Midwestern Girl would very much like to be excluded from this narrative
October 21, 2017 7:46 AM Subscribe
A man travels from New York to Florida. There’s no reason for Midwestern Girl to be in this story, but there she is in Virginia at a rest stop, gas pump in her hand. Iowa, the man says, looking at her car’s tags. You’re a long way from home.
Am I? she wonders.
Am I? she wonders.
I did and it was.
posted by Flannery Culp at 8:04 AM on October 21, 2017
posted by Flannery Culp at 8:04 AM on October 21, 2017
I like this. Have dated women from {thinks hard over distant memories} Ohio, Wisconsin and Minnesota over the decades, co-habiting with two, and seeing the interactions with others, heck yeah nodded a lot through this.
posted by Wordshore at 8:20 AM on October 21, 2017
posted by Wordshore at 8:20 AM on October 21, 2017
"She has heard herself say that she misses its squeaky cheese curds, its deep snows..."
Well, apparently I am a midwestern girl.
posted by vernondalhart at 8:22 AM on October 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
Well, apparently I am a midwestern girl.
posted by vernondalhart at 8:22 AM on October 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
Oh that's the good shit.
posted by fleacircus at 8:27 AM on October 21, 2017
posted by fleacircus at 8:27 AM on October 21, 2017
A poke in the eye to some shitty literary cliches. And funny.
posted by emjaybee at 8:42 AM on October 21, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by emjaybee at 8:42 AM on October 21, 2017 [9 favorites]
that reminds me, i've got to go get some corn at the supermarket to feed my daughter
posted by pyramid termite at 9:13 AM on October 21, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by pyramid termite at 9:13 AM on October 21, 2017 [2 favorites]
I don't know what it says about me that I don't recognize this literary cliche at all. Actually, I think it says that I've completely stopped reading literary fiction by middle-class white American dudes, which isn't something that particularly bothers me.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 9:14 AM on October 21, 2017 [64 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 9:14 AM on October 21, 2017 [64 favorites]
This is amazing. The best science fiction story I have read in a while.
posted by 256 at 9:18 AM on October 21, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by 256 at 9:18 AM on October 21, 2017 [2 favorites]
I love it, says this modestly-tattooed, non-suicide, Portland Girl.
posted by amanda at 9:34 AM on October 21, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by amanda at 9:34 AM on October 21, 2017 [5 favorites]
Mid-western girls, for those occasions in your Great Novel when a manic pixie would be just a bit too revealing of your lost youth.
posted by bonehead at 9:43 AM on October 21, 2017 [33 favorites]
posted by bonehead at 9:43 AM on October 21, 2017 [33 favorites]
Serious question, specifically what work/work(s) is this referencing? I'm not familiar with this trope either. Is this like the opposite of MPDG but the man is still the main character?
posted by eeek at 10:01 AM on October 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by eeek at 10:01 AM on October 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
This story would perhaps benefit from footnotes.
posted by Flashman at 10:04 AM on October 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Flashman at 10:04 AM on October 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
This Rust Belt Girl enjoyed the hell out of this, thanks for posting it!
posted by everybody had matching towels at 10:21 AM on October 21, 2017
posted by everybody had matching towels at 10:21 AM on October 21, 2017
Weirdly enough, something about this story makes me want to leave the West Coast to live somewhere in Middle America. I think it’s some kind of visceral reaction against the New York Literary Fiction world that likes to use "Midwestern Girl" as a walk-on character.
This is especially weird because I have spent my entire life on one coast or another (Gulf👉🏾West👉🏾Gulf👉🏾East👉🏾Northwest, fwiw) and really doubt I’d feel at home in Middle America in a lot of ways. (We will discount the part of me that really, really wants to go live in the American desert; that’s a very different place than where this piece is making me want to go.)
posted by egypturnash at 10:21 AM on October 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
This is especially weird because I have spent my entire life on one coast or another (Gulf👉🏾West👉🏾Gulf👉🏾East👉🏾Northwest, fwiw) and really doubt I’d feel at home in Middle America in a lot of ways. (We will discount the part of me that really, really wants to go live in the American desert; that’s a very different place than where this piece is making me want to go.)
posted by egypturnash at 10:21 AM on October 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
Flyover country won't make itself.
posted by doctornemo at 10:33 AM on October 21, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by doctornemo at 10:33 AM on October 21, 2017 [2 favorites]
I don't know what it says about me that I don't recognize this literary cliche at all.
