Semester of Graduation
Spring 2025
Degree
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
English
Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
This novel in progress follows a woman named Sheila Dodge.
Sheila is a private person. She can’t orgasm when she has sex with her boyfriend, Derek. The only time she can orgasm is when she watches the sex tape of Alexandra Anders, the star of her favorite show, Hollywood Housewives. She’s in love with her best friend, Kate, but she can’t find the words to express it to her. She has feelings, but she can only express them via the reality television shows she watches.
As Sheila and Derek have sex in an attempt to save their relationship, Sheila starts to hear an animal under the house just when she’s about to come. With Kate’s help, she digs up her house but finds nothing there. The only other person who can hear the animal is Emmett Wiler, an old friend of Kate’s and a mysteriously disgraced Hollywood filmmaker. Sheila pursues a film project with Emmett to get the animal on tape, straining her relationships with Derek and Kate. Intimately subject to Emmett's idiosyncratic artistic demands, and more alone than ever, Sheila must expose her private parts—physically and mentally—in order to prove her perspective.
Date
4-3-2025
Recommended Citation
McArn, Halley, "Personal Life" (2025). LSU Master's Theses. 6142.
https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses/6142
Committee Chair
Joshua Wheeler