Tuesday, September 29, 2009

"Water Liars" by Barry Hannah

Enjoy this tricky story. Nice Christian imagery for you to digest, since you were interested in the devil with Oates's story. Some other stuff, too. Remember with this entry to consider about the Burroway lessons on "fictional place."

11 comments:

  1. Ew, I hate having to be the first person to post, I am not particularly insightful on these things. Alas, I have things to do later so it must be done. This story was incredibly short. I mean, when I read it I was stunned by how much feeling and information was capable of being packed into such a tiny space. Now parts of this story were designed to make one a tad uncomfortable, he likes to say things that are a little more brazen then most writers would be comfortable revealing. Most stories manage to fit in maybe one or two in-story-stories but this story is almost composed of them, the whole story is just a collection of stories that are all covering the theme of the first little story from the 5-8th paragraphs. The main character (who never reveals his name) is really uncomfortable with the concept of his wife being with other men before him. It felt to me like he felt that her romps were a form of cheating on him, as if it were a personal slight to him that she dared have a life before him.

    The Farte Cove was also very important because that where most of the story actually took place. The point of the place the main character goes to is to tell stories that are lies, things that will entertain and distract the people standing there (mostly old men) from the fact that they are old and miserable. Then this younger man told this story that was true, this story that scarred him for life. Over this happening, the main character and him become friends, due to them “being crucified by the truth” and that the man’s story reminded the main character of something that may have happened to his wife when she was younger. It’s interesting that even though this story was so short I feel like I could fill up a few pages talking about it, but I won't, I’ll just give the rest of my thoughts in class.

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  2. Being a short composition, this story was really just a bunch of small stoires being told throughout. It kind of reminded me of a camp fire story telling session in which you find out things that you wouldnt have found out in any other setting. This brings me to setting* Farte Cove was an interesting place. It was depicted as a bit mysterous as with the references to the ghost like activity by the elder "goup members" and it also was a place of discovery and truth telling or facing our inner truths.

    The overarcing theme of this sotory is realyly simply summed up in the last line. Which reads, "We were both crucified by the truth." This is an interesting line because there are numerous references to religion and Jesus specifically. Turning 33 was a big deal to the main character and upon finding out about his wife's past and also through the story the man tells about his daughter, he come to mannage the truth that he had learned and find comfort in nature fishing with a man who had done something similar.

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  3. This was a very interesting story that packed a lot of meaning into a small amount of space. The story did a good job of weaving the whole Christian imagery throughout the text, beginning with the reference to the narrator being the same age as Christ when he was crucified and ending with his own crucifixion “by the truth.” I also thought it fit with the motif that the characters are fishing. Only the minister, the narrator, and the truth-teller are described as actually doing any fishing, a popular occupation among Christ’s apostles.

    The nature of the vacation struck me as important as well. While the crowd reacted negatively to the lewd story the truth-teller told about his daughter, it couldn’t have been the content of the story that disturbed them, as there was only a minor objection to the story about the high-schoolers and its bawdy content. The objection, then, was towards the visceral “reality” of the story and how much it had affected the teller. This is a vacation from life in more ways than one for those who gather on the pier.

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  4. I was really surprised how short this story was, especially in comparison to Hannah's other stories in this collection. That being said, I would like to reiterate just how much he packs in such a small space. I don't really understand all the Christian references (being that I'm a Pagan)...but I feel like there is still a lot of meaning woven through this piece. For example, I love the response to the truth-teller's story. "This isn't the place! Go tell your kind of story somewhere else." This comes from Sydney Farte, the King of Lies. He is so hell-bent on telling lies that he can't handle hearing the truth. It's really interesting that the narrator goes to Farte Cove to avoid the truth, and yet it is where he finds comfort in that same truth.

