Dave's Anatomy: My History As a Writer #43: "The Room of Mirrors," Horror and the "Other"

The idea for the story "The Room of Mirrors" came from a novel by Pearl Buck I taught one semester at Grand Valley State University. A class titled Literatures in English emphasizes works written in English but suggests instructors focus on books from outside America and the United Kingdom. I taught books written in English from Nigeria, India, Nepal, Australia, South Africa, and other cultures. I did teach one that semester by an American writer, Pearl Buck.

Pearl Buck is most famous for her novel The Good Earth, about China. She grew up as a missionary kid in China and often wrote about that culture and other Asian cultures. I didn't want to teach The Good Earth because instructors teach it frequently, so, as I often do, I picked one of her more obscure books. Mandala is a novel she wrote about India. I would call it good but not great; still, it gave me some ideas and focused my imagination on Indian culture. This led me to write a story about an Indian man's involvement with an American woman—a feature taken from Buck's novel.

But this was a horror story. A young woman who in college became a call girl now pursues that as a vocation. She ends up as mistress to an Maharini, the ruler of a province in India. He keeps her in a place called The Room of Mirrors, which is, as the name implies, completely covered in mirrors. The place creeps Phoebe out, but she likes the isolation of the estate the Maharini, Shashindra, maintains. She likes the quiet and the beautiful view of the Himalayas because she is contemplating an important choice. Her old boyfriend, Calvin, who knows about her choice of vocation, has offered to marry her. She wonders if she can leave her vocation and be faithful to him—and if he will continue to love her, given the trade she has plied the last few years. He says it doesn't matter to him. Phoebe is not so sure.

 She has a nightmare in which she sees every panel of mirror in her bedroom showing the face of a woman. Most are Indian, a few are African or European. And at last she sees a blonde woman covered with blood, standing next to her, outside of the mirrors. She cries out. One of the Indian servants comes to her, asks her what the dream was so he can interpret it, but when she describes it, he obfuscates. She dismisses the dream and tries to sort through the issues involved with her choice to go with Calvin or continue working as a high-class prostitute.

Calvin has met a girl named Charissa, who is Greek and an actress. He has told her about Phoebe (the story has two narrative streams). The same woman shows up at the Room of Mirrors and, tells Phoebe something she is not supposed to know that enables her to escape the room of mirrors.

First, she tells her about the room and explains the faces Phoebe saw in the mirror. They are the imprisoned souls of women who have served as mistresses to various rulers of the province. After they die, their souls are imprisoned. The sorcerer who arranged the spell so the Maharini's wives would not perceive their husbands' infidelity lives eternally from the energy of their spirits and from their anguish. Charissa had become one of the current Maharini's women in order to get acting roles. In her depression, she killed herself, but because she died in the Room of Mirrors by suicide, is able to get out. She is the key to freeing the women. Phoebe only has to lure the Maharini into the room for the women to exact their revenge.

Phoebe uses her charms to lure him up that very night. The women's arms and then bodies emerge from the room in a current of snaky distortion and engulf him. Charissa protects Phoebe. The women, however, do not kill the Maharini. He is unconscious but not dead at the end of his ordeal. A doctor proclaims a heart attack. Charissa can now resume her life and she and Phoebe see the women of the Room of Mirrors freed from the imprisoning spell and the spirit of the sorcerer who imprisoned them dissolve in anguish. Charissa resumes her career (she has an plausible explanation for where she has been for the last two years). Phoebe leaves with Calvin for a new life together with him.

Writing about foreign cultures is tricky. Edward Said's book, Orientalism, notes how Westerners often stereotype and exoticize third world peoples. I was aware of this danger as I wrote, though I might have fallen into the habit a little. Still, the story was written to give a moral lesson, and people of all races and creeds can exploit others. And I like to think justice was done in the story, though, I admit, the Westerner comes to "save" the people from the "other" culture, and so it does fall into the habits Said's book warned us against.

But the story stands and I think, even if it does have flaws, it is a good story. Can a Westerner represent other cultures equitably? Well, I'm trying and learning. "The Room of Mirrors" is possibly a first step and an experience that will teach me. Writers evolve.

"The Room of Mirrors appeared in a journal that is no longer published. Another story to re-submit!

And I have a new book out--ironically, about a non-Western character. The Sorceress of Time is about Asian culture and wuxia warriors (more cultural exchange here). Read for a story of choices, time travel, and the pursuit of justice and right. If you've seen Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, you will know a little about wuxia. Only this story has a happier ending!

For more book titles, see my Writer's Page.

I would love to hear your comments.