Future Emergencies
This short story was written in 2002, a year after 9/11. So the setting is the post 9/11 America contributing the sense of uncertainty and insecurity of America’s future and the fear of changes in American people’s lives.
The female narrator She isn’t given a name, probably she’s used to represent ordinary Americans whose pleasant, enjoyable lives have been afflicted by 9/11 attacks, becoming frightened, anxious and longing for their past ways of life. Before the incident, she says she have always dated many men, then she meets Victor who is older, strong, intellectual and she knows that she can rely on his permanent shape. She finds Victor’s dark humor about the medieval age, or his love of penal things and conflicts charming, she’s still a kid. Their particular relationship allows her to be a naïve, uncorrupted girl and what’s so funny is when Victor writes on her essay “See me,” and they have sex in his office. These sound like a common love story, pretty naughty and funny; a young college student girl and her professor having an affair in the university. But her life and her thought after the 9/11 are changed. She says that they haven’t had sex and haven’t taken a walk together for a long time; their lives are less sexual and sweet. Then she’s attached by Paul, or specifically, his long elegant fingers which make her think that he may be a cellist. There comes the image of sexuality, the cello looks like a woman curve and he plays on that body. It tells us that she desperately wants to go back to the life she’s used to, free, exciting life. She doesn’t find Victor’s black humor of violent conflicts charming anymore, his taste becomes disgusting for her because when terror manifests in reality, it’s totally not funny. Maybe it explains why she wants to leave him. Moreover, she feels uneasy with the photograph of the old woman in a wheelchair