2010 Stories 18 - 21 and Essays 1- 5
I did say I wanted to start keeping track of the essays/articles I read as well as the short stories, in an effort to squeeze a little more non-fiction into my life (not that I'll ever achieve any kind of balance in my recreational reading -- I just love fiction more!). So this is the first divided entry. Story authors will be tagged, as I started a few posts ago.
STORIES
18. Midnight in Dostoevsky by Don DeLillo, from the November 30, 2009 issue of The New Yorker. I'm not sure I've ever actually read any Don DeLillo, although one of his books, Mao II, is sitting on a bookshelf next to me (where it has been since my favorite bookstore owner recommended it, oh, two years ago at least). This particular story really worked for me. It's a very "in the moment" story even though it takes place over the course of several weeks. The small upstate NY college campus and town remind me of Elmira College and the antics of the narrator and his best friend rang true to me. I also got a hint of homoerotic subtext to it all, even with the narrator half-heartedly pursuing a female classmate's attention.
19. The Use of Poetry by Ian McEwan, from the December 7, 2009 issue of The New Yorker. I know I've read other McEwan short stories, but none of them are coming to mind right now. And I've meant to read his novel Atonement for a long time but have not gotten round to it (at least with the excuse that I don't own it). The story reads like a modern biographical essay might read -- the author touches on the main character's childhood and the things that influenced his later success in life and then examines the main character's first marriage. We learn very little of his later life, but get a full picture of him in his twenties, and the forces that brought that first marriage together and then pushed it apart. Very well told.
20. Alone by Yiyun Li, from the November 16, 2009 issue of The New Yorker. This was a tough story for me. I understood the main character, a recently-divorced woman traveling alone in CA, with a secret in her past and a goal she is trying to accomplish; and I liked the way the author parceled out details of the secret throughout the story until just the right moment to bring it into the open. But something about the main character's interaction with the older man in the story just felt off to me. Not "wrong" or "awkward" in a character sense, but off someone in the execution of their encounter. Can't give this one quite as high a recommendation as the first two stories.
21. Mrs. Spring Fragrance by Edith Maude Eaton, from The Library of America's Story of the Week page. Eaton is yet another author I had no familiarity with before LOA posted one of her stories. Most of her work apparently deals with the Chinese immigrant experience in the late 1800 and early 1900s. This particular story is a classic set-up: married woman attempts to help young lovers avoid the arranged marriage that will pull them apart, and misunderstandings with her own spouse ensue. There is much discussion of the nature of love and quoting of Tennyson. A nice little story, tidily told, dealing with familiar themes.
ESSAYS
1. A Wind-Storm in The Forests by John Muir, from The Library of America's Story of the Week page (now archived) I should probably be ashamed to admit that in all of my years teaching about the outdoors (1996-2007) and even through my college years, I never read anything by the classic naturalist John Muir. It is easy to see why LOA chose this particular piece; it showcases not only Muir's love of nature and adventurous spirit (climbing to the top of swaying trees in a wind-storm!) but also his incredible use of description. Thoreau may have started the naturalist writing movement as we know it, and it may have become someone cliched in more recent years, but Muir's writing is compelling even 100 years later.
2. Archetypes by Jess Nevins, from Heroes & Monsters: The Unofficial Companion to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. H&M is the first of Jess Nevins' books annotating all of the literary (and most of the other cultural) nuances of the comic book series by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill. This essay explores several of the main League characters (Mina Harker, Allan Quatermaine, Captain Nemo and Professor Moriarity) and their position as archtypal characters in literature: the "new woman" of the turn of the century; the "grizzled adventurer;" the "man with the machines," and the "criminal mastermind." He also makes a somewhat less convincing case for why League members Mr. Hyde and Hawley Griffin, the Invisible Man, are not archtypes.
3. On Crossovers, by Jess Nevins, from Heroes & Monsters. In this second of the book's essays, Nevins traces the history of the multi-character cross-over from the myths of Jason & the Argonauts through DC Comics' Justice Society of America and on to Philip Jose Farmer's Wold-Newton Family Tree, all precursors to the existance of Moore and O'Neill's League. Nicely researched.
4. Yellow Peril by Jess Nevins, from Heroes & Monsters. In the book's final essay independent of the annotations themselves, Nevins traces the history of "the yellow peril," western civilization's long-standing fear of the Orient (and specifically of China and Mongolia), from the actual invasions of the Mongols and Goths in ancient times through the character of Fu Manchu in Sax Rohmer's novels. This one felt a little disjointed until Nevins starts talking about Fu's immediate predecessors in literature, and then his passion for the subject really shines through.
5. The Polygamists by Scott Anderson (photographs by Stephanie Sinclair) from the February 2010 issue of National Geographic. This was the February cover story, and although it tried hard to make a point, ultimately I don't think it had one. The author tried to walk the fine line between "look how normal they are despite the polygamy" and "look how cultish they are despite the cell phones and suvs," and I don't think he serves his subjects or their critics well either way.
