Good Things Come in Small Pa(cka)ges

For some reason, I didn't discover short stories until college. Whenever I heard the term "short story" my mind translated that to "kid stories." Obviously that's not the case.

I took a class my sophomore year called Gods & Monsters and we read short stories about Little Red Riding Hood and the like (Angela Carter's "The Company of Wolves" was great). In my Coming of Age class we read a few short stories, including Robert Cormier's "The Moustache" and James Joyce's "Araby," as well as others. Brit Lit last semester offered some good ones too, like "The Horse-Dealer's Daughter."

What short story collection shall I get?

My subscription to The New Yorker promises me at least one work of short fiction on a weekly basis. Some weeks when I'm really busy, that and the Shouts & Murmurs section are the only things I will consistently make time for :)

Ever since I decided how much I adore short stories, I've been searching for a really good collection of my favorites plus new ones to explore. Any suggestions?

Since I've been reading short stories, I've found that there's not much to dislike. For one thing, they aren't long (...imagine that...) so I can read one or two and not feel like I'm embarking on a tremendous undertaking. When I sit down to read a book, usually I end up forsaking literally everything else-- food, homework, sleep-- until I finish it in one long sitting. With a short story, I can escape for a little while and when it's done in under 10 pages I can join the world again.

Well, this one's not too vivid.

I'm also a fan of how vivid and thoughtful writers can be in such a small amount of pages. I feel that there is so much imagery, symbolism, and background crammed into a few pages, only it doesn't seem that way. To me, that's almost more impressive than having 500 pages to spread it out over.

I've been working on a young adult book for a while now. Maybe I'll give a short story a try.

A Great (Book) Undertaking

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Hello obligated readers (Sean, this includes you).

I'm currently reading Anna Karenina, which is pleasantly surprising me. I'm using the newest translation so it's easy to understand. Apparently other translations say things like "an extra pouch of fabric in his pants to hold his money" instead of "a pocket."

Admittedly, the story started off a little slow for me and I would only read about a chapter a day (oh, and the chapters are approximately four pages long) but it picked up around chapter 8 or 9 and now I'm interested.

The only thing that's weird to me is that for a book that could double as a highly functional doorstop all about this woman named Anna Karenina, I just met her 60 pages in. I guess Tolstoy figured he had plenty of time in the 817 pages to spin his yarn.

Also, there are a lot of sentences that end in "he said in English" or that are completely written in French. These people are Russian and everyone knows at least Russian, English, and French?! Every time I come across one of those I feel significantly uneducated. Three years of high school French and 4 semesters of Spanish didn't get me very far it seems.

This is one of my favorite movies.

If anyone hasn't read it yet, so far I recommend it. It's like the movie Bridges of Madison County meets pretty much any soap opera...or at least that's where it looks to be heading.

Teaching YA Novels

There is some dissension over whether or not young adult literature should be brought into the classroom or not. While I understand that there is a need to preserve the classics and that there are a lot of opinions flying around about a dumbed down high school curriculum, I also feel that it is important to instill a love of reading in students and then move on to the heavy stuff.

Many students don't read what's assigned, particularly when it's something that they can't relate to. I can't think of a student in my high school class who could relate to Hester Prynne, Elizabeth Bennett, Heathcliff, or Romeo. None of us spent our lives accused of adultery or going to balls to be matched with a wealthy suitor, nor being found as a vagabond and growing into spiteful older men or committing suicide because a girl we met a few days previously may be dead.

Introducing students to characters that are going through the same things that they are-- growing up, the pressures of juggling school with a job, extracurricular activities, dating, and trying to find their place in the world-- gives them the opportunity to develop a relationship with literature. They can learn to love reading because the experiences are relatable and they want to know how a peer would solve a problem similar to one they could face every day.

Young adult literature can be used to bridge the gap, getting them to think analytically and enjoy reading. From there, classic literature can be introduced gradually, combining YA books and the "literature" books effortlessly into one seamless unit.

