Debra Marquart's The Horizontal World

Reminiscing is almost like a hobby for people, to be lost within another world of nostalgia and simplicity is something we all yearn for as we grow up. We miss those days of less and full understanding, of active and worn out adventures of children, of anxious anticipation of a the flat lands. Debra Marquart in her 2006 memoir “The Horizontal World” illustrates those memories in a hint of nostalgia. Through the use of imagery, allusions, and satirical yet nostalgic tone Marquart’s memoir demonstrates a lucid dream of North Dakota as an area of no interest that yet emboldens an American ideal of the Jeffersonian farming could occur for those who are willing to take up the offer.

With that in mind, Debra’s use of imagery is akin to a children’s mind, describing

Alluding to comedians and their descriptions of the upper Midwest as the spawning points of tornadoes and Republicans to TV news anchors in small towns as depicted in movies gives a sense of realism to the imagery that seemed so fantasty a moment ago. While it does give into some stereotypes, it is not to be taken literally as Marquart uses those two specific examples to establish mindsets already known to people and to place them within the image themselves. Mentioning Sylvia Griffith’s poem “Earthlings”, she uses the excerpt from the poem, “We are the folks presidents talk to when times require,” to convey the image of the farming and working people of the days gone by. A region maybe known for an out of place murder by wood chipper scene in Fargo or a Radio show displaying the quintessential American prairie, Marquart uses the imagery and dresses it up. In effect elevating the imager previously described through those very allusions, allowing the reader to not only connect to what Marquart is painting but to see it more clearly and creating a lucid dream that almost seems like a flashback