written by yael-goldstein love

genres: science fiction, psychological thriller

this fall marks my return to the classroom after two years of being free from homework, exams, and lectures. i can honestly say i don’t mind, and that i maybe missed being in school more than i realized. 

currently, i am taking “writers on writing”, a class in which i am tasked with reading a new novel each week, and then am allowed the opportunity to converse with the author of each novel in real life during the following class period. 

a few weeks ago, the class was tasked with reading “The Possibilities”, a novel written by yael goldstein-love. 

this novel follows hannah, a new mother, as she navigates the demands and challenges of her early motherhood separated from her husband. hannah has everything under control, until her baby, jack, suddenly goes missing.

the plot traces hannah through different dimensions and time periods to save her child before everyone, including herself, forgets that jack exists. 

within the first few chapters of this novel, it felt as if i’d experienced whiplash. immediately, i was floored by how quickly the story was changing, and i was taken aback by the introduction of science fiction into the plot. i had no idea that this book would take me on a supernatural journey through different dimensions in search of a child. 

admittedly, I thought it would be a story that details the unsung hardships of motherhood, well within the normal confines and realities of what we believe motherhood to be. and, i was pleasantly surprised when I was proven wrong. 

this novel is an incredible piece of work, not just for how it impacts and transports the reader, but for how the author skillfully navigates a multitude of realms throughout the plot and manages to keep everything nicely wrapped. 

one of my main questions (that i was able to ask yael during class) was whether or not “The Possibilities” started as an idea without any elements of science or speculative fiction. i was especially interested in whether or not there was a version without the idea of “tessering” or traveling through space, since those ideas are not commonly associated with motherhood. her response was that she always knew the novel would involve the scientific aspect, which i thought was amazing. 

written by nalo hopkinson (2000)

genre: speculative fiction, bildungsroman

during the fall quarter of my senior year, i had the most riveting introduction to the genre of speculative fiction! i had the opportunity to take ENGL192SC: Speculations in Color under Dr. Cathy Thomas in the UCSB English Department. though i am a fiction writer, i’d never gravitated towards the genre of science fiction or fantasy.

i attribute that to the fact that i cannot write fantasy or science fiction pieces. my imagination is not so large that it can create entire supernatural worlds and pull characters and plot into existence. because of this, i used to stray away from science fiction novels for my own personal reading; i normally find myself in the realm of historical fiction.

however, i’ve always recognized the importance of science fiction to tell stories that transcend the realities of what we see in our world. after reading midnight robber and taking ENGL192SC, i was both mind-blown and inspired by the possibilities of science fiction, but more broadly speculative fiction. this novel is heavily influenced by afro-caribbean/afrofuturistic culture and contains cyberpunk elements.

in the end, this novel inspired my final project for the class, and later my published research for my fellowship. [side note: that final is published on my writing list as lilith’s legacy!]

i realized after reading midnight robber that there was a crucial element to the novel that enhanced the novel’s purpose as a bildungsroman: cultural myth-making is essential to understanding, re-developing, and re-defining the overarching female identity.

the novel is about a young girl named tan-tan who lives on a planet named Toussaint, populated by descendants of Caribbean immigrants on Earth, with her mother and father. tan-tan undergoes one traumatic event after another and is constantly being robbed of her self-identity and self-agency. you really can’t help but read through and wonder when (or if) she’ll ever reach a place of safety, and each page is even more jarring than the last.

but, in the beginning of the novel, it is introduced that tan-tan’s favorite Carnival character is the Midnight Robber, and she continuously references that character in her most fearful and terrifying moments. throughout the novel, Midnight Robber seems to blend with tan-tan as she begins to identify with his craftiness and characteristics, and she puts her own spin on the character, calling herself the Robber Queen.

by the end of the novel, tan-tan fights for her self-identity and fully embodies this character of the Robber Queen. from this novel, i remembered countless other cultural mythologies about women who did not fit into the norm and suffered terrible fates, or embodied monstrous characters, including: the White Lady from Quezon City, Deer Woman from the Central Plains Tribes in Oklahoma, Lilith in Jewish folklore, La Llorona from Aztec legends… the list just keeps going!

