Reader's Diary #435- Joyce Carol Oates: Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

Short Story Monday

When I first started Short Story Mondays a couple years back, I had thought it would take off as a weekly feature that many other litbloggers would take up. I had hopes of it following in the footsteps of the wildly popular Poetry Fridays feature in which so many litbloggers participate. Eventually I'd even follow Poetry Fridays protocol, adding a Mr. Linky button to each week's post. I asked fellow bloggers to review a single short story, a collection of short stories, or even try their hand at writing their very own. Basically, any short story themed post would work. Then, on Mondays, I suggested they leave their links on my post, and we could all gather around to drink chai tea, read one another's posts and join hands and sing in the spirit of harmony and peace. Alas, it was not to be. A few people showed interest but the number of participants never seemed to grow. I got really desperate and even tried franchising it out, asking some of the more popular crowd to take a shot at hosting it. A few did, but still, it fizzled. So, while I continued on with the feature, I stopped trying to recruit others. Oh well, at least it's peaceful in my little low-rated corner of the blogging world.

Then, last week, blogger Teddy Rose approached me and asked if I'd consider starting it up again. Shortly after, so did Intergalactic Bookworm. Well, whadayaknow? 2 people! I like those numbers! I'm dusting off the old fedora and coming out of retirement. For the next couple of weeks or so (longer if it catches on), I'll be adding Mr. Linky again for anyone who wishes to add a link to their own Short Story Monday posts (see above paragraph for post ideas). If you need a short story to read, I usually find mine online. In fact, links to all the short stories I reviewed last year can be found here.

Moving on to this week's story, I'm reviewing Joyce Carol Oates' "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"

Wandering Coyote recently told me her favourite short story was Oates' "How I Contemplated the World from the Detroit House of Correction and Began My Life Over Again". I know Wandering Coyote about as well as I know Joyce Carol Oates, so I figured I could remedy that somewhat by reading the story. But, I searched and searched and couldn't find it anywhere online. I did, however, find the "Where Are You Going" story.

It's a nasty piece of work. Not nasty in the poor writing sense, but just nasty-nasty. I'd call it horror, but I'm afraid it would conjure up images of zombies or mutant frogs that eat babies. It's really more life-like horror than that.

What makes it so particularly nasty is Oates' approach to the victim. There seems to be an almost perverse need to bring her down, as if the predator in the story is merely one of Oates' puppets.

For not one second am I faulting Oates or her writing. I was thoroughly impressed and perplexed by how Oates could accomplish such a mood. Early on, it became clear that Oates was out to get Connie, so how was it that I felt sorry for Connie? Shouldn't I feel the same as the author? Oates is no Humbert Humbert after all.

I think Oates first gets us on side with Connie by giving her a condescending, judgmental mother. It aroused my sympathy, as I suspect it was supposed to, and I thought, "of course Connie's shallow and frivolous; she's a teenager! Lighten up already!" And with that frame of mind, I lightened up, and went along down memory lane with Connie and those carefree summers of my teenage years. When I was young and naive...

Check out these other Short Story Monday posts:

Teddy reviews a couple short stories: F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and Jennifer Egan's "Found Objects". Eva is also in with a Fitzgerald story, "Bernice Bobs Her Hair".
Sandra reviews a collection of short stories by Christopher Meeks called Months and Seasons.
Laza is working through Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber, a collection of short story retakes of classic fairy tales. This week she reviews "The Bloody Chamber", "The Courtship of Mr. Lyon" and "The Tiger's Bride."
J.S. Peyton reviews a short by Jack Pendarvis called "Our Spring Catalogue".
C.B. James reviews a short story from Richard Lange's Dead Boys, called "The Bogo-Indian Defense."
J.C. Montgomery reviews "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
Book Psmith reviews a Sherlock Holmes story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: "The Red-Headed League."
Jan in Edmonds reviews a very short story by Helen Sears called "Demonstration".
Check 'em out!