I think it says you're not a Midwestern girl. It's much more irritating when cliches are about "you."
posted by pangolin party at 10:35 AM on October 21, 2017 [8 favorites]
I think it says you're not a Midwestern girl. It's much more irritating when cliches are about "you."
posted by pangolin party at 10:35 AM on October 21, 2017 [8 favorites]
What, no English professor to tell the Midwestern Girl that his wife doesn't understand him?
posted by Ber at 10:45 AM on October 21, 2017 [32 favorites]
posted by Ber at 10:45 AM on October 21, 2017 [32 favorites]
The protagonist goes to New York City (this she knows—it is what a protagonist must do)
Damn dude. As a Wisconsin girl who once moved to California because it is what a protagonist must do (or so I wrote in my blog as a 17-year-old), this stings. But also, in my late teens I think I wanted to be the Midwestern Girl. I thought of myself as the protagonist, but in fact I was perfectly happy to be a set piece in some coastie's story. This was the Garden State era and I wasn't skinny enough to be a Manic Pixie, and I hadn't yet figured out that women could actually be the fucking protagonist, or what that would look like.
(I've been back in the Midwest for almost 10 years now, natch, because that is also what midwestern protagonists must do. Turns out there are plenty of stories here, and fewer men who think of me as a pretty but fundamentally uninteresting curiosity.)
posted by goodbyewaffles at 10:55 AM on October 21, 2017 [14 favorites]
Damn dude. As a Wisconsin girl who once moved to California because it is what a protagonist must do (or so I wrote in my blog as a 17-year-old), this stings. But also, in my late teens I think I wanted to be the Midwestern Girl. I thought of myself as the protagonist, but in fact I was perfectly happy to be a set piece in some coastie's story. This was the Garden State era and I wasn't skinny enough to be a Manic Pixie, and I hadn't yet figured out that women could actually be the fucking protagonist, or what that would look like.
(I've been back in the Midwest for almost 10 years now, natch, because that is also what midwestern protagonists must do. Turns out there are plenty of stories here, and fewer men who think of me as a pretty but fundamentally uninteresting curiosity.)
posted by goodbyewaffles at 10:55 AM on October 21, 2017 [14 favorites]
Oh man, I liked that a lot. All of it felt overly familiar. This part:
You know Minneapolis is in Minnesota, Omaha is in Nebraska, but that doesn’t mean anything, a location only and yet more than a list of miles from everywhere else, a list of places it isn’t. The Dakotas. The Plains. The Prairie. The Badlands. The Driftless Area. You feel the Midwest spread out, form an unfamiliar, unwieldy constellation.
kinda cracked me up, because as a lifelong Midwesterner (Iowan by birth, Nebraskan for college, Chicagoan for adult life), this is how it almost always feels when other people describe the Midwest. I don't romanticize where I came from, but I do still occasionally get protective of it when I tell people where I'm from and see a sneer starting to form.
posted by protocoach at 10:58 AM on October 21, 2017 [11 favorites]
You know Minneapolis is in Minnesota, Omaha is in Nebraska, but that doesn’t mean anything, a location only and yet more than a list of miles from everywhere else, a list of places it isn’t. The Dakotas. The Plains. The Prairie. The Badlands. The Driftless Area. You feel the Midwest spread out, form an unfamiliar, unwieldy constellation.
kinda cracked me up, because as a lifelong Midwesterner (Iowan by birth, Nebraskan for college, Chicagoan for adult life), this is how it almost always feels when other people describe the Midwest. I don't romanticize where I came from, but I do still occasionally get protective of it when I tell people where I'm from and see a sneer starting to form.
posted by protocoach at 10:58 AM on October 21, 2017 [11 favorites]
I think it says you're not a Midwestern girl. It's much more irritating when cliches are about "you."
I'm a Midwestern girl and I don't recognize this cliche either. However, I pretty much exclusively read fantasy and sci-fi, and the kind of fiction that would have this kind of trope is the kind of fiction I run screaming from, so.
