Literary Speculation

"The Aquatic Uncle"

"The Aquatic Uncle" is a strange story in that it doesn't really write in genre and more takes some elements from genre, but does stay mostly literary. When I first read the story I found it to be more of a folk tale. While the message in the beginning was hard to distinguish, rereading and talking about it in class gave me a better understanding of the story. While the story has fantastical elements, it takes a scientific idea and weaves it throughout --evolution.

The story delves into things that come on land and go back into the ocean, like whales. It was interesting because there was a family reunion twist on the story that was also explored. The entire time I read this story I was imagining a cat and a frog being together. The author relates out knowledge of humans and we try to put it together in our head and he uses animals as stand-ins like most tales.

This story is not dark or grim, but rather amusing and charming. She finds the uncle more attractive because, if we think about evolution, females get to chose which mate they have. Lll seemed more impressed with the uncle than she did with her fiancé. This story is about form, not genre, and the emphasis is on style.

I'm not sure if it's an important or necessary distinction. I like to say that my own writing is contemporary, literary fiction. I don't write in a specific genre, however, sometimes I need to take on things from genres to make my stories work. It doesn't affect my experience of a story, nor my writing.