Thursday, February 2, 2017

Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby - Donald Barthelme (In A Field of Words: A Creative Writing Text - Janet McCann)

  

Summary: This is an innovative, self-help guide for beginning-level creative writing, designed to help aspiring writers find words for their stories and give them shape. It includes all a writer needs to begin writing fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry including ways to get started, things to write about and where to find help in all elements of writing including first publication. The text incorporates practice exercises and a multi-cultural mini-anthology of work in all three genres. Discusses in detail the elements and techniques of poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction. Provides practical exercises sections and features a Multi-cultural anthology. For aspiring writers interested in learning how to write poetry, prose and non-fiction.

Author: Janet McCann
Story: Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby
Genre: Short Story, Fiction
Goodreads Rating:
My Rating (for this short story): 3.5/5
Pages (for this story): 21-24 (281)
Publisher: Pearson

(Side note: The following is my analytical critique of a short story from a collection of stories that I am currently studying in my Intro to Creative Writing course. I wanted to share this story because of how interesting it is, and the concept of depositing the bizarre into our everyday realities.)

"Some of us had been threatening our friend Colby for a long time, because of the way he had been behaving. And now he'd gone too far, so we decided to hang him."


                        Donald Barthelme’s short story, Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby is bizarre, engrossing, and somewhat intense. The first two sentences alone, are enough to grab the reader’s attention and leave them wanting more – craving answers and closure. The reader is left with more questions than answers by the final sentence. Many of these unanswered questions are crucial to the plot as well, which incites a great deal of confusion in regards to what the author is attempting to convey to his reader.

                        Barthelme doesn’t waste any time in this story, right off the bat the reader is introduced to the plot, the characters, and the dilemma. The narrator remains unnamed, but highly prevalent and involved in the story, and his/her lack of identity is somewhat irritating amidst the already confusing plethora of unanswered questions and unknown facts. As the reader continues to read on, he/she is introduced to the dilemma. Colby William’s friends have deemed that he had gone too far, something that Colby, himself, did not dispute. But, Colby does interject by mentioning that everyone goes a little too far sometimes. His friends shrug off his argument and proceed to make detailed plans and arrangements for the hanging that they will be holding as a form of moral punishment for Colby’s transgression. These detailed arrangements range from hiring musicians, sending out invitations to all the guests, serving drinks and food, designating a venue for the hanging, deciding on whether they should use a gibbet or a tree, hangman or no hangman, and lastly rope or wire for the noose.

                        Throughout this entire debate over how Colby’s hanging should be orchestrated and how to hide the details of the event from law enforcement, Colby’s friends are kind enough to allow him to have a say in some of the tedious decision making, since after all it is his hanging and a man only gets one opportunity in life to be hanged. The reader is informed that the day of Colby’s hanging goes off without a hitch; no rain to dampen the day, the music was played well, and they didn’t run out of scotch. The unnamed narrator leaves the reader with two final thoughts. He/she states that what he/she could remember best from the event is Colby’s look of gratefulness after the narrator chimed in and said that wire for a noose would be too distasteful and that no one dared to go too far ever again.

                        Barthelme’s short story was written in the first-person point – of – view. Which is interesting because the narrator remains both unnamed and a wallflower for a good portion of the tale. It’s almost as if the narrator’s sole purpose is to act as a window for the reader to be able to look in on the events and the conversation that transpires. Aside from somewhat steering the conversation in a certain direction, once or twice, the narrator’s actual contribution to the conversation is minimal. Often, a writer will employ the usage of the first-person narrative to create a sense of rapport or familiarity between the narrator and the reader, which proves to be somewhat confusing in this instance since the narrator remains unnamed, unknown, and distant.

                        The characters in this story are unanimous in their conviction to hang Colby and to do so tastefully. But, disagreements became apparent when there was debate over whether they should use a gibbet or a tree, wire or rope for the noose, if Colby could have a firing squad instead of a hanging, should Colby jump off a chair or a ball with the noose around his neck? What I found interesting is that there was no sign as to who had initiated the desire to hang Colby for his transgression and the fact that out of Colby’s seven friends not even one of them questioned the lack of morality in this execution of their friend.

                        This short story is incredibly bizarre and even unsettling. The more that I read and the more that I grow on a personal level, the more difficult it is for me to refer to another individual’s reality or proposed reality as being bizarre, when my own reality may end up being just as bizarre in their eyes. It is difficult for me to fathom how an individual’s group of friends can be referred to as friends when they are doggedly set on hanging you for an offense that isn’t even mentioned at any point within the story. But, this story is odd and unnerving. In regards to how it could potentially fit into our “everyday” experience, I suppose that Colby’s friends’ determinedness and unshakeable stubbornness could be compared to our own refusals to see reason when we are agitated or fed up with an individual’s repeated “bad” behavior. Then the next question would be, are we Colby or are we Colby’s friends in these “everyday” experiences? Are we able to admit when we have gone too far? Do we go the extra mile and threaten our friend with death because they went too far, one too many times?

                        I thoroughly enjoyed how engaging Barthelme’s writing was and the ease with which his thoughts bled into one another. I even appreciated the bizarreness to an extent. It was different and unanticipated. However, I didn’t care for the enduring anonymity of the narrator, or the unaddressed question of what exactly was Colby’s wrongdoing; why didn’t any of the guests make a fuss about a man being hanged even though capital punishment had been outlawed? Why were Colby’s friends able to find moral fault in his wrongdoing, but not in their eagerness to hang their friend? Why did Colby’s friends feel as though it was their moral obligation to hang Colby for his unnamed wrongdoing? Why didn’t Colby’s friends take the time to reflect on his point that everyone goes too far sometimes? If someone else from the group were to commit an equally offensive transgression would they be subject to a hanging, as well? Why didn’t Colby inform law enforcement that his friends were planning to hang him? Was his offense that horrible that he couldn’t ask for help? But, most importantly was Colby hanged? The title of the short story is: Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby. Threatening an individual and carrying out that threat are both horrible, but very different. Were Colby’s friends just threatening him or did they truly kill him? Or was Colby made an example out of to make sure that no one else in the group “goes too far”? What exactly is “too far”? And who has the power to dictate what is or isn’t “going too far”? I’m not entirely sure. This lack of closure and answers is probably the most frustrating aspect of being reader, in my opinion. In the end, I am left feeling confused, irritated with the lack of answers, and oddly wanting more writing to have been tacked on to this story.

What are your thoughts on depositing the bizarre into our everyday realities? Thoughts on Barthelme's writing?

Links:
Link to this Pearson collection of literary works
Link to Short Stories by Barthelme (Including Some of Us Had...)

Until next time! Thank you for stopping by! And if you have yet to do so, follow me here on my blog via email subscription to be able to stay informed on when new posts are uploaded.

Where the Wild Tales Are Instagram
Goodreads



No comments:

Post a Comment