Incredibly, his life and writing parallel each other: His short stories take unconventional, even ridiculous, routes, they follow unbelievable characters living in hilariously absurd worlds. Yet, we still wholeheartedly believe in Saunders because of, as Aimee Bender called it, the "trust, that inside knowledge" of the worlds he builds for us. We don't know how we're going to get there, but we trust Saunders to make it happen.Saunders's writing makes us think "impossible" but feel honest, genuine emotion upon arrival - and the arrivals are never small. His works usually center around a socio-political commentary that, if in traditional realism, would likely read as either irritatingly peppy or infuriatingly depressing. Because his commentaries are made by a mute Civil War ghost, a hand in a bowl of soup, or a zombie auntie, however, by the time Saunders's true subject peeks out from behind the curtain, we finish out the piece wondering how we didn't see its toes poking out earlier.
Saunders calls his experimental strangeness necessary to producing the emotions and statements that his writing is known for. No matter how fantastic, hilarious, or just unbelievable his work gets, he attributes every moment as essential, the weirdness is "not a fancy side-project", but pivotal every step of the way.
What moments in "CivilWarLand in Bad Decline" and "Sea Oak" seem like pivotal weirdness to you? (You can comment on "Winky" too, but focus on the first 2.) How did Saunders make wide-reaching socio-political commentary in the same sentence he made you laugh? Where did Saunders's signature eccentricity bring you moments of current, emotional commentary on our own world?
In CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, we learn about the narrator's passive ways through lines like "So I wipe off my tie with a leaf and start down to break the Haberstrom news to Mr. Alsuga" (960). Although the action of putting your cigarette out on someone's tie seems incredibly outraging and rude, we are able to accept the narrator's response because we ourselves have had similar feelings and experiences where we had to keep our mouths shut. Another technique which Saunders uses to demonstrate hilarity throughout the piece is combining non-quotational dialogue with quotational dialogue. Lines like, “Sylvia says don’t spread it around but two of the nine can-can girls are knocked up” (961), combined with the short, fast-paced dialogue of “‘He’s not just free-associating,’ I say. / ‘I’m not sure I get it,’ Quinn says” (962).We learn about the consequences of making the right decision and the price we pay for doing the right thing.
ReplyDeleteIn Sea Oak, we learn about the stereotypes of class and specifically those in poverty through the family of Aunt Bernie, Thomas, Min and Jade. Aunt Bernie and Thomas are the redeemable characters in poverty because they work for the things they get. Thomas, although he enjoys his job, uses one of the only methods we have stereotypically given to those in poverty to make money, prostitution. Min and Jade are the stereotypical characters in poverty: poor, lazy, and dumb. We are shocked by the fact that they argue over the number of sides in a triangle (973), but we accept it because of the world that has been created for us. Saunders has a way of making us contemplate the ideas we have about poor people and brings them into question without overtly questioning it.
I found almost all the moments in these stories weird. If I had to pick two moments, it would be the Foley episode from Civil War, and Ed Anders from Sea Oak. Watching the baptism get disrupted by gang members in such a frank and absurd way was just odd. I found myself laughing even though I probably shouldn't have. So much of the dialogue in the Board of Health visit is over-the-top it felt absurd. But I think the weirdness of both of these moments help point out how trivial and silly most modern conventions can be. We tend to make every moment in our lives matter, and therefore, go way too overboard. We never know what will truly happen next. There is a frankness to the idea of just not being able to predict what happens next. How the institutions we live in create such absurd interactions.
ReplyDeleteGeorge Saunders mesmerizes me. I love Tenth of December and I’ve read some other things by him, but I hadn’t read anything in this anthology of his before. As usual, I really enjoyed these stories. Saunders has such a gift for dark comedic tragedy, and slightly surreal realistic stories and worlds. I especially liked the characters in Sea Oak (although none of them were particularly likable)
ReplyDeleteThe parts in Sea Oak that hit me hardest as sociopolitical commentary were Min and Jade studying for the GED, and their general lack of intelligence. I think it to be commentary on the constantly neglected state of the American education system, but that could just be my personal relationship to the issue.
I also loved the fact that they always watched TV shows that very much struck as existing in their lives to give them something to view as worse than what they were going through, almost so that the reader has to wonder if death (as what is mostly said to be “worse” in those TV shows and the story in general) is really the worst thing that one can experience.
One of the things that stood out to me as a defining moment of weirdness in "CivilWarLand in Bad Decline" was the moment where we say the McKinnons replaying their deaths out over and over again. Up until that point on my original reading, I had just passively read along and not contemplated too much on how weird everything was, despite the fact that teenagers were dying and there were ghosts. Mr. McKinnon reenacting his murder of his family because of Civil War induced PTSD, mirrors the narrator's loss of his own family, his impending death, and the consequences of letting people traumatized by war free with weapons without offering them therapy as the narrator and his boss have done with Sam. Seeing these ghosts killing and being killed over and over again is not just a moment of weirdness for the sake of being weird, it's something that ties together all the disparate pieces of a coherent and interesting, but a not until that point, poignant story.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time I've read George Saunders I can definitely say it will not be the last time. I enjoyed every one of these stories and I don't think I've ever laughed harder in a story than in Sea Oak. Saunders without a doubt has a knack for the dark comedy in his writing and is something I would like to experiment with.
ReplyDeleteFor me, the pivotal weirdness came in "CivilWarLand in Bad Decline" when Sam shot a few kids on halloween and they turned out to not be in a gang, and Mr. A just said "Ouch, this could be a serious negative." This hugely understated moment from Mr A was hysterical yet alarming because I knew a this point that CivilWarLand was going down.
