Going Anywhere: Stories

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones 8-1-2014 Going Anywhere: Stories David Armstrong University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/thesesdissertations Part of the American Literature Commons, and the Fiction Commons Repository Citation Armstrong, David, "Going Anywhere: Stories" (2014). UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones. 2164. http://dx.doi.org/10.34917/6456394 This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Dissertation in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. 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GOING ANYWHERE: STORIES By David Armstrong Bachelor of Arts in English Ohio University 2002 Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film Ohio University 2002 Master of Arts in English Ohio University 2009 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Doctor of Philosophy -- English Department of English College of Liberal Arts The Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas August 2014 GoingGoing Anywhere Anywhere © © 2014 2014 byby David Aarmstrong Aarmstrong All rightsAll rights reserved reserved under under International and and Pan-AmericanPan-American Copyright Copyright Conventions No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a data base or other retrieval No part of this system,book may or transmitted be reproduced, in any form, stored by anyin a means, data base including or other retrieval system,mechanical, or transmitted electronic, photocopy, in any form, recording by any or means,otherwise, including without mechanical, electronic,the prior writtenphotocopy, permission recording of the publisher.or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published in 2014 in the United States by Leapfrog Press LLC Published in 2014PO in Box the 505 United States by LeapfrogFredonia, Press NY 14063 LLC www.leapfrogpress.comPO Box 505 Fredonia, NY 14063 Printedwww.leapfrogpress.com in the United States of America Distributed in the United States by PrintedConsortium in the BookUnited Sales States and Distribution of America St. Paul, Minnesota 55114 Distributed www.cbsd.comin the United States by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution St. Paul, FirstMinnesota Edition 55114 www.cbsd.com Author photo courtesy of Kevin Dossinger First Edition Author photoISBN: courtesy 978-1-935248-61-3 of Kevin Dossinger Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available from the Library of Congress ISBN: 978-1-935248-61-3 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available from the Library of Congress THE GRADUATE COLLEGE We recommend the dissertation prepared under our supervision by David Armstrong entitled Going Anywhere: Stories is approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy - English Department of English Maile Chapman, Ph.D., Committee Chair Richard Wiley, M.F.A., Committee Member Darlene Unrue, Ph.D., Committee Member Michelle Tusan, Ph.D., Graduate College Representative Kathryn Hausbeck Korgan, Ph.D., Interim Dean of the Graduate College August 2014 ii! ! ABSTRACT Going Anywhere: Stories by David Armstrong Dr. Maile Chapman, Examination Committee Chair Professor of English University of Nevada, Las Vegas Growing up in a rural, Appalachian town, I recognized that tight-lipped doggedness was a mark of strength. As a writer, I became intrigued by how I might portray people whose defining attributes were silence, how essentially to give voice to voicelessness. The answer for me was to begin exploring place as an origin of inner expression. The stories in Going Anywhere track people moving through the landscape, their journeys, often destinationless, traversing the space between life’s dark realities and the fantastic leaps of faith we all make to survive. A father seeks out a way to deal with the unexpected death of his daughter, a heroin-addicted mother kidnaps her own son to teach him about beauty, expectant parents wrestle with their own doubt, and a boy learns how to support his mother in the wake of a divorce. But beneath the human struggle is a prevailing sense of wonder—a public pool with miraculous properties, a church that requires its parishioners to carry the plasticized hands of corpses, a dog at a gas station with insight about a man’s marital indiscretions, and a worldwide epidemic of ghosts. Connecting them all is the journey: people traveling in search of solace, insight, clarity, and purpose, gathering up their own lives into discernible pieces of fact and conviction in the hopes of getting it right. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Writing is like chasing ghosts with a butterfly net. It’s a feeble attempt to capture something ephemeral and, dare I say it, magical—something made up of memory and meaning—using only that blunt instrument, the written word. In thanking those who need thanking, I’m certain I’ll be just as imperfect and forgetful as in all my endeavors. There are many beyond the few mentioned here who had a hand in supporting me and creating this book. For their emotional and intellectual nourishment, I’m forever grateful. That said, thank you to my mother and father, Don and Karen Armstrong. Thank you also to Drew and Katie Armstrong, Jenny Moore, Rosemary Yates, Daniel Armstrong, Richard Wiley, Maile Chapman, Doug Unger, Carol Harter, Damien and Ashley Cowger, Dustin Faulstick, Jolynn Baldwin, Colby Gillette, David Ballenger, Kyle Hildebrandt, Darrell Spencer, Joan Connor, Eric and Kristin LeMay, Darlene and John Unrue, Loreen L. Giese, Andrew Malan Milward, Paul Sacksteder, Michael Van Auken, and James Miranda. For their editorial support, thank you to Lev Raphael, Lisa Graziano, Chris Offutt, Matt Bell, Amelia Gray, Amber Sparks, Tom Dibblee, Michael Kardos, Bryan Tomasovich, Matt Sailor, and Kellen Shaver. Also a special thanks to a woman whose commanding knowledge of the mechanics of language I didn’t fully appreciate until my adult life—Mary Jean Rieder, my high school Latin teacher. And finally, a thanks beyond thanks to my wife, Melinda, who is everything and everything and more than everything always. iv DEDICATION For M, who is my home, and P, who is still a part of it v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT................................................................................................................iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...........................................................................................iv DEDICATION..............................................................................................................v INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................1 EPIGRAPH...................................................................................................................4 STORY 1 TAKE CARE........................................................................................5 STORY 2 THEIR OWN RESOLUTION............................................................13 STORY 3 HEAR IT.............................................................................................42 STORY 4 COURIER...........................................................................................50 STORY 5 BETHESDA........................................................................................75 STORY 6 PATIENCE IS A FRUIT....................................................................92 STORY 7 A DIFFERENT-SIZED US..............................................................110 STORY 8 BUTTERSCOTCH...........................................................................125 STORY 9 SNAPSHOT OF DOMESTIC SCENE WITH RESCUE DOG.......150 STORY 10 STRAW MAN..................................................................................167 STORY 11 MURRAY........................................................................................189 STORY 12 FIFTY...............................................................................................224 BIBLIOGRAPHY....................................................................................................234 CURRICULUM VITAE..........................................................................................235 vi INTRODUCTION This introduction is meant to provide a cohesive account of the systemic pattern emergent in what might be referred to as Hegelian sublation, a series of interdependent, simultaneously disparate but relationally linked ideas within each story that, interspersed throughout a larger narrative (that of the book as a whole), form what Roland Barthes called the “obtuse” metafiction that takes place beneath the surface of a single image. This is to say that dynamic elements, if one is given an initial understanding of their nature, reconfigure themselves based upon the additional context of new plots, phrases, abstractions, metaphors, allusions, and cultural bases and biases. Such is the context that establishes (or re-establishes)

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