Emily Carter published these stories in her first book, a collection called
Glory Goes and Gets Some. The tale of a woman who used to walk in a "borrowed dress that was as red as the stoplights" (in "East on Houston") is connected to the tale of a woman who, in her recovery from addiction, never tells her best friend, a heroin addict as well, that she is HIV-positive ("Parachute Silk"). In both stories, the narrator gives images of people wrapped in red. Red as a stoplight, red as a red parachute: "I roll them around and drape the fabric over them in labyrinthine folds until all that can be seen is a big pile of red silk, full of squealing lumps, and then I say, 'Go!'"
Through Glory, and through Glory's friend Mathew, Emily Carter explores our human tendencies toward thrill and risk. She looks into the subconscious urge for self-destruction that seems to plague even very thoughtful people, even the young, the most vulnerable, the "tiny girl of three" who is finally "out, standing upright, silent, an embarrassed smile on her face, sparkling quietly like a candied plum."
Look at the way Carter uses the dialogue between Matthew and Glory. In every exchange, you'll find the word not or don't or no or isn't or didn't. Why? What power does the negative hold in characterization, in dialogue, in real life?
Incidentally, I jumped out of an airplane once, in the height of my devil-may-care twenties. Glory asks, "What kind of a person would do that, and what do they get out of it, except a sense of relief when the thing opens correctly?" Well, I did not try heroin.
Before reading Carter, Catherine gave us a little background. We know that the stories are a part of a larger collection, and they feature a woman who is recovering from drugs, but is also burdened by AIDS. There are several tiny details that made these short stories so appealing. We get taken into an addicts world, and her world is subtly beautiful in a tragic way. What I am interested in isn’t that the story is actually this heartbreaking beautiful thing, but how Carter achieved this. What made the story work so well for me was the little snippets. The line in East on Huston, “I used to know the first four hundred pages of the Iliad by heart.” The repetitive image of the chalk eyeliner, sweaters, the phrase candied plum. The story is from the first person point of view, so the lens the reader sees other characters through is manipulated by the woman’s tone. I really liked how the children in the final scene with the silk parachute are both struggling and happy. This wraps up the woman’s characterization so cleanly. The parachute has a lot of connotations attached to it. Parachutes save people from dying when they choose to do crazy things. Like rehab in a way. This parachute was also red, a color that has many stigmas attached to it. Red is the color of sexuality, which supports the characterization of Matthew’s character. Carter did a great job of subtly capturing Matthew and the main character
ReplyDeleteIn “Parachute Silk”, Glory makes a list of things she will not do and would not do. She defines her life after addiction by negativity and it isn’t until the very end that she starts seeing things more positively. In the beginning, she can’t stop thinking about all the things she didn’t do and what she thinks she should have done. Even when she thinks about all the things she’s grateful for, Matthew mostly, it all goes back to negative, how she messed up with Matthew, what she could have done to help him, especially when she thinks about how he went back to doing heroin and presumably in Southeast Asia where he could get as much of it as he wanted. Every conversation they have is punctuated with negativity and secrets. The only real positivity at the end is how the symbols of the parachute, that thing you use to keep yourself from dying and still getting an adrenaline, and the Cambodian children, who represent the heroin that’s destroyed both Glory and Matthew’s life, is turned on its head on the children play the parachute game and find excitement in something so simple. And this all completes Glory’s character arc as she has to take drugs that don’t get her high but keep her from dying.
ReplyDeleteI think the subtlety in these stories is what makes them so beautiful. Maybe if we had seen them in the context of the larger collection they're a part of, we would have known right away that Glory was a prostitute, now addicted to drugs and dealing with being HIV positive, but we don't get that immediately from the text itself. In the first piece, "East on Houston", we get a glimpse of Glory walking down the street, but there is no real mention of prostitution or even sex. The men talking take on an ethereal quality, and the piece becomes a blur of talking and overly romantic descriptions. The way that Carter writes Glory's experiences of "walking the streets" is very appropriate for a character who now has put this in the past and attempting to live a normal live. Glory doesn't want to quite remember what she did or what it meant, but it's less painful to remember the surreal details and turn a drab, sad life into something magic and fantastical, with dragons and sunken treasures and jazz musicians.
