Students are to post reactions (minimum 250 words each) to the
assigned listening/reading linked below. Students are encouraged (but
not required) to additionally respond to other student reactions.
KELLY LINK Monster Librarian Interview: Kelly Link is the author of the young adult collection Pretty Monsters. She has written two other collections, Stranger Things Happen and Magic for Beginners. Her
novellas and short stories have won a variety of awards. Neil Gaiman
called her "the best short story writer out there, in any genre." She
co-founded Small Beer Press with her husband, Gavin Grant, and edits
the fantasy zine Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet. Click heading to read the interview.
KELLY LINK NPR Interview: Author
Kelly Link says her short stories are inspired by what she calls "night
time logic." In fiction that strives for realism, she says, everything
has a place. Everything makes sense. It's kind of like dream logic, she
tells NPR's Audie Cornish, "except that when you wake up from a dream,
you think, well, that didn't make sense. Night time logic in stories,
you think, I don't understand why that made sense, but I feel there was
a kind of emotional truth to it." Click heading to listen to NPR interview.
THE WEIRDEST STORY IDEAS COME FROM YOUR OWN OBSESSIONS by KELLY LINK: "One
of the most useful pieces of writing advice I've ever come across was
something Kate Wilhelm said. To roughly paraphrase, she suggests that
every writer indirectly collaborates with her subconscious — she calls
this collaborator your Silent Partner — who supplies you with ideas that
you then turn into stories."Click heading to read the rest of the essay.
THE SPECIALIST'S HAT by KELLY LINK:
"When you're Dead," Samantha says, "you don't have to brush your
teeth." "When you're Dead," Claire says, "you live in a box, and it's
always dark, but you're not ever afraid." Claire and Samantha are
identical twins. Their combined age is twenty years, four months, and
six days. Claire is better at being Dead than Samantha. Click heading to read the rest of the story.
18 comments:
Kelly Link has become a person of interest in the first interview I read of her. To start, she's a genre writer who isn't ashamed to be one or let that diminish her work. I've always loved genre, specifically science-fiction and horror, because despite its tropes or set pieces that could be undermined as simply "fun," they also have a human story at their core that explores emotion in such a way that promotes creative thinking. In Kirsten Kowalewski's interview with Kelly Link, the formula is brought up, and predictability could come along with it. Link differentiates with this notion by promoting the writer to not disregard the formula but to understand it to "improvise off of it."
In the same interview mentioned above, I'd like to note Lee's commitment to the horror genre by swiftly ending the story. At first, this could come off as lazy or unsatisfying for a reader. But, after reading "The Specialist's Hat," there was nothing lazy about the way it wraps the short story. The first and middle portions of the short are incredibly immersive. I love the gothic feel it brings, which reminds me a little of "Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson and the 2001 movie "The Others ."A feeling of dread permeates the mood, and at its best, suspense is drawn out to the point where I am eager to know what is going to happen. The reveal at the end with the hat was not only shocking but surprisingly campy. Link's writing doesn't fall for the camp entirely, instead sticking to it and committing the same serious writing tones. This is followed by a built-up character, "The Specialist," which only makes you wonder far past that last sentence who this character was or what it could mean. The idea of a monstrous hat with teeth is rather ridiculous, but it's played straight. It's a reminder of a previous quote I read from her blog, which talks about inspiration, idea generation, and how our consciousness will put down ideas. Link learned not to "discriminate between the good, the bad, the ugly, and the odd." This notion reinforces the old quote that no idea is a bad idea. And I hope I can learn this seemingly simple lesson to not judge the ideas that come from my unconscious but to allow them to shine on the page, even if it never gets to go further than a simple sentence on a white sheet of notebook paper.
R:
I really liked Kelly Link’s portrayal of the twins’ voices throughout “The Specialist’s Hat.” The language felt authentic to how children speak—simple yet winding into strange and imaginative directions, like when Samantha states, “When you’re Dead… you don’t have to brush your teeth.” It reminded me of an article from Poetry Foundation (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/featured-blogger/67400/the-average-fourth-grader-is-a-better-poet-than-you-and-me-too) that discusses how young children often write especially interesting poems because they haven’t yet been conditioned to follow “proper” sentence structures, vocabulary, grammar, etc. This freedom allows their poems to be more unpredictable, unconstrained by conventional ideas of reality and what kind of writing is “right” or “wrong.”
