Bird Agency

In George Saunders’ story “Escape From Spiderhead” the main character finally escapes the experimental prison by committing suicide. While many authors choose to end the narration when the main character dies, Saunders simply allows Jeff to transcend into his next life. His reincarnation was freeing but as I thought about it I came to a realization:

Assume that Jeff died and became a bird. What did the other birds think about this new bird appearing out of nowhere? Did he just take over the body of an already existing bird? Why do the birds not talk to each other? Why are these birds still subject to humans even in their own realm?

The Disturbing Spiderhead

George Saunders' "Escape from Spiderhead" was an interesting, thought-provoking short story. It was similar to other dystopian stories such as: Brave New World, The Hunger Games and Divergent. All are set in a futuristic setting where authorities are experimenting on or controlling the thoughts of other members of society. Initially, the book's plot is confusing as the author puts the reader in the middle of the story. As the plot develops, this dystopia becomes more disturbing. Despite the story only being 44 pages, Saunders' rich detail makes it easy to imagine oneself in such a society. Similar to Brave New World, the main character is so distraught at living in a world in which one does not control one's own emotions that he decides to take his own life.   

Similarities between Escape From Spiderhead and Jon

Escape From Spiderhead, by George Saunders, is about a young man named Jeff who works as a test subject for new types of drugs as atonement for a terrible crime he committed. Seemingly unlike the other test subjects, Jeff questions the conditions he and his fellows face, and is somewhat perturbed by the fact that the scientists have almost complete control over his life. In spite of this, Jeff still submits to the power binary- probably because of his guilt.

After I finished reading it, I realized that there is a lot of similarity between Escape From Spiderhead and one of George Saunders' earlier short stories, Jon. Both are set in a future where people have surgical implants that feed drugs into their systems and sex is seen as almost clinical, and both feature a protagonist who seeks to, one way or another, escape his current conditions.

The similarities between the settings of both stories made me wonder how many of the same motifs show up in Saunders' other short stories, or even if he intended them to take place in the same world.

What Makes Us Human?

In George Saunder's short story, "Escape from Spiderhead," a man's emotional, moral, and physical limits are put to the test. A theme in this story is the search for humanity. "Escape from Spiderhead" argues that humans are instinctively empathetic and against causing pain and discomfort to an innocent human being. This story compels us to think about chemicals that circulate through our bodies and how we are dependent on them. All the subjects are connected to these "MobiPacks™" which dispense different chemicals on command of Abnesti, the test administrator. Abnesti is toying with their emotions but to the subjects it feels as real as anything else they've ever felt before. Jeff believes it is interesting but then becomes uncomfortable with the fact. Abnesti takes away the traits and emotions that we believe defines who we are and leaves you wondering what else is there to us as humans.

Stay in School and Don't do Drugs!

After reading Tenth of December's "Escape from Spiderhead", one can't help asking the question, "What in the world did I just read?"  Even though on the outside, George Saunders' short story may only seem like its only recurring motifs are sex and drugs, I believe that the author had a much greater expectation for the interpretation of his story.  For example, the story sparks thought-provoking questions in the reader, such as, "What would I do if I were in Jeff's situation?"  Even though Saunders chose to describe some of the more explicit scenes in excruciating detail, the main idea of the story might be seen as the concept of free will, something which Jeff didn't believe he had in the story until he made his own decisions at the end of the story.  Overall, Saunders' "Escape from Spiderhead" is a perplexing tale that's sure to draw the reader in no matter what they think the plot is.

George Saunders flounders!

I'm an enormous fan of George Saunders. However, after reading a number of his stories, I've noticed a strange pattern. With the exception of The Very Persistent Gappers of Fripp, which stars an excellent heroine named Capable, every George Saunders story I've read has featured men as the primary characters and women as being put in powerless/demeaning roles - usually in a sexual way.

