the manuscript and stasis

Finally, got some time to finish reading through the manuscript. Yes, I have changed it once again. For one thing, I do not think anymore that the limited space of a chapbook is a right form for this project . But, I am also a little worried about who would really like to pick this book up. And, as I am doing another round of revisions, I am thinking a lot about the idea of stasis in a narrative, a manuscript.

There is indeed a stasis in this manuscript. The “range” of the manuscript is not that large, so to say. It concentrates on the domestic space, and even within that domestic space, it really focuses on the kitchen. In other words, it focuses its attention on one small thing – the mother figure inside her kitchen and then places that one single space, one single figure under a closer scrutiny.

Personally, I interpret this stasis as very characteristic of the material of the manuscript. There is a stasis inbuilt within the very domestic space. The work that is needed to sustain that domestic space is claustrophobic in its very nature. And, as I was doing this set of revisions, and was thinking about this stasis, I was also thinking of how most of my students reacted to Aimee Bender's novel The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. They wanted the mother-daughter duo, especially the mother figure, to “empower” herself more. One of their complaints was, nothing much happens in this book. I read that complaint as another way of talking about the stasis.

Now, as I am working on the revision, I am thinking, isn't this stasis a symptom of the drudgery that constitutes domesticity and the housework? If yes, isn't this discomfort that my students felt, and the discomfort that some of my own readers, like JG felt while reading an earlier iteration of this manuscript, productive? After all, isn't this disempowerment what I want to convey? After all, I do not want my readers to read this book and feel that there is liberation for women in domesticity or within the familial-domestic space itself. So, this claustrophobia, that JG talked about, and what my students pointed out, without necessarily using that word, is what I want my readers to feel on their skins. I want to zero in on that claustrophobia. I do not want this manuscript to be a skittery one.

In other words, at this point, I am not really sure I can deal with that stasis in any way. Instead, I am trying to see this stasis as productive, as contributing to the conversation and even facilitating certain conversations about middle-class femininity, gender and domesticity rather than stalling them.