Another detail I appreciated in the short story was the distinction Link made between Claire’s “grey” eyes and Samantha’s “gray” eyes. I wouldn’t have thought to play with the spelling of a word like that, but it somehow makes sense that “grey” seems softer, “like a cat’s fur,” while “gray” feels harsher, “like the ocean when it has been raining.”
Additionally, I think the ambiguous ending works well in “The Specialist’s Hat.” It preserves the story’s eerie, unsettling atmosphere, where the house remains unnerving and unsettling partly because so many questions we have about it and its inhabitants go unanswered. A more conclusive ending might have stripped away this mystery, especially since any concrete answers the story would give might not live up to the imaginative theories the reader has already formed.
From the articles, I liked Link’s advice in “The Weirdest Story Ideas Come from Your Own Obsessions” about keeping a list of things you like to write or read about, both general and specific, and referring to it when you get stuck; I've done this in the past and found that it helps me at least get a basic concept to build off of. I also liked the idea from her NPR interview of playing into nighttime or dream logic, where things have an “emotional truth” even if they don’t make complete sense. I sometimes get story ideas from dreams too, but in the past, I struggled to finish them because I got stuck trying to explain things that made sense in the dream but didn’t seem to translate logically on paper.
I think that Kelly Link would be a great person to talk to and get great advice regarding everything that comes with writing. Personally, I think I am very similar to her in our writing approaches. “to have at least two or three hours to settle in” (monsterlibrarian.com). This quote is from her response about some of her writing routines. She speaks about needing to have music or just sound like background noise in order to write, which I agree with, more so with the music part. But this part about taking long periods of time to get settled in before really writing stuck out to me. I either need to have a playlist or play an album and just sit there for a while until I can really start feeling like I have ideas. And while I have not timed myself, I would not be surprised if I also would wait for almost two to three hours before really writing.
I also really enjoyed her short story The Specialist’s Hat. When I became aware of how Kelly Link likes to give what we would call abrupt endings to her pieces, it was nice to see what that meant. I am still not completely sure about the poem or stanzas that appear throughout the story, or who the babysitter is supposed to be, either the daughter or her being The Specialist, but I guess that comes with the horror genre. There is such good ‘show not tell’ characterization with how the father feels about his twins from him being unable to tell the difference between the two and getting mad that they wear the same clothes to Mr. Coeslak is able to tell the difference just by differentiating between grey and gray. This short story, once the babysitter started to interact more with the twins and their games, I found myself wanting more. I do hope that Samantha and Claire do end up ok, even if I highly doubt it.
I really liked Kelly Link's "The Specialist's Hat." I think it was interesting to read a short story of hers after I read her interviews. Especially her part about endings and how if the narrative is "coherent" and "satisfying" enough that the ending has leeway to be a little bit ambiguous. Her genre does call/allow for ambiguous endings, because answers take away the fear. The ambiguous ending of "The Specialist's Hat" is really interesting because it makes you want to go back and reread it, figure out what you missed. But also, it creates space for you to make your own interpretations or endings while keeping the creepy aspect of it. I also thought it was realistic because it's the perspective of two ten year olds who are in some kind of otherworldly situation.
I particularly liked the weaving in the babysitter and how she feels like an outsider at first, but then becomes more and more important as the story builds, and might even act as an antagonist if this story can have one.
Link felt very relatable in her interviews, and her part about "night time logic" was a really interesting idea to put into these types of story. Nighttime logic makes for a lot more interesting stories than daytime logic because it's more unknown and more easy to manipulate into something you can pretend to be an expert on.
