The\nDoll Head<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tShe\nstarted out just like all the other Sofie dolls in the world,\nidentical with their molded plastic smiles, kind brown eyes and soft\ndark hair. She stood in her box on a shelf surrounded by her sister\nclones, waiting. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tShe\nwatched dolls identical to her being bought, longing for the day\nsomeone would choose her box, and take her home to a child who would\nlove her, perhaps hug her tight at nights and whisper secrets in her\nears. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tAt\nlast, Sofie was chosen, and brought home to a young girl named Darla.\nAt night, Sofie was not held close, but she wandered around Darla\u2019s\nbedroom, gazing marvelously at the sleeping child in the glow of the\nnight light, determined to bring the young girl years of joy. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tThe\nother toys welcomed Sofie with open arms. There was a worn teddy bear\nwith several stitched scars running across his body and only one eye,\nwho walked with a limp. Darla loved the bear more than any other toy\nand slept with him every night. The porcelain dolls on Darla\u2019s shelf\nexpressed jealousy that Sofie would be played with. They were too\nfragile for play, and constantly feared falling off the shelf and\nshattering into a million pieces. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tDarla\nloved playing with Sofie, but instead of building houses for her out\nof blocks or dressing her up and pretending Sofie was the mayor of a\nmake-believe town, Sofie was used as a crash test dummy. Darla would\ntie the doll to parachutes made from blankets or empty plastic\ngrocery bags before flinging her off the upstairs balcony. The\nparachutes never worked, and Sofie always plummeted to the\nfloorboards a story below. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tAs\nthe floorboards rose up to meet her yet again, Sofie found herself\njealous of the porcelain dolls. Yes, they didn\u2019t have much to do but\nstand on the shelf and watch the room all day, but at least they\nweren\u2019t thrown over the railing time and time again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tSofie\u2019s\ndisintegration came far too fast. After only one day, she lost lost\nher right leg. The other toys were shocked but sympathetic. The old,\nbattered teddy bear confided how he had been torn and sewn together\nagain several times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tSofie\ncouldn\u2019t be sewn. She could have tried to reattach her leg, but it\nhad gone missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tDarla\nhad a book about a one-legged tin soldier, who stood just as tall and\nsteady as his own identical brothers. Sofie tried and tried, but she\ncould not stand steady or hop around on her single leg. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\t\nShe found a pencil to use as a prosthetic leg, and slowly learn to\nwalk again. She limped more than the bear, but nobody mocked her or\nthe bear for their hobbling. The bear was Darla\u2019s oldest toy, and far\ntoo respected to be mocked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\t\u201cAt\nleast you\u2019re played with.\u201d said the porcelain dolls. \u201cIt\u2019s so\nboring up here. At least you won\u2019t shatter.\u201d \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tSofie\u2019s\nowner saw the pencil in Sofie\u2019s leg socket and taped it there,\nsmiling. All the same, it snapped off on her next test dive, followed\nby several other limbs before one week had passed. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tOn\nher second week at Darla\u2019s house, Sofie\u2019s head was separated from\nwhat remained of her body entirely. Now, she was only a head,\nhelplessly watching her torso be mangled by the family dog, her\npencil leg drooled on by the baby until the parents took it away and\nthrew it in the garbage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tThere\nwasn\u2019t much use for a pencil leg anymore, when she didn\u2019t have a\nbody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tDarla\npicked up Sofie\u2019s head and sighed. Sofie wanted to sigh. It was just\nher luck to be bought for a girl who destroyed her. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\t\nThe other toys, once sympathetic, looked at Sofie the head with\nrevulsion, turning away when she tried to talk to them as if they\nfeared the same fate would befall them. Only the old bear continued\nto be her friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tAs\na head, Sofie could no longer roam around Darla\u2019s room. She refused\nwhen the bear offered to carry her. They tried other methods of\nmobility. She couldn\u2019t balance on a toy horse, and there was no way\nshe\u2019d humiliate herself by clinging to the reins with her teeth. She\ncouldn\u2019t steer a toy car, and the car didn\u2019t listen to her spoken\ndirections. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\t\nThe other toys watched her attempts with a sort of fascinated horror,\nthough Sofie was sure she heard giggles and snickers as well. Some\nfriends they turned out to be. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tSofie\nrealized if the soccer ball could roll around by itself, surely she\ncould learn, too. She spent long hours teaching herself to roll her\nhead like a ball, fighting dizziness as the world spun around and\naround.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tBeing\nonly a head did make the parachutes work a bit better, seeing as\nSofie weighed less. The landings weren\u2019t quite as hard and rough now,\nnot that she enjoyed being thrown any more than she had with her body\nstill attached. