Where Are You, Dear Heart - Mariana Enriquez

parents:: short story writing class

Reading notes

87

• Is the narrator a mistress?
  88
• Nice hook! "...desire... should be more like horror"
• Oof... worse than mistress... friend of daughters
• Seems like it's going to be different take on the childhood molestation story.
  • My guess is we'll see the physical, subconscious effects; but the narrator herself will consciously not recognize these and consciously not feel the horror (as suggested)
• So far, gender is still ambiguous
  89
• Orphanage? Her house became orphanage?
  90
• Or... is the narrator not into boys?

92

• Sound over smell
• Okay... girl
• Ahh... so this older man had a scar because of a heart problem... perfect for her!

93

97

• Alright, didn't comment for a while cause... jesus this is enthralling... and horrific.
• And that ending...

Thoughts

First read through

• Wow.

• [?] Is her fetish a result of that first man?

• Feelings:

  • Horror
  • Disgust
  • Intrigue

• A new appreciation for the kinds of things that are possible.

• Is there some purpose to this? Is there a plot? It's just more and more revealed about the narrator's fetish.

• I kept thought it was going to come back to her and that man. And it kind of did, but that seemed beside the point.

• The point was just that she really likes irregular heartbeats.

• In some ways, I'm jealous. To know so clearly what one likes. Even when that thing is something so... different. Maybe because it's so different.

Other thoughts

• Observations
  • Parents never appear
• Questions
  • [?] When do we realize she... has this fetish?
  • [?] Retelling from the parents' perspective?
• On point of view
  • Makes you more uncomfortable
  • What if 2nd person?