That said, I can completely, 100% imagine and believe it being a cliche in white middle-class American dude literary fiction. Like, it makes perfect sense. I just had never heard of it before because I don't read realistic fiction about average-or-worse men muddling about trying to find themselves. I mean, what's the point if he doesn't also have to deal with some strange quirk of the universe such as dragons, the inconvenience of wings, or every building in a 5 mile radius mysteriously turning into a coffee shop in less than 36 hours (shout out to A City Dreaming)?
Anyway, I didn't need to be familiar with this cliche to love this piece. As soon as it was introduced I was like, "Oh god, I can imagine a dude writing this" and that's all I needed.
posted by brook horse at 11:02 AM on October 21, 2017 [17 favorites]
I'm a Midwestern girl and I don't recognize this cliche either. However, I pretty much exclusively read fantasy and sci-fi, and the kind of fiction that would have this kind of trope is the kind of fiction I run screaming from, so.
That said, I can completely, 100% imagine and believe it being a cliche in white middle-class American dude literary fiction. Like, it makes perfect sense. I just had never heard of it before because I don't read realistic fiction about average-or-worse men muddling about trying to find themselves. I mean, what's the point if he doesn't also have to deal with some strange quirk of the universe such as dragons, the inconvenience of wings, or every building in a 5 mile radius mysteriously turning into a coffee shop in less than 36 hours (shout out to A City Dreaming)?
Anyway, I didn't need to be familiar with this cliche to love this piece. As soon as it was introduced I was like, "Oh god, I can imagine a dude writing this" and that's all I needed.
posted by brook horse at 11:02 AM on October 21, 2017 [17 favorites]
Personally, I represent your still-unsettled feelings about your mother and how that affects all of your relationships as an adult.
Just so you know, in case you run into me.
posted by kyrademon at 11:12 AM on October 21, 2017 [36 favorites]
Just so you know, in case you run into me.
posted by kyrademon at 11:12 AM on October 21, 2017 [36 favorites]
wants to go live in the American desert; that’s a very different place than where this piece is making me want to go
That might depend on the American desert to which you're referring...
posted by elsietheeel at 11:20 AM on October 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
That might depend on the American desert to which you're referring...
posted by elsietheeel at 11:20 AM on October 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
I think it says you're not a Midwestern girl. It's much more irritating when cliches are about "you."Not by birth, but I've lived in the Midwest for twenty years and in Iowa for almost ten, and I'm reasonably sensitive to the ways that the rest of the country condescends to people from the Midwest. I think I'm just reading the wrong (which is to say the right) books.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:01 PM on October 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
Yeah, if you don't recognize the trope because you've avoided the kinds of books it features in... well, I don't seek them out any more either, but I did when I was trying to make friends with people (men and women) who seemed to be Very Interested in Literature in college and my early twenties. The example that immediately sprang to mind was from a short story by David Foster Wallace (surprise!), but it's also in places like Slaughterhouse-Five - remember Billy Pilgrim's wife?
The whole "ample breasts" bit, especially contrasted with the "small and firm and high" breasts of the California Girl, hit me in the gut. Even more than the guilelessness, it always seemed to me that Midwestern Girl's defining feature - as in both of the examples above - was her weight.
posted by Anita Bath at 12:43 PM on October 21, 2017 [9 favorites]
The whole "ample breasts" bit, especially contrasted with the "small and firm and high" breasts of the California Girl, hit me in the gut. Even more than the guilelessness, it always seemed to me that Midwestern Girl's defining feature - as in both of the examples above - was her weight.
posted by Anita Bath at 12:43 PM on October 21, 2017 [9 favorites]
Her physical weight makes her her metaphysical weight neglible. It makes her disposable. She can never be desirable, memorable, relevant or meaningful, because those are all things ample-breasted, "pillowy," non-MPDG Midwestern Girls simply are not allowed to ever ever be.
MG never impacts the story, she just exists as needed to perform a function. She's a tool to be used, a resource to be consumed, by the author/protagonist. Because who really cares about a fat girl from Iowa?
MG will either: support/echo/facilitate the protagonist's choices, presenting an archetypical mother figure to validate the hero's choices (thus validating the author, who in those moments has probably written the protagonist as a fairly direct representation of himself), or;
She will warn him against (or sadly/wryly/ruefully opine on) those choices, presenting the same mother figure- but this time she doesn't validate him, she's just placed in his path to allow a change of direction or alternate choice to seem more appropriate than it would have otherwise. Like an ample-breasted tree branch altering the path of a stream.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 2:21 PM on October 21, 2017 [21 favorites]
MG never impacts the story, she just exists as needed to perform a function. She's a tool to be used, a resource to be consumed, by the author/protagonist. Because who really cares about a fat girl from Iowa?
