Daniella Ysabel B.

dela Cruz
Literature
11-2039
Nicdao

Asian
Dr. Jojo

Forgotten Memories: Stephanie Yes Seascrapers

Built on disjointed memories, Stephanie Yes Seascrapers contains reflections on

romance that has passed and how it can be rekindled albeit under painful
circumstances.
Stephanie Ye is a Singaporean writer whose works has been featured in literary
journals such as the Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Mascara Literary Review,
and Sci-Fi Short Story Magazine. Her first solo publication, The Billion Shop was
released in 2012 and contained four connected short stories. She was also the
editor of 2013 anthology of cat-themed short stories called From the Belly of the
Cat. Having collected her Masters in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia
last 2014, she is now an honorary fellow in writing at University of Iowa and is
currently working as a journalist.1
Seascrapers was inspired by the community outreach performed by writers who
were participating in the 2011 Singapore Writers Festival. Eight writers were invited
to visit a hospice and an old-age home so that they may discover dormant stories
within older citizens. Stephanie Ye talked with Madam Wong a worker from the
HCA Hospice and discussed her personal experiences regarding notions of love and
relationships; this was then in turn utilized by Ye in her writing of the short story. 2
Exploring the possibility of rekindling a relationship that has run its course,
Seascrapers tells the story of an unnamed newly-divorced couple and how certain
conditions will force the two to re-evaluate where they stand. The story begins with
a vivid look into the thoughts of the woman, who wonders at what her husband
must be dreaming about as he sleeps, as she thinks of the possibility of another
world being discovered within him but she pauses and notes that being that he is
cursed with a sickness that forces him to forget, what kind of world can he possibly
create with his broken memories? Yes use of time qualifiers such as Today,
Yesterday, Two Months Ago and others makes the viewer see, through a
1 http://stephanieye.com/fact/
2 http://popspoken.com/the-arts/2011/10/5-rad-things-we-previewed-from-theupcoming-singapore-writers-festival

juxtaposition of conditions, how the man succumbs to his sickness and how the
woman deals with these events. In the story, the mans current girlfriend
approaches the woman to tell her that from forgetting the most mundane things he
has reached the penultimate: he has forgotten about her in turn she asks a favour
from the woman, that if she would agree, she could be the one to take care of him.
She notes growing instances wherein the man would ask for the woman, still
thinking that they were together. The girlfriend states: Can you imagine being in
love with someone who doesn't remember you and never will? The woman
reluctantly agrees but wonders when hell forget her too. The author manages to
convey the busy nature of thoughts that both the women are having for the
sentences and dialogue flowing into each other. The story loosely follows the style
of stream of consciousness, told from the perspective of the woman and
appropriately so since her thoughts and the way they are presented heightens the
emotions elicited from the reader. As the man and the woman reunite, the story
now consistently shifts from present to past, from Today to Yesterday. The Today
memories being recounted by the woman contain more somber and solemn
descriptions combined with existentialist reflections, like such:
What fools humans are, she thinks, to believe that myth of the immutable
soul, when so much of one's sense of self is determined by one's corporeal
circumstances: gender, skin colour, geographic location. Genetics, beauty.
Wealth and health. The proportions of one's face, the sturdiness of one's
limbs. When a fiery spirit can be extinguished by the breaking of the body;
when identity can be destroyed with the mutation of a few cells in that grey
hunk of flesh called the brain. (Ye)

The memories of Yesterday on the other hand, communicate a detailed description

of the mans rituals and how he copes with the disease and his crippled memory.
The man seems to be methodically planning for something and being his dutiful
guardian; the woman quietly supports her while reminiscing on their past and how
they are now. The stark difference in the overall tone of Today and Yesterday are
skilfully emphasized by Ye, with Yesterday revolving more around the activities of
the man and Today being focused on what the woman is thinking. This dichotomy
can be seen here:
Today
He opens his eyes and looks up at her. His pupils constrict swiftly as he
scrambles to sit up or is it to back away? She hears herself say his name. He
stops moving, but every muscle in his face, his arms, is tense. She says,
You've been sick. You can't remember. Everything's all right. She realises she's
babbling, so she tells herself to shut up. (Ye)
[]
Yesterday