To be clear, when Saunders' women are put into these situations, their predicament is in no way meant to be glorified. In each occurrence of this trope, the man who overpowers and violates the woman is definitely portrayed as being in the wrong. In The Brief and Terrifying Reign of Phil, it's Phil himself – indisputably the villain of the story – who fantasizes about, idealizes, violates, and eventually murders his female crush. "Escape from Spiderhead" portrays women being killed after being sort-of sexually violated in the context of an experiment (again, the man who kills them is not supposed to be a sympathetic character). The short story "Victory Lap" features a rapist who means to rape and murder a female child, "Jon" has young girls being impaired by accidental pregnancies, and "Tenth of December" features a young boy who fantasizes about a girl being kidnapped so he can rescue her. In none of these cases is the reader supposed to sympathize with the overpowering of these female characters, and yet there they are.

It's difficult to tell what George Saunders is trying to say through this repeated trope. On the one hand, he's definitely making a statement against violating women or using them as objects. On the other hand, that's what happens to most of his female characters (again, with the exception of Capable, who is an excellent non-sexualized young heroine).

What this says to me is that Saunders is making an effort, but he's not truly there yet. It's been proven time and time again that male authors have more difficulty telling the stories of female characters than female authors do when telling the stories of male characters. This is because the majority of media is presented from a male perspective; therefore, women are constantly forced to see things from a man's point of view, whereas men are never forced to see anything from a woman's point of view.

It seems that Saunders is on the right path (saying that women should be treated as equal human beings) but he hasn't quite made it to the point of actually portraying them as human beings, instead focusing on the damage that occurs when they are not treated as such. When it comes down to it, it's a case of mutual recognition: Saunders has reached the point of saying "You're not less than me" but hasn't reached the point of "You're equal to me."

I hope to see this repetitive trope disappear as I read more of his writing. After all, a writer is only great if they can write from the perspectives of both halves of the population.

The Easy Way Out?

I thought that "Escape from Spiderhead" was an interesting dystopian world short story, and I thought it was well written. It really immersed the reader in a new world, and its descriptive language greatly aided in this accomplishment. I also thought that the ending was intriguing. It made me think if the way Jeff chose to exit Spiderhead was really the easiest way to escape it. After he had just seen Heather go out by being injected with Darkenfloxx, he still chose that as the way to escape Spiderhead.  It just shows how desperate Jeff was to escape.

Thoughts on Spiderhead

I was really intrigued by "Escape from Spiderhead." It was such a strange and disturbing story that I couldn't help but be enraptured by it. But maybe enraptured is the wrong word. More correctly, I would say that I was completed engrossed in the story. The inhumane treatment of the prisoners at Spiderhead was so revolting and odd but it was also so interesting and fun to read. We talked in class about authors being able to create a whole new world in their writings, and George Saunders definitely did that. I was completely at a loss of understanding in the beginning of the story because everything was so different. When we discussed authors creating new worlds in their writings I could not think of the alien worlds that would be created in the books we read. I kept getting caught up in worlds that authors have already written and new authors had used again and again (utopian, dystopian, etc.), and Spiderhead was very different than most things that I have read.
I also found it interesting that even though it was made clear that all of the people in the story were there because they had done horrible things, the main character, Jeff, was really portrayed as a good guy, and in turn I started to feel for the other characters. George Saunders did an incredible job writing this story, and my reactions (shock, disgust, surprise) made me realize this because the writing was making me feel things that bad writing would not have.

Riding the Wave of Verbaluce™

In the fourth short story from the novel Tenth of December, author George Saunders toys with vulgar manipulation of human connection. Saunders thrusts jarring depictions and shocking descriptions on the pages, creating an unshakable journey for not only Jeff, but also the reader. I found the setting to be a heavy component in exuding this sort of effect on most readers. The location, for a majority of the story, is in a clean monotonous institution that made for very heavy contrast regarding tiny details. Regularly surpassable details now leave a strong mark in the reader’s imagination. Images become almost grotesquely poignant-such as his fellow prisoner’s tattoo of a stabbed rat…stabbing a rat, or of Heather's struggle to disassemble the impossible-to-disassemble chair. The crass, yet somewhat refreshing, verbiage produced by Saunders’ brilliant attention to a crisp setting, made my spine tingle.

Spiderhead Wonderings

Escape from Spiderhead has a ton of commentary on love and relationships but the thing I found most interesting was the classic moral debate of good vs. evil and whether the punishment fits the crime.

