The History of Sound: Stories

Choose two stories from the collection that aren’t obviously companions and discuss the connections between them. In your answer, consider similarities or parallels in story, theme, and character.

Analyze Shattuck’s use of point of view throughout the collection. Explore why some stories are written from the first-person point of view, while others are written from the third-person perspective. How would the stories’ meanings change if written from alternate perspectives?

Craft an argumentative essay that supports or refutes the following claim: All of Shattuck’s characters have fraught relationships with the past. Consider how the characters regard their personal and/or ancestral histories, and how these histories shape their identities.

Analyze the overarching structure of the collection. Why did Shattuck arrange the stories the way he did? How would the collection’s overarching resonance change if the stories were curated differently?

Explore the relationship between the stories’ New England settings and the collection’s overarching mood. How do micro and macro settings impact specific characters? How would the stories change if set in a different region?

Analyze the overlaps in the characters’ encounters with love and loss. What is the significance of the characters’ parallel emotional experiences? Are Shattuck’s representations of love and grief in historical and contemporary contexts believable? Why or why not?

Analyze the unconventional narrative structures of “The Journal of Thomas Thurber,” “Radiolab: ‘Singularities,’” and “Introduction to The Dietzens.” How do these atypical narrative forms relate to the stories’ themes? How would they differ if written more linearly?

Explore the recurrence of images throughout the collection. For example, what is the symbolic and thematic resonance of the appearances of the cylinders, the paintings, the apple trees, or the logging cabins? What narrative, atmospheric, and/or thematic effects do these motifs have?