Susan Keesee
STORY CUE CARD
Bibliographic
Information (best version for telling): "The Emissary," by Ray
Bradbury, c 1946 and reprinted from The October Country,
Ethnic Origin:
American
Running
Time: 15 minutes
Risks Taken
with this Story: I'm not a fan of scary stories, but to me this story touches
on some topics that I'm often told not to talk about:
· How important it is for a lonely person to
have an emissary.
· Forgiving a dog for its instinct to dig and to
roll in disgustingly smelly stuff.
· What can happen to and with a dead body? (scientific morbidity and curiosity about whether they really
go "Dancing in the zombie zoo")
This story is
a risk for me because (1) I am mourning the recent death of Roscoe, the dog who
was my emissary since 1988. (2) My husband did not want to hear the story again
after my first reading of it. First he thought it was too sad and then added
that it was gross. Awareness that my selection won't please everyone is a new
experience for me. This makes the performance more important than the content!
(3) As a literary tale, it requires more focus on learning the story as written
and less opportunity to escape that by doing more analysis of version and
variants. (4) The descriptions are more important parts to telling the story
than the plot, making it more challenging to tell than the other two stories
I've told this semester. (5) I want my audience to feel the intensity of a
dog-human relationship, and to consider what could happen if we get what we
wish for! I believe hitting these power centers are key.
Power Center(s): (Martin's emotional peaks and valleys)
From loneliness to elation with Dog's repeated delivery of Miss Haight.
Confidence/smugness that dead people don't just lie still in the
graveyard forever.
Deepening sadness over the loss of Miss Haight,
no more visitors, compounded by disappearance of Dog.
Brief hopefulness becomes confusion and
ultimately terror with Dog's return
Characters: Martin Smith, Dog, Mom, Miss Haight, Miss Tarkin. Brief mention in name only: Father, Mr.
Holloway, Mr. Jacobs, Mr. Jackson, Mrs. Gillespie, Mr. Smith, Mrs. Holmes and
any friend or near-friend.
Scenes:
1. October --
this incredible beast
2. Successful
retrieval
3. Is that all
the dead do? Just lie there?
4. Leading up
to Halloween (Dog no longer in and out 10 dozen times a day.) On Oct. 30, he
doesn't return at all.
5. Friday
night alone at home... Dog's return
Synopsis:
Martin, a sick house-bound 10-year old, gets information from the outside world
from Dog, who is in trouble for digging where he shouldn't. The sick boy
attaches a tin note to Dog's collar requesting visitors. Dog brings Miss Haight, his teacher from school, and she visits daily over
the course of 9-10 days. When Martin learns of Miss Haight's
death, he relates Dog's inability to "play dead" very long to the
impossibility that death means lying motionless for eternity in the cemetery.
Dog's journeys become longer (not returning 10 dozen times a day as before) and
his behavior changes. When Dog doesn't return the night before Halloween,
Martin becomes very lonely and depressed. When Martin wishes for Dog's return,
he gets more than he bargained for.
Rhymes/Special
Phrases/"Flavor":
Analogy used
to further describe what Dog had fetched during the special season ("this
incredible beast was October"):
· goldenrod, acorn husk, feather (etc.) like
charcoals shaken from a blaze of maple trees
Special
phrases about how Martin learned about the outside world through Dog:
· Through the loomings
of the universe Dog shuttled; the design was hid in his pelt.
· Martin trembled his fingers, searched the
thick fur, read the long journey.
Tempo varies
within story and there are several important spots to pause.
Audience (why
is this story appropriate for the audience? developmental characteristics?):
The stories
within Ray Bradbury's October Country could be appreciated by a young
adult audience, but the life experience of adulthood makes them much more
appropriate for a more mature audience. While enjoying visitors is not really
age-specific, adults who remember when children were quarantined at home will
empathize with the main character more. Older adults (or any who have not been
bombarded with the unreal aspects of terror from television) can more fully
experience the terror of Martin's last visitor than younger audience members
who are less likely to have the option to send the sitter home and be alone at
night.
Bibliographic information on other versions/variants (at least
two)?
Since this is
a literary tale, this search was not done.
Brief comparison of all
versions/variants in terms of language, rhythm, "tellability,"
"flavor," content, etc. Stress the differences in style
rather than those of content.
Although this
section does not apply since the previous question was unanswered, I must
comment on my brief research on Ray Bradbury's short stories. I unfairly judged
this writer as a science fiction type whose work I could never appreciate. While
searching for the elements I wanted in my final selection for storytelling, I
found this while looking in subjects: Dogs--Folklore. Once I picked
this story, I chose to look at it within the copy of The October Country that was
in the Undergraduate Library and then in an earlier published edition in Davis
Library. Although I had reasonably good success finding biographical
information about the author, reviewing the other titles in the