marion

I was having a conversation about this story, and one point that came up, with a sense of confusion or disappointment, was the possibility that this story had no specific point at all. I conceded that it was a strange story. Like William Wei, you’re sharing an internal space with the narrator, transported again to an unorthodox way of being or existing. It’s not a tidy story with a detached voice walking you through problem, climax, and resolution. You’re just carried along telepathically now with an 11-year-old girl. Considering it further, I thought, “there’s something to like about this.” I was an 11-year-old girl once. I was a 13-year-old girl once. 

The details of the setting were pretty. The environment is alive, the language is tactile, and the narrator’s growing sense awareness of herself prompts me to recall my own life and experiences at that age, just absorbing everything innocent and not. So I read this story and remember the temptation to grow up as soon as possible, eager and so naïve. The dynamic between the narrator and Marion is familiar, all of us at one time or another have had that mischievous friend, or have been that mischievous friend. Read without context, Marion’s home life is bizarre. The characters are probably people you wouldn't normally want around your kids. My gut reaction is to wince at the idea of two young teenage girls in the throes of their own budding sexuality to be mixed up in any way with weird, creepy guys hanging about. You wonder where the boundaries are, or that they were malleable or easily manipulated. That said, this perspective feels true to life. I made the connection early on in the story that Marion’s family and home life describes life in a commune, echoing the ranches or properties situated far from the urban sprawl and suburban bubble. It echoes the free love lifestyle and permissive attitudes of the 60s era (I don’t think this story takes place in that time period). Marion referring to her parents by name, seems to has roots in counter-cultural ways, probably to do with refraining from authority or hierarchy. It looks alien to anyone raised in mainstream society and adheres to its norms. In Marion's world, there seemed to be no taboos, the pot growing and cigarette smoking and being exposed to explicit sexuality just seemed like a rite of passage. In most other circumstances, this would be considered neglect or abuse. Usually it seems like confused or disaffected people are attracted to this way of life. The preoccupation with preparing for some kind of armed confrontation, or the glorification of the Manson 'family,' these details help paint a picture of something cultish and American. I don't intend to say whether it's right or wrong. If I'm being honest, I remain still a little bit disturbed by the story, but there's definitely a place for it.