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tOne\nday, her head was chucked around Darla\u2019s bedroom until Sofie rolled\nunder the bed. She waited to be retrieved, but was left under there\nto ponder, bitterly, why it had been her that had been destroyed. Why\nhadn\u2019t one of the stuffed animals been used to test parachutes? A\nstuffed animal wouldn\u2019t have fallen apart from the falls like she\nhad. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tShe\nmanaged to roll across the floor, but it left her dizzy and tangled\nin the parachute. She could not untie herself as she once had been\nable to. The bear offered to help, but he had no fingers, only paws\nthat weren\u2019t particularly useful for untying knots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tTangled\nin the plastic bag, Sofie could barely see or hear, and didn\u2019t notice\nwhen Darla entered the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tShe\nwas picked up and unwrapped from the bag. Darla held the bag up,\nwhere Sofie\u2019s head dangled underneath, tied to it by her hair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\t\u201cWhere\nwere you?\u201d asked Darla, staring at Sofie\u2019s head. Sofie wished she\ncould answer, but of course she couldn\u2019t. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tDarla\ntried to untie Sofie\u2019s hair from the parachute, and but the knot was\nso tangled that, in the end, Darla took a pair of scissors and\nsnipped it off. Sofie\u2019s head tumbled to the floor, staring up at the\ndark locks that were no longer attached to her head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tSofie\nlay, smile frozen on her face but terror racing inside. Would Darla\nthrow her without a parachute? Would the dog chew her up like it had\nher body? Darla\u2019s hand came closer. Sofie wanted to roll away, but\nshe couldn\u2019t with a human present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tShe\nwas placed in a lava lamp, floating like a fish in the water,\nwatching from inside. The room looked warped and green. She couldn\u2019t\nhear what the bear was telling her, and eventually, he stopped\ntrying. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tFor\nyears, Sofie watched the room. One porcelain doll fell off the shelf\nand shattered. The teddy bear lost his remaining eye, but still\nremained Darla\u2019s favorite. Sofie watched him navigate around Darla\u2019s\nroom, still with his limp. Without his eyes, there was no way for her\nto communicate with him. They couldn\u2019t talk through the lamp, and he\ncould no longer see her. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tDarla\ngrew from a young girl to a young woman. Toys were donated, sold, or\nthrown out, but the old, worn teddy bear always remained on Darla\u2019s\nbed. It was clear he would never leave, that Darla would never stop\nloving him. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tSofie\nwondered when her turn would be, surprised that a doll head in a lava\nlamp wasn\u2019t the first toy to go. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tAt\nlast, a teenaged Darla packed a box with the remaining porcelain\ndoll, some toy cars, a dirty stuffed unicorn, and Sofie\u2019s lamp. She\nwas sloshed around in the lamp as the box was carried. The box\nrumbled like it was in a car, chattering Sofie\u2019s teeth and making her\nbob in the lava liquid. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tThe\nbox was opened by an older man, who took out each toy and examined\nthem. \u201cWhat\u2019s this?\u201d he asked, studying Sofie\u2019s lamp. Sofie could\nsee they were in some sort of store. The man unscrewed the top and\npulled her head out. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\t\u201cLet\u2019s\nsee if I have a spare body.\u201d he muttered, bustling around. Sofie\ndidn\u2019t want some other doll\u2019s body, didn\u2019t want to be reconstructed\nfrom different parts like some sort of Frankenstein\u2019s monster. That\nwas quite different from a pencil prosthetic. But when did what she\nwanted ever matter? She was a doll with no say in what humans did to\nher, no say in if she was a test dummy, if her hair was cut, if she\nwas imprisoned in a lamp like a genie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tTo\nSofie\u2019s relief, there was no spare. A price sticker was slapped on\nher forehead, and she was put on a shelf with other toys to be sold,\nincluding many other Sofie dolls. Of course, she was the only\ndisembodied head there, everyone else had a body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tThose\ndolls stared at her in horror, even though some of them were nude and\none had crude, childish marker scribbles all over her body and face\nthat the store owner must have been unable to wash off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\t\u201cWhat\nhappened to you?<\/em>\u201d asked\nanother Sofie doll with a jointed, posable body. Sofie realized that,\neven with her old body, she had never had elbows and knees that would\nbend, though Sofie was too annoyed by the question to think much\nabout the mobility of her old limbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \t\u201cWho\nwould spend five bucks for a head?\u201d asked another doll with a\nsticker proclaiming her to cost one dollar and seventy-five cents.