During the story I was really struggling with whether or not Abnesti was a "good guy." He doesn't really seem trustworthy but he gives examples of when he bends the rules for the subjects. On the other hand the way he throws it back in Jeff's face seems really condescending  and manipulative. I just do not know if it is fair that I write him off as a bad guy especially when he tries to override Jeff's disobedience. Abnesti is a character that we experience from Jeff's point of view which does not give him a fair shot as a character. Abnesti is not alone in this process, he may be the leader of Spiderhead but there is a Committee that is over him. Ultimately I guess the question is who is to blame? Is it fair to Abnesti? He may be manipulative and unethical but he truly believes he is working to help people.

It was also interesting how Spiderhead was an alternative to prison, one that Jeff said his mother paid for. The way these criminals are tested on as subjects with a false sense of freewill strips them of their humanity. When a person commits a crime, such as murder, do they deserved being stripped of their humanity? It may be easy to say yes but hearing Jeff's story of  a mistake in the heat of the moment and then losing his humanity for the rest of his life it becomes harder to say yes to that.

For The Greater Good

In Escape From Spiderhead,  Jeff, the protagonist, is a lab rat in a prison posing as a scientific research center. Everyday he participates in experiments for the greater good of humanity. He is given chemicals that affect how he thinks, speaks and acts.

What better subjects for experiments to advance the human race than a human?
But wait. Is this ethical? Isn't this one of the things that the Nazis did in their concentration camps?

Of course it is ethical and not at all like the Nazis.  What Jeff did was completely voluntary as compared to the Nazi experiments. If he didn't want the drip on, he simply didn't have to say "Acknowledge."

Or was it voluntary? What choice did Jeff really have? If he did not say "Acknowledge" when they asked to turn on his drip of the chemical being tested, then they would just give him Docilryde to make him happy to comply.

But he was there for murder! It's not just like he was some random person they found off the street and captured -- like the Jews in the concentration camps. Murder is an unspeakable act of violence that deserves to be punished.

And yet, when one of Spiderhead's subjects died under experimentation, no one seemed to care.  Except for Jeff, the murderer, who was willing to die before seeing another person killed.

Washing out humanity in "Escape from Spiderhead"

"I guess I was sad that love could feel so real and the next minute be gone, and all because of something Abnesti was doing."

In George Saunders' "Escape from Spiderhead," It seems that the only organic emotion Jeff feels over the course of this story is sadness.

Jeff and the other test subjects are endlessly injected with emotions and sensations that they do not actually feel, and yet experience intensely. When the chemical is removed from their bloodstream, they are left at "baseline," or in simpler terms; humanity.

Humanity allows us to feel and react and experience our lives in an individual way. By taking away their ability to feel and experience situations for themselves, the experimenters are stripping their test subjects of their humanity.

Although humanity has many flaws, (and Jeff knows that as well as anyone,) it is something worth preserving. While humans can commit murder, they can also save lives. They can fall in love, and experience joy. A human couldn't pump anything like Darkenfloxx into another human.

While the experimenters' overall goal is to perfect humanity, they are eliminating it in the process.

The Inhumane Society

"And that was true. I really didn't care. It was like if I put you in the Spiderhead and gave you the choice: Which of these two strangers would you like to send into the shadow of the valley of death?" (56).



In the short story "Escape from Spiderhead" we follow Jeff and track his thoughts regarding the conditions he is living in in Spiderhead. Each day he is given different drugs while the coordinators record his and the other subjects' reactions. Overall, reading this story was quite disturbing. The fact that they were creating this medicine to allow people incredible sexual pleasure, but then immediately revoking those feelings so that humans are able to carry on with their lives sans emotions. Additionally, there is such cruelty in the conditions where Jeff is residing. Him, along with the others, are given all of these medications, not knowing exactly how they will react. Later on they even ask the different testers which person they have feelings for and which they wouldn't mind getting Darkenfloxxed. Yet, Jeff argues (expressed in the quote above) that he understands the severity of Darkenfloxx and wouldn't want even his worst enemy to have to suffer through it. Arguably, Jeff is in this institution for a reason, but does the truly deserve all of the cruel and unusual punishments he is put through?


