Stories of Depravity from Different Points of View

An Exercise in Artistic Observation: “An Encounter” and “Indecent Exposure”

1. What is the “story” of the encounter in each incident – in other words, what do you think the real experience might have been to make the boys run away from and the woman to run after these men?

The experience in each is sexual in nature: the man in “An Encounter” is obviously deriving sexual pleasure from his dirty talk with the young lads, and the public nudist in “Indecent Exposure” is looking for attention for some kind of sexual pleasure. Both seem to be masturbating at some point. But the boys who run in “An Encounter” do so because they are both repulsed and afraid; yet the narrator is also strangely entranced by the man who is revealing something adult that the boy has never before seen or realized. It is like he is given a window onto something that is not yet meant for him to see. Yet isn’t that what the boys have been looking for after all—an adventure denied them? However, this kind of adventure seems imbued with perversity rather than with danger or honor. In “Indecent Exposure” the experience is jolting and jolts others because it is simply not something that is meant to be done—not in polite society. Yet the narrator seems drawn to it, almost appreciative of the man’s sportsmanship—writing about the act of his public nudism and masturbation like one would write about an athlete scoring a touchdown or a politician making a point on a soapbox.

2. Why do you think Joyce decided to narrate his story from a young boy's point of view? Why do you think Moffett wrote in the voice of a thirty-year-old woman?

Joyce probably narrated his story from a young boy’s point of view to contrast the innocence and idealism of the lads with the lurid danger and underbelly of city. The boys are looking for fun and adventure—but not that kind of fun or adventure. If the story was not told from a perspective of innocence it would not carry the same punch or shock.

Moffett maybe wrote in the voice of a thirty-year-old woman for the same reason: she could almost revel in the public display as though it were a spectator sport. The sexuality of the act and the fact that he is a man and she a woman in her prime gives the poem a sexually-charged undertone that conveys some sort of attraction and appreciation in spite of the offensive nature of the conduct of the performer.

3. After reading the two pieces, you now have vicariously experienced the encounters as well. What are their effects on you? What emotions, memories or thoughts did they evoke in you as the reader? This effect on the reader is what literature targets, and what you as a writer should be thinking about as you construct your own contributions to it.

I can say that the experience in “An Encounter” filled me with disgust and revulsion, and I was a little afraid for the boys myself as I didn’t want anything bad to happen to them. However, the story of the encounter in “Indecent Exposure” made me smile a little because it was written with such flair and subtle admiration that I saw the exposure as silly and almost inoffensive.