Daddy Issues
The problematic issues at hand in the relationship between the narrator and his father are described using dense metaphorical language. The result is a much clearer picture of the complexities of these issues than would be available if merely literal language was used:
“With my father, it’s simpler: we simply lack connection. He’s a force on the horizon, but a distant one, like the sort of storm you see in the Midwest, visible across uncountable acres of cornfields. Maybe it will sweep in to give you trouble, but probably not, not often.”
Astronaut Boy
The narrator tells of another attempt by his parents to ingratiate him into the normal world little boys by looking for new friends to match him with. One is a boy with an obsession for astronauts, a not uncommon thing during the period in question:
“he will impose his will on the world, he will make the grass and the dust between trailers into the surface of the moon, and he’ll be its conqueror.”
Sad Stories
Why does one read stories which make them sad and which, furthermore, they know will make them sad? A combination of metaphorical imagery is combined to provide possible psychological insight into this question:
“Even sad stories are company. And perhaps that’s why you might read such a chronicle, to look into a companionable darkness that isn’t yours. Proximity is the best consolation”
Richard Shelton
Richard Shelton is a poet. Not all poets look like poets, of course, and that can be kind of a shock to some people. Shelton, however, if the simile is to be believed, looks almost exactly like one might expect any number of poets to resemble:
“He looks like a figure sketched on a vase by Picasso: there’s a bit of the satyr about him, or the centaur.”
Oedipal Clarification
The author is openly homosexual and makes no attempt to shy away from confronting the attendant stereotypes which are in full bloom in personality and character. At one point, he even grabs the metaphorical reins firmly in his grip to direct the conversation toward what he demonstrates is a patent misunderstanding of Freudian proportions:
“The old dominant mother theory puts the cart before the pony; I am not a gay boy because I am obsessed with my mother, it’s that my moon looms monumental because I’m drawn to her potent mix of emotional vulnerability and made surfaces.”