I really connected with Kelly Link's Monster Librarian interview and found her description of her path to publication very insightful. She took workshops, where her professor gave her chapters to an agent. This is pretty spontaneous, it sounds like, but it wouldn't have happened to her if she wasn't already putting herself out there. She applied to an MFA program, submitted stories to magazines, and entered contests. What connected with me most was how she didn't feel like a good enough judge of her own work to determine whether it was publishable or not. That self-doubt plagues me, too, but casting a wide net and submitting your work to places you love as much as you can is a definite key to success. Persistence and flexibility are essential components of becoming a successful creator.
I also liked her description of nighttime logic. Magical realism and surrealism are some of my favorite genres, though they're hard to tackle and write. It sounds like giving surreal events emotional weight makes them easier to comprehend and create. I'm not an absurdist, and it seems that Kelly isn't either. I enjoy it when strange events have a rationale, even if it's not obvious.
Finally, I love the idea of the Silent Partner. I'm a big perfectionist and struggle with judging myself harshly, so I rarely even try to think of anything that's not immediately what I want to hear. I think it's a lesson in being kind to yourself and treating all ideas as possible-- even the ones that feel absolutely off the wall. I'm going to try paying attention to the ideas I come up with and congratulate myself when something great pops up. I also want to write my own list of things.
I was surprised about about her love for horror but the distaste for gore. That is something that I have felt has always gone hand in hand and while there are horror movies that are more phycological like "Get Out," they still do have moments of gore. Given different levels but still it was there. Her interpretation of night time logic is very interesting. The way that it is supposed to feel real and that is how it is supposed to come across is very accurate to a lot of horror. It even kind of shows the irony of a movie like "Nightmare on Elm Street" where it is a lot about dreaming but also does a good job making it also feel real.
After reading the Monster Librarian Interview I immediately started reading the first story in the book "The Wrong Grave" and then couldn't stop reading it so I finished it. The first comment I loved that she made was "I care about all of my characters -- the ones who are brave, the ones who are mean, the ones who do stupid things, or who never figure things out. I can imagine being all of them." She described herself as being the weird kid and how she spent a lot of time watching and wondering why people are the way they are. Which is why I liked that she said she could imagine being all of her characters. She is able to create a character and really be able to place herself in those shoes and have a true connection with her characters. I feel that is very important for a writer because how can you truly create a person within a story if you can't somehow feel what they feel or at least understand. I also think she gives really good advice like "The best thing to do is to keep on submitting to the places and the editors that you most admire, that you most want to be published in & by." She encourages people to just continue to submit their work no matter how many of them get rejected. She also shares how many times she's been rejected until she finally was accepted which gives people like me hope. She also admits how difficult it has been to find time to write recently and how her old routine is not working anymore. This made feel better about myself because I have been finding it difficult to find time to sit down and just write which stresses me out sometimes. She definitely gave me the reassurance that it's okay. I'm also glad she gave a bunch of recommendations on books to read and books that have inspired her because after reading her short story, I might have to take her up on those recs.
I found Kelly Link to be a very interesting author, even based off just these interviews and her short story ‘The Specialist’s Hat’. Her approach to writing and the tone she sets (both in her story and in her own interview) displays a very dark yet comedic sort of feeling that makes an appeal to a certain grimness that makes horror so intriguing to read while also keeping the user entertained. I find the juxtaposition between these two states, the former being negative and dreadful while the latter is much more positive and full of child-like innocence, to be very engaging to watch Kelly juggle in her work.
Particularly with ‘The Specialist’s Hat’, while the story is told from a third-person perspective, I think it perfectly captures the mindsight and train of thought that would be going through the mind of either one of the twin girls. The way many of its sentences are short and quickly jump from subject to subject is very reminiscent of the thought patterns that one might expect from a young child. The way that the story conveys this perspective allows the reader to easily empathize with the twins, but it also makes us realize that not everything is as it seems in the unfolding situation. An unreliable narrator keeps the reader guessing, and the less the reader knows the more terrifying any given situation can seem. It’s possible that the story we’re seeing is little more than the babysitter simply scaring the kids with a fake story and having some fun while the father returns from a trip into the woods, but with the way that the childish perspective appears in the story we can’t be certain that things are as simple or horrific as they seem. This method of writing provides an air of uncertainty and doubt that keeps the reader engaged since they are often kept contemplating the legitimacy of what they are really. This sense of the unknown makes the story even with its childish charm and innocence maintain a dark aura that makes Kelly’s writing style very entertaining to read, and given her own past experiences and literary inspirations her insights come off as deeply personal and mature in the complexities they offer.
