The History of Sound: Stories

The short stories in The History of Sound capture the possible ethical implications involved in telling stories. Although Shattuck’s characters face unique challenges and have distinct longings, they all share the desire to express themselves and connect with others. Reading, writing, or sharing stories is one way that they attempt to do so, and through their artistic efforts, Shattuck examines the ethics of storytelling.

Because Shattuck depicts storytelling in a myriad of ways, The History of Sound presents both the positive and negative aspects of the tradition. At times, Shattuck’s characters are compelled to co-opt others’ stories for their own gain, while at other times, they use stories to manipulate or connect with others, to make sense of their emotions, to gain power, or to protect themselves. In “Edwin Chase of Nantucket,” Edwin gains access to Laurel’s past when he reads Will’s journal and Laurel’s letters; without permission, he inserts himself into Laurel and Will’s story, hoping to understand his mother and himself better. In “Graft,” Hope is terrified of telling her own story to her husband Harold, convinced that the true account of her life will push him away, while in “August in the Forest,” August inadvertently betrays his wife and best friend Elizabeth when he bases a character off of her to secure his first fiction publication. In “The Journal of Thomas Thurber,” Thomas records Winslow’s story in his journal, an action that ultimately robs Winslow of his agency to tell his side of the story and threatens his freedom, and in “The Children of Eden,” Karl Dietzen uses his story of eternity to scam his followers, ultimately leading them into death. In “Introduction to The Dietzens,” storytelling is Cal’s way of navigating his past, and in “Origin Stories,” Annie discovers that reframing her own story can help her regain control of her life. Each of these characters resorts to storytelling to fulfill their needs, and Shattuck explores the complicated tensions that result from their efforts.

The way that August regards storytelling in “August in the Forest” offers a prime example of the possible complications of using someone else’s story without their permission. When the magazine prints his short story, August wonders, “What would Elizabeth first say when he finished reading her the story? She wouldn’t be wrong to be angry. To be […] drawn into a story that he only wanted to publish for the sake of—what? Some small bit of entertainment for a few dozen readers” (154). August acknowledges the possibly fraught repercussions of writing about Elizabeth, but soon after, he muses that arguing with her about the story could make a perfect scene of dialogue for his next story. August regards his life as material for his work; to him, storytelling is a fact of life, and embedding others’ stories into his writing is a part of his process. The overarching structure of the collection authenticates this notion—one character’s story resurfacing within the surrounding narratives, illustrating the way these stories resonate across time. What might be exploitation in one context or era becomes a lesson in the next. For example, while Karl used story to manipulate his followers, centuries later, the story of the Dietzens helps a character like Cal make sense of his life. Shattuck thus implies that the ethics of storytelling are ambiguous. The practice itself will always involve some fictionalization or narrative manipulation, and the effects are so far-reaching that they cannot be anticipated.

The short stories collected in The History of Sound span American state lines and temporal eras, depicting the lives of a collective cast of characters who all experience love, loss, and longing. While Shattuck’s characters have distinct personalities and circumstances, they all experience innate human emotions: They fall in love, experience loss, encounter disappointment, are weighed by sorrow, or discover the beauty of life. Shattuck uses their stories to highlight the commonalities of their emotional experiences and argue for the universality of the human experience.

Shattuck creates connective threads between the collected short stories by allowing his characters to experience familiar emotions no matter the era they’re living in. Overlaps in the language he uses to render these internal expires underscore the thematic and emotional resonances between the stories. For example, the way that Edwin regards his life in “Edwin Chase of Nantucket” echoes the way that Will thinks about his life in “The Auk.” Edwin spends every night thinking “of how [his] life might change” (33); every facet of his life is mapped out and predictable, and he feels caught in his longing for something new to jog his otherwise isolating and banal circumstances. Not dissimilarly, Will spends his “daily afternoon walks” wondering if his “life [will] always be this narrow and difficult” (212). Edwin is 20 years old and living in the late 18th century on a farm in New England, while Will is in late middle age and living in the late 20th century in a coastal town in Newfoundland. However, Edwin’s and Will’s internal experiences resonate with each other. Their age, era, and environment are starkly different, but their humanity is the same.

The parallels between Hope’s internal experience in “Graft” and Annie’s internal experience in “Origin Stories” are another example of the universality of human emotion. When Hope returns to Davis and Annabelle’s house, she often feels “displaced” and doesn’t “quite know what to do with herself” (88). She longs to feel grounded in a life that’s her own but doesn’t know how to realize this desire. The same is true for Annie, who feels despondent because of how much she’s given up to be with Henry. She finally tells him that she hates that she isn’t “doing anything with [her] life” (293). Like Hope, Annie wants to feel love and acceptance, but she also longs for purpose and fulfillment.

Each of the stories in the collection features episodes of loss, grief, love, desire, and loneliness. By emphasizing the commonalities in their experiences, Shattuck asserts that although the individuality of humans is infinite, many human experiences and emotions are universal.