In the end, Jeff successfully escapes from this institution, yet I can't help but wonder how humane this process is. Jeff and the other subjects are treated like lab rats on a day to day basis and I can't wrap my head around the logic behind it all and the little sympathy Abnesti feels for the testers. I feel that this short story greatly explores the humanity of humans. Abnesti seems to not care about the emotions of any of his subjects and distinctly only cares for his experiments and gaining the scientific results he wants. Jeff proves however, that even though he was put into this experiment for committing a crime, he is the least evil of all. Even when he has the change to confront the other subjects with Darkenfloxx he chooses not to. The story explores the battle between good and evil, but moreover who is good and who is evil. Evil, which in my opinion, is Abnesti, the man with zero apathy for anything, and good, which is Jeff who, although a criminal, is never cruel towards others.

Regular Correctional Facility vs. Spiderhead

In George Saunders', Escape from Spiderhead, the reader learns early on in the story that Jeff, the subject of a series of science experiments, had been committed a crime and was supposed to go to a regular containment facility but, Jeff's mother apparently paid a fortune to get Jeff into a facility like Spiderhead because she thought that Jeff would not last long in a regular prison. So, Spiderhead is a correctional facility but just a really weird one. The facility treats the subjects, it seems, in a nice manner, but when a subject is in an experiment, they can go through some very brutal and intense things. One girl almost killed herself due to "Darkenfloxx", one of the drugs Abnesti, the head scientist at Spiderhead, gaves to the subjects from time to time. The whole operation/punishment and rehabilitation seems very high tech and almost illegal.

VerbaluceTM on Escape from Spiderhead

(No, I did not actually take non-existent drugs to make me talk a lot.)

1. Major human rights violation, whoa.

2. Is this a business? The TMs make it seem like a business, but it's involved with the legal system. Supposedly Jeff's mom bought him a spot in this place ("She'd spent her life savings to get me out of real jail and in here.") The other experiments seem relatively benign, but no. If I was Jeff's mom I would be pissed.

...Is this government-endorsed, then? Who voted to let this happen? Was it a program that started out benevolent and turned into killing test subjects with suicide drugs? Are there other places like this? Who supervises it?

Are the drugs going to be marketed to the general public? Will they be strictly controlled by the government? Most of the memorable ones really could never be used in any ethical way (forcing and then erasing love, suicide-inducing, obedience drugs) though the events of the story make it pretty clear that ethics really aren't a question. But what about the nature-loving drugs, or the ones Jeff mentions in passing (being able to stand up at a cash register, though that seems pretty weird, or suddenly being good at math.) Or even VerbaluceTM-- there might be some actually good uses for some of these drugs, though I'm sure they come with a slew of terrible side-effects that utterly negates their usefulness. Still. What's the plan for these drugs? Who will they be sold to (the government? Is this the deal for allowing such obvious disregard for any sort of human rights issues with the prisoners-- miracle drugs in exchange for overlooking the atrocities committed to make them?)

3. Suicide drugs! Darkenfloxx doesn't sound ominous enough. It's about halfway there.

4. They say they have to watch Jeff's reaction to Rachel being Darkenfloxxed because of the scientific process, but this is so unscientific. They don't tell Jeff what Heather did, but they do tell him about Rachel. That's already enough to skew the results. Add in having watched the previous subject die horribly, and, well, your experiment is already screwed. Even if they had forced him to do it, his thoughts would already be different from, I don't know, the traumatizing experience of Heather's death?

And since Heather is already dead, and Rachel possibly would have been too, they couldn't test this again with the other test subjects, Keith and Rogan. They could have used a lower dose (still horrible, but not actually kill them) but they had to wait ten minutes when she was clearly going to kill herself?

These scientists are idiots.

5. The obedience drug requires extra paperwork to be used, but not the suicide-inducing one? Who made this system and what was wrong with them.

6.  What are BonvivTM, BlissTymeTM, and SpeedErUpTM? Okay, it's pretty obvious what kind of drugs they are, but are they based on, say, opiates? Cocaine or weed? Something else entirely? (Also, why do I care?)

7. Mick, Todd, Karen, Lisa, Phoebe, I'm sorry. Your dad is an emotionally manipulative asshole.

I'm sure that if there was a word limit for this blog post I would have exceeded it spectacularly, but as far as I know there isn't, so I will just leave my rambling off here.