ReplyDeleteBoth "Parachutes of Silk" and "East of Houston" touch on the same story of a young woman battling drugs, AIDs, and the discourse of prostitution. "East of Houston" was especially moving as the voice of the men on the streets and their growing misogynistic slurs escalated throughout the story. Their degrading words became the silver lining to the protagonists struggles with addiction and how no matter where she goes or walks, it always follows her like the men on the street. In "Parachutes of Silk", we find the same protagonist trying to recover and comes across a man who doesn't degrade her, Matthew. Her natural recoil from him is understandable. For so long she wasn't used to such kindness from men. The detail Carter gives both these stories is very beautiful, and very realistic. The raw imagery and language truly illustrated the reality in which these character live in and the troubles that, seemingly, are pursued.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciated both of these stories in multiple ways. I think Carter is a really exquisite writer in that, as Bre has already pointed out, she seems to be a master of subtlety. She's not a "just come out and say it" kind of girl and I appreciate that. As we talked about briefly in class, these two pieces are parts of a larger whole, but to me Carter's abilities as a writer allowed her to create two segments of a story that can stand alone, and do so beautifully. Since addiction is such a powerful element of the human condition, it's no wonder countless writers have taken on the nature of the beast in their work and being an english major, I've read about 30 million memoirs and fictional pieces that approach the topic. What has me so excited about Carter's work is that it's refreshing...finally. (That isn't to say, however, that there aren't some amazing works centered around addiction and illness, and the turmoil surrounding them because obviously there are.) These two selections definitely won't get lost in the recesses of my lit-loving memory.
ReplyDeleteI may not have really enjoyed these stories per se, but I really liked all of the great details and subtle ways that Emily Carter told her stories and described her characters, as I'm all for details and I love subtle writing. Even without Catherine's little description of Carter's full work of the character of Glory, I think that it is fairly clear by the first story "East of Houston," that Glory was a prostitute. Just the way that she carries herself and the way that Carter describes her while "walking the streets." She discloses a character that has been through something she regrets but still has a sense of dignity to walk around with her head held high while these men talk of her as she passes. You don't necessarily know that she has AIDS at this point, but you can kind of feel that she is trying to forget something and put something behind her, as well as her telling us what she used to know/do. You can just feel her regret and somberness.
ReplyDeleteThe second story, "Parachutes of Silk," is actually more depressing for me. I don't like acknowledging the idea of mortality and death and Carter is kind of making us face it through Glory as she makes her very sad list of things she will never get to do or could have done. Not to mention that she is presented with false hope when she meets Matthew and he actually values her and treats her well, something she has never really seen before, but then leaves, most likely to become addicted to heroin in a terrible way again. Like Bre said, it is no wonder that she dreams her life to be something much greater and better than it is.
In the story "Parachute Silk" I thought that the silk given to Glory from Matthew was a metaphor for her battle with addiction. Unfortunately I was not in class on Monday so I did not know that the character Glory was not only battling drug abuse but AIDS as well, until I looked up the medication AZT and found that it is used to treat HIV/AIDS. Also, the color of the silk is red which I know is the color that represents aids awareness. I loved how she used the last paragraph with the little girl that couldn't escape to mirror Glory's struggles. The little girl is alone and scared like Glory after Matthew leaves her, struggling against this mess of red that has "no chance of putting a sneaker through it" showing how a sneaker is so average and common and helpless needs to be rescued by someone older. The older child methodically unraveling the parachute like it's such an easy task, which mirrored the way Glory had felt where she was being treated. The one who was really trying (like Matthew)was the one being worried over, where the others who had figured out a path from finding out what'd worked in the past had an easier route to get through. I really enjoyed the author's detailed and child-like take on the ending where she finds it almost silly that taking drugs got her into such a mess, but now she needs them to keep her alive.
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoyed reading Emily Carter’s works “East on Houston” and “Parachute Silk.” Knowing that the background of the narrator was a recovering alcoholic and heroine addict gave the stories depth, because there is much in her writing she leaves just below the surface. Carter plays around with implied truth. In “Parachute Silk,” truth is touched upon in brief statements in dialogue. The dialogue between characters Matthew and Glory often highlights points we spoke about in class. Statements are kept short and often times; there is a negative exchange between the two. However, it is clear there is tension and deeper emotional pulls. Instead of coming out with heavy explanation, simple wording leads the reader to explore an “iceberg” that potentially lies within the context. “Sometimes I get so sick of all this health” was a statement Matthew issued to Glory when speaking of his addict family. She does not note her given response, perhaps there wasn’t one, but the author drops and leaves these implications of stagnant feeling for the reader to uncover more about Matthew and Glory’s mind-frames. In “East on Houston,” truth is exposed almost contradictory by fabrications. When Glory relays what men call to her, “Excuse me Miss, can I walk with you?,” “Excuse me Miss, I feel a little awkward in this neighborhood, and I’d like to bring something back to show my friends…,” “Excuse me Miss, I’m a jazz musician…,” “Excuse me Miss, but my mother was a knife-sharp, slender blue dragon…” The comments made by these men as she walks the streets at night become more and more outrageous and contrived. The reader is not to notice this progression of exaggeration and get put off by her lies. Rather, the retelling of her stories from the night, as they get more and more detailed and strange is a trick to show the reader Glory’s feelings becoming more annoyed, angry, disrespected, and overwhelmed. We feel her getting worked up without her outright saying it.