In Sea Oak, the story is filled with pivotal weirdness for me. The characterization of Min and Jade as two unintelligent people trapped at the bottom I think were the most likable characters yet they were the center of a lot of socio-political commentary throughout the story. The darkest part of the story came at one of the funniest moments when Bernie's head is on the floor and she says "Why do some people get everything and I get nothing."
I haven't read much of George Sanders work before this, and I've been missing out on something special. He uses the fantastic (or grotesque, depending on your perspective) elements to highlight and emphasize the real conundrums, which is the way I always want my stories to work. "CivilWarLand in Bad Decline" is about violence and the justification of it for commercial success, and these elements are made all the more stronger by the ghosts stuck in the last days of their lives, and the unique naming system Saunders uses. "Sea Oak" takes it to another level entirely; instead of a ghost haunting the characters, all the negative resentment, anger, and frustration at her sorry lot in life causes Aunt Bernie to literally come back to life out of spite. Saunders makes it weird, but he makes it real as well.
ReplyDeleteI'm never ready for George Saunders. He always mixes the most disarming tone that harkens to almost a hardy boys-esque style, with all of the exclamation layed into the dialogue. The pacing is measured, calm, and consistent, down to the last sentence, we rarely feel the need to reorder the worlds we're in because they do not feel as though they are being "built" they are just there, and real already formed. This is extremely evident in "CivilWar Land in Bad Decline" which uses a far future version of our world, as it's staging zone, a world that is bleakly backlit by thoughts of wolves and freezing to death because of bureaucratic cruelty.
ReplyDeleteThe fears dictated by those in this story, are ones most people in our capitalist society have at least placated with a few stray thoughts, the anxiety of not having enough. A real world issue tacked onto a fake world where ghosts screaming through a theme park catering to the American Civil War on the Erie Canal seems par for the course. Where A private company can let 6 murders go unpunished simply by way of a rousing speech. These inane things, don't need explanation, because the setting is rich and vibrant and complex enough to sustain those moments of feverish inanity, and indeed broaden the meaning of these moments to form them into a compelling plot layered with symbolism.
In "CivilWarLand in Bad Decline", I wasn't put off by any of the weirdness going on. There were three scenes that stood out to me, not because of the pivotal weirdness, but because of how they captured the world. First, the Halloween scene were Sam shot a group of teenagers that turned out not be in a gang showed the current, emotional commentary on our world. Second, Mr. Mckinnon reenacting his murder from Civil War PTSD. Third, the final moment when Sam murders the narrator. "...I sweep through Sam's body, trying to change him, trying so hard, and feeling only hate and hate, solid as stone," (page 971). Even through the weirdness, these moments captured what we see on TV.
ReplyDeleteIn "Sea Oak", I enjoyed the twist of how Aunt Bernie came back from the dead. Aunt Bernie's unhappiness, anger, and frustration brought her back from the dead. "Sea Oak" reminded me so much of "The Monkey's Paw". Nothing really stood out as pivotal weirdness. However, the final line, "'Some people get everything and I got nothing,' she says. 'Why? Why did that happen?' (page 987), was the moment that hit home. The struggles of living in poverty and trying to raise a family in a dangerous area. This reality mixed with Saunders's weirdness got that point across very well.
These stories are filled with weirdness, embedded in the dark comedy and the feeling of general normalization of insane events. It was as if I had to do a double take whenever something big happened just because it's all said so casually, such as the part with the Foleys in "CivilWarLand in Bad Decline" on page 966. A gang comes into a baptism and kidnap a sixteen-year-old, and that's a crazy thing, but it's all said so nonchalantly in one paragraph. And the whole story is this way, and it's great. I never felt any sort of dramaticy, and it works so well in the story. Even in "Sea Oak," where things are a little more chalant, big things still happen in flat tones, lending itself to dark humor, and making it nearly possible to miss something that happens. When Aunt Bernie dies, the characters freak out, but the writing somehow doesn't. It's strange, and cool, and I'm into it.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most distinctive aspects of George Saunders’ writing is his voice. His first person stories really come alive through his characters’ narration. He is truly able to capture the way real people think, speak, and feel. Lots of sentences start with words like “so,” giving a more casual, storyteller vibe to his pieces. Additionally, he uses a mixture of different styles of dialogue. In “CivilWarLand in Bad Decline,” for example, he uses traditional dialogue tags and quotation marks in some parts of the story, but in other places he either embeds the dialogue into his paragraphs, or uses colons instead of quotation marks. It really adds to the casual feel that it seems he’s trying to cultivate in the story.
ReplyDeleteGeorge Saunders, well, is a very odd writer. In "CivilWarLand in Bad Decline," especially at the beginning, I was like what is going on, this is boring I don't want to read this. Then all of a sudden there are ghosts and gangs and murder and I think something gay (but I'm not quite sure) and then the main character is getting hacked to pieces and maybe has been a ghost the entire time. It was very much like a roller coaster, the first half was a slow decline then all of a sudden it's a whirlwind of what-the-fuck. I really enjoyed Saunder's dark humour, I thought it lended well to the narrative voice. The narrator was always odd, but real and not afraid to share their opinions.
ReplyDeleteI loved the elements of fantasy thrown into these stories. Especially in CivilWarLand. I loved how it took almost half the story for Saunders to expose the fact that it wasn't entirely realistic fiction. Usually when I read fantastical realism, I like to know right at the beginning that that's what it is. For the most part, not finding out that the rules are different from real life is something that, I think, should be divulged immediately. Otherwise, you risk alienating your readers with information they weren't ready for. Saunders, however, does this masterfully. Though I've never read his work before and had no way of knowing that fantasy elements would come into play in these stories, I was surprised in a pleasant and accepting way. The introduction of such elements is where the political commentary comes in, I think. We don't always know what's going to happen, and even when something does happen, it rarely makes sense.
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