Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 1999 Eleven seconds underwater Matthew .W Vadnais Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the Fiction Commons Recommended Citation Vadnais, Matthew W., "Eleven seconds underwater" (1999). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 177. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/177 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Eleven seconds underwater by Matthew William Vadnais A thesis submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Major: English (Creative Writing) Major Professor: Barbara Haas Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 1999 Copyright© Matthew William Vadnais, 1999. All rights reserved 11 Graduate College Iowa State University This is to certify that the Master's Thesis of Matthew William Vadnais has met the thesis requirements of Iowa State University Signature redacted for privacy Major Professor Signature redacted for privacy For the Major Program Signature redacted for privacy For the Graduate College iii For my parents for knowing how to let go. For Allen Blair, Joshua Vadnais, and Patrick Wilson for knowing how to hold on. And for Mary Ann Hudson for everything else. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE vi PARK MEMO RE: THE MYTH OF PROLOGUE 1 PART I. SHAPINGS AND TRIBUTARIES 4 CHAPTER 1. EARLY CURFEWS 5 PARK MEMO RE: MISSION STATEMENT 11 PART II. WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE STAY IN A FLOOD PLANE 116 CHAPTER2. SPACEMAN'S LOG 117 CHAPTER 3. LIBERATING A MEMOIR 141 CHAPTER 4. AD OUT 162 CHAPTER 5. HOW WE AUDITION 189 PARK MEMO RE: SABOTAGE 197 PARTID. CONTINENTALDIVIDE 202 CHAPTER 6. INTER-TW ANGLED; NIGHT TO DAY 203 PARK MEMO RE: MARKETING AND THE PREVENTION OF DISASTER 268 PART N. SANDBAGGING 272 CHAPTER 7. SOUTH, UPSTREAM 273 CHAPTER 8. WRECKAGE 298 CHAPTER 9. KICK, A VERB 316 CHAPTER 10. NORTHERN LIGHTS IN EULOGY 330 PARK MEMO RE: EXPANSION 338 PARTV. MY DIASPORA 340 PARK MEMO RE: MYTH OF EPILOGUE 361 v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Without Barbara Haas's patience, understanding, and careful eye for what I was really trying to do in this book, this would be an entirely different book. Additionally, my compatriots here in the Creative Writing department have put up with me well, offering to distract with Frisbee golf, chess, Nintendo, and always conversation, when this book was getting the best of me; I would be even crazier without: Mary Ann Hudson, Ander Monson, Joshua Borgman, Andy Segedi, and Gunnar Bennediksson. Also, instructors who have worked with my writing have done nothing but aid and abet this process: Neal Bowers, Joe Geha, and Debra Marquart. While this is a book of fiction the Flood of 1997 was very real, and without my home cities of Grand Forks, North Dakota and Crookston, Minnesota, this wouldn't have been possible. Finally, though individual characters are completely and totally fictional, the people I have known in my home cities are all over this book. While resemblance to individual characters is accidental, without the support and occasional dysfunction given to me by Patrick, Allen, Darin, Polly, Tom, Darren, Kim, Scott D., Scott B., Marc, Jessica P., Jessica S., Shelly, Allison A., Allison T, Ken, Jen, Christel, Tyler, Darby, Kara, Craig, Nita, C.J., Chris, Dave, Paul, Carmen, Christine, Christina, Kevin, Joel, Nathan, Travis, and a score of other northerners, there would have been no story here. vi PREFACE This is a work of fiction. Though it is a single story I discovered in writing it that it could not, at least by me, be told in a single voice. Consequently, there are many sub-divisions that defy a more conventional format. The novel is still broken into chapters but because each chapter is written in the voice of a separate character, different fonts are used. Additionally, the novel was too fragmented with so many voices so it, like many contemporary novels, is broken into parts that contain chapters which are linked by time, topic, and movement. The only other major deviations from a more conventional, academic format are "PARK MEMOS" which function both to divide the parts of the novel as well as offer perspective that is not directly located within a single character or voice. 