    I also find that a lot of speculation can come from all the ghost references. Ghosts are a very contriversal thing, and here they are not only taken as a "truth," but an embodiment of the very things these men are trying to escape. Sydney tells a story of a man having sex with one of the ghosts, and one of the old men sounds thoroughly disgusted; but this is more at the idea of sex than the idea of sex with a ghost. The truth-teller tells a story of confusing his daughter's sex noises with the ghosts. The main character is upset and running because of his wife's sexual exploits before they met. It is almost amusing that it is not the past that these men fear, but intimacy, passion, and ironically, secrets.

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  5. my full comment will follow, but the actual title of this story is 'Water Liars'

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  6. First off-- I did indeed pronounce it 'fart' and then giggled to myself for a full minute. Then I realized I had been hoodwinked by that bastard Hanna. Back to the story-- I thought it was interesting how the ghosts that the old liars refer to are actually just memories that involve sexual exploits (more or less). The way I see it, the ghosts represent youth to the old men, and there is nothing more characteristically youthful than the passion of two young lovers. I thought it was an interesting representation.

    This reminded me of Faulkner, too. Faulkner was known as perhaps the most important Southern author, due to his intuitive representation of the people and politics of the South in the first half of this century. Hanna's representation is kind of taking off of Faulkner's, but in the more modern 1970's. I liked that he made the old liars an update of Faulkner without actually showing that they were more sophisticated (we only learn the date of the story by way of an indirect statement, where he mentions his wife being in high school in 1960, and that was 12 or 13 years ago).

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  7. Never really understood how a writer could just stop after only a few pages. Maybe it's just me speaking as a student dealing on a daily basis with word counts and page limits, but I always felt that more equaled more when it came to writing fiction. It all comes down to personal preference, I guess. I like the character interaction in this story, what with the old man telling a truthful story and being ostracized for it, while the main character compares himself with him at the end. It made the story lucid and memorable.

    As for the atmosphere, it's a mixture of Christian imagery and small town flavor. The dialogue and description of Farte Cove contrasts heavily with the sections from the main character's point of view, which works well within the confines of the story.

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  8. Ah man, I love the last line. It brings the Christ metaphor full circle. He mentions his age being 33 (same age Christ went on the cross), and then how the morning after his birthday he and his wife exchange revealing stories of their past sexual exploits. Unfortunately, he can't handle it and must leave to Farte Cove, where a man can return to his peace of mind, if only for a little. In his emotional escape, the narrator hears a story from another old man, one who had witnessed his daughter having sex with some older man with a mustache. The image continues to haunt him, and with this thought, we realize how the truth of the narrator's wife's past now haunts him. The two of them fish together the following day, and the narrator realizes that they were both 'crucified by the truth'.

    That being said, I just wanted to reiterate what Jess said, because I too was surprised when Sidney Farte couldn't handle the truth...considering he is known as the King of Liars around the cove.

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  9. I pretty much agree with what everyone has said so far. It is laden with Christian imagery, the big one being that he was 33 like when Jesus was crucified and he felt "crucified by the truth." Also, like Fio said how fishing is something that most of the apostles did, and I believe that He met several of them in a story where He told them to send their nets on the otherside of the boat and they caught all these fish. In this, Farte says a preacher caught a ton of fish without the use of any bait. Perhaps, Hannah is saying that Bible stories are like ghost stories.

    I thought the narrator's line of thinking fell in with most modern men, where it is okay for a guy to have sex with many different women [and often encouraged], but if a woman does such things she is scorned.

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  10. I think most things about this story have already been said, but I did want to bring up that it seems to me that the main character is more hurt by the fact that his wife lied for 10 years about being a virgin when they met than the fact that she was not one. Of course, the irony in this is that in order to escape her lies, he ends up at Farte Cove escaping in the lies of others.

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  11. Either there I completely missed it, which is very possible given the amount of sleep I’ve had lately, or there wasn’t a lot of Christian imagery in the story, or at least as much as I was expecting given how much everybody has been going on and on about it. Also, given the fact that I am the eleventh person to post, there is going to be nothing original left to be said and instead of just repeating what the others said, I’m not going.

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