Honors Theses
Date of Award
2011
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
English
First Advisor
John Brandon
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
This collection represents my best writing culled from four years of undergraduate study. Encouragingly, I wrote the vast majority of the collection within the past year, which points to the fact that I am still improving and evolving as a writer. These stories fill various American landscapes, but I believe the emotional landscapes share a common thread. The characters strive not to find a purpose in their lives, but to reject the idea of life having a purpose at all. Soldier On, Babies,” the oldest story in the collection and a major turning point in my writing, tells of a young nurse breaking from a surreal cycle of doctors chasing nurses to birth a baby daughter underneath an overpass. As she raises her daughter, the woman tries to steer her away from the same chase of doctors after nurses, lawyers after secretaries, politicians after aides, and professors after graduate students. She fails. My intent is that her failure and other characters' failures throughout this collection do not communicate a sense of cynicism or a lack of empathy. These characters are ultimately able to find comfort in the uncertainties and the absurdities. In “Seaplanes,” two young men come together quite un-heroically to fight “Set Me Up With Your Niece” finds a man looking Concerning the Last Great Wave of Pleasures” watches a young man sweep ubiquitous death under the rug in favor of ecstatic sexual fantasies. Finally, “Florida Pornographic” documents my attempt at something Southern Gothic and a boy's attempt at first base. Throughout, 1 hope the writing feels urgent, but never for fear of failure.
Recommended Citation
Stringer, Steven William, "American Pornographic: A Collection of Short Stories" (2011). Honors Theses. 2431.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/2431
Accessibility Status
Searchable text