We've discussed fairy tales tropes quite a bit in class, and I'm glad we finally have one that introduces the common 'bogeyman' theme. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who has heard the phrase 'Be good, or else the monsters will get you!' or some general variation of it. (Anyone who has read THE BFG by Roald Dahl knows where I'm coming from). Children have long been threatened with monsters to get them to behave, and this method of control probably works better than scoldings or ear-boxing. After all, what is worse than your own imagination? "Winkie" actually brings this idea into the light and examines it: we meet the disobedient child, the wicked monster, the frustrated mother. The writer also allows us to catch a glimpse of the truth behind the tales; there is no way any loving mother would let her child be eaten by a creepy (incredibly well-developed) ogre.
I also found it really interesting that Winkie is trying to pull a sadistic, medieval grafting surgery for himself. He really wants eyelids, but why? Ollyn's mother explains the link between mother and her child by saying, "There must be a sound you make, your eyelids opening. It carries to my ears" (Lanagan 227). I'm tempted to think that Winkie lacks this bond and is subconsciously trying to achieve it. Maybe that's reading to far into it, but the blinking, winking eyelid imagery comes up way too much to be merely coincidental. There's also a lot about the relationship between sleeping and waking. Winkie claims that he can never sleep, and he only come for the children at night when they SHOULD be sleeping.
Personally, I loved this story. What do you guys think?
About Me
- Andy Duncan
- I'm a professor of English at Frostburg State University in the western Maryland mountains; a fiction writer whose honors include a Nebula Award, a Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award and three World Fantasy Awards; a journalist since age 17; and a lifelong collector of Forteana.
5 comments:
I also enjoyed this story (even if the "blackened leg" bit did make me a bit nauseous), and you totally beat me to the punch with Dahl's The BFG! Darn it.
Ah well. Yeah, there's far too much "wink," "blink," and "eye" imagery for it to be coincidental. I mean, it even ties right back in with the title.
The maternal eyelid connection is an interesting one, so good eye (ha...). But even if Winkie isn't trying to bridge some strange eyelid-related maternal gap, not being able to close one's eyes must be rough. No sleep, no dreams, no relief from constant sight. It's no wonder he stares at Ollyn's blinking with the same creepy fascination that Captain Barbossa directs at Elizabeth Swann when she eats an apple in the first Pirates of the Carribean film. It's something he cannot do, and he desires it with a passion that edges into the erotic. In fact, I think the underlying sexuality is one of the reasons this story (like all the other "bogey man" stories) is so very, very creepy--that truly disturbing resonance of kidnapping and child molestation.
But moving on to something a *little* less freaky, my question is this: why does Winkie need so many eyelids? And why hasn't he tried to attach them yet?
I was thinking about the connection between the eyelids while reading this story too. I was thinking that maybe the reason that Winkie came after the children and wanted their eyelids was because he didn't have them or the connection with his mother and he didn't want any other child to have that connection with their mother either. And if there were no eyelids the mothers couldn't tell whether the child was sleeping or awake at any moment because there would be no blinking. Also, and this is definitely reading pretty far into it, if Winkie steals their eyelids, the children will never be able to rest either...just like him, and if the children aren't able to rest, neither are the mothers. That was probably more of an assumption than anything stated anywhere in the story...
I assumed he needed a lot of lids to cover his huge eyes. Children are small, and Winkie looked kinda... not. In a grotesque way, I either thought he'd find the perfect pair for his eyes, or he'd make a sick patchwork of them so they'd be large enough. But I think I like the symbolism route better. My own explanation'sa bit too Leatherface for me.
I like Courtney's idea of the moms not being able to locate the kids if they don't have eyelids, but aren't those kids dead? In Winkie's pantry? If so, then it's a little late for recovery.
Haha...I guess I didn't really think through that whole thing. They probably were dead. Either way...their parents wouldn't be able to find them.
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