Okay, this is a writer’s request for feedback from his readers. I specifically need folks who have read my Stoker nominee, “The Shallow End of the Pool.” You will find it in the stand-alone chapbook by Creeping Hemlock Press, later reprinted in the anthology PSYCHOS edited by John Skipp, later reprinted in my own collection HER HUSBAND’S HANDS AND OTHER STORIES. The story, if you’ll recall, is about a teenage brother and sister raised from birth, by monstrous parents estranged from one another, to solve their marital disputes by battling to the death. The question is this: every once in a while, somebody writing about the story reports that it takes place in a nightmarish future where this kind of behavior is normal. There is no indication of this in the story. All the details are mundane. The battle takes place in a dilapidated desert motel; there are no references that indicate any kind of future, whether advanced or post-holocaust. There are even if I recall correctly references that what the parents have done is a family secret. The family members are the only characters, but really, there is no indication anywhere that families all over the country are also draining their swimming pools and throwing their kids into the arena. And yet, we have scattered reviews, including one of my collection, that criticize the story by saying that I should have included more details about the society where this kind of thing is considered normal. This kind of comment hasn’t happened often. I’m talking, three or four times, maximum. But it’s certainly in no way connected to authorial intent. For those of you who have read the story: did YOU get that impression? Do you think the story implied it in some way I did not intend? Do you think people jump to that conclusion in the context of my collection because it’s the only story in the collection that does not have some kind of fantastic element, and they simply extrapolated one? Thanks. Att: John Skipp, Julia Sevin, Rj Sevin
Posted on: Sat, 17 May 2014 16:22:14 +0000
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