MG will either: support/echo/facilitate the protagonist's choices, presenting an archetypical mother figure to validate the hero's choices (thus validating the author, who in those moments has probably written the protagonist as a fairly direct representation of himself), or;
She will warn him against (or sadly/wryly/ruefully opine on) those choices, presenting the same mother figure- but this time she doesn't validate him, she's just placed in his path to allow a change of direction or alternate choice to seem more appropriate than it would have otherwise. Like an ample-breasted tree branch altering the path of a stream.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 2:21 PM on October 21, 2017 [21 favorites]
This is perfect.
posted by Grandysaur at 2:22 PM on October 21, 2017
posted by Grandysaur at 2:22 PM on October 21, 2017
Interesting, I didn't recognize the trope either, but also read very little fiction. It sounds annoying, though.
posted by Miko at 2:24 PM on October 21, 2017
posted by Miko at 2:24 PM on October 21, 2017
... Like an ample-breasted tree branch altering the path of a stream.
*snort*
Thanks for that.
posted by Anita Bath at 2:32 PM on October 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
*snort*
Thanks for that.
posted by Anita Bath at 2:32 PM on October 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
I don't know what it says about me that I don't recognize this literary cliche at all. Actually, I think it says that I've completely stopped reading literary fiction by middle-class white American dudes, which isn't something that particularly bothers me.
Ah yes, that notable pastime of the American middle class: writing literary fiction.
posted by R.F.Simpson at 2:37 PM on October 21, 2017 [5 favorites]
Ah yes, that notable pastime of the American middle class: writing literary fiction.
posted by R.F.Simpson at 2:37 PM on October 21, 2017 [5 favorites]
> "Ah yes, that notable pastime of the American middle class: writing literary fiction."
Well, I mean ... Yes?
That is, not everyone I know who is middle class writes literary fiction, but everyone I know who writes literary fiction is either middle class or was raised middle class and the only reason they might not technically be middle class now is that they're not making a lot of money because they write literary fiction.
posted by kyrademon at 3:13 PM on October 21, 2017 [7 favorites]
Well, I mean ... Yes?
That is, not everyone I know who is middle class writes literary fiction, but everyone I know who writes literary fiction is either middle class or was raised middle class and the only reason they might not technically be middle class now is that they're not making a lot of money because they write literary fiction.
posted by kyrademon at 3:13 PM on October 21, 2017 [7 favorites]
lol who the fuck would be writing all this shitty “literary” fiction if not the middle class?
posted by stoneandstar at 3:18 PM on October 21, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by stoneandstar at 3:18 PM on October 21, 2017 [4 favorites]
I guess maybe most dudely literary fiction writers are upper-middle-class rather than middle-middle-class. I don't know: I'm definitely not keeping score. I just know that I no longer feel guilty about not reading Jonathan Safran Franzen Foster-Wallace or whoever the dudely smart-person novelist of the moment is. Because while there is nothing wrong with the delicate ennui of the privileged white dude entering middle age, it's not any more important than anything else.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 3:41 PM on October 21, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 3:41 PM on October 21, 2017 [9 favorites]
everyone I know who writes literary fiction is either middle class or was raised middle class
I don't know about that assertion, I mean, Zadie Smith, Junot Diaz come immediately to mind. But maybe exceptions prove rule - there have been any number of beard-scratchy essays in recent years about whether the dominance of high-tuition MFA programs, and the massive selection bias in their students, produce a particular kind of middle-class-male-ennui writer has dominated published fiction with a particular kind of approved perspective, and also tends to publish other writers like them through the network effects of publishing house work, literary magazine editing, etc, and so has narrowed "literary fiction" perspectives. So I could see if you read a lot of those things you might run across a lot of Midwestern Girls.
posted by Miko at 4:05 PM on October 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
I don't know about that assertion, I mean, Zadie Smith, Junot Diaz come immediately to mind. But maybe exceptions prove rule - there have been any number of beard-scratchy essays in recent years about whether the dominance of high-tuition MFA programs, and the massive selection bias in their students, produce a particular kind of middle-class-male-ennui writer has dominated published fiction with a particular kind of approved perspective, and also tends to publish other writers like them through the network effects of publishing house work, literary magazine editing, etc, and so has narrowed "literary fiction" perspectives. So I could see if you read a lot of those things you might run across a lot of Midwestern Girls.
posted by Miko at 4:05 PM on October 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
I'm a Midwestern girl and I don't recognize this cliche either. However, I pretty much exclusively read fantasy and sci-fi, and the kind of fiction that would have this kind of trope is the kind of fiction I run screaming from, so.