Some days were busy with errands: Groceries, taking him to the barber's, the
doctor's. Or, if he felt up to it, they would go out on the town, to a museum or
the park or to the shops, even to concerts a few times. She handled the
schedules, and the bills. They sometimes did the same thing days in a row if
she felt like it, since of course he never remembered what they had already
done. These days were pleasant: she had forgotten how similar their aesthetic
sensibilities were. (Ye)

The quiet and isolating tone assumed by Today can be justified by pointing a
significant event that can be found not in one of the Yesterday testimonials but a
memory classified under a different time qualifier. The author introduces this new
qualifier as 47 Days Ago and supplants an important event. Fond of planning, the
man now informs the woman how he would like to die the woman responds
sarcastically that it be a method wherein she wouldnt have to clean up. The man
then introduces the best possible way he thinks he can escape the disease,
drowning. Once again, being as supportive as she can be the woman asks him
when he would like to do it. He responds by telling her: Lets go with the day I
forget you. Fast forward to last Today, and the man and the woman are heading to
a beach where the man decides to end his life.
The concept of memories seem to be a prevailing concept in the story, a more
direct understanding would be the woman reaching into her own in order to
preserve his ex-husbands. However what is most interesting is how the author
communicates this to the reader. Using differing time periods that contain different
memories, the reader is made to jump back and forth and compare these different
events and how they all complete each other.
The story is consistently told from the perspective of the woman, although detached
from her in a sense that she is not one speaking in the story, the thoughts that are
being expressed are hers. An interesting technique used by Stephanie Ye is not
highlighting dialogues and writing the entire story as how one would converse or
even think. As mentioned earlier, the style seems to be consistent with the stream
of consciousness movement this emphasizes the womans thoughts even more
and injects the reader more into the emotions being described by the character.
Throughout the story, the woman seems to be a more reserved and quiet person
who prefers to reflect and evaluate than express her feelings. This is most evident
in a conversation between her and the man as he suggests that ending his life
might be better for the both of them the woman responds cooly, her words and
thoughts are calm and even sarcastic as she suggests ways for him to kill himself,
as we see here:
It was on one of their stay-in days that he'd laid out his plan. He was in his
mid-30s that day, sarcastic and a bit brutal. It's for your own good, he said. Do
you still want to be taking care of me when I'm drooling on my pillow and

pooping in my bed? By that point, I doubt I'll remember your name to thank
you.
She answered coolly, trying to match his tone: And how do you propose to do
it? Pills? Slitting your wrists? Hanging? Jumping from a window? Driving off a
cliff? It would be great if it were a method where I didn't have to clean up
afterwards. (Ye)

However as she spends more and more time pondering their past relationship and
how their current one is shaping out to be, as the man begins to weaken and
become more and more vulnerable, she starts to back away from his show of
affection. Always careful to draw the line and justify to herself that she no longer
loves him, this moment reflects another aspect in the womans personality:
She wonders if he's going to start apologising again, but instead he says, Can I
ask you a question.
When she doesn't say no, he continues, Is today the first day?
First day?
First day that I've forgotten you.
She nods, suddenly afraid of where this is going. I see, he says. He purses his
lips. Thank you. He adds, I'm sorry. She consciously holds her breathing steady
as he slowly walks towards her. She supposes that if she were still in love with
him, she would start crying when he draws her into his arms. Instead, she
counts to ten, then asks him if he wants his coffee. (Ye)

By the end of the story, we see her become more vocal and resilient as she accepts
the burden of having to witness a man she once loved give in to the disease that in
some ironic twist of fate reconciled the estranged couple.
During the back and forth of the Today and Yesterday testimonials, the woman
describes the mans personality as something that changes depending on his age
in that moment in time. For example, the man being shy and earnest would equal
to him being in his 20s, while his 30s would reflect a more sarcastic and a bit
brutal side. Being that he is stricken with progressive amnesia due to his brain
cancer, the mans personality is bound to never be a constant however, during the
last moments of his life he shows the woman a more caring and considerate side.
I'm ready, he says softly. I'm going soon.
I'll go with you. I won't stop you, but I'll be with you. She feels a deep sense of
calm settle in her bones. And I'll bring you back.
Thank you, he says. He smiles. She realises that this is the first time he has
smiled at her today.

