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Experimental
fiction is something to be approached with as much caution
as open-mindedness. On the one hand, the work could be artistic
and progressive. On the other hand, it could be insufferably
self-indulgent and gimmicky, better for a quick diversion
than serious contemplation.
At first
glance, Ben Segal's 78 Stories appears to lean heavily
towards novelty fiction. The work is written in the panels
of a large crossword puzzle, with each line across and each
line down telling a story. Because the tales overlap at particular
panels, the stories share similar situations: what is essentially
1 Across bears the same beginning as 1 Down, while the fourth
panel of 1 Across is also the start of 4 Down's story.
The organization
is confusing at first, but once readers orient themselves,
the format is intriguing, even liberating. Because readers
are free to ingest the stories in whichever order they prefer—all
the Down stories first, perhaps, or alternating between rows
and columns—the work becomes a little like a Choose
Your Own Adventure book, minus the abrupt "you have died"
endings. It's also just as re-readable as Choose Your Own
Adventure, allowing readers the opportunity to explore
each story's twists and turns, snaking through the puzzle
to create different contexts for each circumstance.
It's
fascinating to see how situations can overlap or how perspectives
may subtly differ simply by reading vertically instead of
horizontally. Because the crossword is printed on one large
piece of folded paper (the puzzle itself measuring about three
feet by four feet), the work feels like a map. Each part of
the story is plotted like stops on a journey or an intersection
of ideas—a place where two stories share the same action,
though sometimes in different contexts. In one intersection,
the horizontal story focuses on a waiter named Paul who contemplates
the death of a customer named Kyle; however, in the vertical
story, Kyle is the name of a young man lamenting his father's
death to a waiter named Paul. Names repeat throughout the
story, implying that the characters may even overlap.
The writing
quality is questionable at times, as one would expect from
an experimental work focusing on format. After all, Segal
was forced to write short, sometimes clipped paragraphs in
order to fit each aspect of the story into a different panel.
Some interesting characterizations are summarized rather than
explored, while disturbing situations—like the sudden
graphic suicide of a random character—come out of nowhere
and are left unexplored. Instead, Segal moves his stories
along by utilizing a degree of absurdity that seems fashionable
nowadays in writers such as Miranda July, vacillating between
childlike and childish with equally uneven results.
Thematically,
though, Segal is fairly consistent, offering stories about
death, regret, loneliness, and miscommunication; in a way,
the work is surprisingly cohesive. Plus, some of the tales
are quite endearing, including a few takes on a church mouse
named Carl that falls in love with a human named Paul. These
overlap with a ghost (also named Carl) who falls in love with
a presumably different Paul. Sadly, neither Paul knows of
either Carl's existence, but in one convergence, both mouse
and ghost become jealous of a woman who has begun dating Paul
and attempt to kill her by whatever means they can.
Patchy
as the writing seems at times, the interlocking stories and
varying outcomes make 78 Stories a light, entertaining
talking piece and, if nothing else, a nice way to bide a few
minutes of spare time. Like regular crossword puzzles, 78
Stories is by no means high art, but sometimes, a little
gimmicky experimentation is all one really needs.
(August,
2008)
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