Well, let's take a moment from twisting our braids, to consider that the cliches for walk- in characters in standard fantasy and SF tend to be even worse.
posted by happyroach at 4:13 PM on October 21, 2017 [7 favorites]
Well, let's take a moment from twisting our braids, to consider that the cliches for walk- in characters in standard fantasy and SF tend to be even worse.
posted by happyroach at 4:13 PM on October 21, 2017 [7 favorites]
Huh; my comment reads, in part, pretty much the opposite of what intended and not for the first time that's why I shouldn't drink at a business lunch then fart around online afterwards. Please disregard; sorry.
posted by Wordshore at 4:14 PM on October 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Wordshore at 4:14 PM on October 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
> "I don't know about that assertion, I mean, Zadie Smith, Junot Diaz come immediately to mind."
I meant, literally, everyone I know -- that is to say, people I chat with and meet socially; I wasn't being general or metaphorical. Obviously there are literary fiction writers who are not from the middle class. But the ones I personally know are, and I know a lot of writers.
posted by kyrademon at 4:19 PM on October 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
I meant, literally, everyone I know -- that is to say, people I chat with and meet socially; I wasn't being general or metaphorical. Obviously there are literary fiction writers who are not from the middle class. But the ones I personally know are, and I know a lot of writers.
posted by kyrademon at 4:19 PM on October 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
Well, let's take a moment from twisting our braids, to consider that the cliches for walk- in characters in standard fantasy and SF tend to be even worse.
Oh, absolutely, the cliches in standard SF and fantasy are often much worse. But at least there are dragons to distract me.
I have muddled through many a tired cliche fantasy for nothing but a fleeting taste of interesting world building. I may not care about any of your characters, any of the plot, any of the conflict... but give me a unique magic system and I WILL stay the whole 500 pages.
posted by brook horse at 5:47 PM on October 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
Oh, absolutely, the cliches in standard SF and fantasy are often much worse. But at least there are dragons to distract me.
I have muddled through many a tired cliche fantasy for nothing but a fleeting taste of interesting world building. I may not care about any of your characters, any of the plot, any of the conflict... but give me a unique magic system and I WILL stay the whole 500 pages.
posted by brook horse at 5:47 PM on October 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
It'd be interesting to re-read The Great Gatsby with this piece in the back of the mind. A cast full of Midwesterners playing at being East Coast cosmopolites while recklessly projecting their desires and anxieties onto one another. (And written by a Midwesterner playing at being a cosmopolite, etc.) An example of this cliché, or an anticipatory subversion?
posted by Iridic at 7:10 PM on October 21, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by Iridic at 7:10 PM on October 21, 2017 [5 favorites]
A great point, iridic. I know 19C and early 20C lit better, and I do think the trope is pretty familiar from there and started that early - like James Thurber, Ring Lardner, Sherwood Anderson of course, etc. I wonder if in fact they're in part responsible for establishing the archetype.
posted by Miko at 8:17 PM on October 21, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Miko at 8:17 PM on October 21, 2017 [2 favorites]
Sadly, self-serve frozen yogurt also costs $6 in the Midwest. Enjoyed the piece!
posted by michaelh at 8:54 PM on October 21, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by michaelh at 8:54 PM on October 21, 2017 [4 favorites]
I think I've been the real Midwestern girl in some of these scenarios in real life: that ample-breasted girl who reminds the coastal transplant of home, in ways both good and bad; the girl who's in New York long enough to learn its ways, but not long enough (would it ever really be long enough, though?) to look unapproachable, to be able to turn it off in an instant like y'all do; the girl who's good enough to share a fantasy with for a while but not the one your climber mind believes would ever truly save your life, not enough the naïf to lead, nor bold enough to show you something you haven't seen before. Ugggggh fuck this shit. Great story.
posted by limeonaire at 10:22 PM on October 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by limeonaire at 10:22 PM on October 21, 2017 [3 favorites]
Huh, is this a commentary on modern(ish) literary devices I've never seen because I don't read much fiction or a social commentary I'd have to know coastal native social climbers to understand?
