Long after my attention drifted from the page, the buzz and energy of Joyce Carol Oates' story "Amputee" from her collection Sourland Stories lingered. Then the word "amputee" became common in news articles following the Boston Marathon bombing. I kept thinking of legless Jane Erdley. "Amputee" had an unsatisfactory ending, and it stayed with me unfinished.
Cat Rambo's "Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain" also would not completely detach. I was watching "The Great and Powerful Oz" in the movie theatre and I kept looking at that feisty little China Girl and thinking of Rambo's porcelain Tikka frozen in orgasm and severed. It added a dimension. At first, Planet Porcelain was a beautiful, enjoyable read. In time, it gained significance.
Soak in these stories of erotic losses and fetishes, of love, fear and isolation.
Joyce Carol Oates: "Amputee"
Jane Erdley meets her lover in the library where she works. He asks her about James Tiptree, Jr. (A nod to the distinguished science-fiction writer Alice Sheldon who published as a man). This caught my attention as well as Jane Erdley's vintage clothing (thrift store chic like the striking women in Margaret Atwood stories). Right away, I understood the attraction to this eclectic, intellectual, independent young woman. Jane Erdley has prosthetic Step Up! legs and uses crutches. Her co-workers worry about her taking public transportation and living alone. They could not imagine she would take a married lover, but she has: "How do such things happen you ask & the answer is Quickly!" In her affair, her stumps and disability are eroticized. Her well-read lover, Tyrell, loves to carry her. "Anything that's unknown to me, I'm drawn to like a magnet," he says. He admits to fascinations with crippled women in his youth. When Jane Erdley sees Tyrell's wife and family, it becomes clear to her that her status as the other woman and her otherness as woman make of her a fetish. The author uses ampersands in place of "ands" as a symbol throughout the story, but refers to Jane Erdley by her first and last name as a unique, whole, remarkable entity. The story's ending is abbreviated. Despite assumptions about her limitations, frailties and reduced personal life, this is not the first time Jane Erdley has taken a lover and taken risks. "For to be loved is to bask in your power, like a coiled snake sunning itself on a rock. To love is a weakness. This weakness must be overcome."
Cat Rambo: "Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain"
Tikka works in the tourism bureau on her planet writing copy in the form of lists to attract tourists to her planet. Tikka is introduced through her job, her status in it, and her frustration with being told what to write. Sometimes this is frowned upon. Slush piles are filled with as many stories about disgruntled workers as there are fiction writers who would rather be writing than working day jobs. Still, these are our struggles. As a tour guide to her planet, the world Tikka introduces the reader to is a fascinating one that offers a unique perspective from which to explore our own weaknesses. Her lists become a beautiful literary device. The people on planet porcelain must refrain from worrying over the same thought lest they deepen their cracks visibly. "Were there any sorrows, any passions that might lead her thoughts along the same groove till it gave, eroded into madness?" Tikka asks herself. Vulnerabilities surface and can be seen. Cycling over the same trouble does break a person down. This science fiction setting shows a truth. On planet porcelain, people can also detach their limbs (although it is a difficult and painful process that often results in death). One of the tourist attractions Tikka guides us to is the Dedicatorium, a wall of detached limbs, formed by people driven to leave a piece of themselves behind in permanence. Tikka slowly falls in "love love careless love" with a human tourist. When she is completely vulnerable to her lover, he removes her foot as a souvenir (And he well knows the terror of the act — she has described it to him!). Afterwards, Tikka realizes that this act of betrayal may be a common fetish, an unpublicized tourist attraction. Her naivety is exposed for all to see and she must adapt. "Love surrounded her in a web of tendrils, unthinking action and reaction that drove life, all life, even hers."
These phantom stories linger. Cut off from the words, the ideas haunt. It's the magic of the short story form. Some novels achieve this too: Ninni Holmquist's The Unit and Yann Martel's Life of Pi come to mind. They strike as a quick, fun read and then bleed and hum.
In these two stories, severed limbs offer a magnetic fascination that attracts and repels, brings us in tight and invites distance. Life offers many opportunities to return to the stories and ask the questions they invite.
So what conclusions can be drawn from these tingling sensations and buzzing ideas? Maybe none. There's no doubt that we are strongly moved by our amputations and our losses, by our love, fear and loneliness. However, we see the world in our own ways and respond with different strategies. We are heroic, fallible, adaptable and defeated individuals. At the same time, great stories connect us through our common experience and shared truths — and these are two great stories.
Cat Rambo's "Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain" also would not completely detach. I was watching "The Great and Powerful Oz" in the movie theatre and I kept looking at that feisty little China Girl and thinking of Rambo's porcelain Tikka frozen in orgasm and severed. It added a dimension. At first, Planet Porcelain was a beautiful, enjoyable read. In time, it gained significance.
Soak in these stories of erotic losses and fetishes, of love, fear and isolation.
