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...)
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