"The Babysitter": A Critique of the Modern Relationship with Television

From Introduction: 'American author Robert Coover’s “The Babysitter” has fallen victim to the assumption of a fantasy piece since the 1969 publication of his short story collection Pricksongs & Descants. The short story bounces between narratives displaying intense metapsychosis and simultaneously tells the jumbled yet distinct tale of a connected array of people. The complex plotlines varyingly cross, stay completely unconnected, and at times contradict each other, walking the fine line between the mundane and the insane. While this post-modern sequence may lead readers to assume a fantastical consciousness of daydreams or an intense psychosis of the characters, the story offers an underlying commentary on American mass media consumption. Throughout the text, Coover develops numerous scenarios, blurring fact and fiction and inviting readers to “play detective” and uncover the true narrative. Through this tactic, Coover produces a unique underlying discourse on the modern bond to television. By using post-modern strategies in both structure and narration, Coover effectively critiques the nation’s intense relationship with television and the process of how audiences perceive media.'