Not snark or sarcasm, I seriously feel like I missed some deeper meaning of the story due to some missing context.
posted by wierdo at 10:37 PM on October 21, 2017
Not snark or sarcasm, I seriously feel like I missed some deeper meaning of the story due to some missing context.
posted by wierdo at 10:37 PM on October 21, 2017
I think it's about cliché literary devices, yeah, but think some of it is also reflective of real-life behavior.
posted by limeonaire at 10:43 PM on October 21, 2017
posted by limeonaire at 10:43 PM on October 21, 2017
This was right on.
And reminded me that I've always wanted to read the novel that starts with 'soulful' white dude who then meets MG who he finds merely an unnamed character in his story, but who then with notable grace jumps over and beyond his mediocrity to become the point of the story. Because that's been my experience, at least. I'm the soulful beer-drinking rock in the east river thrower, natch.
posted by From Bklyn at 4:38 AM on October 22, 2017 [1 favorite]
And reminded me that I've always wanted to read the novel that starts with 'soulful' white dude who then meets MG who he finds merely an unnamed character in his story, but who then with notable grace jumps over and beyond his mediocrity to become the point of the story. Because that's been my experience, at least. I'm the soulful beer-drinking rock in the east river thrower, natch.
posted by From Bklyn at 4:38 AM on October 22, 2017 [1 favorite]
Anyone remember Amy Adams in West Wing?
posted by leotrotsky at 4:40 AM on October 22, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by leotrotsky at 4:40 AM on October 22, 2017 [3 favorites]
Thanks for posting; enjoyed reading this. This trope is fed by college 20th century American lit classes. And influences “top shelf” pop culture even now. I think this is the story Don Draper wanted to live.
There was a time when DFW was a sacred cow on Metafilter. Glad that time has passed.
posted by bluefly at 5:52 AM on October 22, 2017 [3 favorites]
There was a time when DFW was a sacred cow on Metafilter. Glad that time has passed.
posted by bluefly at 5:52 AM on October 22, 2017 [3 favorites]
I like the way this piece shifts form scene to scene as though through a dreamscape, but I don’t really know Midewestern Girl. I haven’t read much late 20th century fiction really, since The Corrections, which was shortly before I dropped out of the Book Of The Month thing I’d signed up for, because they were piling up, & the dry, hollow feeling Franzen left me with. Middlesex was the last one I picked up, & thankfully it was ultimately redemptive, but Midwestern Girl even appears there, on a train platform in Germany, so I guess I recognize the trope. Men with angst about their hollow lives write things to salve their souls & a less-than-human woman is applied as a bandage.
I found novels written by women during that period to be infinitely more satisfying - The Shipping News left an indelible impression on me, and again, was ultimately redemptive. I guess I need redemption, but don’t expect it to be delivered by Midwestern Girl — it’s my own to find, & I have never cosnsidered moving to New York to find it, which strikes me as supremely Sisyphean.
Been stuck on history since the mid aughties and find myself not regretting that, especially after having it all summed up so well here.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:24 AM on October 22, 2017 [1 favorite]
I found novels written by women during that period to be infinitely more satisfying - The Shipping News left an indelible impression on me, and again, was ultimately redemptive. I guess I need redemption, but don’t expect it to be delivered by Midwestern Girl — it’s my own to find, & I have never cosnsidered moving to New York to find it, which strikes me as supremely Sisyphean.
Been stuck on history since the mid aughties and find myself not regretting that, especially after having it all summed up so well here.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:24 AM on October 22, 2017 [1 favorite]
This seems well connected to Cecilia Tan's recent piece in Uncanny Magazine basically saying that "show, don't tell" as writing advice sucks. [disclaimer] The author is a friend of mine [/disclaimer]
posted by rmd1023 at 1:13 PM on October 22, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by rmd1023 at 1:13 PM on October 22, 2017 [2 favorites]
What an odd essay. The works she singles out for admiration at the end seem to be ones that are skillfully employing exactly the sort of techniques she argues against at the beginning.
posted by kyrademon at 2:36 PM on October 22, 2017
posted by kyrademon at 2:36 PM on October 22, 2017
I'm not sure I get this, even as an ardent defender of the Midwest, but I like that the author attends the university I work at, and has the same name as a close friend of my late grandmother who lived in Detroit.
