Above the Fog Below the Snow

ABOVE THE FOG BELOW THE SNOW ____________ A Project Presented To the Faculty of California State University, Chico ____________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in English ____________ by © Lucretia Annelle Fligner 2009 Spring 2009 ABOVE THE FOG BELOW THE SNOW A Project by Lucretia Annelle Fligner Spring 2009 APPROVED BY THE DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF GRADUATE, INTERNATIONAL, AND INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES: Susan E. Place, Ph.D. APPROVED BY THE GRADUATE ADVISORY COMMITTEE: Robert G. Davidson, Ph.D. Paul S. Eggers, Ph.D., Chair Graduate Coordinator Robert G. Davidson, Ph.D. Jeanne E. Clark, Ph.D. PUBLICATION RIGHTS No portion of this project may be reprinted or reproduced in any manner unacceptable to the usual copyright restrictions without the written permission of the author. iii DEDICATION It is with great affection and deep appreciation that I dedicate this project to my husband, Stanley Jay Fligner. Every school day he would send me off with only this reminder, “Have fun at school.” Without his untiring, relentless support I would never have progressed this far and, really, never have even begun. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to acknowledge the generous guidance and support given to me through the years by those individuals who are a part of the English Department at The California State University, Chico, including those persons of its support staff, its administrators, and especially its professors. The English professors at Chico State, in large part, have helped me to develop and shape my writing skills, and no one has been more influential in this way than Paul Eggers. Thank you everyone. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Publication Rights ...................................................................................................... iii Dedication .................................................................................................................. iv Acknowledgments...................................................................................................... v Abstract ...................................................................................................................... vii PART I. Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Familial Influences............................................................................. 2 Scholarly Influences........................................................................... 5 Theory: Establishing Esthetic Aims................................................... 6 Establishing Mentors: The Process of Elimination ............................ 11 Establishing Mentors: Models to Emulate ......................................... 13 Modern/postmodern Influences ......................................................... 15 Postmodern: A Process of Elimination .............................................. 17 Postmodern: A Model to Emulate...................................................... 20 Contemporary Influence: Alice Munro .............................................. 20 The Epoxy of Place ............................................................................ 23 Conclusion ......................................................................................... 26 II. Short Stories ................................................................................................ 27 Waiting for Cake ................................................................................ 28 Anthropological Move ....................................................................... 46 The Parnassus..................................................................................... 64 Music Lessons .................................................................................... 77 Works Consulted ........................................................................................................ 94 vi ABSTRACT ABOVE THE FOG BELOW THE SNOW by © Lucretia Annelle Fligner 2009 Master of Arts in English California State University, Chico Spring 2009 The short stories in this fiction collection, “Above the Fog Below the Snow,” are psychological in nature and character driven, and as a whole are meant to address aspects of human nature that specially pertain to interactions with others. vii PART I INTRODUCTION ABOVE THE FOG BELOW THE SNOW What I mostly wish to say to introduce the following body of my work is that as a writer, and especially as a human being, my development is still in process. Asked “Who are you?” by the Caterpillar, Alice replied, “I-I hardly know, sir, just at present—at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then” (Carroll 60). I’ve been changed. This could be the epigraph to my project; there could be no better opening remark. Since my exposure to the work of an ever-widening circle of accomplished authors began six years ago when I first returned to college, change is the most consistent trait I see in my writing, which makes me hesitate before calling any one of the short stories within this collection finished. Finished to the degree described by Rilke, as that point where one word more or less would make the poem (in my case, a story) bleed, is not how I currently see my collection. Therefore, these stories can stand only as an emblem of the process they represent—a marker along the way, of where I am now both as a writer and as a human being—and can only point in the direction of where I hope to finally be. Familial Influences Looking back on my life experiences in order to piece together those influences, which brought me to where I am today, is more like looking at a great cut of cloth than at a narrow path. This fabric spreads out in many directions (even into my 2 3 future) and contains layers of connections that weave together in ways that are difficult to pull out, separate, and identify. Perhaps the best place to begin is with the influence of my family. My father was one of the most wonderful storytellers I have ever known, second only to his sister, my Aunt Sophia. Both Southerners, these two people came out of a world that had a strong oral heritage and was rich in folklore. They could spin tales for hours on end. I never tired of hearing about their father’s uncle who, during The Depression, was the only person in town with a government job (he was the postman), the only person receiving a regular paycheck, and the only town drunk; or hearing about how they could never go catfishing, deep in the Georgia swamps, without taking their dog, a dog that could spot a water moccasin hiding in a stump the way a spaniel could spot a bird in a bush. I could listen to them tell the same stories over and over again because their storytelling was deeply musical—Eudora Welty musical. A song sung, no matter how many times, is never the same song. So, though my family never intended it that way, through their rich oral tradition, they helped to create my affection for literature. They also helped in the development of my ear for the music of literature; and, what is remarkable to me now, now that I make the connection, their influence was also instrumental in the development of my affection for the reader . Though I myself never lived more than a few years in the South, being raised by two Southerners—who had both lived in Georgia till they were well into their twenties, and who both came from families that had been living in Georgia since long before the Civil War—did have a profound effect upon my psychology and, therefore, upon my writing as well. 4 Like those colorful tales I listened to as a child, the short stories in this collection are all character driven; and they share a type of down-home quality, which I also believe springs from my Southern heritage. But one Southern characteristic that influences my work, perhaps in a more esoteric way, is the Southern inclination toward the genteel. I say that this is a more esoteric influence because it is more hidden; it colors indirectly how I write by its effect upon how I read. The Southern writer Eudora Welty once wrote, “Reader and writer, we wish each other well. Don’t we want and don’t we understand the same thing? A story of beauty and passion, some fresh approximation of human truth?” (28). This is a seemingly generous statement. However, if you understood Southern , you would realize that she is setting a standard here, one which she keeps and (this is the important part) one which she expects others, out of mutual courtesy, to keep as well. On a very subtle level the Southerner in me is always calculating, measuring the level of respect an author shows for his or her reader by how much the author appears to wish me (the reader) well: How much attention is being paid to the details in the story? How finished is the piece? Does it still bleed—or, is it whole? Perhaps this is another reason why I feel my stories are merely settled rather than finished, since it is a standard I apply to my own work as well. My story “Waiting For Cake” is a good example of this phenomenon. In its most recent version Mr. and Mrs. Todd (who previously had been in the story only to give Jessie Harper something to respond to) now have lives of their own. So much so, that Robert Todd is in some strange way becoming another Jessie Harper. Through the process of revision the Todds have become more real, more alive, and the story has changed dramatically. 5 Scholarly Influences Beyond the familial, the more recent

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