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The Sound of Music single work   short story   fantasy   humour  
Issue Details: First known date: 2006... 2006 The Sound of Music
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

In a story that strongly references the film The Sound of Music, the narrator is in training to be a nun, but is sent away to care for the children of a Captain von Trapp. The narrator appears to be Tom, the same narrator of the previous stories in Look Who's Morphing. Tom and Captain von Trapp are soon 'having sex and falling in love,' but as the relationship progresses, Tom finds that he is losing his identity and becoming very much like the Captain, even dressing and speaking like him. Wondering 'how do you solve a problem like co-dependency?', Tom returns to the abbey to ask the Mother Superior's advice. The Mother Superior and Tom each share fantasies about The Fonz from the television show Happy Days. Then, following the Mother Superior's advice, Tom decides to go to Switzerland to try to live like Captain von Trapp.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Heat Sheltered Lives no. 11 (New Series) 2006 Z1271332 2006 periodical issue 2006 pg. 8-10
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Look Who's Morphing Tom Cho , Artarmon : Giramondo Publishing , 2009 Z1580990 2009 selected work short story (taught in 6 units)

    Look Who's Morphing is a collection of bizarre, funny, often menacing stories in which, along with his extended family, the central character undergoes a series of transformations, shape-shifting through figures drawn from film and television, music clips and video games, porn flicks and comics. He is Godzilla, a Muppet, and Whitney Houston's bodyguard; the Fonz, a robot, a Ford Bronco 4x4 - and, as a climax, a Gulliver-sized cock rock singer, played upon by an adoring troupe of sexy Lilliputians in short skirts and sailor suits and cheerleader outfits. Within these fantasies there is a deep intellectual and emotional engagement, a fundamental questioning of the nature of identity, and the way it constructs itself in a world dominated by the images of popular culture. – From the publisher's website.

    Artarmon : Giramondo Publishing , 2009
    pg. 43-49

Other Formats

  • An audio version of this story, read by the author, is available at the Paper Radio website: http://www.paperradio.net/fm/the-sound-of-music
Last amended 6 Jan 2012 11:09:56
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