I think horror is a fascinating genre to sort of have as your preferred medium to write in. I think there's something about the experience a good horror story seeks to bring that makes it distinct from other strong emotions like happiness or sorrow, that's hard to describe. That feeling to relate through fear and uncomfortable situations is just a goal in writing that I personally find hard to properly write well, so seeing authors or people who excel at working with horror as a genre just spark my interest. The Specialist's hat starts very clear in the intention it has with how it wants the readers' to feel, keeping up that murky, mysterious, off-putting mood for the readers to sit through each word. Kelly Link is unabashed and fully commits to working with a story and world to put the reader on edge, with even the narration coming off more alien and odd to the reader. Giving no real safety to latch onto.
I especially lover her process. Music + some sort of surrounding to better help make me comfortable is something I want too when I write, and I especially related to her finding ways to avoid writing, since I've had my moments of procrastination and denial when it comes to my writing. Her encouragement to be open to genre fiction for her students is admirable when most academics are apparently looking down on it. Her just wanting to read everyone's best story is definitely also something I admire and relate to.
I already have a blogspot account so that is why I am not posting under Chesire.
For me the most interesting part of the monster librianian interview was when talking about her inspirations, or rather, what her inspirations were, turn, inspired by. Horror and comedy are very similar in structure, and tend to get away with breaking a lot of rules. When asked why her stories tend to end in a rushed fashion, her response is “Don’t most horror stories end in a rush?”. YA is an oversaturated demographic, I loved through the dark days of Hunger Games and Twilight clones in middle school. I blame that for making me a less avid reader. If, in those dark days, I had found a Kelly Link book, my fate may have been different. I was starting to get into horror as a video game and film genre, after all.
In addition, the contrast of creepy and cute is something that I find very fascinating. The innocence of childhood vs the horrors of a dangerous and unknown world outside is a theme Kelly Link comes back to often. Of course, I respect the seriousness of which she takes genre fiction, being very attached to fantasy myself..
There is much to appreciate from Kelly Link's "The Specialist's Hat". The atmosphere was well written with the description of the Eight Chimneys, the nursery, and the attic contributing to a sense of mystery and unease. In many moments Link uses "something" as a vague term to leave the reader with as much information as the characters. Examples include “Something is creeping up the stairs, Something is standing outside the door, Something is sobbing, sobbing in the dark; Something is sighing across the floor.” The same thing is referenced but is kept ominous through ambiguity, even though the hats involvement is clear. The characterization is also great with the twins with many endearing interactions, but remaining individuals. For example, Claire is described as being better at being Dead than Samantha, and she often takes the lead, showing her assertiveness. The dialogue is also wonderful as it reveals much about the characters and their relationships. It also helps to build tension and advance the plot. Effective dialogue can enhance character dynamics and drive the story forward. For instance, the babysitter’s warning, “When you’re dead, it’s always very cold and damp, and you have to be very, very quiet or else the Specialist will get you,” adds to the eerie mood.
The interview was also insightful offering a lot of great advice. I had thought previously that inserting yourself as your characters would give a greater understanding of them, but Link has a very elegant way of putting it, "I care about all of my characters -- the ones who are brave, the ones who are mean, the ones who do stupid things, or who never figure things out. I can imagine being all of them." Despite how different she is from her characters she can submerge herself as them while writing. I agreed with her take on abrupt movie endings, but would add that ending abruptly and satisfactorily are not inclusive, but she probably knows that already based on "The Specialist's Hat".
I’m not going to lie, my feelings about Kelly Link’s writing is nuanced but mostly positive. Firstly, her interviews are chaotic and fun. Her admitting to wetting the bed and the seemingly random mentioning of other odd things is amazing. Honestly I could even say that me and her share this common trait of making our own type of sense of things. Also, I think she’s fun in the way that she talks in a confident way. I could even consider her cerebral with all of her associations she makes to her younger years. The details she remembers from childhood show she leans towards the personal in how she addresses the world. Her youthful spirit is a great advantage to her writing as we can see in “The Specialists Hat” with the two main characters.
