COOLING BODIES STORIES A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Creative Writing and English University of Regina by Credence Andrew McFadzean Regina, Saskatchewan January, 2017 Copyright 2017: C. A. McFadzean UNIVERSITY OF REGINA FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES AND RESEARCH SUPERVISORY AND EXAMINING COMMITTEE Credence Andrew McFadzean, candidate for the degree of Master of Arts in Creative Writing and English, has presented a thesis titled, Cooling Bodies Stories, in an oral examination held on December 7, 2016. The following committee members have found the thesis acceptable in form and content, and that the candidate demonstrated satisfactory knowledge of the subject material. External Examiner: *Prof. Daniel Tysdal, University of Toronto Scarborough Supervisor: Dr. Michael Trussler, Department of English Committee Member: Dr. Christian Riegel, Department of English Committee Member: Dr. Garry Sherbert, Department of English Chair of Defense: Dr. Christine Ramsay, Department of Film *Via Skype ABSTRACT Cooling Bodies is a collection of six short stories that explore contemporary technology, Internet culture, and social media through various subjective positions ranging in age, gender identity, sexual orientation, and social background. Cooling Bodies employs classic short story theorists, sociological and philosophical theorists, and the inspiration of prominent authors in the genre, as a means of situating its stories in the broader tradition, as well as reexamining common conventions of this tradition through a contemporary lens. The stories of Cooling Bodies align sociological concerns regarding human alienation with familiar ideas vested in short fiction criticism, exploring digital technology as a common factor that has the potential to simultaneously connect and estrange individuals. The manuscript uses irony as a primary techn ique to express this paradox of communication through the impasse of character perspectives. Cooling Bodies views storytelling as a structured act of loneliness, and it portrays human connection as a perpetual experiment in language. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The continued mentorship, attentive reading, and generous commentary provided by my supervisor, Dr. Michael Trussler, was invaluable in the process of bringing this thesis to fruition. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Dr. Christian Riegel and Dr. Garry Sherbert for their thought-provoking editorial suggestions, which have allowed me to broaden the scope of this project. I would like to acknowledge the funding I received from a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship provided by the Social Studies and Humanities Research Council, the teaching assistantships from the Department of English, and a SSHRC Enhancement Award and teaching assistantship from the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research. iii POST DEFENSE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Thank you to my External Examiner Daniel Scott Tysdal for his great insights into the short story form, and for the stimulating conversation. iv For my family v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................................ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...............................................................................................iii POST DEFENSE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT................................................................iv DEDICATION...................................................................................................................v INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................1 Cooling Bodies..................................................................................................................21 Sledge Bells.......................................................................................................................29 Red On Canvas..................................................................................................................45 Panorama...........................................................................................................................57 My First Time...................................................................................................................80 Sunday Night...................................................................................................................109 WORKS CITED............................................................................................................138 Introduction Cooling Bodies is a manuscript of six works of short fiction exploring the nature of subjective identity in the present historical moment, as represented through a central ethos manifested by the short story genre. The manuscript is committed to pondering questions of human identity and loneliness, themes that have been crucial to the traditional functions of the short story genre, while doing so within a newer context of present and emerging social technologies. By framing these interests within the insights of short story and cultural theory, my manuscript seeks to engage the nature of a contemporaneity defined by perpetual connection and seclusion mingling paradoxically. My stories also use irony to examine complex issues of identity, especially within complicated cultural discourses, in order to encounter fresh issues of disoriented and fragmented identity, as indicative of the ever-changing nature of the technologically- mediated social experience. Addicted as many of us are to our fabricated online lives, and reliant on them professionally, personally, and creatively, the term ‘simulation’ does not signify an effigy or stand-in for human experience; it is, as Baudrillard suggests, just another facet of reality itself. Thematically, each story engages with communicative technology, either through the presence of the Internet, social media, gaming, or virtual reality, as a means of probing the protagonists’ inner lives. The project is concerned with capturing a large range of experience, and thus it concerns itself with protagonists of varying ages, gender identities, sexual orientations, and social backgrounds. My approach to rendering these characters is to prioritize their emotional perspectives, to closely focalize their points-of-view when using third-person narration, and to allow their flaws to speak for themselves—relying on irony to showcase any potential 1 shortcomings rather than overtly signaling value judgments through a narrator. The following introduction will serve as an overview of the theoretical, sociological, philosophical, and literary forbearers of Cooling Bodies, including some brief background information before we delve into sections devoted to each specific critical or theoretical research source. Traditionally, short fiction has often focused on the tensions between public and private spheres of identity, with Frank O'Connor, a notable practitioner and theorist, arguing that it most effectively situates its stories at the outer margins of society, through the voices of isolated or dispossessed characters (SST 86). While it might be argued more generally that other forms of literature, such as the novel, also deal with the isolation of humans' inner-lives, many theorists maintain that the short story—through the limitations and precision of its form—hones a particular method of revealing voices and narratives stark in their ephemeral nature. To put it simply, the experience of reading a text that is succinct, and less sprawling in its size and plot than in longer forms, is recognizably different from other literary experiences, and many scholars have identified an emphasized loneliness here—if not a unique characteristic of the genre, it is one that nonetheless illuminates our understanding of it. At the extreme of this proposition, theorists such as Charles E. May believe that the short story produces a unique tone or even a particular mode of reality—an idea we will elaborate on shortly. Scholars have also theorized the ways in which the short story treats the prospect of closure perhaps distinctly from the novel. Susan Lohafer provides a strong overview of this work in her introduction to the section of Short Story Theory at a Crossroads devoted to endings, explaining how the genre can be “an exercise in sensibility and inference, [where readers 2 must] figure things out for themselves” (109). Noting the presence of stories that do not “resolve” themselves, many critics view short fiction as a form that conceals details and frustrates the prospect of closure (110), contributing to alarming effects that we perhaps do not see executed in the same ways as in the novel. It is the accentuated sense of ‘briefness’ or ‘compactness’ inherent in the form that often engenders fleeting narratives of emphasized loneliness. O'Connor's critical assertions—particularly concerning Gogol—as well as his creative work, have become representative of the 'classical short story.’ Although it cannot be ignored how his theory is invested in distinct historical and social contexts, such as Gogol’s bureaucratic Russia or the Irish War for Independence in O’Connor’s oft-anthologized story “Guests of the Nation,” one can also extrapolate the more general qualities of his arguments to suggest how they may apply to stories vested in other contexts or periods. My own manuscript, among its numerous other interests, questions whether