\n\u201cYou can\u2019t do anything, and you\u2019re more than me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tSofie\ndidn\u2019t answer them as she rolled herself off the shelf. Still, the\nother dolls\u2019 words got to her. Sofie\ntried not to think of the movies where decapitated heads were stuck\non stakes as a warning to intruders. She hoped that wouldn\u2019t be her\nfate, but she didn\u2019t know what else someone would use a head for,\nother than a creepy decoration like Darla had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tShe\nrolled through the store, which sold more than just toys. At last,\nshe stopped at a clothing section, exhausted. Rolling her head was\nmuch more tiring than walking had been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \t\u201cHey,\u201d\nwhispered a voice. Sofie turned away from the carpet and rolled her\nhead, trying to find the source. \u201cHEY!\u201d several voices whispered\nlouder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tAt\nlast, Sofie saw several mannequin heads. Some had necks, but other\nthan that, they were just like her, albeit much larger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \t\u201cHi,\u201d\nshe whispered back, choked up. She thought she was the only one\nwithout a body. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \t\u201cWhat\nhappened?\u201d Sofie asked with morbid curiosity, before realizing how\nannoyed she\u2019d been when the other dolls asked her. She shook her head\nslightly. \u201cSorry, I didn\u2019t mean-\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \t\u201cNothing\nhappened.\u201d said a mannequin head modeling a knit winter hat. \u201cWe\nnever had bodies. We were always just heads.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \t\u201cReally?\u201d\nasked Sofie, amazed. They didn\u2019t seem at all bothered by their lack\nof bodies. Some of these heads were blank, with no features. Sofie\nwondered if they were blind, like the bear. If they were always\nblind, or if they became blind by losing eyes. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tOne\nhead looked like exactly like Sofie\u2019s own head, but still much\nbigger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \t\u201cYou\u2019re\na Sofie too.\u201d Sofie gazed up at her bigger sister clone. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \t\u201cI\u2019m\na modeling head.\u201d the bigger Sofie shook her black hair. \u201cI was\nmade like this, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \t\u201cAnd\npeople loved you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \t\u201cSure,\nI had a kid who loved to style my hair and give me makeup.\u201d said\nthe Sofie styling head. \u201cI never had a body, but I still brought\njoy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tSofie\nwondered if she could still bring someone joy. Not as a lava lamp\ndecoration, or a test dummy. She wanted to bring joy as a doll, just\nlike any other Sofie doll in the world, to make a child happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tShe\nstayed with the mannequin heads for a while, finally feeling like she\nbelonged, but eventually rolled back to the dolls. Someone was more\nlikely to find her there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tOnce\nagain, Sofie sat and watched other dolls being bought. Dressed dolls,\nnaked dolls, even the scribbled-on doll was chosen. By now, Sofie had\nmastered rolling around. She didn\u2019t need to try to ride a car or\nhorse, though those would be faster. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tOne\nday, a big plastic dinosaur grabbed her in its teeth and prowled\naround. Before she could escape from the dinosaur\u2019s jaws, a mom and\nlittle boy wandered in. The little boy grinned and headed straight\nfor the dinosaur\u2026 only to pull Sofie\u2019s head out of the toothed\nmouth, smiling. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \t\u201cOh,\nRyan, don\u2019t you want this?\u201d the mom held up the dinosaur, but Ryan\ncupped Sofie\u2019s head in his hands and gazed down at her with a soft,\nloving smile, stroking her badly cut hair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \t\u201cI\nwant her!\u201d Ryan proclaimed, holding Sofie\u2019s head up like she was\nthe most valuable toy in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \t\u201cFive\nbucks for a head?\u201d Ryan\u2019s mom looked at the multitude of other\ndolls, including many other Sofie dolls, and picked up an intact\nSofie dressed in a snowsuit. \u201cThese ones aren\u2019t even that many.\nLook, do you want one of these?\u201d \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tRyan\nshook his head firmly, holding Sofie tightly. Ryan\u2019s mom sighed and\npaid for Sofie. The owner rustled a plastic bag, and Sofie tensed,\nmind automatically going to the parachutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \t\u201cI\u2019ll\nhold her.\u201d Ryan announced to Sofie\u2019s utmost relief. Ryan bounced\nSofie from countertops to door handles on the way home, holding her\nup to look out the car window. Sofie wanted to beam wider than her\nplastic face already was. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tRyan\nloved her, not as a test dummy, but as a toy. As a head, Ryan made\nSofie command armies fighting against toy robots or dinosaurs. He\nmade her bodies from pencils or plastic spoons or popsicle sticks,\nwith pipe cleaners or string for arms and legs. But just as often as\nhe made her walk in her new prosthetic bodies, he would make her head\nroll across the floor in the same way she\u2019d learned to do, herself. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tAs\na head, Sofie was small enough to fit in his pocket in a way she\nwouldn\u2019t have been with her body. She often accompanied him to\nschool, hidden safely in his pocket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tSofie\nbecame Ryan\u2019s favorite toy, just like the limping, stitched up, blind\nbear was Darla\u2019s. He whispered that other boys teased him for liking\ndolls. Sofie wished she could yell at the other boys. They would have\nbeen shocked to see a doll head yell, surely they\u2019d leave Ryan alone.