Similarities Between Quenby And Ola

Ambiguity in Coover's Quenby and Ola, Swede and Carl

Ambiguity occurs often in writing, and readers often choose to fill in the blanks with facts, which are not from the text. By filling in spaces in the story, the reader creates a plot, which fits into their understanding. In Coover's "Quenby and Ola, Swede and Carl," the plot is ambiguous. Many of these ambiguities are subtle and are easily overlooked, leading the reader to make assumptions about the text. Simple words, phrases, or the language leads the reader to a plot, which almost fits the text. As a reader, I was not satisfied that there was no definitive plot in which I could understand the story. I read the story several times and came up with three different realities;

Many of the same discrepancies occur, except in the cases of the sex scenes. As I stated above, the language of both the scenes seem to imply conventional heterosexual male fantasy. In Carl's fantasy about Quenby the language or clue that it may be a fantasy is given by the ambiguity of what Quenby brings to the cabin with her. It is also fantastic the way that clothes simply melt off her and yet she can't wait for him to take his tee shirt off. The whole scenario seems to be a bit too much like the fantasy of a lonely man, "far from his wife." But then the discrepancies in the text begin popping up such as the differing descriptions of the lantern stated previously. The ambiguous description of Swede watching through the window, or perhaps it is Carl's imagination as he is staring, "at the bed, the roughed-up sheets, watched yourself there." (162). Also, why would Carl fantasize about a woman who was not his "type." Similar problems spring up with the possibility that Carl's sex with Ola is simply a fantasy. If it is all simply a fantasy as described above, then why does Carl worry about his missing "underwear" on the boat with Swede? The idea that the two sexual sections are simply fantasies does not fit in with the text. Again, if the reader is to come away with this understanding then they must disregard parts of the

So, the discrepancies in the text must have some meaning. Perhaps the reader is meant to fill in the details of the story--similar to the way Carl fills in the missing pieces of Ola's story. We are told that Ola "skipped most of the details, but one could imagine them." (156). In "Imagining" Ola's story Carl fills in pieces of information such as "Quenby wears pants, those relaxed faded blue jeans probably" (154) and "Ola inside setting the table. Or swimming down by the docks" (159) and "What would Quenby talk about? Her garden probably, pie baking, the neighbors . . . Quenby would probably talk about Ola" (158). This is exactly what the reader must do in order to understand what occurs in the story. Except the reader, in creating the details which should be included in the story, must delete the existence of textual evidence. Thus, a theme which is prevalent in Coover's stories emerges, that the ambiguity causes the reader to both create and to destroy a