What further to discuss? There's the radio, perhaps, and how it functions in both settings. Or the crumpled and misshapen chests of the TB patients as compared to the ending image of Jack groping Myra's chest. There's plot and structure, I don't know, I'd like to hear from you: what will you steal/borrow/learn from Richard Yates?
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
"No Pain Whatsoever" by Richard Yates
This uncomfortable story features a the third-person limited narration focused on poor Myra, occasionally using her voice. The story starts with the immediate tension of Jack's unwanted touch. We see a linear narrative that makes conventional use of scenes and summary.
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There is a lot of tension in this story between Myra's relationship with her husband, Harry, and her boy toy, Jack. When the story starts out, she doesn't want Jack to touch her...her focus is more on her husband. But yet she regards her husband as essentially being dead. While she's visiting him, they pretty much just make small talk, and then he ends up reading. Yet when she leaves, she bawls her eyes out, then gets in the car and lets Jack feel her up. This is a very confused woman indeed.
ReplyDeleteI love how Yates is able to characterize someone, even a completely unimportant character, so effectively in just a sentence. For example, the one singer "whose lips were always wet." These are such specific details, and yet it's a very simple and effective means of showing us a character. Yet, at the same time, we don't get the luxary of such a description when it comes to Myra. Instead, we get to see her more through her dialouge, and the occasional use of her voice in the narration.
I found it interesting how slowly Yates brought Harry into the story. We are aware that Myra has a husband, but we are brought around to the TB ward gradually, and it isn't until Myra's well into the hospital that we actually meet Harry. This seems to emphasize the non-entity he is in Myra's life. She's out the door of the hospital and into Jack's arms (perhaps a little uncomfortably) only moments after leaving him behind.
ReplyDeleteThe story keeps the time rather succinct, progressing from one event naturally to the next in a linear fashion, but I found it interesting to look at the scope of time the story encompasses. During Myra's reflection, we get a sense of just how long Harry's been a resident in the hospital, and I inferred that he would likely die there, suggesting that the entirety of Harry's life (as we know him) is spent wasting away in the hospital.
I agree with Jess in her post, I feel there is a lot of tension in the story between Myra, Harry and Jack. I feel the tension is more between Myra and Harry because she basically blows Harry’s wishes off and plays around with Jack. I felt that they were drifting apart and Jack is someone who Myra thinks can keep her young while Harry is in the hospital.. When Myra and Harry are around each other they don’t really talk or be around each other, he usually ends up reading or doing a crossword puzzle.
ReplyDeleteI also like how Yates can make someone so unimportant and yet make him/her feel like the most important character in the story with the description of the character. I also like how The characters are brought in slowly into the piece which could be the basis for the emptiness in Myra and Harrys relationship.
I was reminded of Jess's story when I read this one, of how her story starts in Kito's domain and from his perspective when it's really more about Kendra. No Pain Whatsoever could have been a radically different story if it had started in the hospital with Harry. Instead, we are greeted by Myra and Jack, and Myra is given depth and an inner conflict instead of just becoming a prop for Terminally Ill Harry. That moment where she's listening to Hark the Herald Angels Sing with her fist crammed in her mouth, fighting back tears, is powerful and striking, and it could have come seconds after being whisked away from the story.
ReplyDeleteIf I wanted to steal something from this story, I'd take Irene and Marty. The clueless and distracted bystanders to the story, there to provide contrast and support for the main character. All of the stories I've don't really have any flat characters; everyone has a role. Adding some witnesses, bystanders, would improve the reality of a story– the more people there to see it the better it can be accepted as truth.
Going along with Fio's point, Yates really builds tension while making the reader wait to read about Harry. The slow build of his character and his cheery demeanor despite his metaphorical death sentence really made me care about him. His physical description was also well done, and very depressing. He was a tragic character in many ways, and I couldn't help but feel bad about this character.
ReplyDeleteAdversely I didn't like Myra at all. She seemed to only visit Harry because she felt it was an obligation. I can understand her physical needs, but cheating on her slowly dying husband with Jack was pretty scummy. I do however feel that her infidelity was a prime example of a disease-like corruption outside of the TB Ward.
It seems the story deals with the double-life Myra is forced to lead, as well as the emphasis thrown onto the sad existence Harry must deal with. Myra has a side affair with a strapping guy named Jack, while she still visits her TB-inflicted husband, Harry, at the hospital each week. The only way Myra knows how to deal with the pain of her husband's loss is to pretend he is for the most part already out of her life, and when she must deal with him in the present she can put on the best face she knows.
ReplyDeleteI also found there to be several interesting images that could have been presenting a deeper meaning. The loss of ribs on Harry’s side made me almost feel like it symbolized his heart being torn out from his body, similar to how Myra had truly been torn away from him because of his illness. Harry’s thirst for the Science News seemed to be a subconscious, hopeless desire that an article rested somewhere within explaining how they had discovered a cure. And finally, of course, Jack manages to get his hands on Myra’s perfect chest, so unlike her the ravaged chest of her hospitalized husband.
It seems the story deals with the double-life Myra is forced to lead, as well as the emphasis thrown onto the sad existence Harry must deal with. Myra has a side affair with a strapping guy named Jack, while she still visits her TB-inflicted husband, Harry, at the hospital each week. The only way Myra knows how to deal with the pain of her husband's loss is to pretend he is for the most part already out of her life, and when she must deal with him in the present she can put on the best face she knows.
I also found there to be several interesting images that could have been presenting a deeper meaning. The loss of ribs on Harry’s side made me almost feel like it symbolized his heart being torn out from his body, similar to how Myra had truly been torn away from him because of his illness. Harry’s thirst for the Science News seemed to be a subconscious, hopeless desire that an article rested somewhere within explaining how they had discovered a cure. And finally, of course, Jack manages to get his hands on Myra’s perfect chest, so unlike her the ravaged chest of her hospitalized husband.
I really agree with what Andrew said in his post. The way that innocent bystanders works well is this story was subtle but really impressive. We fall right into that trap of knowing nothing and waiting to understand as the story progresses. The more of those people you have the harder the reader will fall for it. These seemingly unimportant characters build a lot of tension until we see that Myra is married to a patient with TB, but she is most definitely involved with another man.
ReplyDeleteI think I am really intrigued by the double life of Myra because it is really builds suspense for the reader. I spent some time wondering who is the other person in the cab trying to grope her when she is sitting with her husband in the hospital. I felt so bad for him because he was truly very sick and then when she leaves and nestles up against another man the shock of the reality settled in on me. That shock value of the tension building in the story is something I would like to steel or work with in my own writing.
Myra was a character that Yates intentionally built up for us to not like. It was hard to identify with such a passive character but untimately the reader ends up feeling lost and confused as Myra may have in her time of transition from husband to another man. We are shown her "double life" and know about the other man while she is in the hospital visiting her husband with TB. This is a unique and effective tactic to use when building tension in order for the reader to know more than the characters do and the ability to see both sides.
ReplyDeleteJack is the man in her life that is taking her husbads place while he is becomming increasingly ill. He is displayed as being very sexual and wanting her in more of a physical way than anything else. This story shows the need for affection, love, lust and a place to call home whether that be in the afterlife or here on earth.