Monday, February 8, 2010

Beds and Fiction




Here I am in my second semester as Fiction Editor, and I've noticed a trend. A lot of stories, it seems, begin in bed. Usually, it's a couple who is waking up: sometimes they are making love, more often one of them (the main character) is feeling some anxiety or dread about the RELATIONSHIP. Other times, a man or woman greets the day thinking of some strained relationship (hence the "aloneness"). Finally, there is the story that begins with a child being nudged out of bed by a parent who is anxious about the child's relationship with one or both parents.
The point is, I'm reading a lot of stories that begin in the same place. Now, trends are trends; I don't pretend to know what they portend or even what they mean. I'm just saying. Take it for what you will.

Catalina