Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Julia Slavin

Stories of flying monkeys, Quiditch, and trips down the rabbit hole; these are all prime examples of exotic writing which stays with the reader. The far cry from normal life found within different famous writings appeals to readers. It gives the writing a resounding edge, while maintaining an apropos significance. Julia Slavin is one of those great writers who is unafraid to take her readers to the edge of reason.

Julia Slavin, the author of “Carnivore Diet” and “The Woman Who Cut Off Her Leg at the Maidstone Club,” was born in Maryland in 1960. She was the youngest amongst four brothers. She states that when she was younger she almost felt invisible. As she grew older, she discovered that writing was a way for her to be heard (Autori).

She graduated with a degree in History and shortly after decided to move to New York. She then decided that what she really wanted to do was write. She landed a job as a producer of ABC’s television show Prime Time Live. Slavin soon left New York and moved to Washington D.C. with her husband, which is where they currently live with their two children. She has won a few awards for her pieces. “She won a Pushcart Prize and the Frederick Exley Fiction Award, both in 1999” (Autori).

Julia Slavin is best recognized for her use of metaphors. They are colorful and most times, incredibly bizarre. She once said “‘I take a metaphor a step too far’” (Renshaw). When describing why her metaphors are so outrageous she stated, “I wanted to write about passion, all-consuming passion, and addiction. The best way to suggest their enormity is through these wild, excessive metaphors” (Renshaw). In her first collection of short stories titled, “The Woman Who Cut Off Her Leg at the Maidstone Club”, she tells ludicrous stories of a woman who grows teeth all over her body, a woman who cuts off her leg due to intense mosquito bites, and a woman who swallows a man whole.

"The Woman Who Cut Off Her Leg at the Maidstone Club"

Slavin chooses to write her stories with preposterous exaggerations to make her point easily understood. Subtlety is not Julia Slavin’s strong point. She has been noted for using a continuous hyperbole of everyday emotions to exemplify the extravagant emotions people have which make them take action in everyday life. In a recent interview, Slavin was asked about her repeated use of fear and passion in her writings to which she responded, “I think fear keeps us out of trouble, and passion causes us to do things we wouldn’t normally do, dangerous, self-destructive things. I think my characters are trying to break the bonds of safety because in their safety there’s loneliness, the death of feeling” (Renshaw). Slavin writes about people being outside of their normal and safe lifestyles, so her writings also are outside of the normal and safe style.

What is interesting about her collection of stories is that the basis of these plots come from many of Slavin’s personal experiences. For example, in the short story, “Swallowed Whole,” a woman swallows a man due to intense hormones and desire for this man. Slavin claims that she once had a huge crush on a young man who used to mow her lawn. She wanted to write about this “overwhelming, unquenchable desire” as she describes it. Also in “Rare is a Cold Red Center,” she talks about the time she spent working in a restaurant throughout high school. The characters in the story are much like the people that she had worked with (Renshaw). The fact that she takes experiences from her personal life helps to connect her to her readers.

Julia Slavin has also written a novel in which continues this use of absurd metaphors. She began writing her first novel, “Carnivore Diet”, shortly after the publication of her first book of short stories, “The Woman Who Cut Off Her Leg at the Maidstone Club”. A novel possessed a new challenge because absurdity in a short story can be taken and interpreted, but to continue the absurdity for over 200 pages, it can easily be lost on a reader. Slavin had to write with character development and purpose that she had not had to previously consider to such an extent.



“Carnivore Diet” is a very unpredictable novel about a monstrous creature that they call the “chagwa.” Slavin writes about a drug abusing mother, Wendy, whose ex-congressman, husband, Matt, is imprisoned for possible political corruption. Wendy and Matt’s son, Dylan, is a child actor who plays a rat named, Harlan. As Wendy is trying to live a normal life with her son while her husband is in jail, the “chagwa” plants itself right outside their back door. The creature begins stalking Dylan, while killing almost everyone else in sight. Wendy spends her time trying to convince people to kill this horrible creature, but no one will budge. This book is very up and down, with many random and unpredictable incidents. There are many characters that come and go throughout the plot, which makes it difficult to follow as well. She explores many different themes such as, gender roles and suburban lifestyles. “Slavin does an excellent job of taking the reader on Wendy’s roller coaster of panic through terrific dialogue and the use of minor characters as obstacles in her plan to capture and kill the chagwa” (Havel).

