dreiser, that, when combined with a preconceived authorial stance or purpose, delivers an unmistakable message so skillfully woven into the piece as to be inseparable from it: a seamless art. Three short stories that do this well come immediately to mind: "Free Joe and the Rest of the World" by Joel Chandler Harris "Without Benefit of Clergy" by Rudyard Kipling "Winter Dreams" by F. Scott Fitzgerald In addition, the three short novels that follow bind message and plot seamlessly: Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathaniel West The Assignment by Friedrich Durrenmatt In my fiction, I try to manipulate plot and character to fulfill my purpose. My province is the home, the microcosm of American society, where my stories of violence and initiation follow the tradition of the Bildungsroman. My style is conversational. I utilize the popular culture of the thirties and forties for motif, varying tone with narrator. Although most of my characters are flexible, optimistic, determined females, my work is not feminist so much as it is feminine. In the three Lily stories that make-up my thesis, I write of abuse and death experienced by a child, Lily, whose survival requires a creative courage that corrupts as well as saves her. I chose a child to express my viewpoint, for through a primal, reactionary, and unsophisticated figure, I can show the damage that we do to each other far exceeds that of Hardy's random, unkind happenstance. Lily responds in knee-jerk fashion to her life and accepts the opinions of important adults regarding who she is and why things are the way they are. In her progression through life (my thesis represents three developed stories out of twelve) she will construct her own reality and will find it, upon maturity, out of synchronization with the world in which she lives. Lily's interpretation of the truth in my third story represents the beginning of this process. In addition to the authors I have already mentioned. the short stories of W. Somerset Maugham. Flannery O'Connor. John Cheever. and Alice Munro satisfy my dark vision and move me. I expect fiction to move me. to pick me up here and deposit me there. mentally shaken. emotionally renewed. Of contemporary writers like Coover and Barthelme. I find little in their spare prose that intrigues. too much of their content that obfuscates. and not enough in their closure that satisfies. However. I have learned from these writers and my classes that my work lacks modernity and the pared-down purity that serves art today. I have begun to question the wellspring of my creativity does it lie in a creative impulse that flows from inspiration and artistic inclination? Or does it lie in a crusty imperative that rises from a desire to influence behavior using a creative means of expression? To create art. I have concluded that I must look beyond my preconceived prejudices and purposes. harness subjectivity. and write lean. objective prose. Even more difficult. I must welcome these changes in my work if I am to grow as a fiction writer. Damned demanding. this business.