The excerpt gives us a peek into the mind of a serial killer who suffers from delusions of amour and the typical idea that he is somehow better than his victims. The creep factor mounts as he tells of his stalking his victims, easily gaining access to their homes and his methodology for rendering them down to certain precious body parts. The telling is gruesome and oddly matter of fact. While the man speaks of himself as if he were some sort of alien sent to rid the earth of the human plague, you’re almost fairly certain he’s simply insane.
The second story, of a woman in the throes of childbirth, heightens the realism of her anguish with her off-kilter observations. She doesn’t seem to know the names of the people attending her, giving them pseudonyms like Fiery Locks and Jerry Curls. Her attention ricochets almost amusingly among her painful contractions, the exposed wiring, the lack of color coordination in the bedding and the annoying buzzing insect she’s certain has gotten into the room somehow.
Many women who give birth multiple times talk about a kind of pain-cloud that descends on them after the experience. They forget how painful the whole business was; that’s how they can bring themselves to repeat it over and over again. But you can’t imagine this woman, who has trouble keeping her legs apart, wanting to repeat this experience. The descriptions of her bodily torture, using odd metaphors and a weird talking shadow, as she begs for medication or a caesarian to put an end to it all are both hilarious and nerve wracking.
Even though the latter story was cut short, I’d recommend it for any woman who’s considered pregnancy. If they won’t let us have birth control or contraceptives, stories like this might have droves of women clamoring to be admitted to nunneries.
The second story, of a woman in the throes of childbirth, heightens the realism of her anguish with her off-kilter observations. She doesn’t seem to know the names of the people attending her, giving them pseudonyms like Fiery Locks and Jerry Curls. Her attention ricochets almost amusingly among her painful contractions, the exposed wiring, the lack of color coordination in the bedding and the annoying buzzing insect she’s certain has gotten into the room somehow.
Many women who give birth multiple times talk about a kind of pain-cloud that descends on them after the experience. They forget how painful the whole business was; that’s how they can bring themselves to repeat it over and over again. But you can’t imagine this woman, who has trouble keeping her legs apart, wanting to repeat this experience. The descriptions of her bodily torture, using odd metaphors and a weird talking shadow, as she begs for medication or a caesarian to put an end to it all are both hilarious and nerve wracking.
Even though the latter story was cut short, I’d recommend it for any woman who’s considered pregnancy. If they won’t let us have birth control or contraceptives, stories like this might have droves of women clamoring to be admitted to nunneries.