Escape from George Sanders Crazy Stories

What! "Escape from Spiderhead," was crazy! Crazy in the way that I couldn't stop reading it, much to my french teacher's dismay. It was an odd story, and some might call it futuristic pornography. While it was pretty explicit, I still thought it was a good read. This story went against what people believed in today, like how there shouldn't be human experimentation. I think this concept was shocking, and kept my eyes glued to the page. Also, what's with George Saunders and blunt trauma? First the guy in Victory Lap gets smashed by a geode, then Heather killed herself via blunt trauma to the face, and then Jeff killed himself with the corner of desk! Just thinking about what had to be going through his head makes me shiver. I think that Saunders' works are so intriguing because they are so shocking. While this kind of reading might not be for everyone, it was exciting for me.

Escape from Spiderhead

I found "Escape from Spiderhead" to be very disturbing, but thought-provoking and it brought to light the idea of how much ability we have to control our own feelings, and to some extent ourselves. Throughout the short story, Jeff's emotions are somewhat controlled by chemicals injected by a sort of science research company that uses Jeff in experiments to collect data. In some ways this reminded me of the book 1984 by George Orwell, where humans live in a future society where our very facial expressions and thoughts are controlled, which is the very extent of our privacy. In Escape from Spiderhead, Jeff's emotions are controlled during the scientific tests, but outside of those test rooms, or when he is not observing tests on other people and having to relay it back to the company, he builds and forms his own emotions, which eventually makes him choose of his own accord to escape through death. In 1984, the book ends with humanity not able to surpass a greater entity/society controlling them and who they are, whereas in "Escape from Spiderhead" you could argue that Jeff does gain control of who he is by committing suicide at the end.  

A Truly Dark Escape from Spiderhead

Escape from Spiderhead was a fast read. This chapter had a binary between Jeff and Abnesti. Although Jeff resisted Albnesti's control every step of the way, similar to Allison from the chapter Victory Lap, there was no way to escape. That is, until Jeff takes the darkest and possibly the only way out of Spiderhead.

I consider a person's mind to be the one true thing sheltered and private from the outside world. The idea of temporary, but intense manipulation of feelings, perceptions, and even vocabulary is disturbing to me. One short paragraph that made my spine tingle was on page 64. When Jeff was undecisive about which girl to give Darkenfloxx Albensti asked him, "Do you feel jerked around because you still have feelings of love for one of the girls? That would need to be noted. Anger? Possessiveness? Residual sexual longing?". The word residual has a negative connotation and it made me think about how the scientists wanted to eliminate excessive feelings. Results replaced empathy. Overall I believe the chapter expressed the theme, scientific experiments are unpredictable in their extent of unethical data collection methods to get unethical results.

Power and Subjective Recognition in Escape from Spiderhead

"Escape from Spiderhead", by George Saunders, shows an interesting power dynamic between Abnesti and Jeff. On the one had, there is an obvious power binary in the fact that one is the scientist and the other the lab rat. It is quite clear who has the power and who doesn't. But, there are times when this power dynamic flips. The most notable one, in my opinion, is when Jeff refuses to say "Acknowledge" when Abnesti is trying to give him Docilryde. For a moment, Jeff has the power and Abnesti can't do anything about it until he gets the waiver.

But, I feel like there is also some mutual recognition between Abnesti and Jeff. One time where this mutual recognition is apparent is when Abnesti is talking with Jeff before giving Heather the Darkenfloxx. It seems that Jeff and Abnesti, in that moment, both subjectively recognize each other.

Brave New Spiderhead

Escape from Spiderhead reminded me a lot of the book, Brave New World. First off both stories take place in a futuristic world. Second, people in both worlds abuse drugs in order to make themselves and other people feel certain ways. In Escape from Spiderhead each prisoner in Spiderhead had a thing called a MobiPak. This MobiPak contained drugs to make a person feel anyway that Abnesi wanted them to in order to do his experiment. In Brave New World the people take a drug called soma to help them escape any dissatisfaction in their life. However, in both these cases, the people are being controlled by the government. Though the prisoners in Spiderhead consent to the drugs they take, the government still has the power to make them consent if they don't with Docilryde. The people of Brave new world have been conditioned to love the drug soma by their government, so they do not really have a choice of whether they like it or not. Lastly, in both worlds there is an abundance of sex.