Upside Down or Backwards — Background and Themes

Ike Harper’s Narrative Voice

The story is told entirely from Ike Harper’s perspective, and his voice is the engine of its humor. He speaks in a relaxed, idiomatic Western dialect, using contractions like “yuh” and “uh” for “you” and “a.” His observations are dry and deflating: when Magpie boasts of his hat, Ike replies, “Being as ignorance is bliss around here yuh may make uh hit, Magpie.” Ike rarely raises his voice; instead, he lets his partner’s absurdity speak for itself. He describes Magpie’s physique with comic precision: “impressing, unless yuh views him edgeways, when yuh can’t get more’n uh glimpse.” This understated mockery extends to the plot itself. Ike recounts the raffle disaster with the same deadpan tone he uses for everyday details, making the escalating chaos—a pelican eating raffle tickets, a kick that sends Ike sliding across the floor—feel both inevitable and hilarious. His narration never breaks character, even when describing his own misfortune: “Ike Harper immediate and soon skids across the floor and plays uh billiard off Judge Steele and Buck Masterson.”

Dialogue as Comic Engine

Dialogue drives the story’s comedy, with characters interrupting, misinterpreting, and shouting over one another. The raffle scene is a cacophony of competing claims: “That’s mi-i-i-i-ine! I got sixte-e-e-e-e-en!” yells Scenery, while Dirty Shirt and the judge each insist the number is theirs. The humor arises from the characters’ inability to agree on basic facts—whether a number is 16, 9, or 91—and their willingness to argue at length. Tuttle uses repetition and escalating absurdity: the judge threatens to bribe Ike with a calf, then immediately denies doing so. The pelican, described as “a cross between uh mean disposition and uh piledriver,” becomes a participant in the dialogue through its actions: it bites Ricky’s leg, eats the tickets, and kicks Ike. The characters’ reactions—Ricky’s yelp, Scenery’s whoop, Buck’s shotgun ultimatum—create a rhythm of call-and-response that mimics a verbal free-for-all. Tuttle’s dialogue is not realistic but stylized, heightening the farcical energy.

Physical Comedy and Animal Mischief

The story’s humor is as physical as it is verbal. Ike’s narration treats violence with the same deadpan detachment as dialogue: “Ike Harper immediate and soon skids across the floor and plays uh billiard off Judge Steele and Buck Masterson, and finishes up by holing out under uh chair.” The pelican is the catalyst for much of the slapstick. It bites Ricky, kicks Ike, and eats the raffle tickets, reducing the drawing to chaos. Tuttle anthropomorphizes the bird just enough to make its actions seem intentional: “I don’t think that thing was uh bird in the first place. I’d call it uh cross between uh mean disposition and uh piledriver.” The characters’ responses are equally physical: Scenery climbs on the bar, Dirty Shirt grabs the bird’s tail, and Buck brandishes a shotgun. The setting—a saloon in Piperock—provides a confined space for collisions and pratfalls. Tuttle balances the physical comedy with Ike’s wry commentary, ensuring the action never feels gratuitous.

Setting and Dialect in Piperock

The story is set in and around Piperock, Montana, a fictional mining town that Tuttle populates with characters like Buck Masterson, Judge Steele, and Scenery. The dialect is consistent: characters drop g’s (“yuh,” “uh,” “foller”), use double negatives (“can’t get no big changes”), and employ colorful similes (“taste uh ashes in his mouth”). The setting is evoked through small details: the cabin where Ike waits, the saloon with its bar and rail, the “yaller, hard hat” that marks Magpie as an outsider. Tuttle uses the contrast between East and West for comedy: Magpie’s Eastern purchases are treated as absurd luxuries, and his “promoting” scheme is doomed from the start. The raffle itself—a lottery for a pelican—reflects the town’s improvisational, slightly lawless character. The judge’s insistence on legality (“We got to have this all according to law”) is undercut by the chaos that follows. Piperock is a place where a pelican can become a prize, and where a kicked man can “hole out under uh chair” without anyone batting an eye.

Readers should pay attention to how Tuttle uses Ike’s narration to control the pace of the comedy. Ike’s deadpan delivery contrasts with the escalating absurdity of the events, creating a tension that makes the humor land harder. The story rewards attention to dialect and word choice—each character’s speech reveals their personality. The pelican, though a minor element, functions as a comic device that disrupts order and exposes the town’s eccentricities. This is a story best enjoyed for its language and timing rather than its plot.

That W.C. Tuttle piece left me smiling in that quiet, puzzled way—how chaos can feel so oddly familiar. It reminded me of another collection, where the same tender absurdity lingers: The best short stories of 1921, and the yearbook of the American short story — A Closer Reading. Some stories just sit with you, like a warm hand on your shoulder, long after the page turns.