Speaking of that, her writing definitely is very unique and very interesting. I feel that youthful spirit manifesting in the word game the two protagonists play. The way everything is described seems like it comes from the honest eyes of a child. There is also an innocence in the way that the characters talk. The reference to the father’s alcoholism is vague but still impactful as well as the hinting towards his madness. Even the mischief of going into a chimney is so intuitively right to what genre Kelly is writing to. Although I do have certain gripes with the story, I can definitely blame that on other personal aspects of me. Part of me wants the story to be more concrete and higher stakes, but I also am not used to the genre. Inversely, the characterization, descriptions, and the technique of the work is definitely strong in my eyes. I think anybody who wants to get in touch with a spookier story through the innocent eyes of a child would really like Kelly’s writing.
I really enjoyed reading “The Specialist’s Hat” because the story had a playful yet peculiar tone, and I appreciated that the story left me wanting more. The author does a phenomenal job in evoking a sense of unease that this genre deserves, and one way she does this is through the distinct description of the house and the characters. For instance, the author paints a picture of the twin’s eyes using similes, and shortly after details the fog that encapsulates the house as “...grey like Claire’s eyes, and sometimes it is more gray, like Samantha’s.” Although descriptions of eyes are sometimes cliche, it is not here as it further emphasizes the theme that the twins are metaphorically ‘Dead’ and are essentially a part of this haunted, eerie house. In addition, the difference in spelling of the word 'gray' may highlight the contrast in the twin’s personality. The twins may appear to be the same physically, but if you look beneath the surface, their personalities are different. The nuances in this seem to be up to interpretation and were interesting to analyze.
Regarding the interview by Kirsten Kowalewski, I found it impressive that she re-accesses the emotions and observations she made of other children when she was that age herself to assist with her writing. She draws on her own experiences, which must make it easier for the characters in her own stories to come alive. I find the themes/genres Link writes about to be intriguing because it sort of mixes child psychology with horror and fantasy- games are usually played by children, and if you look close enough, a game is often the way that a child expresses their emotions or what is going on in their life when they otherwise do not possess the cognitive abilities to articulate themselves.
Kelly Link is a very fascinating writer, and it was interesting to read and understand her writing since I don’t usually read or write a lot of horror. But her thought process and methods can of course be applied to most genres. Some of the things she talked about were universal, like turning off that analytical part of her. She is a professor, so it undoubtedly will be harder for her to turn that part of her brain off while writing. I think the reason for her stories to be so memorable is because of the fact that she allows herself to write freely first.
It's interesting to see her talk about abrupt endings, which happens in a lot of horror stories, but I suppose how you start and end the story can be good or bad, depending on how much story you have in the middle, and how you write it. She talks about the method of picking a lot of different things to add to her story and combining it all into one big plot. I might try that. I usually pick one place to start and write linearly from there, but sometimes I feel like things are a little too straightforward, so maybe this will help.
Her story “The Specialist’s Hat” is incredibly creepy. This centers around the twins, what they know and what they do. The atmosphere was created even without paragraphs and paragraphs of description. The drab way in which she described things (like the difference in the eyes of the twins, or the way the rooms were dim, almost like underwater) helped in intensifying that eerie feeling, because none of the descriptions felt different in tone or feeling than the rest of the story.
Her ideas of “night time logic” and “silent partner” were interesting too. Especially with writing horror stories, I can see how it can become so important to keep the weird or strange ideas that come to you.
