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.

Treatment in Spiderhead

I thought the story Escape from Spiderhead was interesting to say the least. I was definitely really confused while first reading it, and because of that it was hard for me to get into the story at first. After started to understand what was going on, I really enjoyed the story.
I know Spiderhead was supposed to be an alternative prison, but I thought it was extremely inhumane. Just because the people who were in Spiderhead had done horrific things in their past, does not make it o.k. for Abnesti to use them as materials in his "experiments." I don't think Spiderhead is any better than prison. Even though Jeff and his peers have to say "acknowledge" after Abnesti tells them to do something, there is certainly not a mutual realtionship between the prisoners of Spiderhead and Abnesti.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Escape from Spiderhead

Overall I did enjoy Escape from Spiderhead. It was unsettling that in this world experimenting with people was okay and that they allowed it, but I also think that that's what made the story so interesting. The power struggle was the most obvious here than in Victory Lap. There was an obvious divide between the criminals that were put into the facility and the people that worked there and were experimenting on them. The criminals were basically prisoners in this place, even though they could feel like they had more freedom than they actually did. This illusion was created by not being able to give them various drugs without their permission. But, if they refused or didn't respond they tried to persuade them and change their mind. I think that that was what made me the most unsettled about it, that even with them having to get permission before administering these drugs they had to recieve consent, but they were willing to do whatever it took to get that consent.

There's Not Much Data In Crying

"Jeff, stop crying. Contrary to what you might think, there's not much data in crying."

One of the major themes of this story is that we must be weary of letting jobs override our basic feelings of empathy. Abnesti sacrificed his empathy in order to better and more easily complete his work, but in doing this he put two people through so much pain that they killed themselves. His intent was to keep performing his duty no matter the cost of human life.

Jeff decided that he would rather kill himself that witness anymore people get hurt. In ending his own life, he dedifferentiated himself from Abnesti. He stuck to his ideas of right and wrong while Abnesti simply obeyed what the higher command told him to do. The quotation above is representative of this theme because it represents the polarized relationship of Jeff and Abnesti. Abnesti is looking for results to please his superiors while Jeff is genuinely sad because of what he is forced to witness.

All in all this story is a cautionary tale of what could happen to society if we abandon our sense of empathy and live only to please our superiors.

The Feel of Spiderhead

Escape from Spiderhead took on a very spooky post-apocalyptic, dystopian vibe to me. The mysteriousness of the experiments combined with the relaxed disposition the scientists took on only added to that feel. What is Spiderhead? What point is society supposed to be at where medicine is this advanced? The lines that really hit me were the ones that revealed Jeff was there serving time.


The story had made references of his past anger, and the progress he had made with it. But the lines: “Mom always looked heartsick when our time was up. It had almost killed her when they arrested me. The trial had almost killed her.” really got to me. The story then goes into describing all the emotional distress that Jeff’s mom went though throughout his trial and processing. Amidst all the science experiments going on, what I was mostly getting was the human emotion throughout it all. So once I knew that Jeff wasn't there by choice, and he was being forced to go through all this emotional manipulation like a lab rat, I was like “oh shit!” I was finally given more background about this main character.



His death at the end made me think about what freedom really means (he was in jail, technically, so was his death a way to mentally or physically free himself?). Overall, I thought the story was both absorbing and strange, and I liked the topics it made me question.

Enter Spiderhead

In George Saunder's "Escape From Spiderhead," Jeff wants to Escape Spiderhead. However, as the reader of such a fascinating chapter, I wanted to enter the situation. The text did a great job of drawing me in. It was a very interesting story that takes us in Jeff's shoes throughout his current situation in Spiderhead. It's a lot different from other things I've read in a sense that it contains strong, symbolic representations of the real world and humanity.

In a place where Jeff feels all alone, he has to encounter different people that put him to the test. His love is challenged when Abnesti and Verlaine constantly control him. Jeff has sex with Rachel three times as well as Heather three times. During the moments with the girls, he feels as if he loves them however, after the fact, he has no sexual interests in them. The girls also have intercourse with other men named Rogan and Keith. Yes, I haven't read a lot of things that take advantage of love and relationships like this story. But it's also symbolic considering the function of Spiderhead.

Not only do these characters connect on the basis of love and emotions, but they also see how one another responds to each other, Abnesti, the environment, etc. The place has code-like names for certain things that physically and mentally change the characters. Darkenfloxx is used a lot in this chapter and it's used on the two girls. Seeing Jeff's response to the Darkenfloxx on the girls and Abnesti's actions make him realize struggles he has as well as the people around him. He begins to miss his mom and he fights to connect with the surrounding characters, which he ultimately does by the end of the chapter.