Joyce Carol Oates: "Amputee"
Jane Erdley meets her lover in the library where she works. He asks her about James Tiptree, Jr. (A nod to the distinguished science-fiction writer Alice Sheldon who published as a man). This caught my attention as well as Jane Erdley's vintage clothing (thrift store chic like the striking women in Margaret Atwood stories). Right away, I understood the attraction to this eclectic, intellectual, independent young woman. Jane Erdley has prosthetic Step Up! legs and uses crutches. Her co-workers worry about her taking public transportation and living alone. They could not imagine she would take a married lover, but she has: "How do such things happen you ask & the answer is Quickly!" In her affair, her stumps and disability are eroticized. Her well-read lover, Tyrell, loves to carry her. "Anything that's unknown to me, I'm drawn to like a magnet," he says. He admits to fascinations with crippled women in his youth. When Jane Erdley sees Tyrell's wife and family, it becomes clear to her that her status as the other woman and her otherness as woman make of her a fetish. The author uses ampersands in place of "ands" as a symbol throughout the story, but refers to Jane Erdley by her first and last name as a unique, whole, remarkable entity. The story's ending is abbreviated. Despite assumptions about her limitations, frailties and reduced personal life, this is not the first time Jane Erdley has taken a lover and taken risks. "For to be loved is to bask in your power, like a coiled snake sunning itself on a rock. To love is a weakness. This weakness must be overcome."
Cat Rambo: "Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain"
Tikka works in the tourism bureau on her planet writing copy in the form of lists to attract tourists to her planet. Tikka is introduced through her job, her status in it, and her frustration with being told what to write. Sometimes this is frowned upon. Slush piles are filled with as many stories about disgruntled workers as there are fiction writers who would rather be writing than working day jobs. Still, these are our struggles. As a tour guide to her planet, the world Tikka introduces the reader to is a fascinating one that offers a unique perspective from which to explore our own weaknesses. Her lists become a beautiful literary device. The people on planet porcelain must refrain from worrying over the same thought lest they deepen their cracks visibly. "Were there any sorrows, any passions that might lead her thoughts along the same groove till it gave, eroded into madness?" Tikka asks herself. Vulnerabilities surface and can be seen. Cycling over the same trouble does break a person down. This science fiction setting shows a truth. On planet porcelain, people can also detach their limbs (although it is a difficult and painful process that often results in death). One of the tourist attractions Tikka guides us to is the Dedicatorium, a wall of detached limbs, formed by people driven to leave a piece of themselves behind in permanence. Tikka slowly falls in "love love careless love" with a human tourist. When she is completely vulnerable to her lover, he removes her foot as a souvenir (And he well knows the terror of the act — she has described it to him!). Afterwards, Tikka realizes that this act of betrayal may be a common fetish, an unpublicized tourist attraction. Her naivety is exposed for all to see and she must adapt. "Love surrounded her in a web of tendrils, unthinking action and reaction that drove life, all life, even hers."
These phantom stories linger. Cut off from the words, the ideas haunt. It's the magic of the short story form. Some novels achieve this too: Ninni Holmquist's The Unit and Yann Martel's Life of Pi come to mind. They strike as a quick, fun read and then bleed and hum.
In these two stories, severed limbs offer a magnetic fascination that attracts and repels, brings us in tight and invites distance. Life offers many opportunities to return to the stories and ask the questions they invite.
- io9 features "Beautiful prosthetic legs that are made to be seen." Romanian artist Claudiu Candea draws images of women with their internal organs exposed featured on the blog Street Anatomy. Arunima Sinha becomes the first woman amputee to climb Mount Everest. We see beauty, attraction and possibility. There are no limitations.
- I watch a legless woman in my neighborhood practicing with her new prosthetic legs on her sidewalk. She's hesitant. She stumbles. She's inspiring, but not erotic. Later, I see her gardening beside her wheelchair. The prostheses never reappear. Were they too expensive? Too difficult? Undesirable?
- In its latest anti-smoking campaign, the U.S. government uses a below the knee amputee, Bill, to warn us away from the consequences. Indeed, this procedure due to uncontrolled diabetes is so common it has shorthand — BTK amputation. The image of Bill's severed leg is meant to be grotesque and frightening. It is horrifying the way diabetes ravages bodies and people lose their limbs, mobility and lives to it in slow stages of loss. What are we willing to give up? To accept? To lose? And, when?
- In The New York Times Angelina Jolie writes in "My Medical Choice" about having her breasts removed. Women gain Internet fame by showing their beautiful tattoos over mastectomy scars. These actions are awe-inspiring, terrifying and much discussed.
So what conclusions can be drawn from these tingling sensations and buzzing ideas? Maybe none. There's no doubt that we are strongly moved by our amputations and our losses, by our love, fear and loneliness. However, we see the world in our own ways and respond with different strategies. We are heroic, fallible, adaptable and defeated individuals. At the same time, great stories connect us through our common experience and shared truths — and these are two great stories.
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