ReplyDeleteI decided to read "East of Houston" out load just because I suck at reading out loud and figured I could use some practice. Reading it out loud was actually more difficult than I was expecting, just because Carter's sentences were very long winded, especially in this piece. I felt the urge to quicken my pace while reading it, and couldn't catch up to what I felt was appropriate for the piece. I loved that it was written this way, because it really made me feel in the moment for that character, understanding the way she felt when these men were walking behind her and saying these things while she tries to walk fast and ignore them, but she still hears them and their words continue to chase her even after the incident is over. This story I felt stood a little more on its own than "Silk Parachute" just because I didn't need the background story (of the narrator being a recovering drug addict and sufferer of AIDS) to understand it. "Silk Parachute" I don't think I would have gotten nearly as much from without knowing this beforehand. I would have had too many questions (though they are hinted at, but not made clear) about the narrator to really focus on the rest of the story. I found that this piece also had that long winded feel, but not quite as extreme. In both pieces I feel this strong urgency from the narrator, as though she is speaking to us and not writing it down. It's like she is fully engulfed in the moment of the story, whether fear, frustration, or sadness, and that needs to be brought across to the reader. I guess long winded isn't the right term, because not many of the sentences are that long. They just have a feel to them that makes it seem like it is all said in one breath. I think this is helped by the swirl of imagery that she sometimes brings in, describing a scene and the men and bringing in what they said and going back to what they looked like or the scene was so it felt like it was pushing you faster through the piece in both of these short stories.
ReplyDeleteReading everyone's comments, I agree with so much of what has already been written on language and metaphor. Something that I found to be most exquisite about Emily Carter's pieces is that she, like Glory B., is a recovering addict who is HIV positive. Despite the fictionalized nature of these two pieces, there clearly has to be a connection between real-life experiences undergone by the author herself. What's even more "magical" is that Carter finds a way to spin these stories into something far grander than a reiteration of real-life events. There is a distinct voice, there are motifs, there is magic dashed across the page. The effect? The reader flies through these pieces filled with adrenaline but also a little sadness. Now I've never jumped out of an airplane, but I suspect the experience may be similar...
ReplyDeleteI think what stuck out to me most in Carter's stories is her details that contradict the preconceived notions of her characters. For instance, in East on Houston, while all of these men call out to her while she's walking down the street, I imagined the stereotypical scuzzy homeless man. It's easy and comfortable to think that these people have no redeeming qualities, that they're not worth the time and effort to talk to -- to think maybe they're dangerous. And maybe they are but, when amidst all of the words being shouted to her, one many says he used to know the first 400 pages of the Illiad by heart. And then I didn't feel comfortable anymore because that one brief line forced me to call myself out on being judgmental -- and I would imagine the narrator of the story felt the same way. They're all whole people who end up in bad situations.
ReplyDeleteI experienced something similar in Parachute Silk. When Gloria is describing all of Matthew's virtues, describing him as this soft, intelligent man who wears sweaters often times purchased for him by his mother, you immediately feel for him. He has to be the good guy. She says he seems to be the kid who got picked on in school, and you think of him as the victim. The person so gentle and kind that he lets others walk all over him instead of reciprocating with other harmful words. But then you find out he's a sex addict (among others). And you know that's wrong and you don't want to feel for him anymore because of the stigma that comes along with being a sex addict. But you do, because he's this character that feels like no one will love him, so maybe that's why he turns to other women. It's a temporary substitute for anything lasting. It's complicated, and I think the best writing complicated your emotions like Emily Carter does in her stories.
The story Parachute Silk by Emily Carter is about a drug addict named Glory who has been diagnosed with AIDs as she struggles to keep a relationship with a friend who is also struggling with addiction. I liked the tone of this piece, and the way that Emily Carter wrote it in the way that Glory would talk about difficult issues. It wasn't explicitly stated that Glory has AIDS, she just says it in a nondescript way. Similarly, towards the end of the story Glory only implies that Matthew "did something" but she never explicitly states what exactly he did. I think that he killed himself, but part of the great uses of writing like this is that it leaves such an interpretation up to the reader. Emily Carter effectively shows how difficult it is for a person with AIDS to maintain relationships. The way that Glory calls Matthew a pervert when he tries to change their friendship into a relationship, shows how Glory did something that was significantly damaging to Matthew's trust, just so she would not risk exposing him to AIDS. I think that the way Emily Carter described Matthew's parents exposed the difference in their acceptance of addiction. Matthew's mom says that she wants him to find peace, while his father says that he wants Matthew to "get well." This perspective shows a difference in a level of acceptance between the two of them. While the mother wants her son to find acceptance, the father sees his addiction as a flaw or temporary distraction and wants his son to take care of it.
ReplyDeleteI think that East on Houston is a significant tone change from that of Parachute Silk. It's a story about a streetwalker, which tells the reader what a girl might hear called to her by Johns. I think this is a sad story, one of the lonely or ravenous voices of men lost in their own isolation, vying that there is nothing to lose and trying to find someone to consume for a little while to gain some sort of control in their lives.