Escape from Spiderhead: Cool Story!

I thought that Escape from Spiderhead was a beautifully written story that created a new world from an old one. In this story, Saunders shows Orwellian creativity and ability to write science fiction. He builds a world in which prisoners are controlled by substances that scientists put in their bodies. The scientists in this story are attempting to create drugs that have a wide range of effects, such as increasing vocabulary and producing love. I think Saunders does a great job of creating this scenario, because it like something that could possibly happen in real life. Saunders also does a great job of bringing up moral dilemmas, such as the ethics of testing dangerous drugs on people who have been convicted of terrible crimes. Overall, this story made me think, made me laugh, and enchanted me.

Start From A Clean Slate

"Every human is born of man and woman. Every human, at birth, is, or at least has the potential to be, beloved of his/her mother/father. Thus every human is worthy of love."

Jeff acknowledges the equality of all humans in this quote as he sympathizes with a struggling Heather.In the quote above, Jeff explains that every person has a baseline of opportunity and implies that the path of life may change the outcome, creating variations from person to person. By saying this, he accepts his differences from others and accepts that even though the people he meets in Spiderhead may not be the best model citizens, they originally were the same as everyone else. However, this variation is what makes us individuals which we should cherish. For everyone to be the same would be like a room painted completely white where everything would blend into it's surroundings, you wouldn't be able to tell where one person started and the other began. 

Escape From Spiderhead and Remains of the Day

Escape from Spiderhead presents a lot of ethical issues and questions of free will. It seems, throughout the story, Jeff is unable to freely make decisions as he is constantly drugged. Jeff is forced to spend time at Spiderhead, as a test subject, as an alternative to serving time in jail. A power dynamic exists between Jeff, as a test subject, and Abnesti who is managing Spiderhead and running the tests. This story relates in some ways to my summer reading book, The Remains of the Day, in which the main character Stevens is a butler under the control of Lord Darlington. Unlike Jeff, Stevens entirely accepts and even embraces his role as a butler. Stevens spends his entire life serving Lord Darlington and never considers his alternatives or tries to escape. As a result, Stevens loses much of his humanity and his individualism. In contrast, at the end of Escape from Spiderhead, Jeff attempts to regain his humanity by making an escape by committing suicide. Although Jeff does not survive, Jeff acts out of free will and is able to regain his humanity as he attempts to break from the binary.

Agency in Escape from Spiderhead

Escape from Spiderhead revealed the binary relationship between Jeff and Abnesti. Jeff believes he has no options other than to follow the workers at Spiderhead. However, until the end of the story, Jeff "acknowledged" that Abnesti and Verlaine were adding various drugs to his MobiPakTM when they asked for his permission. Jeff acted freely when he chose to offer no resistance to the workers. Jeff willingly submitted, which upheld the binary relationship between him and Abnesti.

Abnesti attempted to make Jeff believe that they had mutual recognition by reminding Jeff of nice things that Abnesti did for him. Abnesti used giving Jeff time to talk to his mother and buying cream for Jeff's athlete's foot to show he was Jeff's friend, but Abnesti dominated the relationship in actuality. By rebelling at the end and giving himself Darkenfloxx, Jeff attempted to reverse the binary relationship and take power from Abnesti. Jeff believed that if Abnesti could not use him for test results, then he could no longer control Jeff.

Return to Spiderhead: A Reflection

I didn't enjoy "Escape from Spiderhead" as much as "Victory Lap". I thought it was weird and didn't really think it had a point other than being a human guinea pig stinks, though I could see a future where this situation could take place. I think if you're saying that its about complete oppression of a person then I would reply that the facility in the book is pretty similar to our current prison system

Escape From Spiderhead and A Clockwork Orange- Similarities

When I read escape from spiderhead, the one thing I was thinking about was A Clockwork Orange-- a work of literature by Anthony Burgess in 1962. Similarly, it's about a semi-delinquent teenager who brushes with the law and then gets a lengthy sentence. Though a delinquent, he in reality is quite smart and heard about a new program that would get him out of jail in two years. He works his way up the ladder and gets himself into the program to find that it's much worse than he thought. He's become a psychological lab rat to see if they can reverse his criminal tendencies through intense psychological torture and institutionalization. When he gets out it seems like things could be good-- but that isn't quite the case. For sake of not spoiling, (because you really should read/watch it,) I won't go any further about A Clockwork Orange. In Escape From Spiderhead, there are clearly many similarities-- but it's almost a continuation, with multiple criminals being treated as lab rats for the sake of the state, rather than (almost) for their own benefit. Interesting.