She rests her head on his chest. She can hear his heart, the thrumming of that
robust, blithe muscle. It is the beating of a fantastic sea monster ascending
from the depths, still innocent of the knowledge that it is the only one of its
kind that survives. She thinks of their broken marriage vow, till death do us
part, and how perversely they were ending up fulfilling it after all.
Is it all right if I kiss you now, he says. (Ye)

It is with the onset of the disease that the characters both experience metanoia,
they both change in ways that they did not perhaps expect. The story in itself is not
a story of finding love once again, since it is made clear by the woman that she
does not love the man anymore but this does not mean that she holds no fond
feelings for him. As for the man, due to his sickness was brought back to the arms
of the woman he believed was still his wife, and although the foundation of his
return was a lie his actions and words were enough to inform the reader that the
woman holds a special space in his heart as well. Seascrapers in this sense is a
study on love, on relationships, and on life. As this line suggests:
There are myriad kisses in a relationship: desperate ones as involuntary as
breathing, stolen ones on crowded trains, ceremonial ones at the front door,
routine ones as dispassionate as licking an envelope. It takes two to kiss, but
does it take two to hold the memory?

The work mentions the title of the work seascrapers as the woman reminisces the
night the man proposes to her. As the man recounts the story for the nth time, the
woman listens and imagines.
It wasn't a nice beach it was a city beach, smoky from the barbecue pits
being manned by pot-bellied middle-aged men, as their wives sipped spiked
lemonade and occasionally shouted at the children who wriggled underfoot,
engaged in their own complex negotiations. As for the stars, those ancient
fires were obscured by cloud cover and the reflection of the city lights. Only
the sea looked anywhere near romantic, swollen at high tide, the waves
rippling like the scales of an elusive creature. On the horizon was a string of
lights, ships lining up to enter the port some ways down. Solid yet
shimmering, they looked from this distance like a fantastic city of their own.
He called them seascrapers as they sat on a blanket, their shoes slumped on
the sand like toppled Easter Island statues. She sat behind him and rested her
cheek on his back. The waters surged upwards, shuddering in their effort to
obey the invisible moon; when he turned around and asked her to be his wife,
what she felt most of all was a sense of inevitability. (Ye)

Coining the term from the colourful reflections on the water due to the city scape,
the author uses the same setting to end the mans life. Much like their relationship
which flourished during the beginning and faded into indifference by the end, here
the reader can see how much the characters have evolved throughout the story.
They begin a journey together seeing the seascrapers. They end their journey
together seeing the seascrapers but as changed people.

The structure of the short story also reflects its foundation. With memory as the
base, the disjointed narratives that the author uses cleverly mirror the fragmented
memories of the man. Although told from the perspective of the woman, the
separate testimonials enable the reader to experience the heightening condition of
the man as he progresses more and more to unfamiliarity. Another interesting
choice made by the author was how the story approached time while at the same
time catering to the differing emotions and points in the story. As was noted earlier,
by using a dichotomy of perspectives by the author was able to successfully build
upon a suspenseful and affecting story.
Stephanie Yes Seascrapers tackles romance which by todays standards is entirely
pass. One might think, is there any other angle that can freshly discuss this
daunting area? The story successfully answers this question. By working in reverse
and instead utilizing the end of a relationship to begin a relationship, Seascrapers
goes against the grain by providing grit yet activating human emotion through
empathy, sympathy and reflection. Through clever storytelling and a creative use of
time and memory, Seascrapers is able to make its readers swim in an ocean of lost
and found memories.

Works Cited
"5 Rad Things We Previewed from the Upcoming Singapore Writers Festival |
Popspoken." Popspoken. October 12, 2011. Accessed March 13, 2015.
Ye, Stephanie. "QLRS - Short Story : Seascrapers | Vol. 10 No. 4 Oct 2011." QLRS Short Story : Seascrapers | Vol. 10 No. 4 Oct 2011. Accessed March 13, 2015.
"Facts about Me." Stephanie Ye. January 3, 2011. Accessed March 13, 2015.