1 Eleven seconds underwater Matthew William Vadnais Major Professor: Barbara Haas Iowa State University Eleven seconds underwater is an original novel that uses a series of first person narratives to weave the story of the Grand Forks flood of 1997 and, in particular, its effects upon a community forged in a river valley famous for its winters. The book uses theses narratives to explore connection, loss, self, and ultimately the difficulties of writing something meaningful about one's own life and experiences. PARK MEMO RE: THE MYTH OF PROLOGUE "The park needs a legend." "Like a map?" "Dumbass you. Legend alia myth, not legend alia decoder ring." "You're using, if I may interject my post-factually liberated knowledge, the word alia any way but correctly." "Even up then, after that doozy of a last sentence." "Even up then," "So what's with this legend business." "To explain. Place needs history. Park needs history. A mythos. A name with meaning." "Gotta name, Louis. Gatta a righteous good name. Spider Park! Latin for hot shit, I think." "Or bullshit. An' it is a righteous good name. But not good enough without something behind it. Gotta mean something- stand for something non-arbitrary ... a story or whimsy. Want that I should brake into linguistic theory now?" "No want that you should. But this word, spider, this symbol does stand for something. Somethin' good and solid and red and white and ... " "Freekin' cold. No offense to the lovely spider we are sitting on but nothing metal, in and of itself, is a proper mythos." "Woah! Your talking objective truth now, baby. Listen up, yo! Nothin' made of metal. What about the Chrysler building? Statue of Liberty's gotta mythos to it." "What was Latin for hot shit? Besides, dogma isn't mythos." "Yeah-yeah. So fine, park needs mythology, a history unearthed." "And we get to invent it." "Nah. Cultivate it. It's been here for a long time." "Right." "The park supersedes anything, is one and the same." 2 "Right. No such thing as separate. The myth and the park are the same. No such thing as history. The park is timeless. The past is right here." "So it is like a map legend .. " "I suppose. We just need to sit here a while to get at it." "Right. Park was created when Reggie, big spider, sat down to think about where to get some weed? I can still see his shadow if I squint. That sort of thing." "Perhaps less urban." "What's the name of our friend, the mythic spider?" "Reggie works for me. 'ts not just my mythos." "Right. So what am I givin' up if we name it Reggie." "Intent. Size and degree of hirsute-ness." "Even up, then?" "Even up then." "So is it Reggie?" "I dunno, you still like Reggie?" "Nah. Obstinate bastard, that Reggie." "Fine." "Wiggly wumpus! Now that's a dignified name for a spider." "Or a pee-pee." "Speaking of dignified names." "Nomenclature for the people!" "You're right. Sounds like crotch." "Wiggly-wumpus has been vetoed," "And tabled," "And mine's been neglected for eighteen very long years," "Livin' in sin and sadness ... " "No good Iovin"' "No good Iovin'. How about Jambone?" "For the spider?" 3 "Yeah." "As in French for ham?" "Nah, Ukrainian for nice cucumbers." "French for ham." "Jambone! Mighty big spider." "Righteous big." "Righteous. " "Screw it. Name the spider later?" "Right on. But we name it." "Right." "This Park needs a mythos." "We need a smoke." "Two of 'em." "At least." "A Mythos takes time." "A Mythos takes Iovin'." "A Mythos takes livin'." "A Mythos is in the livin'." "Right." "No such thing as prologue." "Set up and story are the same." "A spider sittin' down for some shade." "Two bored boys to name it." "A mythos in the making." "A mythos made." 4 PART I. SHAPINGS AND TRIBUTARIES (1982-1991) 5 CHAPTER 1. EARLY CURFEWS --Jacob Lewis-- "Space and time are inter-twangled." It was my only brother William who said it. He pushed up his glasses, closed his crooked teeth mouth and stood awkward solid, waiting half-proud to see if it made sense. We, evidently, were the judges of such things and Jimmy Delcro's' garage was as good a den of inquiry as anywhere. It was too early for us to be a posse' or we would've been one. We were just a run of the mill group, maybe the geeks, maybe the smart kids, maybe a pack of ninjas. Most of us were there when William said it, an early dogma in a series of adolescent, boyish, nerdy dogmas. Greased up in old clothes our mothers let us wear, we were underage mechanics for the afternoon, screwing around with WD-40, our bikes, and some of Jimmy Delcro's father's tools. Our fingers were shadow, sticky and black. We had large stains down faded blue jeans and sweatshirts. No uniforms kept the philosophy down. William, swallowed, uncomfortable holding a wrench. He repeated himself. "Space," he said, "and time," he said, "are inter-twangled." I watched Jimmy Delcro listen.