Last night I read this brief introduction by Connie Willis to one of her short stories in the collection Fire Watch. I'm seriously so excited about this idea that I have goosebumps after reading this for the fourth time, and I don't know if one short story (which I haven't read yet) can live up to it. I've been wondering for the past 12 hours how I can justify stealing this idea.
"Nobody knows what housewives do all day. Nobody cares either, and this places the housewife in the same position as Miss Marple, whom people are continually underestimating, and gives the housewife a certain freedom and power that make her the perfect heroine.
"I've used the housewife in several stories, and she appears in this one in her guise as Young Mother. The role of Young Mother is a little more constraining in that when something important happens, she is likely to miss it because she is wiping somebody's runny nose or putting on somebody's boots. On the other hand, while she is pushing somebody on a swing or waiting for somebody to finish their Coke, she has a lot of time to think. And sometimes, taking somebody to the bathroom, she sees something everyone else has missed."
Monday, June 7, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