This is probably the most Midwest comment in this thread - "I don't really get it, but I sure liked (weird familial thing)"
posted by mostly vowels at 3:22 PM on October 22, 2017 [1 favorite]
This is probably the most Midwest comment in this thread - "I don't really get it, but I sure liked (weird familial thing)"
posted by mostly vowels at 3:22 PM on October 22, 2017 [1 favorite]
rmd1023, holy shit, that piece resonated with me on a spiritual level.
posted by brook horse at 4:54 PM on October 22, 2017
posted by brook horse at 4:54 PM on October 22, 2017
It was interesting, all right. Real different.
posted by nickmark at 4:56 PM on October 22, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by nickmark at 4:56 PM on October 22, 2017 [4 favorites]
That was great. Thanks, Eyebrows McGee.
posted by homunculus at 5:42 PM on October 22, 2017
posted by homunculus at 5:42 PM on October 22, 2017
The whole "ample breasts" bit, especially contrasted with the "small and firm and high" breasts of the California Girl, hit me in the gut. Even more than the guilelessness, it always seemed to me that Midwestern Girl's defining feature - as in both of the examples above - was her weight.
The lazy cliche I see the most often regarding this is "corn-fed."
posted by Dip Flash at 5:36 AM on October 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
The lazy cliche I see the most often regarding this is "corn-fed."
posted by Dip Flash at 5:36 AM on October 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
Back when I used to read more fantasy, the “Midwestern girl” of choice in that genre was always the “willing village wench” that protagonist knights/wizards would bed in nameless villages on their way to great adventure and more complicated romantic interests. Same ample breasts, same lack of interiority, same happiness to serve as a human waystation. They usually didn't even get names.
Blech.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 7:25 AM on October 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
Blech.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 7:25 AM on October 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
I know it's cool now to hate on DFW and there are certainly reasons to do that, but, while the Midwestern girl is pretty immediately recognizable, I don't think she features in any of his work at all. You can definitely take issue with DFW's writing of women, but the cliche in question here isn't really connected.
posted by ssg at 10:16 AM on October 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by ssg at 10:16 AM on October 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
Oh, for heaven's sake. Mentioning David Foster Wallace in this context is not "hating on him," and he absolutely uses this trope in his writing. The example that I thought of is from "The Suffering Channel":
posted by Anita Bath at 11:03 AM on October 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
Mrs. Amber Moltke, the artist's young spouse, wore a great billowing pastel housedress and flattened espadrilles and was, for better or worse, the sexiest morbidly obese woman Atwater had ever seen. Eastern Indiana was not short on big pretty girls, but this was less a person than a vista, a quarter ton of sheer Midwest pulchritude, and Atwater had already filled several narrow pages of his notebook with descriptions and analogies and abstract encomia to Mrs. Moltke, none of which could be used in the compressed piece he was even then considering how to pitch and submit. Some of the allure was atavistic, he acknowledged. Some was simply contrast, a relief from the sucking cheeks and starved eyes of Manhattan's women. He had personally seen Style interns weighing their food on small pharmaceutical scales before they consumed it.I suppose we could quibble over whether Amber, being married (though "young"), still counts as a "girl," or how many other places this crops up in his writing (recall, though, that much of The Pale King takes place in Peoria - do you want to take that bet?), but the New York-based narrator's fascination with Amber Moltke is half of the freaking fifty-page story, so I hope that this demonstrates to your satisfaction that Midwestern Girl does, indeed, feature in his work.
posted by Anita Bath at 11:03 AM on October 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
Goddamn, the treatment of Amber Moltke in that story is even more vile than I remembered. Sorry to have inflicted that on everyone. I want to go take a bath or something.
posted by Anita Bath at 11:13 AM on October 23, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Anita Bath at 11:13 AM on October 23, 2017 [2 favorites]
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posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:49 AM on October 21, 2017 [3 favorites]