Because Yes, I LOVE Twilight

I love John Green and I love the Twilight series. In this video, two things I love merge. He starts out by pointing out the obvious flaws in the series, like that a clumsy vulnerable seventeen-year-old girl falls in love with a vampire over a century old. Then he discusses why it's amazing anyway. I get a lot of garbage for being-- dare I say it?-- a Twihard, but knowing that this grown man who writes awesome books is too, I feel like I get some credibility. :)

Five Things I've Gained from Reading Literature

1. What piece of literature has stayed with you, even though you haven't read it recently?

The Green Mile by Stephen King. My freshman year roommate and high school friend Emily brought a whole drawer full of movies with her to Duquesne and wanted us to watch them together when we had free time. The movie version of The Green Mile was among them, which I always found daunting because it was practically three hours long, plus she insisted I read the book first. Finally, before Christmas break she threw it onto my bed where I was stuffing things haphazardly into my bag so I could make it out of the building and down the six blocks to the bus stop. I promised to read it so we could watch the movie the night we got back. I read the book in about 2 days, and I still think about how magical the whole story seemed and how unjust the outcome was. It comes to mind most when people are sharing opinions on the death penalty. After reading an entire book where a man who essentially worked miracles was wrongly convicted and having the span of the book to grow to adore John, his death hits hard even though it’s evident from the beginning that there is no other option for him. It also made me think a lot about prisoners in general. King gave them personalities and stories. He made them real rather than just the vague “criminals” that are always guilty monsters and begs the question of whether it’s ethical to punish murderers by murdering them.

2. What character or story has influenced something you've done?

Harriet from Harriet the Spy. When I was about eight I discovered the book in the school library during one of those clear-out-the-library-by-giving-musty-books-to-students days. I read and re-read that book so much it fell apart (although I still have it of course). I used to want to be a spy too, and the idea of spying on my neighbors was immensely appealing to me as I moved around a lot and always had a plethora of new people to make up stories about. I would wear my black slicker and crawl through the mud, crouching near a bush and scribbling furiously into a purple composition book or sitting sap-covered in a pine tree staring down at the world through my yellow plastic binoculars. I even roped my little sister into it, insisting that we had to have spy names and that mine was Harriet.

3. What character or piece of literature seemed to relate to a recent news story or personal experience?

Miles in Looking for Alaska by John Green. I got the book for Christmas and when I was reading it there were aspects that I could really identify with. Even though I moved a lot as a kid, I always was fortunate enough to just move houses, not schools. Starting high school and undergrad were easy transitions because so many of my Holy Trinity friends went to OLSH and Duquesne was practically OLSH part two. However, starting at RMU for grad school was a thing I did on my own, and so for the first time in my life, as a 22- year- old, I was “the new kid” just like Miles. The campus was unfamiliar to me and kind of lonely because I didn’t have my network of former classmates and friends. I also went five days a week to the job I had managed to maintain even though I only worked a couple random days over breaks at Duquesne. Like Alaska, the Colonel, and Takumi, my co-workers were into things that I either refused to try or never even considered, and we were completely different. Like Miles, in spite of being kind of a goodie, I befriended them because that’s what happens when you’re new and uncomfortable- the people recognize that and take you in as one of them, even if you’re completely unlike anyone they’ve encountered. Although I felt out of my element, some of my co-workers were very welcoming and we managed to find common ground and have fun. Oddly enough, playing pranks was something I was incorporated into, just like Miles was with Alaska.

4. What character has made you wonder why he or she did/said something?

I recently read Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, which is based on a true story about Chris McCandless. He graduates college, donates all of his money to a charity, and takes off into the wilderness alone. He severs all ties with his family and lives the life of a vagabond, taking from the land and striving to be a combination of Kerouac and Thoreau. Even though I could understand the appeal of living a simplistic life completely off the grid, becoming one with nature, I couldn’t fathom why Chris wouldn’t have prepared better for the Alaskan wilderness than he did, which could have saved him.

5. Name something from a work of literature (such as a character, setting, or quotation) that you find beautiful or vivid.

“I’ve dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas: they’ve gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind.”

            -Cathy in Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontё

Part of this quote was in the cover of a journal someone got for me when I was 10 and I’ve always loved it. Last summer when I read Wuthering Heights it only made the quote more poignant because the sentiment is one I have experienced as well.