Date of Award

8-1980

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

English

First Advisor

C. Monte Linkletter

Abstract

"Night Journey to Meridian" and Other Stories is a group of interrelated short stories dealing with various psychic experiences of one major character, Stella. Each story is an independent unit, but the stories together show psychic development through the life of the character. The stories are arranged chronologically.

"The Bite of the Turtle" deals with a nightmare experience of Stella in which she is in a strange place and gets bitten by a giant turtle. Stella insists on the reality of the experience that night and thereafter. "Aunt Callie's Visit" is an incident in which Stella has a precognitive dream of her aunt's death. The aunt has also had the same dream, which comes true at the end of the story. "Indian Summer" relates the experiences Stella has with an 'imaginary' playmate who goes away at the end of the summer. "Nightsnake" is an experience of a 'waking' nightmare in which Stella becomes convinced that a snake has entered her body and lives at her center.

·~The Three Musketeers" relates a story of three young people--Stella and two male schoolmates--who have an insatiable desire for knowledge, especially sexual knowledge, but no way to experiment or learn. The story takes the three into early adulthood where they decide that separate paths are best. "The Woman Who Had to Know" deals with Stella in the early years of a bad marriage--her husband is mentally abberational and becomes obsessive about trivial questions which he gives up in a few days. Stella becomes a bit mentally ill--withdraws, but to meditation, at the end. "Daysnake" reveals Stella and her husband near the end of their marriage: he has been reading her mind and she has tried working out protective measures to 'put in her mind what she wants to be read' and the exercises have done something to her mind--she changes. She becomes mentally and psychologically more mature; her snake becomes externalized as a result of her changes.

In "Night Journey to Meridian" Stella has reached psychic maturity: she is able to escape from some very unsavory characters, two men, in a bigger and better car who chase her through Mississippi during the middle of the night, and who plan to rob and physically abuse her. She, however, has developed her ESP ability and can 'tune in' on their conversations; she can also see through fog, and can 'expand' her consciousness so that she can see everything going on for miles around. Through the use of her psychic abilities, she escapes. "Night Visitor'' deals with the projection of an apparition to Stella's apartment from a friend of hers who has been 'possessed' by the thing; the friend and Stella are able to arrive at the conclusion that he controls the thing unconsciously--and that he can learn to control it instead of being controlled by it.

''The Public Resurrection Ceremony" is about Stella's death; she has left instructions for some kind of joyous celebration. Her friends decide to hold a 'public resurrection ceremony' and she comes back to life. Everyone runs away and she has to get out of the coffin by herself. She decides to go away; it is dangerous to stay around where one has had miracles.

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