Assorted Fire Events by David Means
"Assorted Fire Events" by David Means is a collection of interconnected narratives centered around various fire-related incidents, each vividly highlighting the duality of horror and beauty associated with fire. The work begins with a recollection from the narrator's childhood in Michigan, recalling a man's destruction of cottages by fire, which leaves a haunting yet captivating impression on his memory. Following this, the narrator shares a personal anecdote of a nearby house engulfed in flames due to a common household hazard, creating a juxtaposition between domestic life and unforeseen tragedy.
The narrative takes a darker turn with shocking accounts, including a boy's cruelty towards a dog and a tragic incident involving the narrator's aunt. The aunt's suicide, described through a poignant note from the perspective of a gas can, adds a layer of psychological depth and sorrow. The climax of the collection features Fenton, a boy whose reckless play with fire leads to life-altering consequences, portraying the devastating aftermath of his actions. Means crafts a complex tapestry of fire as both a destructive force and a symbol of deeper human experiences, engaging readers to reflect on the poignant intersections of beauty, tragedy, and the human condition.
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Assorted Fire Events by David Means
First published: 2000
Type of plot: Antistory, metafiction
Time of work: The 1990's
Locale: Hudson River Valley, New York
Principal Characters:
A writer , the narratorHis aunt , who immolates herselfShank , a boy who likes to burn living creaturesFenton , a boy who accidentally starts a fire and is terribly burned
The Story
There is no single unified plot in "Assorted Fire Events." Instead, as its title suggests, the story is a series of events about fire, related to one another only insofar as they are of interest to the narrator writing about them.
In the first paragraph, the narrator recalls one winter when he was thirteen and living in Michigan when a man set fire to several cottages. In the spring when the snow melted, the narrator loved the sight of the black charred remains of one of the cottages and adds it to his "line-up of memorable images."
For the second fire event, the narrator describes sitting in his study writing and listening to his children playing outside when a fire breaks out at a nearby house because of the spontaneous combustion of varnish-soaked rags. In a footnote, the writer provides a biographical basis for this event, saying that in the previous spring when a house near him was reduced to rubble, he heard the children hollering for joy.
The third fire event focuses briefly on a boy named Shank who pours gasoline on a dog and sets it on fire. The fourth event, which the narrator says in another footnote is a horrible tragic fact, describes how his aunt pours gasoline on her head and body and sets herself on fire, dying a few hours later, her flesh consumed. The aunt has left a note written in the first person from the point of view of the gas can.
In the final and most detailed fire event, the narrator tells of Fenton, a boy who builds a makeshift cardboard rocket ship, douses it with gasoline, and lights it in a narrow space between the garages of his parents and their neighbors. When the flames roar up his legs, he drops and rolls, but there is little room between the two garages, and he keeps rolling back toward the fire. Although he screams, a neighbor is mowing his lawn and cannot hear him. Both garages and part of the two houses also catch fire.
The last section of the story describes Fenton crawling on all fours, his skin smoking, his sneakers having melted into his feet, a "ghastly sight that no one gets to see." When the firefighters arrive, he is still smoldering like a heap of campfire residue. The narrator then describes the aftermath of the disaster, Fenton lying in a flotation tank with his arms outstretched, like Christ. This fire event is "a holy event," says the narrator, for Fenton walked into the hot fire of hell and came out with a face hard to recognize as human. When people pass him on the street, they do not want to look at him, for his face is like that of a clown in a circus; a goofy smile has been painted over the face of the saddest clown-school dropout they have ever seen.