What I find interesting about "The Vegetational Fatherhood" is the dichotomy between Realism and Fantasy, as worlds or even as personal beliefs. The story certainly takes place in a world where magic is NOT expected or normal, as opposed to what is generally the case in fairytales. The mother is not only horrified by her daughter's transformation into a rosebush before bed, but absolutely confused. The condemnation of the mother and doctor to an asylum is the ultimate in realism: not only does this world discount magic as an alibi, but the verdict (or treatment) is so very clinical.
The storyteller, however, knows better. He tells the story as if these poor people simply do not know about magic, that they sadly do not understand that the world is of COURSE full of magic, and implies that the reader ought to know their flaw as well. The tone is coy and knowing, and as a reader, just thinking about any aspect of the story as though the world WERE NOT magical is to feel very stupid indeed. This makes the tale very potently, albeit uniquely, a fairytale.
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The literary snob in me wants to freak out and declare how very "postmodern!" it is to write a pseudo-fairy tale where the characters do not just accept magic and the supernatural as a part of the everyday, thereby breaking down one of the key elements that make a fairy tale a fairy tale...but I won't.
ReplyDeleteI didn't even consider the storyteller as a part, contributing to the story itself. It is interesting how it was completely normal for him, but everyone else was not prone to or exposed to magic otherwise.
ReplyDeleteIt is also interesting that the realist mother can't grasp who the father is. Even when the child says that she transforms into a rosebush in memory of her father, the mother still has no idea. She can't comprehend the magic, while the girl, who is part of nature is able to embrace magic just as the narrator. To the romantic the magic of nature is a given fact
ReplyDeleteNot only do you make an interesting point about the role of magic in the story, but I also like that you discuss the narrator's view of the magic.
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