overall, midnight robber made me realize how important these stories are to re-defining the contemporary female identity, preserving culture through generations, and deconstructing patriarchal labels that are meant to subordinate.

written by tobias wolff

published in The New Yorker in September 1995

i was introduced to the short story, “bullet in the brain”, as a creative writing major at uc riverside, and i am a strong believer that it is one of those short stories you read and never forget. on a personal note, this story was incredibly useful to my development as a fiction writer due to wolff’s usage of character to drive his plot.

the story begins with a book critic named anders who finds himself waiting in a long line at the bank. he is introduced as cynical and cranky immediately from the beginning as he interacts with two women waiting in line and critiques everything around him harshly.

however, the situation changes as two robbers enter the bank and begin to rob everyone inside. anders maintains his cynicism and critical nature even as the two criminals brandish their guns and demand for money to be put in their bags, even commenting on the lines that the pair are using to execute the robbery.

one of the robbers dislikes anders’ attitude and ends up putting a bullet through his brain, hence the title of the story.

while this sounds like a story in which a grumpy book critic finally meets somewhat of a karmic end, it is actually a reflection on how easy it is to forget the essence of humanity and “the pleasure of respecting others”, and it’s all made possible by the way wolff constructs anders’ character.

Anders burst out laughing. He covered his mouth with both hands and said, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” then snorted helplessly through his fingers and said, “Capeesh, oh, God, capeesh,” and at that the man with the pistol raised the pistol and shot Anders right in the head.

for context, in the quote above, the robber is already holding the gun under anders’ jaw as he bursts out laughing. up until this moment, readers infer that anders is just a sour book critic with no capacity for empathy or human consideration. his behavior and actions up until this point also enforce this idea.

but, after anders is shot, his life “flashes” before his eyes and he remembers one moment in time that contradicts all that we know about him.

“Shortstop,” the boy says. “Short’s the best position they is.” Anders turns and looks at him. He wants to hear Coyle’s cousin repeat what he’s just said, but he knows better than to ask. The others will think he’s being a jerk, ragging the kid for his grammar. But that isn’t it, not at all—it’s that Anders is strangely roused, elated, by those final two words, their pure unexpectedness and their music. He takes the field in a trance, repeating them to himself.

instead of remembering all the “important” things, like his wife, his daughter, his first love, and his activism, anders’ last thought is of an instant in time where he respected the humanity of someone. he didn’t just respect it, but was ignited with excitement that there was a perspective other than his in the world.

we don’t find out this crucial information until the end as anders is dying, but the intention of withholding it is much more impactful to the overall message of the story.

written by robert olen butler

published in the new yorker in may 1995

when i was a sophomore at UCR, i had the opportunity of taking CRWT152: Beginning Fiction, a small workshop class that reads and analyzes outside fiction works to learn more about the craft of fiction and use those findings in our own original writing.

written by robert olen butler, “jealous husband returns in form of parrot” is still one of my favorite short fiction stories to this day.

the story begins with the narrator waking up as a parrot in a Houston pet store, presumably because he’s died. he’s surprised when the first customer that approaches the cage is actually his wife, who doesn’t realize the parrot she’s petting (and buying) is her husband.

the husband realizes that his wife is at the pet store with another man, and that the man seems to be her current lover in the story’s reality, forcing the husband to reflect on his own emotions from both his human and parrot life.

upon reading this story for the first time, i was most intrigued by butler’s usage of magical realism, setting, and voice to outline the inner-thoughts of the narrator as he examines his past life and analyzes his wife’s relationship to her current lover. i also had many questions as i continued to read: what happened to this narrator? is he a trustworthy narrator? how did he find himself in this position?

“She smiles at this and she opens the door to my cage. "Up," I say, meaning, Is there no place for me in this world where I can be free of this terrible sense of others?”

i was also extremely moved (to tears, literally) during certain parts where language was simply not enough to convey the narrator’s thoughts, like in the quote above. the limitation of language was relevant to the overall message of the story and how the narrator always felt like he was unable to communicate his inner-thoughts to his wife—human or parrot.