Everything and Nothing: A Story Analysis of Rachel B. Glaser’s Pee on Water

              The brief tale “Pee on Water” is first found in Glaser's book of the same title, published in 2010. The collection is pretty famous for its strange, quirky, and extremely funny stories that subvert nearly every rule of normal storytelling. The importance of "Pee on Water" magnifies the fact that it does not possess a plot or a central character. Instead, it lures readers into a love-struck, unusual journey across time, starting with the making of Earth and passing through different time periods. It is not a story about a particular human being or a specific event—it is more a matter of big ideas, like time passing or the behavior of people or the telling of stories.

             Rachel B. Glaser is a writer and artist from America. She is known for blending very serious material with humor and surprise. Rachel has created short fables and poems and even a novel. Much of her writing is about real life in weird or exaggerated ways. It's also the kind of writing where one must be ready for ambushes of surprise and different word weapons. In Pee on Water, she has used her fun voice to tell about a story that's funny and reflective. Similarly, Glaser doesn't follow all the traditional rules of grammar structure and logic in a planned manner, so that her voice exhibits a newness and originality.

           "Here is a story" is hardly a story in the classic sense; it has no bailiwick with a proper beginning, middle, or end. It is the conflation of a science lesson, a history textbook, and a kind of dream. The beginning of the story is set at the birth of the Earth, and from there, it often darts into and out of different moments in time, foregrounding nature, animals, or humans. There comes a moment in the story when a person pees on the water; thus, it becomes an odd symbol for the story. This strange juxtaposition between serious and silly makes the story confusing but also powerful: it is a story about everything and then absolutely nothing—life, death, and all the little things in between.

                  The God-like narrator that offers a view here would seem to take an all-knowing perspective, suddenly transitioning to multiple temporal stages in a rather attention-grabbing and reflective manner. This narrative is multi-dimensional, seamlessly blending elements of scientific explanation, poetry, satire, and funky coolness, constantly challenging the reader to navigate their way through. The diction Glaser uses is accessible, laden, and juxtaposing, yet all imagery, similes, and bizarre comparisons are meant to offer startling visualizations, ranging from serious to ludicrous. This interplay of tone forms a beautiful tension somewhere between humor and gravity in itself. Throughout the story, descriptions and symbols—the birth of the Earth, activity of animals, the unbelievable things man makes—are placed alongside images of absurdity, such as the act of urination into a water body. These apparently extraneous scenes constitute another view of some of the ludicrous ways in which humans relate to the Earth. The story addresses the theme of a long passage of time, suggesting the insignificance of personal lives against the backdrop of the universe, frequently expounding on human behavior, particularly in trivial and often absurd ways in which people try to control or change their environments. Lastly, the narrative itself questions the very basis upon which a narrative is constructed, thereby asserting that a story that may not necessarily follow a conventional plot and character structure is therefore authentically a story, but one that pays close attention to form and idea.

                  When we talk about the meanings of “Pee on Water", we really talk about how people try to make sense of the life that surrounds them. Jumping from one moment in time to another, with stories about both massive happenings and tiny little actions, Rachel Glaser seems to say that everything we do, no matter how small in consideration, matters in some way or another. That moment of title- one peeing on water- may be meaningless, but at the same time, it is a clear picture of one human leaving behind an imprint in the world. Glaser uses the instance as a backdrop for all human actions. It is odd some, funny even, but perhaps sad.

                  Also, the text appears to raise questions such as: What is a story? Does it require a hero, a problem, a lesson? Or can it be merely some moments that provoke thought in us? Glaser seems to sort of suggest that, while there are parameters, there aren't really any constraints for what a story could be- even one about someone peeing on water- so long as it shows something real about life.

                 To sum up, Pee on Water is a story that is creative and reflects on thought, attempting to make its readers think in different ways. Rachel B. Glaser does not tell her story in the traditional fashion- she leaps through, mixes humor with profound thoughts, and leaves us with bizarre yet compelling images. The story reminds us that lives can be full of bizarre and poignant moments, and these moments do not have to adhere to the rules of story structure to mean anything. It is a story that entertains us, that makes us think, and perhaps, just perhaps, makes us wise.