I think Kelly Link has a very interesting way of looking at writing. I like the idea of night time logic she has. It has always been interesting to me when authors can make crazy things make sense without just using some cop out. While reading the specialist hat I felt tension that I have not really felt before when reading. I liked the eerie tone she gave the twin sisters. She made it feel like every character had their own unique voice in the story. I usually don't read horror but I found her writing to be entertaining. I also found it cool when she changed the font to indicate a completely different tone. To me I read in much more sinister tone, with almost some sort of rhythm to it. When she used Wilhelm's quote on your silent collaborator I thought it was interesting because I also feel like there is something in my head that gives me all the ideas I have. Whether it is stories, or worlds, magic systems, or characters etc.. Kelly Link has went from an author that I had no clue existed to one that I wan't to learn more about. She has an incredibly interesting way of writing and also a unique perspective on how we write as well. I also think that I would like to explore the horror genre as whole. Which is much different from the books I usually like reading. All in all I found the reading and listening on Kelly Link to be enjoyable.
In reading Kelly Link’s interview, I found it refreshing to hear about the ways in which she as a published writer had certain areas in which she struggled with accepting her craft and allowing her pieces to be read by a broader audience. She mentions that she had a time where she had not sold another story for two years and did not feel as though she as the author could decide whether or not it was good enough to publish or that other people would find interest in it. This sense of keeping your work to yourself instead of putting it out there is something I feel that many writers can relate to and something that I as well tend to do. Hearing it from her has helped me to see the normality in wanting to keep your work to yourself but the fact that you also need to surpass this and push yourself to actually share your pieces. Link also speaks about how she tends to avoid writing sometimes and I was able to relate to that as well, as I tend to push my writing time to the side. I think that it is interesting that as a writer she sometimes actually does not take part in her craft and I think seeing her as both a writer and a publisher has helped me to see that the balance is difficult but also possible. One main thing that I took away from Link’s interview’s is that with writing it can be much easier to “love someone else’s work with your whole heart than it is to love your own” and it brings to light the fact that although this is the case, it is also the reason you need to allow yourself to be open to your creations and to let others see it, as they may love what you write when you struggle to love it yourself.
The interview with Kelly Link was a very informative read in my book. Kirsten Kowalewski asks very interesting questions about the writing process like how you capture genuine emotion and what the publishing process is like. Kelly Link answers the first question of how to tap into the emotions of teens in a genuine way by saying that she read a lot, observed her surroundings and reflected on them. For example she talks about how when she was in middle school, she observed the students around her, specifically the popular ones. How Kelly Link describes the publishing process was also pretty interesting. She found some publication companies that she enjoyed such as Night Cry and Twilight Zone and submitted stories to them. She was rejected multiple times, but eventually an editor picked up her story “Like Water Off A Black Dog’s Back.” It resonates with what a lot of writers have said about getting a book published, in that it comes with a lot of rejection, but you still need to keep handing in work. I feel like I can relate to her a lot when it comes to not writing as much as a person should. I tend to be pretty avoidant towards writing, especially daily. I at least try to write something once a week, but I always feel like I can do more. When I did write daily, I gave myself a fixed routine of 30 minutes a day to write some ideas.I didn’t really give myself a word count though but I generally wrote at least 300 words in those days. However, the problem is that once I miss my routine one day, one day turns to two days a week, then three, and so on.
Johnny Toronto
I find that the main reason that some people can not connect with horror is because of a lack of understanding, which is, ironically, the main ingredient to making horror function. The reader needs to both understand the weight of the situation at hand and must be able to sympathize with the characters. Children's songs such as “London Bridge is Falling Down,” have morbid undertones that go entirely unnoticed to the majority of kids, yet it is sung with such joy regardless. There is simply a level of understanding that is unable to be bridged there, hence an inability to scare them. The worst demons man can imagine are the ones we create ourselves, which is frustrating given that it lies solely on the writer to bridge that gap in hopes the reader can grasp the implications. Kelly Link capitalizes on that mystery by leaving her endings abrupt and open to interpretation. The implication always paints a dark tone - allowing the audience to properly take in the possibilities for the characters. Humanity’s most troubling trait is its ability to adapt; if exposed to the same problem repeatedly, they will eventually become accustomed to it. The mark of a good writer is their ability to play on that gap of understanding, where they are able to give enough of an idea of their horrors to create an idée fixe in the readers’ heads, but leave enough room for them to create the worst aspects of their monsters for the readers to create. Kelly Link’s abrupt story ends ensures there will always be a level of mystery, of uncertainty to the characters’ fates.
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