Her work in this novel is very diverse from any of contemporary writers. Although this novel is not very climatic and conventional, the process of getting there was definitely well worth it. Slavin showed in her book of short stories, “The Woman Who Cut Off Her Leg at the Maidstone Club”, that she was talented at constructing a world around a story and a convincing mix of actuality and fantasy. But with “Carnivore Diet”, she took this a step further. She is a very interesting writer with a mind of her own. Who could even predict what she’ll come up with next?



Works Cited

Autori, Gli. "Julia Slavin." Minimum Fax. 16 Oct. 2008. http://www.minimumfax.com/persona.asp?personaID=329

Havel, Amy. "Carnivore Diet by Julia Slavin." Small Spiral Notebook. 16 Oct. 2008. http://www.smallspiralnotebook.com/bookreviews/2006/09/carnivore_diet_by_julia_slavin.shtml

Renshaw, Camille. "One on One with Julia Slavin. Pif Magazine. 16 Oct. 2008. http://www.smallspiralnotebook.com/bookreviews/2006/09/carnivore_diet_by_julia_slavin.shtml


Created By:
Missy Feltz
Samantha Spieles
Katie Frisbee

3 comments:

English 201 Students said...

It was nice to be able to understand why Slavin wrote such crazy, absurd pieces of writing. But it is interesting that she took them from her own personal experiences and was able to turn them into such weird stories. I was not a big fan of Carnivore Diet, reading about monsters and such is not my favorite type of reading but I think it is neat how she uses it as an outlet in a way.
Good job bloggers.

-Dana Heileman

Sarah said...

Thank you for this posting that provides some background on Julia Slavin, author of Carnivore Diet. I like your assessment of Slavin as “one of those great writers who is unafraid to take her readers to the edge of reason.” Slavin work seems to require her readers to buy into the skewed logic of her sometimes drugged or otherwise off-kilter characters.

I was particularly interested in your revelation that she grew up in a house full of brothers. You write, “She states that when she was younger she almost felt invisible. As she grew older, she discovered that writing was a way for her to be heard.” I find it compelling that through writing Slavin hopes to find the voice that seemed otherwise available to her during her childhood.

The fact that she was a producers of ABC’s Prime Time Live might give us some insight into why her novel seems so media-charged—full of newscasts, cameras, reality TV, television shows, etc. You do a nice job in this blog of showing the ways in which the events and happenings in the personal life of an author sometimes creeps into his or her work.

This is an interesting quote: “I think fear keeps us out of trouble, and passion causes us to do things we wouldn’t normally do, dangerous, self-destructive things. I think my characters are trying to break the bonds of safety because in their safety there’s loneliness, the death of feeling” (Renshaw). The concept that fear keeps us safe and our passions cause danger seems to be an inverse logic. This statement becomes particularly interesting in light of Carnivore Diet, which waxes philosophically at several junctures about the Chagwa sensing fear and the paralytic role of fear in the lives of Slavin’s characters. But you’re right that, “Slavin writes about people being outside of their normal and safe lifestyles, so her writings also are outside of the normal and safe style.” Slavin certainly blurs categories and norms in this work.

Overall, good work. Something that this group and everyone wants to keep in mind going forward: At several points in this positing, you seem to very closely paraphrase and/or almost identically summarize the ideas from other articles and sources. Be sure every time you are using the sources, words, or ideas of someone else you cite and quote. There should be no confusion between which ideas are your original ones and which ones are the words and thoughts of others.

English 201 Students said...

Nice job of giving us insight into Julia Slavin's life.I think it is interesting to see that she felt invisible as a child. This gives us as the readers a little bit of insight into why she may right such absurd pieces. It also interested me that she lives in Washington DC currently, and that is where Carnivore Diet took place. Overall, good job of showing the reader Slavin's background.
-Amanda Recker