STORIES
18. Midnight in Dostoevsky by Don DeLillo, from the November 30, 2009 issue of The New Yorker. I'm not sure I've ever actually read any Don DeLillo, although one of his books, Mao II, is sitting on a bookshelf next to me (where it has been since my favorite bookstore owner recommended it, oh, two years ago at least). This particular story really worked for me. It's a very "in the moment" story even though it takes place over the course of several weeks. The small upstate NY college campus and town remind me of Elmira College and the antics of the narrator and his best friend rang true to me. I also got a hint of homoerotic subtext to it all, even with the narrator half-heartedly pursuing a female classmate's attention.
19. The Use of Poetry by Ian McEwan, from the December 7, 2009 issue of The New Yorker. I know I've read other McEwan short stories, but none of them are coming to mind right now. And I've meant to read his novel Atonement for a long time but have not gotten round to it (at least with the excuse that I don't own it). The story reads like a modern biographical essay might read -- the author touches on the main character's childhood and the things that influenced his later success in life and then examines the main character's first marriage. We learn very little of his later life, but get a full picture of him in his twenties, and the forces that brought that first marriage together and then pushed it apart. Very well told.
20. Alone by Yiyun Li, from the November 16, 2009 issue of The New Yorker. This was a tough story for me. I understood the main character, a recently-divorced woman traveling alone in CA, with a secret in her past and a goal she is trying to accomplish; and I liked the way the author parceled out details of the secret throughout the story until just the right moment to bring it into the open. But something about the main character's interaction with the older man in the story just felt off to me. Not "wrong" or "awkward" in a character sense, but off someone in the execution of their encounter. Can't give this one quite as high a recommendation as the first two stories.
21. Mrs. Spring Fragrance by Edith Maude Eaton, from The Library of America's Story of the Week page. Eaton is yet another author I had no familiarity with before LOA posted one of her stories. Most of her work apparently deals with the Chinese immigrant experience in the late 1800 and early 1900s. This particular story is a classic set-up: married woman attempts to help young lovers avoid the arranged marriage that will pull them apart, and misunderstandings with her own spouse ensue. There is much discussion of the nature of love and quoting of Tennyson. A nice little story, tidily told, dealing with familiar themes.
ESSAYS
1. A Wind-Storm in The Forests by John Muir, from The Library of America's Story of the Week page (now archived) I should probably be ashamed to admit that in all of my years teaching about the outdoors (1996-2007) and even through my college years, I never read anything by the classic naturalist John Muir. It is easy to see why LOA chose this particular piece; it showcases not only Muir's love of nature and adventurous spirit (climbing to the top of swaying trees in a wind-storm!) but also his incredible use of description. Thoreau may have started the naturalist writing movement as we know it, and it may have become someone cliched in more recent years, but Muir's writing is compelling even 100 years later.
2. Archetypes by Jess Nevins, from Heroes & Monsters: The Unofficial Companion to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. H&M is the first of Jess Nevins' books annotating all of the literary (and most of the other cultural) nuances of the comic book series by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill. This essay explores several of the main League characters (Mina Harker, Allan Quatermaine, Captain Nemo and Professor Moriarity) and their position as archtypal characters in literature: the "new woman" of the turn of the century; the "grizzled adventurer;" the "man with the machines," and the "criminal mastermind." He also makes a somewhat less convincing case for why League members Mr. Hyde and Hawley Griffin, the Invisible Man, are not archtypes.
3. On Crossovers, by Jess Nevins, from Heroes & Monsters. In this second of the book's essays, Nevins traces the history of the multi-character cross-over from the myths of Jason & the Argonauts through DC Comics' Justice Society of America and on to Philip Jose Farmer's Wold-Newton Family Tree, all precursors to the existance of Moore and O'Neill's League. Nicely researched.
4. Yellow Peril by Jess Nevins, from Heroes & Monsters. In the book's final essay independent of the annotations themselves, Nevins traces the history of "the yellow peril," western civilization's long-standing fear of the Orient (and specifically of China and Mongolia), from the actual invasions of the Mongols and Goths in ancient times through the character of Fu Manchu in Sax Rohmer's novels. This one felt a little disjointed until Nevins starts talking about Fu's immediate predecessors in literature, and then his passion for the subject really shines through.
5. The Polygamists by Scott Anderson (photographs by Stephanie Sinclair) from the February 2010 issue of National Geographic. This was the February cover story, and although it tried hard to make a point, ultimately I don't think it had one. The author tried to walk the fine line between "look how normal they are despite the polygamy" and "look how cultish they are despite the cell phones and suvs," and I don't think he serves his subjects or their critics well either way.