The  Uncanny  Reader  

 

  Marjorie  Sandor  
 

ISBN:  9781250041715  *  Trade  Paperback  

  St.  Martin's  Griffin  *  February  2015  

       
 

READING  GROUP  GUIDE  

About  the  book:  
 
From   the   deeply   unsettling   to   the   possibly   supernatural,   these   thirty-­‐one   border-­‐crossing   stories   from  
around   the   world   explore   the   uncanny   in   literature,   and   delve   into   our   increasingly   unstable   sense   of   self,  
home,   and   planet.   The   Uncanny   Reader:   Stories   from   the   Shadows   opens   with   “The   Sand-­‐man,”   E.T.A.  
Hoffmann’s  1817  tale  of  doppelgangers  and  automatons—a  tale  that  inspired  generations  of  writers  and  
thinkers   to   come.   Stories   by   19th   and   20th   century   masters   of   the   uncanny—including   Edgar   Allan   Poe,  
Franz   Kafka,   and   Shirley   Jackson—form   a   foundation   for   sixteen   award-­‐winning   contemporary   authors,  
established   and   new,   whose   work   blurs   the   boundaries   between   the   familiar   and   the   unknown.   These  
writers  come  from  Egypt,  France,  Germany,  Japan,  Poland,  Russia,  Scotland,  England,  Sweden,  the  United  
States,  Uruguay,  and  Zambia—although  their  birthplaces  are  not  always  the  terrains  they  plumb  in  their  
stories,   nor   do   they   confine   themselves   to   their   own   eras.   Contemporary   authors   include:   Chris   Adrian,  
Aimee   Bender,   Kate   Bernheimer,   Jean-­‐Christophe   Duchon-­‐Doris,   Mansoura   Ez-­‐Eldin,   Jonathon   Carroll,  
John  Herdman,  Kelly  Link,  Steven  Millhauser,  Joyce  Carol  Oates,  Yoko  Ogawa,  Dean  Paschal,  Karen  Russell,  
Namwali  Serpell,  Steve  Stern  and  Karen  Tidbeck.  

Discussion  Questions  
 
1.   What’s  so  alluring  about  robots  and  automatons—or  any  figures  we  can’t  quite  decide  are  
human.  Why  are  we  drawn  to  them,  and  what  unsettles  us  about  them?  Take  a  look  at  Dean  Paschal’s  
“Moriya,”  Joan  Aiken’s  “The  Helper,”  E.T.A.  Hoffmann’s  “The  Sand-­‐man”  and  even  Jonathan  Carroll’s  
“The  Panic  Hand”  and  think  about  the  conflicting  human  emotions  these  stories  stir  up.  
 
2.   Who  am  I?  Some  of  the  stories  in  this  anthology  are,  at  their  heart,  stories  about  the  deep  
human  need  to  have  a  secure  identity,  and  to  belong—and  the  dangerous  aspects  of  our  homes  and  
cultures—our  supposed  “safe  spaces”  conceal.  Take  a  look  at  these  three  stories  with  this  struggle  in  
mind:  C.  Namwali  Serpell’s  ’“Muzungu,”  Karen  Tidbeck’s  “Reindeer  Mountain,”  and  Kate  Bernheimer’s  
“Whitework.”  
 
3.   American  suburbs  and  small  towns:  we  think  of  them  as  safe,  familiar  places.  Read  a  few  stories  
in  which  “something  is  not  quite  right”  in  the  controlled  world  of  the  suburban—what  attitudes,  
conventions  and  “feelings  of  safety”  are  getting  messed  with  here?  See  Joyce  Carol  Oates’  “The  Jesters,”  
and  Steven  Millhauser’s  “Phantoms.”  
 
4.   What  is  it  about  bodies  of  water  and  the  uncanny?  Several  of  these  stories  take  place  on,  in,  or  
near  water:  Kafka’s  “The  Stoker,”  Karen  Russell’s  “Haunting  Olivia”  and  Guy  de  Maupassant’s  “On  the  
Water.”  Play  with  the  mysterious  properties  of  watery  places  in  these  stories,  and  ask  why  water  might  
be  such  a  great  medium  for  producing  the  feeling  of  the  uncanny.  
 
5.   Domestic  Bliss  in  Trouble:  Edith  Wharton  and  Marjorie  Bowen  explore  the  boundaries  of  
married  happiness  in  their  stories,  “Pomegranate  Seed”  and  “Decay.”  Have  some  fun  comparing  and  
contrasting  these  two—very  different,  yet  still  about  the  deep  human  desire  to  make  the  perfect  home  
a  sanctuary  against…against…against  what?  Or  check  out  Kelly  Link’s  “Stone  Animals”  with  the  same  
question  in  mind.  What’s  doing  the  haunting  here?  
 
6.   Some  of  these  stories  are  sly  satires:  “The  Devil  and  Dr  Tuberose,”  and  “The  Puppets,”  are  two  
that  make  us  laugh—albeit  nervously.  What  “should  have  remained  hidden”  in  these  stories,  but  has  
“come  out  into  the  open?”  
 
7.   A  writer’s  ability  to  create  an  uncertain  and  moody  atmosphere  can  create,  in  the  reader,  a  deep  
sense  of  mounting  unease.  Take  a  look  at  a  few  of  the  following:  Poe’s  “Berenice,”  Ambrose  Bierce’s  
“One  of  Twins,”  H.P.  Lovecraft’s  “The  Music  of  Erich  Zann,  Robert  Aickman’s  “The  Waiting  Room,”  and  
Mansoura  Ez  Eldin’s  “Gothic  Night.”  All  are  stories  of  tremendous  atmosphere  and  rising  eeriness  or  
dread.  How  do  you  think  the  writers  created  that  atmosphere?  Look  at  the  endings  in  particular—did  
you  get  a  feeling  of  resolution?  Or  something  else?  Where  did  the  writer  leave  you?  
 
8.   Of  the  stories  you’ve  read  so  far  in  the  anthologies,  which  one  do  you  personally  find  most  
uncanny—and  why?  Have  a  debate—because  what’s  uncanny  to  one  person  may  not  be  to  another!  
What  do  our  responses  tell  us  about  ourselves?  
 
9.   Our  larger  fears  of  change  in  our  world—of  war,  of  environmental  disaster,  of  the  loss  of  
privacy,  and  of  the  future  itself—arise  in  several  of  the  stories  in  this  anthology.  Read  some  of  these,  
and  talk  about  how  these  writers  approach—and  make  us  think  differently—about  these  fears  in  their  
most  contemporary  form.  Consider  “Tiger  Mending,”  by  Aimee  Bender,  “On  Jacob’s  Ladder,”  by  Steve  
Stern,  “The  Black  Square,”  by  Chris  Adrian,  and  “Foundation,”  by  China  Miéville,  and  “Paranoia”  by  
Shirley  Jackson.  
 
10.   Stories  of  the  uncanny  are  apt  to  take  something  familiar  and  known  and  gradually  turn  it  
unrecognizable.  Compare  and  contrast  any  of  the  four  of  the  following  stories,  and  ask:  how  does  the  
writer  create  the  effect  of  “making  the  familiar  go  strange?”  Or  “the  strange  becoming  familiar?”  “The  
Birds,”  by  Bruno  Schulz,  “Oysters,”  by  Anton  Chekhov,  “The  Usher”  by  Felisberto  Hernández,  and  “Old  
Mrs.  J”  by  Yoko  Ogawa.  
 
 
Want  to  learn  more  about  Marjorie  Sandor?  
Follow  her  on  Goodreads!