\nShe couldn\u2019t, but Ryan held her head close to his cheek after a bad\nday of teasing, and Sofie knew she made him feel better. She brought\nhim joy, and he brought her joy in return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tOne\nnight, as she lay with no prosthetics on Ryan\u2019s pillow next to the\nsleeping boy, Sofie rolled over and gazed at her new owner, feeling\nlike she was the luckiest doll in the world. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nEnd<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Word\ncount: 2510).<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tXXXXXXXXXXXX<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\nknew I wanted to write a story for this project, since I have been\nwriting stories for years. I have already been working on stories\nwith characters with various disabilities for over a year now, but I\nwanted to do something different for this project. I have always\nloved stories with living toys, such as the Toy Story films and Han\nChristian Anderson\u2019s classic tale The Steadfast Tin Soldier, <\/em>which\nis mentioned in this story and features a main character who is\nmissing a leg. I wanted to make a story with a living, disabled toy.\nAt first I thought of Sid\u2019s mutant toys, which are quite like\nFrankenstein\u2019s creation and initially viewed with horror, but then I\nthought of doll heads. In one of my trips to a thrift store, I saw\nthey were selling doll heads, as well as dolls with bodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tI\ncouldn\u2019t help but wonder, what would it be like to be only a head?\nI\u2019m fairly certain no human has ever had that disability, since they\ncould not survive, which made exploring the life of a toy head even\nmore intriguing. In looking at the heads in the store, I wondered\nwhat happened to their bodies. If they were real, would the other\ntoys shun them, or regard them with a horror, not wanting to meet the\nsame fate? How would they move around? Would they learn to accept\nbeing a head? Would they worry nobody would want to buy a doll head,\nand would only buy whole dolls? \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tI\nguess I imagine Sofie as an alternate Barbie doll in that she\u2019s\nmass-produced and identical to so many other dolls<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tI\ndecided to have Sofie lose her body because I was curious how the\ndolls in the store became heads, since they must have had bodies at\none point. The pencil prosthetic leg was inspired by a toy horse I\nbought a few years ago that looked like part of its leg was chewed or\nsnapped off, and I gave it a pencil prosthetic leg of its own. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tHer\nrevulsion of the thought of getting another body like a \u201cFrankenstein\ncreation\u201d is entirely her own, and not reflective of my own ideas. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tHowever,\nsome things start out as only heads, such as certain mannequins or\nthose big styling doll heads. I figured those would be more accepting\nof not having a body since they were \u201cborn\u201d that way, rather than\na doll who lost her body would be at first. But just like those\nheads, Sofie can learn her life is still valuable even without a\nbody, and she can still bring a child joy. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \tDarla\u2019s\nteddy bear is disabled himself and incredibly loved by Darla. His\ndisabilities came slowly through age, such as losing eyes and getting\nripped, but he is still loved and respected by the other toys. I\nwasn\u2019t thinking this while I wrote it, but I guess he is a little\nlike the old man the creation watched in Frankenstein\n<\/em>crossed with the creation\nhimself, but not treated nearly as badly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The thrift store Sofie visits in this story is a lot like the one I visited in real life, I was not really trying to have any sort of symbolism with the prices. The price of $5 for a disembodied doll head was the real price at the thrift store I visited, while other intact dolls were priced much lower. I also saw a ton of naked dolls, probably more naked dolls than dressed dolls, which is why there were naked dolls in the story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ryan was inspired by a boy I read about in an article who carried a dismembered doll head around for years, as well as Bobby in the short film Barbie Boy. <\/em>I suppose both Darla and Ryan subvert stereotypical gender roles, with Darla playing rough with her toys and Ryan playing with dolls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (Word count: 643).<\/p>\n\n\n\n I hereby declare upon my word of honor that I have neither given nor received unauthorized help on this work. Clark Baranoski<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Doll Head She started out just like all the other Sofie dolls in the world, identical with their molded plastic smiles, kind brown eyes and soft dark hair. She stood in her box on a shelf surrounded by her sister clones, waiting. She watched dolls identical to her being bought, longing for the day … Continue reading “Clark Baranoski’s creative writing: The Doll Head”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-major-paper-project"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papJgd-kI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1284"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1293,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1284\/revisions\/1293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}