In one of the pocket universes visited in Dangerous
Laughter,
a new short-story collection from Steven Millhauser, the historical society of a
small New England town radically redefines its mission. Dedicated to letting no
aspect of history slip away, they stop sorting signal from noise and begin
chronicling "every Monopoly piece and badminton racket, every cobweb in every
corner of every attic." "We no longer use the word 'present' here at the
Historical Society," the nameless narrator says, "but speak instead of the New
Past." By tilting the world a few degrees, they've discovered a new way of
seeing things, a gift they share with their creator.
Best known for his Pulitzer-winning novel Martin
Dressler
and for writing the story adapted into the 2006 film The Illusionist, Millhauser reproduces
the world by looking at it from a skewed perspective. The collection-opening "Cat
'N' Mouse" transforms the antics of a Tom and Jerry-like cartoon team into an
illustration of the kind of desire that can only be filled with mutual
self-destruction.† In "The Dome," a
fad for enclosed houses sparks a global craze driven by the desire to contain
and compartmentalize.
Millhauser's stories resist reductive readings,
often unfolding like allegories that have lost the tether to their source.
Drawing distinctions between its adversaries' lifestyles and recreational
pursuits, "Cat 'N' Mouse," for instance, invites a political interpretation
that falls apart after too-close scrutiny. "The Other Town" explores a town
that lives next to a vacant doppelgänger neighbor where visitors explore and
take liberties they wouldn't take at home. Millhauser may have had the Internet
in mind, but the story would work even without that connection.
Millhauser's alternate universes are simultaneously
seductive and sad, places where miracles impose new limitations. "The Wizard Of
West Orange" finds a Thomas Edison-like inventor laboring over a haptograph, a
machine that can replicate sensations impossible in life, which might
ultimately spoil the real world for its users. Several generations work toward
reaching heaven in "The Tower," but once they get there, their efforts turn
upon themselves, sparking a rage for life on the ground. Presenting them with
the wonders of heaven, the transgressive possibilities of a place without the
usual rules, or an obsessive plunge into the here and now, Millhauser gives his
characters the chance to escape, but only so far.