Iris
Humanities
Creative Writing Program: Fiction Concentration
My submission is an excerpt from my speculative fiction novel. The setting mirrors contemporary American society while incorporating fantastical elements, thereby creating an altered dynamic in which dark-eyed people occupy a prestigious place in society and "pale-eyed people" (people with light eyes) constitute the “oppressed.” Working within the realm of speculative fiction has been essential in that it has enabled me to attempt to consider the polarizing nature of ethnic and racial concepts without immediately evoking ingrained notions associated with such terms as “white” and “black.”
Central to the novel is the fact that the narrator is a “nonpareil,” or a being who comes from elsewhere and observes society and its inhabitants. The figure of the nonpareil is meant to stand in for someone who exists as an outsider of a particular society or culture. The outsider may, even while believing that he or she remains impartial, offer up certain critiques of what transpires within that society or culture. However, in the figure of the nonpareil, one sees that as these observers increasingly participate within the society they are watching, they too become caught up in the same structures and ideologies that they previously remarked upon in a supposedly objective manner. This is meant to comment upon the difficulty of escaping or altering entrenched institutions and structures, particularly patriarchy; in this part of the novel, female characters are limited in their presence.
Much of my novel is concerned with mean-making, the manner in which people use stories to define themselves, and issues of communication. I utilize a first person narrator who watches and speaks about another character, thus creating a kind of third person narrative, as a means of considering the extent to which we are qualified to speak for others or even ourselves. In this way, references to things which are not said, or scenes that are disjointed, or convey a certain coldness and detachment, are intended to illustrate a struggle to use language to express emotion, memory, and experience. Thus the act of writing becomes an attempt to dispel the silence which often persists as a result of trauma and stifles the process of recovery and reconciliation. It is through the use of words that one can re-imagine, revive, and reclaim that which one once thought was dead or seemingly lost.
