Kevin's Watch

So, this month of April, I shall endeavor to read at the very least one short story a day and invite the rest of y'all to join me. These short stories can come from any genre, I'll be focusing on the "literary" short stories (I want to get through a specific collection by the end of the month).

Upon reading the short story, I shall post a 'summary' and thoughts here.

And the first story shall be...."Rappaccini's Daughter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne?... Well, looks like I'm going to be behind a day

Orlion wrote: And the first story shall be...."Rappaccini's Daughter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne?... Well, looks like I'm going to be behind a day

Good one. I look forward to talking about it.

i will post zombie story review in the am. the book is in the other room, and my light just blew out in here.

Don't know if I could find the time for this. I'm trying to read a lot more, but it's enough to just keep up with novels so far.

I have been trying to read short stuff by catching up on Weird Fiction Review's stories and articles now and then, but I'm way behind.

No joke, Murrin. I must have at least eighty novels in my cue... but I also tend to need different authorial voices to make progress in my reading. So, hopefully, this will help me in the long run.

BTW, how is Weird Fiction nowadays?

[Syl] wrote:

Orlion wrote: And the first story shall be...."Rappaccini's Daughter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne?... Well, looks like I'm going to be behind a day

Good one. I look forward to talking about it.

This was a very good short story. It's... a lot of things, but in this post, I'll focus on the plot being an inversion (I think that's the right term) of the Adam & Eve story. Instead of fruit, it's flowers. Instead of Eve being sent to Adam, it's Adam sent to Eve, instead of a Garden of God, it's possible that it's a Garden of the Devil... and the 'God' figure is the one that tempts the character (in this case, the Adam character) with the 'forbidden fruit', we'll say. And it causes instant death and (from a paragraph, it seems a certain transcendence) instead of the slow, painful death in the original story.

There's also a very clear allusion to Dante's Divine Comedy. Hawthorne really makes sure you know this, but even then it was a couple of pages before I smacked myself in the head and said, "Ohhhh.... Beatrice, of course!" I'd like to know which of the damned in Inferno was the relative of Giovanni... I don't know if it's important in any meaningful way, but I think it would be interesting.

And of course, the introduction where Hawthorne says it's a translation of some little-known foreign writer... very classic technique, and reminded me of Jorge Borges... makes me wonder just how early on magical-realism was developed.

Highly recommended for those who have not read it.

Orlion wrote:BTW, how is Weird Fiction nowadays?

You may be thinking of something different. I'm referring to www.weirdfictionreview.com, the website recently started by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, partly inspired by their work in compiling their huge anthology The Weird: A Compendium of Dark and Strange Stories.

Wonder if you mean Weird Tales? I had a subscription for a while a few years back but lapsed because I never got around to reading most of it (not-so-coincidentally, Ann VanderMeer has also been the editor of Weird Tales for the last few years, until the magazine was sold this year).

Murrin wrote:

Orlion wrote:BTW, how is Weird Fiction nowadays?

You may be thinking of something different. I'm referring to www.weirdfictionreview.com, the website recently started by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, partly inspired by their work in compiling their huge anthology The Weird: A Compendium of Dark and Strange Stories.

Wonder if you mean Weird Tales? I had a subscription for a while a few years back but lapsed because I never got around to reading most of it (not-so-coincidentally, Ann VanderMeer has also been the editor of Weird Tales for the last few years, until the magazine was sold this year).

I'm kinda thinking of it as a genre, wondering if there has been an... evolution/improvement of conventions since the 1920s

Oh, right. I don't really think of it as a distinct genre. Depends on who's doing the defining. These days it's the offspring of New Weird, Urban Fantasy, and Slipstream that's wearing the tag, I guess.


Take a look at The Weird - the VanderMeers got over 100 years of short stories into that collection, with twenty-something nationalities represented. It's pretty comprehensive, from Algernon Blackwood and Lord Dunsany to Kelly Link and Reza Negarestani.

Yesterday, I read two short stories (woot!). "The Murders in Rue Morgue" by Edgar Alan Poe and "Lady, or Tiger?" by Frank R. Stockton.

First, Murders...
It is often considered the first detective story, and I can see why... even has that beginning were the 'technique' is expounded upon, though this exposition and the example of Dupin's use of this analysis were... weak or a little non-nonsensical. I was unconvinced, anyway. In any case, this and the newspaper article served as the set-up before the 'elementary, dear Watson' moment. Over all, it was good, but it is definitely bare-bones detective story, and the genre would have had to have been developed from there. The ending seemed a little rushed... "hey, Chief, I've solved the mystery!" "People should mind their own business." And they lived happily ever after. Over all, an important story, but probably one of Poe's worst.

Now, Lady, or Tiger? could be considered something other than a short story... probably more of a thought experiment than anything. This is because the story proper ends with the guy about to open the door and the author saying he's not going to reveal what happened. Of course, there seem to be many points made throughout:
1) Chance is not a principal of justice... well, civilized, anyway. This is shown in that either possibility, tiger or lady, could be undesirable to the accused in the story. Afterall, if found innocent by chance, they are married off to the lady regardless of whether they are married or like someone else, etc. etc. And no one wants to be torn apart by tigers. This justice changes at the end, since the guy at the end is, instead of left to chance, reliant on what the princess determines his fate to be. Here, instead of being 'judged' by chance, the guy has an actual judge cognizant of the guilt of his 'crime' and the consequences of both sentences.
2) The guy gave up his own fate to the princess in the end. He may have done so thinking the princess would lead him to the door with the lady, but he still gave up his responsibility to her. As a result, he implicitly accepts whatever's coming. This occurs also in 'civilized' justice, the defendant gives up his ability to choose his own destiny to a judge or jury of peers and must accept the outcome, be it in his favour or no.

The answer to the unanswered question, then, depends on how you view the princess in her role as judge. Is she going to be vindictive? Merciful? Just? Whatever the reader's answer is going to be, will determine what that reader thinks of the princess' character. Ultimately, I think she is the king's daughter, in like the king, if she wishes something, she will make it come to past.

So what did she wish?

Murders in the Rue Morgue
running from the Gendarmes
Murders in the Rue Morgue
am I ever gonna be free

You should know that one Orlion.

--A

Avatar wrote:

Murders in the Rue Morgue
running from the Gendarmes
Murders in the Rue Morgue
am I ever gonna be free

You should know that one Orlion.

--A

Yeah, they had a lot of 'runnin' from the law, but I'm innocent!' songs in the first couple of albums

Orlion wrote:but I also tend to need different authorial voices to make progress in my reading.

I like this idea.

Orlion wrote:Yeah, they had a lot of 'runnin' from the law, but I'm innocent!' songs in the first couple of albums

Never noticed that, but you're right. This one's never been one of my favourites, I must say.

--A

Aaaand with frost threatening the boss' fruit trees at night and school during the day I have not had time to read any short stories or the novel I'm reading right now. Drat.

D'oh!